Saving Charlie (Stories of Serendipity Book 9) (27 page)

Les knew she was about to bolt. Like the motel room that first night, he saw something flicker in her gaze that told him she was miserable here. He was honestly surprised she’d shown up. Pleasantly surprised. Whatever she wanted to talk about must be important for her to put herself through whatever was going on in her mind right now.

“Supper is ready,” his mother announced when they’d found a place to stop in their session.

“I’m starved,” Les’s dad said, before rising with creaking joints and a groan. “I guess it’s about time to get some stools in here, like normal musicians.” When his eyes fell on Charlie, he extended his hand. “I’m Thomas, you must be Charlie. It’s nice to have you here.”

Les watched her wooden smile as she shook his dad’s hand and felt her discomfort like a palpable entity in the room. Wanting to comfort her in some way, he kept his gaze glued to hers and walked toward her, gently resting his hand on her back. He hoped his touch would ease her a little.

They made their way to the kitchen and seated themselves at the table. Les managed to seat himself next to her at the round table, and he squeezed her thigh, eliciting a less-wooden smile from her.

“I hope you don’t have an aversion to tofu, dear.” His mother was passing around the casserole dish, and Les groaned inwardly.

Whispering out of the side of his mouth, he said, “I’ll take you for a burger afterward. Promise.”

“I heard that, Lester.”

Charlie nearly dropped the dish she was holding as her eyes danced with mirth, and her smile was finally genuine. “
Lester?”

He felt his face get hot, but was still grateful for the joy radiating from her. “Yeah…” he grumbled.

She seemed to recover enough to dish out her casserole, a tofu, marinara sauce and cheese mixture his mother swore tasted just like lasagna. Suddenly, inspiration hit him. He knew how to loosen her up.

“Mom, Charlie gets a kick out of stories about stupid stuff I did when I was a kid. I know you’ve got some of those.”

Rhonda must have known what he was up to, because her face lit up with a broad grin. “Of course, I’ve got tons. Let’s see…” She put a forkful of nastiness in her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. “There was the time you, Max, and Brent got busted for vandalizing Mr. and Mrs. Cranes’ Christmas decorations. They were beside themselves. We almost had to change churches.”

“You vandalized Christmas decorations?” Charlie’s eyes were wide, and her sweet little mouth had a frown on it.

Les shrugged. “We weren’t really trying to hurt anything. We just thought they needed to be re-arranged. You couldn’t see Santa behind all the elves they had out.”

“When he wasn’t out with those boys, he was holed up in his room, playing guitar or watching
Logan’s Run
. That was his favorite movie. His first VCR, and all he did was watch that movie…I never really saw the appeal, myself.”

Les cleared his throat, suddenly uncomfortable. Of course his mother would remember that. That was his way of keeping her out of his room while he was abusing himself, thinking of his latest girl.

“I liked
Logan’s Run,
too. I watched it every time it came on TV.” Charlie piped in, to Les’s endless amusement. Quickly enough, the image of Charlie doing what he called ‘watching
Logan’s Run’
wiped the smirk off his face. She shot him a weird look, and he thought he’d been busted.

“Yeah, I played a lot of guitar. Sort of had to in this house. Dad let me try out his new creations.”

“Les used to want to be a famous musician, like one of those grunge rockers in the nineties.”

The conversation continued along the same vein until they were finished eating. Charlie offered to help clean up, but Rhonda shooed her off.

“You guys go do something fun. You’ve had enough of us old people for one evening.” Les’s insides turned to mush at Charlie’s smile.

“Well, it was very nice to meet both of you guys.” Charlie held out her hand to shake Rhonda and Thomas’s hands, but they both pulled her into a hug instead. He saw her stiffen initially, then relax into their embrace.

Outside, he whispered in her ear, “Follow me to Sam’s. I need a double-bacon chili cheeseburger after all that mess.”

She laughed and nodded, hopping into her truck. Les vowed to make her laugh more. The sound buried itself into his flesh and he didn’t want to let it out.

At Sam’s Diner, he ordered his coveted burger, while Charlie picked at his onion rings, silently stewing over whatever it was she wanted to talk about.

Finally, she broke her silence. “What are you doing tomorrow?”

Les shrugged, “Nothing.”

“You want to go to a high school graduation with me?”

“Sure. Whose is it?”

Her eyes pleaded with him. “Please don’t ask me a lot of questions about this, Les. I’m trying really hard to let you in. Just…let’s take this slow. Okay?”

He’d thought he was asking a legitimate question, not being nosy, but he squeezed her hand and agreed.

“I don’t want to go alone. That’s all.” She said it so quietly, he almost didn’t hear her.

“I understand.” She looked at him with a question in her eyes, but didn’t voice it. He was dying to reassure her he would do his damnedest to make sure she didn’t have to do anything alone ever again. But he knew she didn’t want to hear those words.

“After this, you want to go somewhere and take a walk?”

“A walk?” Eyebrows raised, she quit chewing on the onion ring she was holding.

“Yes, a walk. There’s a real pretty park down the road, with trees and stuff. We can walk, hike through the woods, hold hands. It’ll be fun.”

“Okay.”

Les wasn’t sure what was going on with Charlie, but it looked like she was putting forth a herculean effort, and he was going to do what he could to help her out. If she didn’t want to spend time with him, she wouldn’t have come, right?

The Dogwood park was a sight to see a couple of months ago when the dogwoods were all in bloom. It was still pretty, even without the white blossoms everywhere, but not as breathtaking. When they got out of their trucks, Les entwined his fingers with Charlie’s relishing the feel of her tiny hand in his before leading her down a trail into the woods. The sun had just set, but residual light and the rising moon gave them enough light to see.

The park was eighty acres, donated by someone a zillion years ago that the city had a hard time maintaining. With all the underbrush, it was pretty wild in some places, almost like a virgin pine forest, especially during years of adequate rain. Right now, everything was green and lush.

They walked in silence for a few minutes, Charlie gently swinging their hands back and forth between them.

“Your parents seem nice.”

“Yeah, they’re pretty great,” Les agreed.

“You’re lucky. Mine weren’t.”

“I’m sorry. Did they pass?”

She shook her head. “No. They’re still in jail.”

Les didn’t say anything, momentarily stunned. He knew people that had spent time in jail, but not for anything worse than a minor pot possession, or vandalizing property. But the way she said the words, he got the impression they were in for something serious. He wouldn’t ask though. As much as he wanted to, he was going to respect her privacy and trust that she would tell him when she wanted to.

Completely changing the subject, Charlie asked, “Did they ever find out who killed the motel owner?”

He went along with the topic change, staying in her obvious comfort zone. “Yeah. It was two guys who’ve been suspected of trafficking girls and selling them for sex. The feds think they’ve been using the motel to work from.” If only he knew who The Liberator was. She might be able to testify to that effect. “But there’s not really evidence of that. Just their fingerprints on a shell casing they found, so they’ve got some evidence to work with on the murder. I wish we could get them on the trafficking charge too.”

She was silent for a bit, walking along beside him. When she finally spoke, it sounded resigned, tired. “Well, at least they won’t be bringing in any more girls.”

“Yeah, at least. I just wish they would pay for everything. With one count of murder, they’ll probably plea out and get a reduced sentence or something. The trafficking laws are stricter. If we could get them on that one, we could get their supplier and maybe shut down an entire ring.” He climbed up on his soapbox, his voice rising in pitch, “I mean, I love what the Refuge does, how it helps the girls re-integrate into society and stuff, I just wish they weren’t there to be saved in the first place.”

He looked over at Charlie, to make sure she understood him and was surprised to see tears tracking down her cheeks. “Hey.” He stopped walking and turned her so she was facing him. “What’s wrong?” His thumbs made their way to her cheeks and wiped the tears from them. He couldn’t stop his thoughts from turning to Rachel’s speculations about The Man being Douglas Manning and somehow having ties to Charlie.

The shadow was back in her eyes, eyes that held a sadness the depths of which he couldn’t comprehend. She didn’t speak, only shook her head slightly before leaning it against his palm. Les pulled her into a hug and felt her body tremble in his arms. He squeezed her as tightly as he dared, hoping to stop the trembling that was racking her body.

He had no idea what to do to help her, make her feel better, ease the sadness. He missed the smile that lit up her face at unexpected moments. He wanted to hear her laugh, but he also knew there was something that she’d buried deep. Something that was coming to the surface, she wanted to tell him, but didn’t feel confident enough, or trust him, or something. Something important.

If he asked, would she answer? The question was on the tip of his tongue, to ask about The Man, but she had finally relaxed into his hold, and he didn’t want to upset that again.

He held her, feeling the deep breaths she was taking to calm herself. Eventually, she took a step back, out of his embrace, and he felt her absence, a sense of loss that was almost overwhelming.

“I need to go home,” she said quietly, with a sniff.

“Uh…sure.” They turned and started walking back to where they’d parked the trucks. “Did I say something wrong?”

Charlie stopped and faced him. “Les, you’ve done everything right. I’m just trying to figure out how to deal with everything. I’ve had so many feelings and remembered so many things that I’d forgotten since I’ve been around you. I have to figure out how to live my life with all of this…” she gestured vaguely around her, “shit going on inside my head.” He saw the briefest flash of a smile on her face, and it lightened his heart considerably. “I like being around you. So I have to figure out how to get used to the feeling inside my head.” She lowered her eyes, looking at him through her lashes. “…and my heart.” If he hadn’t been looking at her face when she said that last part, he wouldn’t have heard it. “Just…just keep being patient with me?”

Les swallowed. That was as close as a declaration as he’d ever gotten from Charlie. “Sure. Of course.” He clasped her hand again as they continued walking back.

“So, what do you have going on this week?” she asked shyly.

“I’m finishing up the final touches on the remodel I’ve been working on. I’m hoping to have that finished by Friday, so I can do the ground-breaking on the safe house the next week. You?”

“They’re tearing down the old Hickerson house on Wells Creek road. They said I can have what I want.” She looked at him, an actual grin on her face. “The floors are shit, but it’s got these columns…” A low whistle emanated from her, but Les was focusing too intently on her pursed lips to notice much else.

“You really love these old houses, don’t you?”

She looked at the ground again, while they walked. “Yeah. Most people like me, who never really had a home growing up, don’t really get it. They live their lives in some sort of transient stasis, never really putting down roots or anything, because that’s how they were raised. I’ve always dreamed of having a permanent place to stay, a big old rambling house of my own.” She looked at him, a rare shyness coloring her features. “Now that I have that, I’m probably never going to leave.” A wry grin spread across her face.

Every time she told him another piece of her history, Les had the urge to pepper her with questions. But he managed to rein himself in. He knew she would tell him. Just the fact she’d told him this much said that.

When they got back to their trucks, Les walked Charlie back to hers. Without thinking, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

He hadn’t intended to. He’d only planned on being her friend today, letting her make the next move. But when he looked in her eyes, she’d seemed so fragile, so delicate, he’d wanted to just kiss her sweetly goodbye.

But as soon as his lips touched hers, she responded and Les was lost in the feel of Charlie. He stroked her back, dipping under the hem of her shirt to stroke the strip of skin there. She turned her head and leaned into him, swirling her little tongue around inside his mouth. Like a heat-seeking missile, it threatened to make Les erupt into flames. She whimpered into his mouth and he showed all the restraint in the world not to shove her up against her truck and make love to her right there in the parking lot.