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“Bad divorce?”
“No.”
When she didn’t seem inclined to give him another reason why she wasn’t interested, he nodded and took a step back.
“Okay.” He nodded. “Gonna get back down there to help Pete.”
Still no response. Charlie sighed and turned to head back down to the coffee house.
“Charlie.”
He stopped when she called his name. Stayed where he was, but he did turn to look at her.
“A puppy.”
“What?”
“I asked Santa for a puppy.”
11
Did she get the puppy?
There were a million things Charlie could spend time thinking about, not the least of which was if he should keep hounding Tatum or give up and leave her alone. Her comment about the Hallmark Christmas movies and her resting bitch face had been so cold, it burned. In fact, he’d turned around to walk away, deciding he would continue to say hello to her every morning and leave it at that.
And then she’d called after him and shocked him with her answer about the puppy.
And now, Charlie was lying awake at 3 a.m., staring at the ceiling, wondering about Tatum. The puppy. If she got it. What kind of dog it was. What she’d named it.
The whiskey tasting had been okay, but his heart wasn’t in it. He wasn’t sure he’d say his heart was down the block with Tatum, either, in the Sage Building. Odds were, she’d leave it locked out in the hallway if he’d left it with her.
She confused him. Drove him crazy. All he wanted was the opportunity to get to know her better. Tatum seemed determined to shut him down at every turn.
And then just when he was ready to leave her alone, she’d talked to him. Sweet. A little bit sad.
He slept fitfully for a few hours, but he was up before his alarm. Showered and dressed for another day of work, he drove over to 515 Maine early. He could start taping the drywall. Didn’t necessarily need any help with that part. God only knew when his two younger brothers would come dragging in. Mal had left the tasting as soon as it was over, but he’d had an arm slung around Everleigh’s shoulders, so it was no mystery if he spent the night alone or not. And who knew with Sev? Odds were, Charlie’s youngest brother was out carousing after he left the tasting.
Early enough he beat his mom to the coffee house, Charlie used his own key to unlock the door and go inside. She had shown him and his brothers how to use all the fancy equipment when she first opened. Charlie wasn’t sure he remembered what all the buttons and gadgets were for or what all the terminology meant. He didn’t need anything fancy, so he bypassed the espresso machine and prepped the plain old Mr. Coffee maker—something he could do in his sleep.
If he slept.
He hadn’t turned the lights on when he came inside. The dark, quiet room was soothing in a completely different way than the hustle and bustle in the place usually made him happy. He loved being around the coffee house, the restaurant. They were a close family, and now that Everleigh was here every day, it was that much better. As much as he razzed Mal about her, Charlie was happy for the two of them.
But now and then he liked being here alone. In the dark.
Head pounding from lack of sleep rather than too much whiskey, he leaned over to rest his elbows on the counter while the coffeemaker slaved behind him. Apparently, he hadn’t locked the door behind him, either.
When he heard the soft sigh signaling the change in air pressure, he rubbed his eyes, wondering which of his brothers was here to give him shit. Or better yet, maybe it was his sisters here to hover over him. Or his sister-in-law Vianne to worry about his insomnia and what it meant for his future health.
“Whaddaya want?” he groaned at whoever had just opened the door and then stifled a yawn, all with his eyes closed.
“Charlie?”
“Tatum?” He blinked and found her standing just inside the door. She looked uncertain, like she might bolt at any second. In fact, her hand still rested on the door handle, the door itself on her shoulder.
“You okay?”
“What’re you doing here this early?”
