Page 37 of Love in Tandem
Mom must have done something to him out of camera range. He flinched, she giggled, then they both blushed.
Blushed.
This phone call needed to end. Now.
“So what were you saying about you and Zach?” Dad said after clearing his throat.
“Something funny?” The laugh lines around Mom’s eyes deepened as if in anticipation for all the laughter sure to follow.
“Oh, um . . .” Charlotte realized she was pouring coffee grounds all over the countertop and nowhere near the filter. “Whoops,” she muttered and began swiping them into the sink.
“Everything okay?” Mom asked.
Not really. “Yep. Just . . .” Figuring out whether to keep hiding what’s really going on in my life right now or not. Charlotte rinsed off her hand and quickly dried it on a towel hanging from the stove. Looking at their two faces squished together onto the screen, both of them grinning like besotted fools, she slid into a chair and faced the truth.
Which was that she couldn’t tell them the truth.
Not yet. Not when they looked so goofy and happy. Charlotte still didn’t know what “issues” they’d been working through prior to the trip, but those “issues” sure didn’t appear to be weighing them down now. And she wasn’t about to give them a new issue, like the fact she was single and close to being out of a job.
She made a show of twisting to look at the kitchen wall clock. “You know what? Just noticed the time. I’ll have to tell you about it later. It’s kind of a long story, and there’s so much I need to get done today.” Like figure out her entire future.
“Right.” Mom’s eyes lit up. “Your trip starts soon.”
“That’s what everyone keeps saying,” Charlotte said with a smile she hoped didn’t look too painful. “I better get moving.”
“We understand,” Mom said. “Like I said, we just wanted to check in.”
“Hey, weren’t we going to tell her about—” Dad murmured out of the side of his mouth before Mom cut him off with a swiveled mouth murmur of her own. “Let’s wait until after the challenge.”
“You know just because you press your lips to the side doesn’t mean I can’t hear you,” Charlotte said. “Is there something you need to tell me?”
“Nope,” Mom answered a little too cheerfully. “It can wait.”
“You sure?” Dad said, back to the side mouth murmuring. “Because now might be a good time. The doctor said—”
“Take care, sweetie! We’ll talk to you after you get back. And hey, even if you don’t complete the challenge, we’re so proud of you. And we love you so much. We just want you to be happy, okay?” Was Mom tearing up?
Before Charlotte could say anything, like what the heck did the doctor say, Dad took the phone, said a quick “Love you, Char, bye,” and ended the call.
Charlotte tried dialing them right back. No answer. Then a text came back from her mom.
Headed out for another walk. Such a beautiful day! God is good! No matter what, God is good!
Charlotte stared at her mom’s response for the next several minutes, a dreadful thought taking over her mind and churning her gut. Their weird behavior lately . . . working through issues . . . euphoric dancing . . . “the doctor said” . . . “we just want you to be happy” . . . “no matter what, God is good” . . .
No matter what.
There was only one other time Charlotte had seen her mother acting this way. Charlotte set her phone down and dropped her head into her hands, everything clicking into place.
Her mother’s cancer was back.
“I’m such a punk,” Zach murmured, glancing at his phone, unable to believe Charlotte hadn’t backed out of the challenge yet. Didn’t she realize how much camping and time outdoors it would entail? Of course she did. She had to be freaking out. Which is why he was such a punk.
Soon as he got off the phone yesterday with Ben, Zach could have put Charlotte out of her misery. Not only did Ben agree to donate ten grand to Charlotte’s music program, he planned to ask his company board to start a grant in their dad’s name as a way to honor their father’s memory and also provide new band instruments for Charlotte’s school. His brother must be on a honeymoon high or something.
And Zach was a total punk because he’d been keeping all this wonderful information to himself simply to see how long it took Charlotte to break.
Zach thanked the teenager who’d bagged his groceries, then hefted the paper sack into his arms and headed to his Jeep. Charlotte couldn’t seriously be thinking of going through with it, could she? Don’t get him wrong, the prize amount was a nice chunk of money. People did crazier things for far less.
