Once a Charmer

by Sharla Lovelace

  I closed my eyes. “She’s mine.”

  “You get both of them?” he said. “I don’t think so.”

  “Honestly, we can’t do anything, Bash,” I said. “She’d be mortified.”

  “Honestly, I don’t care,” he said. “I love that little girl more than life itself. I’d go to hell and back for her. For both of you. But I don’t think he kidnapped her and dragged her out there against her will.”

  “No.”

  He flexed his hands on the wheel. “I just want her safe in this truck and then she can be all the mortified she wants.”

  We rode in silence for a bit, both of us lost in wherever we were. I was having sex while my daughter was trying not to. That’s where I was. That was a messed up thought. As far as me and Bash and where we’d left off back there—I didn’t know. He’d had a point. Somewhere back before Angel called me, ripping my heart out, he’d called me out, but that was a hundred miles away right now.

  “Bash,” I said. “Back there—”

  “Not right now,” he said. He rested an elbow against his window and rubbed at his chin. “Let’s just deal with her first.”

  I nodded. “That’s what I was going to say.”

  He nodded too, and we went back to silence. Yeah, we were great.

  We turned into Forrester Hills and wound around as fast as possible, in fact Bash almost misjudged where the ditch was once. It was a hairy mess.

  “Left at that road,” I said, pointing.

  “It’s barely a road,” Bash said, leaning forward to see.

  “The GPS calls it a road,” I said.

  “Okay, I’m turning.”

  “Twenty-five yards,” I said, straining to see ahead. “It says—we’re here.”

  We both looked around but there was nothing to see.

  Bash stopped and reached behind the seat for a big Q-beam flashlight.

  “Stay in here,” he said.

  “The hell I will,” I said, opening my door. “Angel!” I yelled into the wind, a blast of cold rain slapping my face.

  It was dark and cold and intimidating, and it chilled me to the bone to know she’d been out here alone like this, the wind and rain slicing at her.

  Bash came around his side with the flashlight, shining into the bushes. “Angel!” he yelled.

  Where was she? Wouldn’t she be right there, waiting?

  “Angel!” I screamed louder, the needles of fear piercing my chest. Don’t panic. Don’t lose it. “Bash, where is she?”

  He yelled as loud as he could, walking in a circle, shining the light into the bushes, the trees, and adrenaline surged through me, pushing past the sick fear. I ran to the side of the road, oblivious to the cold and the sting of the wind on so much exposed skin and the gravel on my bare feet. I screamed her name into the trees, over and over, but the wind took it almost as quickly as it left my mouth. Gasping for breath, I backed up to the truck and grasped for hope as my next cry of her name was full of tears.

  He was there in an instant, the flashlight propped on his hood and his hands on my face.

  “Hey,” he yelled. “Breathe.”

  The rain blown into his face was highlighted by the light. He looked like some Viking hero. And he was. He would die out there looking for my baby. I knew that. He wouldn’t leave until she was found.

  “What if the coordinates were wrong?” I yelled.

  He shook his head. “She’s here somewhere. Keep—hang on.”

  He left me and ran around the truck and laid on the horn.

  Brilliant.

  “Angel!” I continued to scream as loud as I could.

  “Mom!”

  I spun around at her voice. It was tiny and far away and I still couldn’t see her in the rain but I had to trust that she could see the lights.

  “Angel?” I cried. “Bash! Over here!”

  The light swung around, and bounced as he ran around the truck. Within moments, her shadow broke through the beam and the three of us collided in a giant embrace with his arms around both of us. I felt her body shake with cold and sobs as she clung to us, and I buried my face in her wet hair.

  “I’m so sorry!” she cried. “Uncle Bash, I didn’t mean it, I didn’t—” Her words broke as she crumbled into him, and he wrapped her against him, shielding her from the wind.

  “Baby girl, you can’t get rid of me that easily,” he said, his head against mine and leaning over hers. “You may be a pain in the ass, but you’ll always be my girl.” He squeezed us against him. “Come on, get in the truck. Let’s go home.”

  I gasped at how pale she looked when the inside lights bathed the cab. Bash nodded toward the back seat.

  “There’s a blanket under the seat.”

  Of course there was.

  I found it and got in the back seat with her, wrapping it around her as he turned the truck back onto the road. Angel curled up against me like she used to when she was little, tugging on every heartstring I had.

  I focused on smoothing her wet hair back, and not thinking about what could have happened. On how many things could have happened.

  “I’m so glad we found you,” I said.

  “You aren’t mad at me?” she asked, her voice small.

  “Oh, baby,” I said, my eyes fluttering closed in exhausted relief. “Mad doesn’t even begin to cover it. But right now, just let me be glad you’re alive, okay?”

  Angel nodded, and we rode in silence for a moment.

  “Do you want to tell me about it?” I asked finally.

  “No,” she said, her word breaking.

  That one utterance ripped me in half. I wrapped my arms tighter around her and rocked side to side. In anger. In despair. In commiseration. Bash ran a thumb and finger over his eyes up there in the driver’s seat.

  “Uncle Bash?” she said.

  “Yeah, baby.”

  “Thank you.”

  I saw his eyes in the rearview mirror. They closed for a second, and then he sighed deeply before reaching back and squeezing her hand.

  “I’m really sorry about what I said the other day,” she said. “That was mean, and I—I shouldn’t have said it. I’ve been wanting to tell you that.”

  He nodded.

  “Are you?” he asked. “Sorry?”

  “Yes!”

  I felt tough love coming on, and I braced myself for it. She needed it. I, however, felt about as tough as a wet noodle.

  “Because I didn’t hear anything from you at the diner today about it—when you weren’t supposed to be there—but now you’re suddenly all distraught over it. Or you just need me now.”

  Angel’s eyes squeezed shut and more tears flowed. He’d hit his mark.

  “Sweetheart, I love you,” he said. “I will always love you, no matter what you do. I’d lay down my life for you in a heartbeat, but I really don’t like you very much right now.”

  Wow. Knife to the heart. Knife to mine, even.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  “You’ve been acting like a brat, the way you talk to your mom—to me—the people that love you? We don’t deserve that. We don’t deserve what you did today, the stunt at the diner, disappearing in a pissy little huff just to show your mom that you could, and knowing damn good and well that we’d be worried.”

  “I know,” she said, the sobs returning. “I was just mad.”

  “Welcome to our life,” I said, pulling a wet lock of hair off her face.

  “Tonight went twenty kinds of messed up for you, baby girl, and God, I want to make him pay for that,” Bash said through a tight grimace I could hear in his voice. “You didn’t deserve that. Even though you went and bought condoms like a stupid little girl, thinking you were all grown up, you still didn’t deserve to be treated like this. No man, no boy, no anything should ever treat you thi
s way, do you hear me?”

  She nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  Sir! Damn, he must have scared her senseless.

  “Okay,” he said. “Get your act together. That’s all I’m saying on the subject.”

  A few moments passed.

  “I just—” She stopped and took a breath and let it out slow. “He acted differently with me than most guys do. He made me feel like I was something.”

  “You are a million somethings,” I said. “You don’t need a man to give you that.”

  “No, I mean, he made the big gestures, you know?” she said, sitting up. “The wow kind of moments that make memories.”

  I couldn’t imagine what kind of romantic wow moments a fifteen year old could be blown away by, and I was a little afraid to ask.

  “The big gestures?”

  “You told me a long time ago that you missed getting the big moments,” she said. “The big cheesy proposal. Asking Pop’s blessing. Somebody making you feel special.”

  “You can’t remember being grounded but you remember that?” I said.

  “I’m just saying, I thought I met somebody special, because he would take the time to think about stuff like that,” she said. “I thought I was making memories.” Her chin trembled. “I’ve never seen anyone get so mad.” She took a shaky breath and wiped at her face. “It’s like he turned into someone completely different. He just yanked me out of his car like I was a rag doll.”

  My heart was pounding so hard in my ears, I thought my head would explode. I wanted to hurt this boy-man in so many ways, and all I could do was find something meaningful to say.

  “Baby, when it’s someone special, he won’t ask you to break rules and do things you know aren’t right,” I said. “He’ll never hurt you like that. He’ll want what makes you happy.”

  “But what if I never get that, either?”

  Fifteen. Seriously.

  “I promise you, you have time,” I said.

  “You’re thirty-three, how old do I have to be?” she said.

  I caught Bash’s look in the mirror and tried to laugh, but emotion caught it up in my throat when I remembered him bearing his soul to me in his shop. On stage giving his speech. Giving her driving lessons. Talking me through the bleacher steps, rescuing me from my roof, etcetera, etcetera. Not to mention what he was doing right now and had done for the past sixteen years.

  “You know what? I think maybe I actually did,” I said, unable to look away from him. “I want you to go by Bash’s new shop when you get a chance. There’s a picture in there I want you to see.”

  She nodded. “Okay. Mom, where are your shoes?”

  I licked my lips and tore my eyes away from his.

  “We left in a hurry,” I said, gazing out the window at the rain that was beginning to lighten up. At the Welcome to Charmed sign and the oh-so-familiar streets I’d traversed my whole life. At the diner, closed and dark, and still called The Blue Banana Grille, thank God. I had been gone a whole afternoon and evening, so it was a valid concern. And past—

  “You passed our road,” I said.

  “Have a stop to make first,” he said.

  Angel looked at me questioningly, but I didn’t know. When he pulled into the parking lot next to the banquet hall, however, I felt the dread creep into my gut.

  “Bash?”

  “I’ll just be a minute,” he said.

  It was just drizzling now—barely a hint of what we’d just endured showed, except for some pretty significant standing water in the low spots. An inside light glowed from the door as a couple came out, and then several more people started to follow, laughing and looking happy. That was us, what—three hours ago? It felt like three days.

  “Bash, look.”

  Vonda was walking out, her arm looped through none other than—

  “Aaron!” Angel gasped, lurching forward like she was poked with a fire iron. “What—what are we doing?”

  “Saying hello,” Bash said, shutting the door behind him.

  It was like watching a meteor headed for an unfortunate planet. The kid had no idea.

  “Mom,” Angel said, scrambling to get out of the blanket.

  “Angel, stay in this truck,” I said. “He just finished telling you—

  “He’s gonna kill Aaron!” she said, looking at me wild-eyed.

  “No he won’t,” I said, following Bash’s movement. I crossed my fingers. “Too many witnesses.”

  She was out the door anyway.

  “Damn it,” I muttered, shoving open my door. “Will this night ever end?”

  “Aaron!” Angel yelled, running around the truck.

  Bash whirled on her, about to tell her off again, but she held up her chin.

  “It happened to me, I deserve to be here,” she said as I joined them.

  “Do either of you know how to stay anywhere?” Bash said, exasperated.

  “It’s our King and Queen!” Vonda sang out with a smile and maybe a little happy juice as the other patrons went around her. “I wondered where you two went.” Her eyebrows lifted as she looked at each of us. “Get caught in the storm I’m guessing? Allie, where are your shoes?”

  Enough with the shoes.

  “We had to go rescue my daughter up in Forrest Hills,” I said.

  Aaron disentangled himself from his mother and tried to keep walking, but Bash moved in front of him.

  “You know where Forrest Hills is, don’t you, Aaron?” Bash asked, getting close up in his face. He tousled his hair, making the boy duck and tighten his jaw in defense. “Yeah, your hair’s still a little damp. How’s your eye? I heard you got whopped.”

  “What are you talking about?” Vonda said, looking from Bash to me to her son.

  “I’m talking about your boy here—you know, the sexually enlightened one with no need for rules?” Bash said. “He took our fifteen-year-old girl out to the woods in Forrest Hills tonight.”

  Our fifteen year old girl.

  My heart both melted and panicked all at once.

  “He—he what?” Vonda asked, looking confused and glancing around as people slowed to listen.

  “And when Angel said no,” Bash said, his eyes unblinking on Aaron. “He yanked her out of the car in the middle of the fucking woods, in the middle of the fucking storm, and left her there.”

  Aaron looked defiant. Vonda looked about ready to throw up. People gasped around us.

  “That’s a lie,” Aaron said.

  “Bullshit!” Angel said, surging forward, angry tears in her eyes, Bash catching her with one arm. “You asshole! I thought you were nice. I thought you were something.”

  “Yeah, well I thought you were more than a tease,” he seethed at her.

  I didn’t even see Bash move. Before I could blink, he had Aaron’s arm in a vise, a handful of hair in his fist, and had slammed him up against his truck. I sucked in a breath, and Angel let out a yelp. Vonda and some other females screamed, and Sully and Nick appeared out of nowhere to stand on either side of Bash like bodyguards.

  “Boy, you may think you’re a man,” Bash growled into Aaron’s ear. “But I’ll bet you’d scream like a girl if I let Angel kick you in the nuts right now.”

  “Bash! Stop!” Vonda cried. “I’ll sue you for slander! For injury to a child!”

  “Lady, I’ll personally make sure that Allie sues you for everything I can dream up, and make sure your lovely son gets a juvie record for sexual assault,” said Carmen, as she and Lanie stood next to me and Angel. She handed her a card. “That says Attorney-At-Law, in case you missed it.”

  Vonda ignored the card and looked ready to self-implode. She whirled around to me.

  “Make him stop!”

  “Funny, I believe I said something similar to you the other day, didn’t I?” I said. “But no. You didn’t want to be a
parent.”

  “That’s right, you told me they bought condoms together,” Vonda said, crossing her arms over her chest. “So then she planned on this, too, and led him on? Sounds to me like your daughter is nothing but a—”

  “You finish that sentence, and you’ll have to sue me for assault,” I said, my voice low. “And I say bring it on. I’d love to see what the cops think about your son leaving a young girl out in the woods to die from hypothermia. Telling no one.” It was my turn to get up in her face. “Her phone was almost dead, Miss Sharp. She had three whole minutes of calling me before it died, and we were lucky to find her in that storm.”

  Vonda’s face went ashen. “You all heard her threaten me, right?” she asked, raising her voice as she looked around me to make sure Bash hadn’t killed him yet. “You heard him threaten my boy?”

  Heads shook everywhere, as people who’d been frozen with curiosity suddenly started moving again, walking off. Many of them patted my shoulder, stopped to hug Angel, whispered things to each other about not hearing anything… It nearly brought me to my knees, as I watched them all go. They stood up for us. This town, the one that had been nothing but brutal to me my whole life, was standing up for us.

  “Guess that answers that,” I said.

  Bash pulled Aaron off his truck and shoved him back at Vonda, who wrapped her arms around him like he was five and someone had said boo.

  “You don’t talk to Angel,” Bash said, pointing a finger in his face. “You don’t look at her. You don’t bad mouth her to anyone else. If you see her, you go the other way. If you see me, you go the other way. Because if I hear differently—” I saw the glaze come over his face and the light go out of his eyes. “Let’s just say you never want to see my face again.”

  He turned and walked away. “Let’s go, ladies.” He stopped to shake Nick’s and Sully’s hands. “Thanks for having my back, guys.”

  I hugged Lanie and Carmen with tears in my eyes, unable to form words for what their standing by us meant to me. My girlfriends. I actually had those now. I truly felt it.

  “You’re part of this place, Allie,” Lanie said. “You’re Charmed family. We’ve got you.”