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But that little girl... she was a different story.
She was her aunt, through and through. When she told me she’d been named after a princess who lived in the sky, one with a twin sister, it just about gutted me, because I knew, no matter how tough Charlotte acted, how hard the life she’d been forced to live had made her, she would melt into a puddle the moment she laid eyes on her niece. The niece her sister clearly named after her, a sister who obviously missed her very much.
Which made the guilt I felt at keeping this secret from her and Dalton eat at my insides day after day.
It was on that thought, as I moved through the house to the kitchen and pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge, that my phone rang, cutting off the song that had been blasting through my earbuds.
Pulling them out, I tossed them on the island and reached into my pocket for my ringing phone. Dalton’s name flash across the screen.
“Hey, brother. How’re things?”
“Can’t complain, man,” he answered as I twisted the cap off the bottle and sucked a quarter of it down.
“Can’t? Or won’t because your bride-to-be is within earshot.”
“You’re on speakerphone, ass face!” I heard Charlotte call out in the background. “And just for that, I’m gonna make you help with wedding prep when the time comes. Hope you like learning to fold napkins into swans and making goody bags filled with candy almonds and Hershey Kiss roses.”
“Love you like a sister, Charlotte, but I’d rather drag my balls across shattered glass than do any of that.”
“Ugh! Why are boys so gross? I’m leaving the room now so you and Dalt can bro down. Just wanted to say hi.”
“Hi, sweetheart. Talk to you later.”
I heard what sounded like Dalton and Charlotte making out before he spoke again a few seconds later. “All right. You’re off speaker now.”
“Couldn’t have done that before you shoved your tongue down her throat?”
He laughed through the line. “Where’d the fun in that be?”
“I see you called just to be a dick,” I said with a grin.
“Well, you been gone a while. Figured you’d be feelin’ a little homesick. You’re welcome.”
“So glad to know you care,” I said on a chuckle before draining the rest of my water. “How’re things going over there? Wedding planning under way yet?”
He let out a sigh, and I heard what sounded like him moving around and a door closing behind him for privacy. “I finally talked her around to setting a date. You know she’s been holding out, hoping we’d find her sister first.”
My guts twisted into a painfully tight knot, my stomach rolling like I’d eaten week-old Chinese food. “I’m sorry, man.”
“Nothing for you to be sorry for. Not like you aren’t pulling out all the stops to find her. It’s just hard watching my woman struggle, you know? All these years, she’s convinced herself being apart from her twin was the best thing for her. Now she’s dealing with that little taste of hope, along with concern over that fucking prick Cheyanne was married to finding her before we do. She just needs to know she’s safe, you know?”
Fuck me. Every word was a goddamn knife to my chest. I felt like the world’s biggest piece of shit.
“Speaking of, how’s the search going? Anything pan out with that last lead?”
“Still following it up,” I grunted as I squeezed my eyes closed and pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling worse as each second ticked by.
I just couldn’t bring myself to tell him the truth yet. Sawyer had built this whole life. If she thought for a second that it was being threatened, she’d pack up her girl and take off. I didn’t want to put her in that position. I just needed to find a way to do this so Charlotte could get what she wanted without Sawyer’s world imploding.
“Yeah, I know. I’d trust all you guys with my life, you know that, but I don’t think there’s anyone I’d trust more to be on this job.”
Christ, I needed this conversation to end before the shame and guilt forced me to curl up into a goddamn ball on the floor so tight I couldn’t get out of it.
“Well, I’m glad you guys finally set a date, brother. When’s the big day?”
“We decided on next January. Charlotte wanted a winter wedding.”
“Not a lot of time.”
