AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What do you mean?” he asked her.
“Your family.” She licked her lips and glanced at him. “When Sutton and I were kids, we watched all the TV shows. The sitcoms. The happy families. I don’t know what Sutton was thinking, but I always wanted to belong to a family like that.”
Charlie rubbed his fist over his heart, barely touching the ache in his chest. Some people took that kind of life, that family togetherness, for granted. He never had. In fact, he didn’t think anyone in his family did. But it hurt to know there were kids, adults, out there who didn’t have that kind of love and support system. It hurt to imagine Tatum, alone, trying to raise her little sister.
“Do you want a big family? Now?”
She pressed her lips together and shrugged. “I dunno. I can’t even think that far ahead.”
“Okay.” He nodded and leaned into her again to drape his arm around her shoulders. “That’s fair.”
“What would they think?” She ducked her head and studied her hands, folded in her lap. “If they knew?”
“If they knew what?” He kissed the top of her head. “That you like it rough and tumble?”
She snorted and then cackled out loud. Apparently embarrassed when Joy and Vianne looked their way, she clapped her hand over her mouth.
“No!” She rolled her eyes. “That my family was so dysfunctional. That my sister’s a junkie.”
Charlie shrugged and shook his head. “None of that has anything to do with you. I can tell you they would hurt for you. Every single one of them would go to bat for you. Do anything for you. But they’re not going to judge you based on who your family is.”
She looked up with a small, sad smile.
“Wish I would have been born a Murphy,” she whispered.
“I don’t.” He shook his head. “I’d rather be in love with you than be your pain-in-the-ass brother.”
“You can’t be in love with me,” she argued. “You don’t even know me.”
“I know all about those ghosts in your head,” he reminded her. “I know how to chase them out of your head. I know how to make you laugh. I know your favorite color is purple. And you like to run. You drink your coffee black, and you talk in your sleep.”
“Nuh-uh.”
“You do.” He nodded. “Wanna know what you said?”
“What did I say?”
“Harder, Charlie. Harder.”
She snorted again and shook her head.
“No, really you just said cheese.”
“Cheese?”
“Yep.” He shrugged. “Apparently, you dream about cheese, and I love you anyway.”
“Pretty cheesy.”
“Maybe someday you’ll dream about me. And say my name in your sleep.”
She stretched toward him, just enough to kiss him. “I’d say there’s a good possibility that’ll happen.”
28
The butterflies were still flying in her belly two days after Joy’s birthday party. These weren’t the butterflies of school anxiety or first date nerves. Nope. These were the fluttery, wistful butterflies of hope. Charlie Murphy was in love with her.
She should have said it back. Right? If she’d said those words to him and he had left her hanging, she wouldn’t have slept a wink. And yet, she hadn’t been ready. She hadn’t been ready to say it, to feel it, and pushing herself to do either would have been a bad idea. She knew it, and Charlie did, too.
