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Dead silence. “Never mind,” he rushed out. “Yeah, this is Oliver Bishop. Can I help you? I’m kind of in the middle of something.”
“Oh, yes. I heard you were a busy man. This is Zeppelin, your father’s caretaker. Do you have a moment or should I call back? It isn’t urgent, but it is important.”
“Wait, the hot caretaker?” He barked a laugh, then moved away from some of the noise in the background. “I’ve always got time for gorgeous women. You hear I’m the better Bishop or something?”
I didn’t mean to respond with silence, but I couldn’t find a single word to respond. “Hot caretaker” short-circuited my brain before I even had a moment to process the rest of his response, and when that happened, I was even more speechless than before. The audacity of both these Bishop boys is out of this fucking world. “I— Did you—” I cleared my throat and laughed louder than I meant to. “Well fuck me sideways, I was hoping you’d be the easier one to talk to.” In a way he was, he seemed to be more easygoing than Sterling so far, but I knew there was more to Oliver than just some flirty, cocky, playful guy. They were both so much more than the mask they donned each day. “I didn’t mean to say that out loud, and I don’t know what to even say about the rest of it, so I won’t touch it. Can I help you?”
His laughter only grew. “Are you blushing right now? Please tell me you’re blushing. It’s okay, I won’t tell anyone.”
“Shut up,” I snipped back, absolutely blushing and grinning by this point. “I’m trying to be professional and it’s hard enough with your moody brother.”
“Ah, you had to ruin it by bringing up my brother. Couldn’t just let us have a nice thing, huh?” he teased. “He is moody though, isn’t he? Sorry about that, I really don’t think I helped last night. Is my dad okay?”
“I didn’t help him last night either. What happened with you two? And yes, Charlie is doing great, we were just having breakfast next to the window and sharing stories.”
Oliver hesitated, and I could tell I wasn’t about to get a full story. “Just brother shit. I dumped more on him than I needed to. But tell me, Led. If you didn’t call because you heard I’m the better Bishop and my dad’s okay, what’d you call for?”
“Oh shit, I called you.” I shook my head and blushed again, deciding to ignore the nickname. “We were wondering if you’d come for dinner tonight? Charlie misses you, Ollie.”
“Fuck. I knew when my phone rang I was about to be letting someone down. I’m not in the country. But hey, I’ll be back in a few days. Raincheck? Then I can show you in person I’m the better Bishop.” Someone yelled his name and I heard a slap, followed by, “Fuck! Okay, Isabella! Si, si! Gotta go, Led. Text me the day.”
The line went dead and I stared at my phone for a few long seconds before making my way back to Charlie. “So, he’s not in the country this evening, but he said for me to pick the day and he’d be here. Maybe this Sunday?”
“Sunday sounds great.” He pushed himself slowly to his feet and closed the photo album, then pointed behind me to show me where he wanted to go. “While we’re talking about my family, you wanted to hear about my Ellie. What else do you want to know?”
My entire mood lifted. Over our very few days together, he’d told me more than a few stories, but not the one I craved to know, the one the hopeless romantic inside me needed to hear. “I’d love to hear how you met and how your love grew so strong it still radiates all around you.”
He smiled to himself, not saying a word until he was sitting in his recliner in the living room and he had his wallet in his hand. “She came to me on the worst night of my life,” he explained. “I won’t scare you with the details of what happened to me, but Ellie w-was my nurse. And ahh, she was wonderful. Steadiest hands I’d ever felt and stubborn as they come. I took one look at her and knew she’d be mine.” He fished something out of his wallet and I stood to take it from his outstretched hand. “I couldn’t speak, but I w-wrote that out for her.”
I looked down at the small piece of gauze in my hand and unfolded it, then melted at the faded black words: “I’m gonna marry you one day, woman.”
Unwelcome tears welled in my eyes, and whether I realized it then or not, hearing this fixed something broken inside of me. True love existed in the world, even if it might never happen for me. “What did she say?” I slowly sat down on the floor right there to continue staring at the note, because something told me Charlie never wanted to be too far from it.
“She told me I couldn’t marry her if I died, so I needed to heal up and then maybe she’d agree to a picnic date. I was a soldier. What d-did I know about picnics?” He chuckled, then nodded toward the stairs. “The next t-time you take me to my room, look on top of my closet. We kept the picnic basket I used to woo her the moment she got me walking again.”
I handed the note back and stared up at him like a child at story time. “That’s so romantic. When did she admit she loved you too?”
“Not until the war was over and we were both done serving. Even then, she never let me forget I fell first.” He kissed that old, beloved piece of gauze and tucked it back in his wallet with tears welling in his eyes, and I knew enough to change the subject when Carl started whining like he sensed the sadness radiating from Charlie.
“Come here, boy,” I called, patting my lap for him to come, and when he made himself comfortable there I realized he was way too big to be a lap dog. “Thank you for sharing that story, Charlie. It was beautiful and ... eye-opening. Even if I never truly know how that love feels, I’m just so happy it exists in our world at all.”
“Don’t count yourself out just yet,” he said quietly. “If a battered old bastard like me found it, you can too.”
I smiled as encouragingly as I could, because if my last date with Caffrey was any indication, I was going to have a rough road ahead of me.
I hope you’re right, Charlie. I really do.
