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Chapter 18Safety first. Just kidding. Coffee first. Safety is 3rd or 4th.
-Coffee Cup
Slate
Texting my sister that something happened to Harleigh’s foot and we wouldn’t be making it to dinner or movie night out by the pool tonight, I warily waited for the elevator.
I’d tried to take the stairs again, but someone had found the towel I’d propped the door open with and had removed it, meaning I’d had to haul my ass back down the stairs and wait for the goddamn elevator.
“This is ridiculous,” I muttered darkly as eight people with strollers tried to shove into the elevators. “If you’d fold those up, five more people could get on.”
One mother frowned and did just that. “Sorry, been a long day.”
I got on and didn’t say a word, frustrated and pissed off that the hotel didn’t have better accommodations to get up to your room.
That was definitely something I would mention to anyone who ever expressed interest in staying at this particular hotel.
The doors to the elevator closed, and I stared at the stainless-steel door, ignoring the kid that kept kicking me in the shin.
I also ignored the way the woman at my side was smiling up at me, and the way she was at least six months pregnant.
Only when the doors opened did I practically vault out of the elevator and toward our hotel door, thankful that the damn thing was at least close.
A muffled thump from inside the hotel room had me cursing.
She’d fallen.
I just knew it.
She’d tried to get up and had fallen because there was something seriously wrong with her foot even though she was trying to downplay it.
Using my band to get in, I pushed open the door without giving it much thought and threw the door closed, slapping the lock home before turning around and coming to a complete halt.
“Didn’t think that I knew you had a thing for her, did you?” Charles asked, hovering over Harleigh’s prone body as if he would stomp on her at any second. “Well, you’re not that observant. But I am. I watched, every single second that you were in there. I had people there to tell me your every move. To tell me that the only time that they saw you show any interest at all was when this tiny little woman came in. A tiny woman that needed a place to go…and where else would I put her but right next to you.”
First, the fact that Charles was in my hotel room shocked the shit out of me.
Second, the fact that Harleigh was looking at me with utter fear and revulsion on her face made me want to tear him apart with my bare hands.
Thirdly, I’d known that Charles had owned the house next door to me. It’d been his grandmother’s. His grandmother had perished in the house, only to be found weeks later by Charles who had finally deigned to grace his grandmother with his presence. Something that I would never, ever do to my own grandmother.
But that just showed the difference between me and Charles. Charles? He’d allowed his own grandmother to rot—literally—for two weeks before he’d pulled his head out of his ass far enough to begin to worry when he didn’t hear back.
Me? Well, I would’ve been freaking out within a day, if not hours.
Now that I worked with her part-time at the bakery, I was there at least two to three hours every day. I’d notice in a heartbeat that she hadn’t opened, or that bread wasn’t made when I arrived.
Charles kicked Harleigh with the sole of his foot, knocking her backward and away from him slightly.
I was happy that she was farther away from him, definitely out of kicking distance, but pissed off beyond belief that he’d just kicked her.
“Are you even listening to me?” Charles hissed.
I gritted my teeth and nodded once, trying not to look down at Harleigh who was trying to inch herself away from where Charles was.
“Leave her alone,” I said. “She didn’t ever do anything to you.”
I was confused.
Really and truly, I had no idea what the hell was going on.
When I’d spoken to him earlier, he’d acted like it was one big coincidence that he was there when we were.
And honestly, it could’ve been a coincidence. Harleigh had shown me three different people on her Facebook that had come at the same time that we had—all from our area.
It wasn’t that much of a stretch for Charles to go, too.
But now that he was spouting off random thoughts about me and Harleigh, I had a feeling that this was no random encounter with us at Disney.
“It was also nice that Harleigh’s roommate was willing to pay whatever the fuck I wanted just so he could be closer to the boyfriend.” Charles snickered. “I raked in pay-dirt on them for years.” He paused, smiling slightly at something only he knew. “But I had to fan their fire. Play them against each other a little bit.”
