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Fucking Graham. Whatever was going on between them, I knew it hadn’t been like that before, and it was pissing me off more each time I saw them together.
“Hey, Charlie, what time do you get off today?” I asked before she could get out of her car once I pulled up in front of the café.
“Oh, it’s a weird shift, I get off at three thirty. But don’t worry about it if you’re not finished with my car, I can walk back.”
“No, I’ll be here no matter what; my car or yours. Since you get off early enough, do you want to go to some dealerships in Richland after?”
“With you?” she asked, clarifying.
“Yeah.”
For long moments she studied me as her head slowly shook. “Why do you keep doing this? Why do you—I don’t understand why you’ve been talking to me the way you have been, or trying help me. And now—”
“Would it really be so hard for you to believe that I just want to spend time with you?”
Her cheeks turned red as my question hung in the air. “Yes,” she finally replied.
“Why?”
“Because you’re Deacon Carver, and the minute I believe that you do want to is the minute I find out this is one huge joke to you.”
An agitated huff left me. “And you can say that because—”
“I know you.”
“Do you?” I challenged. “I’ve already proved that you were all wrong about me the night of the wedding, didn’t I?”
Whatever response she’d had waiting for me died, and her lips pressed firmly together. After a few seconds, she nodded distractedly, and whispered, “Why, Deacon?”
“Why? I told you, I just want to spend time—”
“No. Why now?”
The silence in the car felt like a living thing as I searched for an answer, but I’d been searching for an answer for over a week now, and I still hadn’t found one.
“I don’t know, Charlie Girl,” I said honestly.
For some reason, my answer seemed to surprise her. After a second’s hesitation, she nodded, and said, “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“If you want to take me, let’s go. Jagger and Grey are leaving for Seattle for a little over a week, so Grey’s supposed to drop Keith off at the babysitter. I’ll just ask her to keep him longer.”
I tilted my head slightly at the mention of Jagger. “Your brother’s going to kill me.”
“For taking me to look at cars?” she asked, her tone both curious and testing.
My eyes slid down her body, and before I could stop myself, I said, “Let’s just say he has every reason to tell me to stay away from you, Charlie Girl.”
By the time I was looking at her face again, her eyes were wide and her chee
ks were the brightest red, and it looked like she was fighting a smile. “Um, okay. I’ll, uh, I’ll see you then. After work. When I get off,” she stammered as she opened the passenger door of her car.
“If I’m not here to pick you up, then I’m still at the garage working on your car. I’ll get your number from Grey and text you so you have mine in case I’m not here.”
Charlie still looked like I was speaking some foreign language to her, like she didn’t believe this was happening as she turned and walked into Mama’s. I didn’t blame her. I was still trying to make sense of it myself.
It wasn’t until Grey sent me Charlie’s number twenty minutes later, and I automatically sent Charlie a message from my regular phone, that it clicked.
