All She Wanted (2) (2 page)

Charlie

“Dinnertime, Charlie!” my mother called
from downstairs.

Great. Just
what I need: A family dinner to discuss my life choices.

“Be down in a sec!”

I threw the last of my clothes into my
dresser and kicked my suitcase inside my closet. The one plus about moving back
home was that my room here was nearly three times larger than my shared dorm
room was. The downside was that Sasha wasn’t here with me. She was four hours
away, in Austin.

I walked down the stairs, glancing at
the pictures on the wall. Smiling, happy, gag-me, pictures of a family that had
been anything but connected as of late, stared back at me.

“Hello Charlie.”

My dad’s voice was unmistakable. It was
a strange mix of authority and kindness—a combination I’d never heard duplicated.

“Hi Daddy,” I said as he pulled me in
for a hug.

“I’d like to say it’s nice to see you, sweetheart—under
different circumstances it would be.” His tone could have been labeled, “The Disappointed
Father”.

“Unbelievable,” I said, pulling out of
his grip. “It hasn’t even been a full minute and already you’re reminding me of
what a disappointment I am.”

“Sweetheart,
you
are not a disappointment…your choices are,” he said calmly.

I rolled my eyes, “Please Daddy, if
that is your version of the ‘love the sinner—hate the sin’ conversation…I’d
rather skip it.”

“Sit down, Charlie; we have a lot to
talk about.”

I pulled out the dining room chair and
sat down hard, deflecting the glare of my father by smiling at my mom instead.

“Please don’t put your elbows on the
table, Charlie,” my mom said.

I re-adjusted, sitting up straighter.
My stomach grumbled loudly in response to my mother’s southern cooking. She was
a phenomenal cook—deemed the Firehouse Mother a long time ago. She reveled in
the joy of providing homemade pies and cobblers for the men at the station. I
did not acquire that same skill set, or joy when it came to cooking.

“Let’s say grace.”

After bowing my head, I waited for
the
amen
, my mouth
salivating. I hadn’t eaten lunch, refusing to stop for fast food during my
four-hour drive home to Dallas. No amount of convenience was worth putting that
garbage into my body.

After listening to some pleasantries
from my mother about the latest on-goings in the neighborhood, my dad leaned
back in his chair, indicating he was ready to get down to business.

“Your mother and I have decided that we
are not going to postpone our cruise on account of your suspension, Charlie.”

“I would hope not.” I shot back, after
taking a bite of salad.

“Charlie, don’t talk with your mouth
full,” my mother said softly.

I rolled my eyes.

What was
I—a first grader?

“Do not roll your eyes at your mother,
Charlie!”

I put my fork down and leaned back
slowly. Obviously, there was more to this conversation. He never snapped at me
like that. I waited anxiously for the other shoe to drop.

“The reason we have decided to leave is
because I’ve thought of a compromise.”

He smiled; I did not smile back.

“And what might that be?” I asked.

“I’ve arranged to have someone come and
stay with you while we’re gone. They’ll hold you accountable to the rules I
told you about during our phone conversation last week.”

“
What?
You have got to be joking! Who…who did you possibly arrange to
watch
me, Daddy? Old Lady Watson—or maybe
Aunt Jo?” I couldn’t help but laugh at the idea of either of those old women
playing the role of babysitter for me like they had when I was in elementary
school.

“Actually, it’s one of my men.”

I stopped laughing.

He was serious—dead serious. I gaped,
words escaping me for the first time since I’d been home.

“Speechless? Well now you know how your
mother and I felt when we got the call last week from Dean Thomas. We aren’t
playing games here, sugar. Things have to change with you…there are
consequences for your actions. And it’s our job to-”

I threw back my chair from the table,
standing so quickly that my drink splashed over the rim, soaking the
tablecloth.

“It’s not your job, Daddy!
I
am not your job anymore…I’m an adult!”

He laced his fingers together, as if unfazed
by my outburst.

“Really? Does an adult go out dancing
till the wee hours of the morning? Does an adult get caught in the school
parking lot drunk with their roommate after curfew? Does an adult get suspended
from their scholarship because they stopped caring about their grades? That
sounds like a rebellious child to me, Charlie—
not
an adult. I still provide for you financially-”

“Money? Is that what this is about? You
think you can control me because you still pay for some of my bills while I’m
in school?”

My arms waived wildly in the air as if
they were no longer attached to my body. The explosion of rage going off inside
me was unlike anything I had ever felt. I was losing it. The slow tick of a bomb
that had been set months ago had finally found its mark.

I could do nothing to stop it.

“Charlie, please calm down. We
understand that you’ve had a difficult season with the break-up and all, but we
can’t sit back and watch you self-destruct any longer,” my mother said, adding
to the conversation for the first time.

“Don’t bring him into this, Mother!”

“Why not? He’s at the crux of this
whole charade, isn’t he? Your mother and I told you our thoughts on Alex the
first time we met him, and yet you still chose to say
yes
to his proposal—against me, against our blessing!”

I could hear the hurt in his voice, but
I couldn’t bring myself to let it soak in. I carried too much hurt of my own to
let anyone else’s in.

“I know what you think of him, Daddy!
But can’t you just for one, tiny minute, think about me? Think about what it was
like for me to wake up to a note that left me without a fiancé, without the
future I had planned with him? I loved him!” My hands shook as they covered my
face. I felt a sob jolt through my entire body as I said the words again. “I
loved him…and he
broke
my heart.”

It was my mother’s arms that encircled
me as I cried. The grief that washed over me felt as fresh as it had the day I
found his note. The rejection was just as overwhelming. I heard my dad stand, and
an instant later I felt his heavy hand on my shoulder.

“We leave the day after tomorrow,
Charlie. Briggs will stay above the garage, and you will follow the rules I
have laid out for you while I’m gone.”

He didn’t need to add anything else to
his last statement. He was done with this conversation, and there was nothing I
could possibly say to change his mind. He had no compassion when it came to Alex.
He despised him, for reasons I did not understand. If anyone had the right to
hate Alex…it should have been me.

But it wasn’t.

The night was long as I cried myself to
sleep for the millionth time, my thoughts on the wedding that would have
happened in just twenty-five days.

Briggs

Duffle bag in hand, I climbed the steps
to the garage apartment. I still couldn’t believe I was actually going to be
babysitting a twenty-one year-old.
Who
does that?
I wasn’t a pushover, but saying no to Chief Max was like saying
no to God…if I didn’t end up in the belly of a whale, it would be equally as
consequential for me. I unlocked the door with the key Mrs. Julie had given me
and opened it. The inside smelled like a mixture of lemon and pine. I looked
around the large space and smiled in approval.

Maybe
this isn’t going to be as bad as I thought.

The flat screen TV called my name, as
did the couch and leather recliner. The kitchen was stocked with food, both in
the pantry and the fridge, and the bedroom was larger than the current room I
occupied at my shared apartment with the guys. There was a walk-in shower,
double sinks and a closet that could have been called a spare room. I was all
over this.

Now to go and make nice with Chief’s daughter.

I was sure we could reach a mutual
understanding. As long as she agreed to follow the rules Chief had outlined, I
would stay out of her way, and she could stay out of mine. It was simple.

After putting my clothes away and
flipping through a couple of sports channels (I needed to make sure everything
was in proper working order), I headed down the stairs toward the house. I had
seen a copy of the rules on the breakfast bar in my new apartment, but after
glancing through them briefly, I figured this girl was old enough to sort them
out on her own.
 

I wasn’t some crazy dictator after all.

I knocked on the house door several
times. When no one came, I turned the knob. I assumed Charlie was home since I’d
just come from the station. Chief Max had reminded me again before he left that
if she was not doing office work at the station, she was to be at home or with
me. Case closed.

 
I walked inside, trying to make as much noise
as possible.

“Hello?” I called through the house
several times. I tried to ignore the fact that I hadn’t been invited in.
 

This is my
job. I’m just doing my job.

“Anybody home?”

Okay…so
she’s M.I.A on my first day.

Awesome.

I heard something then—coming from the
back of the house. I made my way there slowly, still feeling more like a
trespasser than an employed boarder. I reached a hallway that seemed to lead to
the source of the sound. I stopped for a moment, listening.

It was music: muffled notes of a piano,
I was pretty sure.

I walked down the hall until I saw a
set of French glass doors that led into a room I’d never seen before when I had
visited Chief Max’s home. A baby grand sat inside, on the middle of the
hardwood floor. My eyes swept over the piano until I saw her, or at least a
part of her.

Charlie.

Her hair was the color of strawberries
and cream—the wavy locks falling just below her shoulders. As I made a move to
knock on the glass, she jumped in her seat, startled by my presence. I took two
steps back, though there was still a closed door between us. I didn’t want to
scare her. She stared at me through the glass, as if calculating something,
then slowly sauntered over and pulled it open.

“So, you‘re the manny, huh?”

Her face was…
wow
.

Her face was wow.

“I uh…the what, now?” I asked, my brain
seemingly stuck on that one word:
Wow.

“The manny…the man-nanny?” She said
again—slower, as if she was dealing with someone who’s elevator didn’t make it
all the way up to the top floor. “You’re here to watch over me while my parents
are off gallivanting in Greece, right?”

Okay, so
she’s funny.

“Yes, I guess that would be me,” I said
flashing a smile at her.

“Great…well let’s get something
straight, shall we? I don’t need a babysitter. I won’t cause you any trouble and
you won’t cause me any either, that sound good to you?” she asked, batting her
eyelashes.

I was lost again momentarily in a sea
of turquoise.

Was that
even a real eye-color? Turquoise?

“Hello?” She waved her hand in front of
my face, breaking the spell.

“Uh, yeah. That sounds good and dandy
to me. Your dad left a copy of the rules in my apartment,” I laughed casually, “So
as long as you’re good on those…I don’t think there will be any issues.”

“
Perf
,” she
said.

“
Perf
?”

“Perfect…see ya around, Manny,” she
said closing the doors and strolling back toward the piano.

I stood there, dumbfounded.
        

Well,
that was easy
.

I walked back down the hall and out the
front door, locking it behind me on my way out.

Guess
Chief Max is more paranoid than I thought. She seems reasonable enough.

Back at my new headquarters I made a
frozen pizza and watched the highlights on ESPN. With no one to wrestle me for
the remote, and a kitchen stocked with my favorite foods, I decided I would
relish every minute of living in this lone bachelor pad.

I smiled to myself as I pulled the
lever on the recliner.

This could
quite possibly be the best four weeks of my life.

Charlie

Well, that was easy.

After
finishing up some work on my latest compositions, I made my way upstairs. Careful
to turn off all the lights in the house, with the exception of the interior
hall bath, so it would appear the house was asleep.

The house might be, but I’m sure not.

I smiled at myself in the mirror. My
black mini skirt and heels complimented the purple sequin tank I had on nicely.
Though the weather was still fairly cool, the club would be humid from all the packed-in
bodies. I had texted Jackie earlier. Naturally, she was more than willing to
assist me with my plan of escape. She was two years older than me, so technically
this was our first time going out together since I had turned twenty-one. I
hadn’t thought ahead enough to park my car away from the garage where the manny
was staying, so she had agreed to pick me up at the end of the street.

It was ten o’ clock; the night was
young.

Sasha had taken me to my first
club—which was post-breakup. Though I’d always loved to dance, the idea of
being around so many guys looking for a hook-up had kept me away from those
scenes in the past. She assured me though, that as long as I was smart, I would
be fine. So far that logic had proven true. I never accepted a drink from
anyone, I never sat a drink down and returned to it later, and I only danced
with the friends I arrived with.

She had also taught me a few good lines
to get a Pervy Pete to move on.
 

I leaned into the mirror, painting on
my lip-gloss before throwing my hair up into a twist. If I didn’t put it up
now, it would be stuck to the back of my neck all night. I grabbed my purse and
slowly crept down the stairs—realizing a minute later the absurdity of my
stealth-like movements when no one was home. I exited through the side door,
doing my best to stay in the shadows and avoid the moonlit areas of the
driveway. I didn’t need Manny catching me on the first night of this hellish
month to come.

I made a beeline toward Jackie’s car,
throwing my head back against the seat the second I was inside. My heart was
racing. It was stupid to be this worked up—I was twenty-one for cryin’ out
loud! I shouldn’t have to sneak-out anywhere. I forced my heart rate down, as
Jackie laughed at me unabashed.

“What’s got your panties in a bunch?”

“Nothing. I just needed to get out of
there. I’ve been stuck inside that house since I got here three days ago.
Dancing sounds like heaven right about now.”

“So who do they have playing the role
of guardian over you while they’re away?”

“Oh…just some guy from the station,” I muttered
under my breath while she drove.

“What? You’re hiding a hot fireman
inside your house and you want to go out dancing?” She looked at me like I had
just sprouted a third arm right before her eyes.

“It’s not like that—he’s old and
creepy.”

Okay, so maybe that was a little far-fetched—or
a lot.

If I were being honest, he would fall
on the opposite side of ugly when it came to the Hottie Spectrum, but I wasn’t
going to be honest. I couldn’t be honest with Jackie, not with that type of
information.
She can think he looks like
a warthog for all I care.
If Jackie started coming around the house, I’d
never have peace again. I’d witnessed her games with men
many
times, and I wasn’t interested in watching that for the next four
weeks in my own home. No thanks.

No man could resist the temptation that
was Jackie. With her long, blonde hair and her model height, she was a Siren,
calling to men without even having to open her mouth. Where Jackie went, men
followed, and I didn’t need Mr. Manny what’s-his-name to be hanging around. In
fact, I didn’t need him at all.

“Bummer,” she sighed as she flipped her
hair to the side.

With the club in sight, I felt my body
relax.

This is just what I need: to lose myself in the beat of the
music.