Page 96 of The Troublemaker

“Agreed,” Elsie said.

“I don’t know,” Charity said, feeling a sudden rise of insecurity.

“He’ll love it,” Elizabeth said. “The perfect amount sexy and sophisticated. He won’t know what hit him.”

Well, she liked the sound of that. She liked the idea of being a surprise. Of being sexy and sophisticated when she had never felt anything of the sort even once in her entire life.

“Okay,” she said. “This is it. This is the one.”

“This is why sometimes you have to step outside of your comfort zone,” the woman said.

Charity had been existing entirely outside her comfort zone lately. This was another lesson on how that was a good thing sometimes. A necessary thing. Her comfort zone would have taken her into the wrong marriage with the wrong man. Her comfort zone would have kept her and Lachlan where they’d always been, and they never would have had this.

But she was ready for a break. Ready to go back to the familiar for a little bit. Too much growth was exhausting.

She and the sisters got dinner at an Italian restaurant in Gold Valley, and then piled into their separate vehicles. She was grateful for the silence. For the alone time. She loved the network of people, but...she still needed time on her own. Especially after...so much had happened.

She felt thrust into the feminine in a way she had never been before. Surrounded by all these women who were now family, and therefore determined to be better friends. They had known each other for years, obviously, and had been around each other quite a bit, especially since they had married into the McCloud family. Last Christmas Charity and her father had even gone to Elizabeth’s place for the holiday. It had been lovely.

But still, this was different. She was getting to know them on a different level. Just like she was getting to know Lachlan on a different level.

She lapsed into a blank sort of silence as she drove on the darkened highway. She was grateful for the endless stretch of trees. For the twinkle of the stars high above. Even the lack of streetlights.

Grateful that the only sound on the road was her tires on the asphalt, and that there hadn’t been any oncoming traffic to blind her with headlights. Because she didn’t have words left. Not inside her whole soul. She was justfeeling.

Marinating in the changes that had come her way in the past weeks. Months. Losing her dad, losing Byron—because it was a loss, even if it was one she had chosen.Losingso much. Again and again. Then gaining. The sisters. Lachlan, as her lover, as her future husband. The McClouds as her actual family.

She had spent so many years not changing, that this metamorphosis felt sudden and intense. Bordering on painful. She drove on without the radio. Nothing but her feelings. And when she pulled in to her house, the porch light was on.

She got out and walked up to the front door and put the key in the lock, and opened the door to a completely empty living room.

“What?”

She looked around, and she saw that none of her things were here. None of them. She went from room to room and saw that nothing was there.

“Lachlan,” she whispered.

She went back outside and got into her car, driving straight over to McCloud’s Landing trying not to feel... She didn’t know what she felt.

Skinned? Like she had been exposed and hadn’t had any time to rebuild up her shield. Now her little moment in her familiar surroundings had been taken from her, because Lachlan had... He’d done her a favor, she was certain that had been his intent.

When she arrived at his place she was already torn between being angry, irritated and just plain understanding. She had agreed to move in, so why would he think this would be upsetting?

She walked into the house without knocking, because if he had taken all the things out of her house, then surely, this was her house now, and she didn’t have to knock.

“Hi,” he said, turning around from his position at the stove in the kitchen. “I made chili.”

“I ate,” she said. “Why didn’t you talk to me about moving all of my stuff?”

Well, so much for just saying thank you.

“I thought that you would appreciate it,” he said, frowning. “I wanted to surprise you.”

“I thought that’s probably what you wanted,” she said. “But... Lachlan, I... I was expecting to be able to go home tonight and be in the house, and have something feel normal. We’re going to get married in a few days and...”

“You’re not in a hurry? Because I’m in a hurry. I don’t want things to go back to how they were. I don’t want to be away from you.”

“I don’t want to be away from you,” she said. “I was just... So many things in my life changed. There’s something really sad about leaving the house behind. Really closing the door on that life I shared with my dad. It isn’t about you. It’s about me. It’s about wishing I could be in my dad’s house because he won’t be here for the wedding. I wish he was. If we’d been engaged before he died, I would have rushed the wedding for him to be there.” She hadn’t cared about that with Byron. It should have been another sign. It hadn’t been. “I wanted to spend a little bit of time back there. That’s all. Surely, you can understand that.”

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