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You don’t get over that kind of betrayal. You simply swallow the hurt and you move on.
But like Marcus says, when the snake tries to slither back into the garden, what are you supposed to do? You keep an eye on it, and if needed, you grab a shovel and sort that shit out.
9
Avery
The first week on Charlene’s project turned out smoother than I had originally anticipated. Her parents’ house is old, and I’d expected necessary work on the pipes before I could go in with my work on the walls. But according to the plumber I brought in, the bones in the place are good, and the copper pipes are in excellent condition. Charlene also decided to keep the original flooring, which makes the rest of my job easier.
I’m done with the living room, and I’ve moved all of my tools into the ground-floor bathroom, the room I’m starting on next. A mason helped with removing the original tiles from the walls. We’re preserving the floor tiles, though—they’re large and beautiful ceramic pieces that only need a good steam and grouting before applying a coat of high-traffic varnish to bring out their original teal color. The best part is that I’ve found wall tiles that match that particular shade, and I love their minimalist design.
“How are you coming along?” Toby asks one afternoon just as I add more adhesive to the wall prior to affixing another tile under the bathroom sink. “Do you need anything? Coffee?”
“I’m cutting back on my coffee intake these days,” I reply with a smile. “Maybe some tea? Something green? Or ginger, if Charlene has any in the pantry.”
“I’ll go check.”
I listen to his footsteps echoing through the bare house. Charlene is staying at a nearby hotel while I work on the place, but she does come in once a day to see how I’m coming along and to chat. She strikes me as a solitary creature. I don’t know where she’s been, but she loves losing herself in our conversations. She’s friendly and warm, always curious about me and the girls. I haven’t told her where I live or who I’m with, and I am keeping that a secret by default, but I have shared bits and pieces of my past with her. I figure if I want her to open up to me, I need to do the same, even if it’s only in very small amounts.
Toby has been warming up to me, too. More every day.
“Charlene will be coming by tomorrow,” he says as he brings me a mug filled with steaming ginger and honey tea. The scent alone is enough to have me drooling, so I take a break from my work and sit on the wooden stool I keep by the finished wall. “She’s got a few errands to run today, so she asked me to stick around, instead.”
“Well, thank you for keeping me company,” I reply with a smile, then take a sip of my tea. “Where is she off to?”
“Oh, here and there. Bank stuff, mostly.”
He always keeps the details out of any Charlene-related conversation. Then again, he’s her PA. He’s supposed to be mindful and discreet. I wonder if she’s made any other visits to Kellan. My men are just as secretive as before, but I’ve stopped badgering them about it. We spend our nights entwined infurious lovemaking, yet as soon as the sun comes up, I feel like I’m on the outside again, looking in. It’s not a feeling I wish to get used to. At least I’ve got this project to keep me busy. Perhaps I can get close enough to Charlene to try and find out the truth from this end.
“She’s really nice,” I say after a while, feeling Toby’s eyes on me. “I’ve got a feeling that she’s had her fair share of troubles before coming back to Hershey.”
His gaze darkens in a most unsettling way. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know how to describe it. It’s more of a feeling, really. I’ve been through the grinder myself, so I think it’s easier for me to recognize the emotional scars on people. Charlene strikes me as the kind of woman who’s been through some things, too. I think it’s in the eyes. You know, a window to the soul.”
“She’s a good woman,” he says, gradually relaxing. I don’t know what he was expecting me to say, but I can tell he’s aware of details from her history that had him on edge for a moment, probably worried I’d learned something on my own. “There aren’t any others like her in this world, I’ll tell you that much.”
“Yeah, I like her. She’s fierce. You were right about that.”
“She knows what she wants.” Toby pauses for a moment, his expression illuminated as he looks at me again. “Say, Avery. How about we go grab dinner tonight? There’s a lovely diner just two blocks over. It’s small and cozy, and they make one hell of a pecan pie. I barely discovered it myself after a weeks’ worth of sleazy takeout.”
I can’t help but laugh. “That’s the trouble with small towns in Nebraska. The local restaurants seem too quaint for the food to be good, and the chain restaurants are mediocre, at best. Thankyou for the invite, Toby, but I’m afraid I’m gonna have to pass. My girls are expecting me for dinner tonight.”
“You have kids?” His eyebrows shoot up in surprise, indicating that he and Charlene don’t discuss me, at least not on a personal level. Otherwise, he would’ve already known about Annie and Miley.
“Yeah, two gorgeous little girls.”
“What about their dad?”
It feels like a dagger to the heart, but it doesn’t hurt like it used to. It’s probably because that hole was filled by three incredible men. “He’s dead,” I tell Toby.
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.” He doesn’t sound sorry, though.
“It’s okay. We weren’t on the best of terms,” I say. “How about you? Any family?”
I can tell I’ve struck a nerve. He lowers his gaze and slowly moves away from the bathroom door. “Nah. No living family that I know of, anyway.”
“No kids?”
