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Chapter Nineteen
Olivia
Charlie and I walked along the beach with Tank by our side. It turned out to be a beautiful day. It was too bad Emmett had to be cooped up in an office all day. I’d been thinking about the night Emmett and I shared and knew I couldn’t keep my secret from Charlie any longer. The time had come to explain my relationship with Emmett to him.
The afternoon was a great time to come down here. It was nowhere near as hot as it was during the middle of the day.
“Are you ready, Tank?” Charlie asked as he held up a ball.
Tank stood at attention and then raced after the toy when Charlie threw it as hard as he could.
I draped my arm around Charlie’s small shoulders. “How do you like living at Emmett’s?”
“It’s so cool!”
“Yeah? What do you like about it?”
“Only everything. Like coming down to the beach every day, living next to the beach, playing with Tank. Oh, and my new bedroom. Plus, Emmett is really fun.”
“You think so?”
Charlie kicked some sand. “Yeah, he’s told me some cool stories about when he was in the Navy, and it was fun building my shelves with him.”
“I think he’s fun, too. In fact, there’s something I want to tell you, kiddo.” I drew in a deep breath. This was harder than I thought.
“Are you in love with him?”
I caught Charlie’s arm. “How did you—”
Charlie rolled his eyes. “It’s so obvious, Mom. You make gaga eyes at each other all the time. You know he’s totally in love with you, too, right?”
I tried not to let my smile get too big. “Yeah, I do.”
“So, are you going to get married or something?”
“It’s way too soon for that, cheeky!” I tickled his ribs.
“Well, can he at least be my dad?”
I watched sadly as Charlie looked down at the ground.
“I want him to be my dad because he’s really nice to me, and I think I love him, too. I never had a dad before.”
I squatted down in front of Charlie. “I know you haven’t, sweetheart. I’m sorry about that, but I’ve told you why that is.”
Charlie picked at the hem of his T-shirt. “Because my dad was a bad man.”
“That’s right.”
“But Emmett isn’t a bad man.”
“I’ll tell you what. Let’s see how this trip to his hometown goes, and we’ll see how he feels about that. He’s only been in our lives for a short time, and now we’re in his house. He loves having us around, but it’s still a big adjustment for him.”
“Okay,” Charlie said with a nod.
I was alerted to someone calling Tank’s name. Charlie and I followed the sound and saw Emmett jogging toward us dressed in red swimming trunks. He took the ball from the pit bull’s mouth and tossed it into the waves. Tank bounded in after it.
“Speak of the devil!” I said.
