Page 40 of From This Moment

“Dallas.”

“Okay, I can help you with that, but how about we discuss why you need to go too?”

The Howard siblings didn’t touch like she would if one of her family was hurting. Piper would have wrapped her arms around them and held them close, but not these two. The distance between them was vast.

“I can handle it. I—ah, just need to go now and work through some stuff.”

“What do you need to figure out?”

“Leave it, Dylan. There’s no need to do this for appearances’ sake.” Charlotte whispered the words, but Piper heard them. She then watched as Charlotte put a hand on Dylan’s shoulder to push him out of her way. He didn’t move.

“This is not about appearances, it’s about concern, Charlie.”

Charlotte looked at Piper, then Bailey and Maggs.

“I need to go.”

They were private people, these Howards. Unlike the Trainers, who were demonstrative and loud.

Piper wanted to reach out and touch the muscles of Dylan’s clenched jaw. It was hard to watch them, two people who had no idea how to communicate with each other. A brother and sister who were like strangers. She wanted to yell at them to hug each other, but it wasn’t her place to do so.

“Come on, I’ll give you a lift home then, because I know Ava dropped you here.”

Piper stepped up to Charlotte as she rose and wrapped her arms around the woman. She was stiff and tension radiated, but didn’t pull away.

“Come into the café when you get a chance. Coffee will be on me.”

“I’ll be leaving now.”

Dylan gave them a nod, and then they were gone.

“Holy crap, those two are like total strangers,” Maggs said, falling into a seat. “I nearly got frostbite just being close.”

“It’s sad, but I remember what it’s like to have family and not feel close to anyone. It’s lonely,” Bailey said.

“But now you’re stuck with us.” Piper gripped her cousin-in-law’s hand.

“I do, and it’s the best thing that ever happened.”

“I hope they at least talk on the way home,” Piper said, looking at the door the Howard siblings had just left by. “What the hell do you think happened to Charlotte?”

“I don’t know, but it’s bad is my guess,” Maggs said. “Really bad if you consider the shock on Charlotte’s face.”

Piper hoped whatever it was, that it didn’t impact too greatly on Charlie’s life. She also hoped the Trainer siblings found a way to connect with each other before they went their separate ways again, because it was lonely without siblings, she knew that, and never wanted to go back there again.

Chapter 10

Dylan turned up the heat in his Range Rover because Charlie was shivering. Her face was pale, and eyes wide. He knew she was in shock, just not why.

“Warm enough?”

“Sure.”

Maggie Winter had called his parents’ house while Dylan was sitting at the kitchen table working. As he was the only one home, he’d answered. Maggie said Charlie was upset and needed him to come and get her, so here he was.

Piper had been seated beside Charlotte when he arrived, looking sexy, and then he’d looked at his sister. The devastation he’d read in her face had rocked him.

“What’s happened, Charlie?”

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