A Thousand Sunsets (Band of Sisters)

by Rice, Marianne

  “No pun intended.” She lifted herself up on her toes and kissed him.

  “Seriously, Charlotte. You’re in a public parking lot. Can you show a little more restraint? Although I suppose this was how you behaved when you attended school here.”

  “Mother.” Charlie stepped out of his embrace and he reached for her hand before she could move too far. “Father.”

  They painted the perfect picture of the quintessential snobby parents. Her father wore a suit and tie, as did her mother, only hers was a modest skirt suit. In place of a tie, a strand of pearls rested around her neck and dotted her ears. Her hair, an iconic upper-class style, was the same length as Owen’s only hers hung perfectly straight as if she’d recently stepped out of a salon.

  Mister Kellar’s light brown hair was sprinkled heavily with gray making him appear as distinguished as his suit.

  “Charlotte. This isn’t the kind of event you bring a... guy to,” her father condemned after sizing Owen up and down.

  Normally when people looked him up and down it was to take in his size. The Kellars, he felt, used his size against him thinking him a piece of meat Charlie picked up at a bar.

  He had two options. Go on the defensive and possibly embarrass Charlie or work his ass off to put them in their place. Option B was more his style.

  He stretched out his hand toward her father. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Kellar. I’m Owen McDougall, a friend of your daughter’s.”

  “Oh, we saw how friendly you were,” her mother said refusing to shake his hand. Her father, however, took it and gave a limp shake.

  “You’ll come inside now and not embarrass us,” her father ordered, placing a hand on his wife’s back and waiting for Charlie to follow.

  Owen squeezed her hand and walked with her slightly behind her parents.

  “I got your back,” he whispered to her and grabbed her ass.

  She gasped and whipped her head around. “I see why my parents are so concerned about you ruining my white reputation,” she mumbled under her breath.

  “Wait until they hear what we have planned for the back of my truck.” It wasn’t exactly the pep talk he’d planned on giving her, but it did the trick. Her shoulders relaxed and she leaned a little to her left, so they brushed up against each other.

  The Kellars entered before them, letting the door close on them. Owen opened it for Charlie and held it for the couple behind them. He may not come from money or be in the same social status as the Kellars, but at least he wasn’t an asshole.

  “It’s not too late to bail, cowboy. I wouldn’t blame you if you ditched this circus.”

  “Really, Charlotte,” her mother spun around in shock. “Show some respect. It’s bad enough you showed up like... this.” She waved her hand up and down and scowled at Charlie. “And you brought a... him. The least you could do is keep your mouth shut and pretend you have manners.”

  “Thanks for the compliment, Mom. You look your usual stuffy self as well.”

  “Charlotte.” Her father clenched his jaw and made eye contact with Owen for the first time. “Could you handle her, please?”

  He took his wife’s elbow, picked up a program, and walked into the auditorium.

  “Mom and Dad are a little rough around the edges. Once you get to know them, they’re a barrel of laughs.”

  “Don’t worry about them.” He lowered his head and brushed his lips across hers. “I’ll be checking you out during your speech picturing you naked.”

  “Isn’t that what I’m supposed to be doing?”

  “Feel free to picture yourself naked as well. Although I doubt you’ll do as good a job at it as I can.”

  “And you call me insatiable.” She picked up a program. “Let’s get this over with.”

  He followed her lead as they took a seat in the fourth row, three rows behind her parents. When they were settled, she opened the program and huffed.

  “You okay?”

  “Typical.” She handed it to him. He opened it and scanned the list of speakers. Tessa Kellar was listed but not Charlie.

  “Will you go up with her?”

  “Oh, the temptation is quite strong to publicly humiliate Tessa Kellar. Simply being in existence is enough to mortify her.” She stood, rolling her shoulders back and shaking her head with a determined huff. “I’ll be right back.”

  Owen watched as she marched down to her parents, placed her hands on her hips and spoke sternly to them. He couldn’t hear her words and could only imagine the lashing she gave them. Neil and Tessa didn’t even tilt their heads in acknowledgement of her.

  When she returned, he wasn’t sure if he should comfort her with a hug, a kiss, or let her steam in solitude.

  She didn’t say anything, so neither did he. The program started and they listened to the first speaker, a teenager in a wheelchair who shared her story about thinking she was okay to drive. She’d only had a couple beers and didn’t think she was drunk when she drove home from her best friend’s high school graduation party.

  The next speaker was an ER nurse, followed by Tessa Kellar.

  Charlie shifted in her seat and Owen reached for her hand, resting their joined hands on his thigh.

  “Nathan was our pride and joy. He had a promising future and had been accepted into Norwich. He was the perfect toddler. A caring child with a big heart, and a well behaved, intelligent, respectful young man. Every parent wants a child like him. I once had it all, but I don’t anymore.”

  In other words, Charlie was no replacement.

  “He never would have picked up a drink on his own accord but fell into temptation.”

  “Bullshit,” Charlie muttered under her breath. “I found a bottle of vodka in his closet once and he made me promise not to tell our parents. He brought me out for ice cream, and I kept his secret. Kept it to his grave.”

  “I’ll never know what it’s like to have a college graduate, a successful child. Gone were our family traditions and vacations. Gone was my son. Stripped away because of a bad decision. I don’t blame him for his mistakes. I blame the bottle. I blame bad influencers who talked my only chi—my only son to make a fateful decision.”

  Owen shouldn’t have been surprised when she carried on about her perfect son. She’d even at one point eluded that his sister was the one to tempt him into drink. If he’d been closer to Charlie, he would have yanked her up out of her seat and stormed out of the auditorium.

  He would have if the day was about Tessa and Neil Kellar. Since it was about the effects of alcohol and she only had the stage for another agonizing ten minutes, he stayed. Finally, she finished, dabbed her eyes and returned to her seat.

  They stayed and listened to social workers, siblings, friends, doctors and recovering alcoholics. When it was over, they hurried out of the auditorium.

  “I need to use the bathroom. I’ll be right out.” Charlie fled down the hall leaving him standing in the foyer.

  When he saw her parents come through the doors, he didn’t give himself time to think, and reacted.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Kellar.” They paused the conversation they were having with another couple and sneered at him as he crossed the room.

  “We’re in the middle of a private conversation,” Mr. Kellar said.

  “This won’t take long. Excuse me,” he said to the young couple. “This will only take a minute. Mr. and Mrs. Kellar, you’re aware you have a daughter, aren’t you?”

  The gasp from Tessa and the shocked expression on the couple’s face was exactly the reaction he wanted.

  “I’m sorry for your loss and can’t imagine what it’s like to lose a child. I’m sure the pain doesn’t go away, but you still have another child and treating her like... shit doesn’t seem to be helping your emotional recovery or hers. She was close to Nathan as well. She considered him her best friend. Have you ever stopped to consider how she was handling his death? She was fourteen and had no one to turn to.”

  “You know nothing about our fam
ily, so I kindly suggest you stay out of our business.”

  “I know how rude and condescending you both are. I know you don’t respect the woman she is today. I know she has a heart of gold and puts everyone before herself, yet you refuse to see her for who she really is. I know she has a sunny disposition twenty-four seven until your names are mentioned.”

  “Charlotte, I suggest you take your neanderthal boyfriend out of here before he causes more of a scene,” Tessa said to Charlie, who must have come up behind him.

  “Oh, we wouldn’t want that, would we?” Charlie wore pissed off well. It startled and impressed him at the same time.

  “It’s okay. Let’s go.” He threaded his fingers through hers and brought their joined hands up to his lips, kissing the back of her hand. “We don’t need to stoop to their level.”

  “I see why you’re attracted to this brute. He’s as disrespectful as you.” Tessa stuck her nose in the air and turned her heels, walking away with her head held high as if a rod was shoved far up her backside.

  “Mr. Kellar, I hope you can one day see how special your daughter is. Shutting her out of your life is your loss, not hers.”

  He prayed he hadn’t overstepped his boundaries and offended Charlie. He could practically see the steam pouring out of her ears. If any of it was directed at him, he’d feel like a total ass.

  Once they were inside his truck, he turned to her. “I’m sorry for snapping at your parents. I know it wasn’t my place—”

  Charlie flung herself on him, her hands holding his head firmly in place while she kissed him hard. He lifted his hands to hold her shoulders in place, the center console forcing an awkward angle of her body across his.

  She licked at his lips and he opened for her, giving back as strongly as she gave.

  “That was so freaking sexy,” she said into his mouth before plunging deeper, taking the kiss all the way to his core.

  He no longer worried about crossing the line. He dropped his hands to her waist and went to drag her on his lap, only to be met with her teeth bumping against his.

  “Ouch.” She rubbed her bottom lip and bumped against the horn.

  They both jumped and glanced out the window. Of course her parents would pick that moment to walk by. They gave them a nasty glare and scurried past the truck.

  Charlie burst out in laughter.

  “Sorry. Forgot about the console.” He released her and brushed her hair away from her face. “You tend to do that. Make me forget where I am.”

  She stared down at his crotch and then lifted her gaze to meet his, a wicked grin on her face. “You seem to be quite... happy about making me forget.”

  “Most everything you do makes me happy.”

  “Aw, there you go with the sweet talk again. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were trying to sweet talk your way into my pants.”

  He needn’t worry about coming off like a sap. Leave it to Charlie to turn his words into something sexual. It was better this way. Less worry about emotions getting involved.

  “Are we going to hang out in the parking lot all day or make good use of the turn off we passed a ways back and test out the back of your truck?”

  “It’s definitely on the game plan, but don’t you need to go to the store for supplies first?”

  She curled her lip in a pout. “You’re such a good boy. Way to be responsible and ruin all the fun.” She plopped back in her seat and folded her arms across her chest.

  He hated responsibility too. One of these days he’d throw caution to the wind and make a spontaneous decision. Live life to the fullest. Seize the day. Carpe diem and all the other sayings.

  For now, he had responsibilities to take care of.

  Liv.

  His mother.

  His company.

  His house.

  Charlie.

  He wasn’t sure when she made the list, but he knew one thing for sure. He’d work his ass off to make sure her parents didn’t ruin her free spirit.

  She needed him. Or maybe he needed her. Either way, there was more to this thing with them then sex.

  And it scared the crap out of him.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  He kept blowing her away with his thoughtfulness. If Charlie wasn’t careful, she’d be falling for Owen before they even made it back to Camp Illumination. After their embarrassing—and totally hot—make out session in his truck, they went shopping at Walmart.

  Owen didn’t strike her as the shopping type, but he was a trooper pushing the cart as she tossed things into it. And then he treated her to chicken fingers and fries from the hot food section of the store.

  It shouldn’t have been sweet and romantic, but it totally was.

  As they neared the dirt road they’d talked about on their way out, she felt his gaze on her. Damn her cheeks for warming. Keeping sex fun and lighthearted was the only way she could keep her heart from falling for him.

  “You thinking what I’m thinking?”

  “Possibly.”

  “Horny bastard,” she teased. He hadn’t said a word about her parents or her brother, and for that, she loved him even more.

  No. Not love. Liked. Appreciated.

  A few minutes later, Owen turned down the dirt road. When he shut off the engine she hopped out of the truck and met him at the back. “Do you have any idea how incredibly sexy this is?”

  “I have an idea,” he said as he let down the tailgate.

  “Oh yeah?” She sidled up to him until their thighs rubbed against each other. “You speaking from experience, are ya?” She looped her hands around his neck and tugged his head toward his, pressing her lips to his mouth.

  “Nope.” He kissed her back. “From imagination.”

  She hopped into his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist. “Well then, cowboy, let’s see how in sync our imaginations are.”

  Owen sat on the tailgate and she helped him shimmy backward until she was straddling his lap.

  “So far so good.” He threaded his fingers through her hair causing a tingling of awareness to shoot through her body.

  They sat face to face and kissed, neither of them rushing to take their clothes off like the night before. For a few minutes she tried to ignore the vibration in her back pocket, but her cell buzzed again, and then dinged, signaling a message.

  With a defeated sigh, she ended the kiss and rested her forehead against his. “I should check my phone. It could be Gina or Brooke. Olivia’s with them and I want to make sure she’s okay.”

  “Liv. Definite mood killer.” The twinkle in his eyes said he was partially kidding. “I’m sure if something was wrong with her, they’d be calling me as well.”

  “True.” She reached back and took out her phone, instantly regretting it. Not wanting Owen to see the pain in her eyes, she glanced away and stared at a fallen birch tree.

  “Hey. You okay?” He touched her chin with a tenderness incongruent to his manliness and turned her face back toward him. “What’s wrong.”

  In an attempt to shrug it off, she pecked him on the lips and wiggled her phone. “Angry text from Tessa. I’ve mortified her in public. The shame.” She tried to laugh it off, but Owen was too observant.

  “You were close with your brother.”

  The statement came out of left field and she wasn’t sure what to do with it. “Yeah. We were close.”

  “You’ve never been able to truly mourn for him, have you?”

  “You’re too pretty to be so sensitive and observant.” Again, she averted her eyes and blinked back the tears that threatened to spill.

  “I’m sorry your parents are so hard on you. You deserve better than their treatment of you.” He stroked her hair and tucked a loose strand behind her ears. “You don’t have to tell me anything, but you look like you want to talk about your brother. You were excited to give your speech today. If you want to give it now, I’ll listen.”

  “If you think Olivia is a mood killer, I’m pretty sure talking about my dead
brother is going to completely end all possibilities of you getting lucky right now.” If she didn’t make light of their situation she’d turn into a blubbering fool.

  “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I’m sure Gina and Brooke would listen as well.”

  “Well shit.” She closed her eyes and rested her forehead on his shoulder. “We were as close as fourteen and seventeen-year-old siblings could be. Nathan was the poster boy of perfection, but I still loved him. He would defend me when my parents would ridicule me for not having the grades he had, or not performing as well in sports as he had.”

  Owen’s warm touch on her back gave her comfort she hadn’t felt since before Nathan died. She sunk deeper, leaning her body into his.

  “He was fifteen when I found a bottle of vodka in the back of his closet. I was trying to scare him and tucked myself behind his laundry basket and smelly basketball sneakers. I was pretty clueless as to what the bottle was—my parents didn’t drink—and asked him about it after I scared him to death.”

  Charlie’s legs started to tingle, and she moved her feet around to get the blood flowing again. Keeping her head on Owen’s shoulder, she continued.

  “As I got older, I became more aware of the alcohol. Him sneaking in late at night. Nathan could come home stumbling drunk and puking in the bathroom and my parents would think he had the flu. Their perfect son would never do something so embarrassing to the family. I, however, had to stay after school for an extra help session and they assumed I was doing drugs in the school parking lot.”

  “It must have been hard to live in your brother’s shadow. You don’t resent him?”

  “Maybe when I was younger. But after I found the vodka, I started noticing more things about him. Like how defeated and exhausted he was anytime our parents asked him about school. Or when they cheered him on at a basketball game and he fouled out or didn’t make most of his shots. They put a lot of pressure on him to be perfect. And in their eyes, he was.”

  “That’s not what you were going to say today.”

  “No.” She sighed. “I was going to talk about my older brother’s heart and how freaking gigantic it was. How he’d let his little sister tag along when he and his friends went to the beach or lake. How he stood up for me when things weren’t going well for me. How he tutored me in math and was my biggest cheerleader. And how he encouraged me to be me and not conform to anyone else’s ideal person.”