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When every last drop had trickled from the bottle, I threw it in the bin. She nodded slowly when I found her eyes again. She then broke through the tension when she said, “That shit’ll kill you eventually.” They were the words I’d said to her about smoking.
I inhaled sharply and then let the breath out. “Yeah, it will,” I agreed. Not wanting to talk about this any longer, I said, “You want some eggs for breakfast?”
She sat on one of the stools at the counter. “We got any bacon left?”
We.
It fucking melted my cold heart. I’d lived my life without her in it for so long and hadn’t thought a moment like this would ever happen. My resolve to kick the whisky to the kerb strengthened.
Pulling the bacon from the fridge, I said, “Yeah. You want cheese in your eggs?” I’d watched her scrambling some eggs, and she’d loaded cheese and chives in there. “And chives?”
If I hadn’t been watching her so intently, I would have missed the look that ran across her face for a split second. She hadn’t expected me to know that. She didn’t acknowledge it, though. “And onion, please.”
That was possibly the first time she’d used her manners willingly with me. I’d pulled her up on it repeatedly, and she usually rolled her eyes and added a please or a thank you.
I reached for an onion. “You got it, sweetheart.”
She sat watching me in silence while I cooked. It wasn’t until I placed her eggs and bacon in front of her and pulled up the stool next to her that she said, “What time did you get in last night?”
Charlie had been here for almost two weeks and not once had she asked anything about my whereabouts. I always made sure to know what she had planned for each day, but she didn’t seem to care about anything I did. This was another first for her.
I poured sauce on my plate. “I just came home about an hour ago.” I’d stayed at Monroe’s after we’d cleared the air. She’d kept me awake until just after three. When I’d left her, she’d complained that she probably wouldn’t be able to walk today. Knowing my woman would think about me every minute of the day when she tried to walk or sit or do anything made me one happy asshole.
“So you’re seeing Monroe now?”
“Yeah.”
“I liked her.”
I glanced her way. “Her advice pay off with that little shit you’re dating?”
She rolled her eyes. “Why do you hate on him so much?”
“I don’t trust him.”
“You don’t even know him.”
I put my cutlery down and turned my body so I could face her. “A man doesn’t need to know a boy to see him for what he is, Charlie. You forget that I’ve been where he is now. I met your mother when I was sixteen and chased the shit out of her trying to get in her pants.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh God, I don’t need to know about your sex life with Mum.”
I hid the smile that provoked. “What I’m trying to say is that I know all the sixteen-year-old-male tricks. I know he’s trying to get in your pants, and I don’t fucking trust him not to hurt you.”
She sat with that for a beat and then said, “So you and Mum were together from sixteen?”
I frowned. “She never told you about us?”
“Not really. All she ever really said was that you guys got married at nineteen and had me ten months later. I tried to ask her stuff, but she always got sad whenever I mentioned you, so eventually I kinda stopped asking.”
I smiled as the memories came back. “I’d always seen your mum around school. She was the chick who used to tell teachers to fuck off, the girl who smoked down the back of the school, the one who the boys all wanted a shot at. She never looked twice at me until the day I involved myself in an argument she was having with one of the school bullies. She’d stood up for the kid he was roughing up. I knew she didn’t have a chance in hell of winning against him, so I stepped in and helped. Of course, that pissed her off, that I took over, but she at least knew my name after that.”
Charlie had stopped eating, too, and rested her elbows on the counter, chin in hands. She appeared to be enjoying this conversation. “You beat that bully up, didn’t you?”
I chuckled. “Not fully, but I had to show him that messing with Tenille was a bad idea.”
“So how long after that did you two get together?”
“She kept me hanging for a good month or so. Your mother was smart. By the time she finally said yes to a date with me, I was like a fucking puppy following her everywhere.”
