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Chapter Fifteen:
Walk the Cat
Zeppelin
Those touches stayedwith me that entire night, along with the look on Sterling’s face when Charlie had spoken of his mother. I could feel his pain hanging in the air, seeping from his pores and begging for someone to hold him. I wanted to, God did I want to, but I knew every move I made would only make the ice around him crack more. I didn’t know what would happen when it did, and that made me nervous.
The following day, Charlie’s cough was better, but his knee had been hurting so much lately I sat down with him for lunch and decided to have a conversation I’d hoped wouldn’t upset him. “How bad is it today, Charlie? Scale of one to ten.”
“Oh, it’s not so bad. Maybe a six or a seven,” he said quietly. “Don’t fret about it. Nothing to worry about.”
Except I was, and I knew Sterling was too. “Would you be open to physical therapy? I had to do it once after a car accident and it really helped.”
“Seems like that would constitute fretting,” he argued, but when he winced again, I could tell he wasn’t in a place to argue further. “I don’t want surgery. Had enough of those after the war. As long as they don’t try something like that, I’ll go.”
“Of course. I can speak to them and let them know exactly what you’re looking for and that surgery is off the table.” I stood from the chair to grab my phone and text Sterling. Normally I saved those texts for medicine updates but I felt like this was something he’d want to know.
I just wanted to have a little fun first.
Me: Heard you snoring last night.
I didn’t, but that didn’t stop me from including a hear-no-evil monkey emoji with a snarky grin.
Sterling: You must’ve been dreaming. Good to know you dream about me.
I definitely had, not that I’d admit that.
Me: Oh, must have been the hot neighbor. Anyway, how’s work?
It took him so long to respond that Charlie was napping and I’d already cleaned the house and put dinner in the crockpot by the time my phone dinged again.
Sterling: Busy. Is everything okay?
No fun. Okay, to the point.
Me: Yeah, Charlie agreed to do physical therapy. Do you have a specific place or can I find him one?
Sterling: Yeah, hold on. I’ll get you the info.
I decided not to text back and went to his office to use his computer once he sent me the website. It smelled like him, or maybe it was his cologne, but either way I felt surrounded by a man that I craved more than I’d admit to anyone. It took a while to focus at all, but when I found the place for Charlie, I was pleased they had online booking then less pleased when I saw the wait time. Charlie couldn’t wait a month, he needed help like yesterday, so I cleared my throat and dialed the number.
I may not have been a salesperson, but I was able to convince them to squeeze him in much sooner and was pleased with myself as I went to get Charlie out of bed and let him know. Of course he was less thrilled than me, but he seemed to come around to the idea once he had a snack and was on the couch relaxing.
The doorbell interrupted him telling me as much. Our neighbor Jake was holding a box when I opened the door, and although he wasn’t actually handsome like I had said in the text, he had kind brown eyes. “Oh, hello.”
“Hey. Are you—” he glanced down to a box in his hands — “Zeppelin Bryce?”
“Yes.” It took me a second to remember what it could be, but then a conversation I’d had with Kylie the previous week came back to mind. “I guess we haven’t properly met, have we? Thank you for bringing it. Would you like to come in?”
He grinned. “You sure? I don’t want to impose or anything, I just wanted to drop this off since it came to my place by mistake.”
“Of course. Charlie is right in here if you’d like to see him.” Carl was already trying to escape through the crack and I knew Jake was about to get licked to death. “And Carl of course. He’s chomping at the bit to say hi.”
“Aww, I haven’t seen him in months! Sterling doesn’t run with him at the same time he used to.”
I playfully told him he was on his own, then took the box full of mail from him before opening the door. Sure enough, Carl leapt out and nearly knocked him over, yapping and wagging his tail like he’d never seen another human before. He was big enough that poor Jake nearly fell over, but one whistle from Charlie had him bounding back into the house and slipping over the tile.
Jake chuckled, brushing the dusting of dog hair off his blue sweater. “Yeah, that was about right.”
