Frowning, Emma shook her head. “He’s a smooth talker. I met him when he was staying at the inn a few nights. He had Jody and Wayne laughing up a storm. I hadn’t ever heard Wayne laugh the way I did that night. He can talk, that’s for sure.”
I nodded. “It’s his specialty, unfortunately.”
“Carry protection on you and get a security system. That’s what you’ll have to do,” Emma said. Coughing again, she grabbed onto my shoulder as the coughing fit lasted a few moments. Once it was over, she said, “I want you to know first—I’m selling the inn at the end of the summer.”
“Why?” I asked, sitting up straighter and launching myself out of thoughts of John. “It’s been in your family for generations.”
“Jody’s moving to Arizona. Wayne’s health has declined over the last six months, and the climate is better down there. I’d run it, but I’m too old.” A frown set deep into her face as she looked out to the water.
I asked, “Why don’t you find someone to run it?”
She looked over at me, made a point to look at the bruise on my jaw, and then said, “I would, but the only person I have in mind is probably about to flee town.”
Furrowing my eyebrows, I shook my head. “Me?”
“You,” Emma said. “I’ve known about Jody and Wayne leaving for a while now. My eyes have been peeled, watching for someone with a good heart and the perfect soul to run it. You’re the one.”
Glancing over my shoulder at the massive bed and breakfast behind us up beyond the paths that ran through the flower bed, I gulped. “Managing and operating a place of this caliber is something I could never dream of doing. My skills and abilities are lacking.”
Emma laughed. “I’m sure you’d be fine with the proper training. My offer’s on the table, Serenah. It will stay there for the next week, and then I’ll be approaching a real estate agent.”
“I—” I began to say, but Emma interrupted.
“Pray about it.”
Arriving at the diner that morning I clocked in and began to put on my apron. Seeing there were five minutes before 9:13, I tried to remind myself that Charlie wasn’t coming in, just like he hadn’t for several weeks now. Though I drilled that fact into my brain, it didn’t quench the hope that resided in my heart. Sure enough, at 9:13, I looked over at the door and paused. Please . . .
The clock struck 9:14 and the moment passed.
It was that way every Thursday since the barbecue happened. My hope for his sudden reappearance drove me nuts, but I knew it’d never go away.
Later that morning, around 10:30, the front door of Dixie’s diner opened and in walked Charlie. Turning my bruised face away from the door as I stood at the server station, I froze in place. When I saw him approaching out of the corner of my eye, my heart began pounding so hard that I thought it was going to leap from my chest.
“Serenah?” he said in a smooth, soft voice as I still stood frozen, not turning to him.
“Charlie . . .”
“I need to say something to you. Without you interrupting me.”
“Okay.”
“I don’t really understand what went on with you and John, and honestly, I don’t care. After the barbecue, I left town. I headed up to a lake in Idaho where my dad and I used to fish when I was a kid. I fished, camped and did a lot of praying. The point is, I had to do some soul searching. There was some stuff I was holding onto from the past that I needed to let go of. I came to realize that what you said was true. I didn’t fall in love with your past or your name, but your soul.”
Tears streamed from my eyes as his words wrapped themselves around my heart and sent waves of warmth crashing through my body.
“I don’t care about John or anything in your past. I don’t even care if you killed someone. Wait. Okay, if you killed someone, that would be bad. But what I am saying is I want you, Serenah. The real you. I don’t want any more lies or secrets.” He touched my shoulder and pulled me to face him.
Letting him turn me was the hardest thing I could do. I knew he’d see the bruises, and I knew how much it would hurt him. As I turned, I felt my tears quicken down my cheeks. When his eyes fell onto my face, anger fired through him like a shotgun going off.
“No!” he shouted. Turning around immediately, he rushed to the front door before I could stop him. Chasing after him, I came outside and saw him cross two streets over to City Hall and deck John in the face. My heart catapulted into my throat as I saw John hit the grass in front of City Hall. Charlie stood over him like my gallant knight.
My cheeks flooded with tears as I saw the other men that were with John wrestle Charlie to the ground and lay a few punches into his face. “No!” I shouted. Turning back to the diner, I saw Wendy at the door waving me back inside. Glancing toward the scene again, I saw Brody cuffing Charlie. He only reacted to the evidence that was written on my face . . . My heart yearned to be there for Charlie in that moment. Watching as Brody led him over to the police cruiser, I told myself I’d go down to the station after work.
After my shift, I headed down to the local jail. Brody was there and agreed to talk to me, but not until he finished up the report. Waiting out in the lobby, I nervously tapped my fingers on the plastic armrest of the chair. I can’t believe Charlie did that. That’s twice now that he’s been violent. Should I worry? Not sure what to think of the situation, I just focused on swaying Brody about John and about Charlie. The hour wait in that lobby felt like an eternity, but then he finally called me back.
“Serenah,” Brody said with a wave of his hand and a frown on his face. He led me through a white cement hallway and down to a metal door that led into his office. Taking a seat in the chair across from the desk, I scooted closer as he went around and sat.
“Thanks for talking to me,” I said. “Charlie’s a really good guy, and—” I began to say, but he interrupted me by raising his hand.
“Charlie’s a fine guy.” Brody’s eyes caught my bruise. “What happened to your face?”
I leaned in and said, “Remember? I told you John hit me! John was upset about the divorce papers and attacked me at my house.”
He squinted as he looked me over as if I were lying.
“I’m not lying, Brody. You think I inflicted these wounds onto myself? C’mon, you know me.”
He laughed. “I thought I did.”
“You do, though.” I adjusted in my seat. “I ran away from John because he was abusive and cruel to me. I had to go by a different name because he has so much money, I figured he’d track me down. And see? He did anyway. It didn’t matter that I used a different name. He found me anyway.” Seeing him not fully convinced, I said, “You’ve probably known Charlie for a long time.”
“I have,” he agreed with a nod. “Our moms did a Bible study for years when we were younger.”
“Okay. So is violence something that’s typical of him? Ever?”
“No, but that doesn’t matter. He broke the law, Serenah. There’s nothing I can do about that. I have to do my job.”
“You could help his case though. You were the arresting officer.”
He nodded, but he still seemed uneasy about the conversation.
“I have a plan, Brody. I can get John to screw up, and we can get him out of this town. You just have to believe me.” Though I didn’t have a plan, I knew it sounded better if I did.
He looked at my black eye again and said, “If what you say is true about him hitting you, I don’t want him in my town.” He looked at the door and said, “I’ll release Charlie, but you’d better make sure he isn’t back in my custody.”
Smiling, I jumped up and launched myself across the desk, hugging him. “Thank you.”
Brody said, “Thank me by not making me look stupid.”
Chapter 14
It took another hour for Brody to release him from jail, but he got it done. Charlie came walking out with his head dipped and hands dug into each of his jean pockets. He seemed upset. We walked out to my car, and we didn’t speak a word. The
street lights outside played through the windshield of the car. As we drove through town, I saw his bloodied knuckles sitting on his lap. He really did a number on John’s face too. A few of the guys who were at City Hall took him to the hospital as Brody hauled Charlie off to jail. It looked like something out of a movie, not anything I had ever seen in real life.
Charlie broke the silence by clearing his throat and saying, “I know you’ve seen me hit two people now, but I promise, it’s not how I usually handle problems.”
“You do speak,” I replied, glancing over at him. “I know, Charlie. You were triggered when you saw what he did to me. I hate to romanticize violence, but it was truly heroic. Not because you clobbered the guy, but because you defended me. You’re a good man with a good soul, and I know that.”
He smiled at me and reached his bloodied hand over the armrest and grasped onto mine. His touch felt secure and warm. We held hands the rest of the drive to his car that was parked in front of Dixie’s Diner.
When the wheels of my car stopped, he turned to me and undid his seatbelt. Before he had a chance to do anything, I undid my seatbelt and leaned across the armrest and into his arms. He brought his hands up to the sides of my face and gently pulled me in, kissing me passionately. Charlie’s touch was more intoxicating than ever. I wanted him to never leave me again. I forgot the world and all the problems that came along with it and just wanted to live in that moment forever. Our passion continued as our breaths grew heavier and our skin hotter. Each touch of his lips on my skin drove me crazier. As he ran his lips along my neck, warmth tickled my chest and traveled down my body.
Then he stopped.
Charlie gave me a look like he wanted every part of me and said, “Another kiss of your lips might kill me.”
I smiled as he was about to get out and asked, “Could you come over? Stay with me?”
He raised a suspicious eyebrow. “Umm . . .”
“Not like that. I’m just . . . scared right now.”
Nodding, he said, “Yeah, I’ll come over. Let me drive my car there.”
“Okay.”
He leaned over the armrest and gently cupped my face, making sure to avoid the bruises. Softly, he kissed my lips and said, “Guess I didn’t die.” He smiled as he continued, “See you in a few.”
When I arrived home, I stayed out on the porch waiting for Charlie to show up. I made sure to be holding a knife just in case John decided to show up too. After a few minutes went by, I figured Charlie must have run out of gas or something and needed to stop. After an hour went by, I became worried. He wasn’t picking up his cellphone when I tried to call. Becoming frustrated, I went out to my car and got in. My cellphone rang—it was Jody. Since it was after ten o’clock, I didn’t know what to expect.
“Serenah. I need you to get in your car and come up to the hospital.”
“What happened?”
“Charlie has been in an accident. He said he couldn’t stop when he came to a red light, and he barreled right through it when a truck coming through the intersection hit him.” Jody’s voice was under complete control and poise as she spoke. My heart, on the other hand, had zero control. Tears streamed down my cheeks as my throat clenched.
“It was John Wollocks,” I said with absolute confidence.
“What?” Jody asked.
“John Wollocks cut the brake lines in his car.”
“No, he didn’t,” Jody replied. “John’s been at the hospital all day.”
“Whatever. I’ll be there in a minute,” I said curtly. Hanging up my phone, I threw it into my passenger seat and peeled out of my driveway. I knew it was John. Praying as I drove, I asked for God’s wisdom. Why? Why does this have to happen to me, God? To Charlie? It was one thing to put myself in danger when it came to John, but it was entirely another thing to put someone else in the midst of it. I already lost my daughter because of John. I refused to lose Charlie too.
When I walked into the ER, I expected to find Charlie in a bed with machines hooked up to him, but he wasn’t. He was sitting on the edge of a hospital bed laughing with a doctor about forgetting a semicolon in a line of computer code and spending hours attempting to diagnose the problem—computer talk I didn’t understand. His arm was in a sling, but everything else looked like minor scrapes and bruises.
“Wow,” I said, walking in and setting my purse on the chair that sat against the wall. The doctor placed papers on the bed beside Charlie and excused himself from the room. As he rounded the corner out the doorway, I continued, “I thought you were messed up from the wreck.”
He shrugged. “Just a broken arm. I told Jody to tell you to come up here, but make sure you weren’t alarmed.”
“It’s always hard to know how serious something is with her. She is monotone most of the time.”
He nodded. “That is true.” Glancing at the doorway for a moment, he paused and then looked back at me as he lowered his voice. “Think John did this?”
“I can’t see who else would,” I replied.
Rubbing the stubble of his jaw line, he smiled at me. “You’d better be worth all this trouble, Serenah.”
Smirking, I shrugged.
“Come here,” he said. I stepped over to him, and he pulled me in for a kiss with his good arm. “I know you are worth every bit of it. We’ve just got to get him out of Newport.”
I smiled. “I’m glad you’re okay, Charlie. I have no idea short of running how to get him out of our lives. Look what I went through to leave him the first time, and he still found me.”
Charlie’s eyes looked up to the ceiling as he appeared to be thinking. “Is it all women or just you that he abuses?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“If we set him up with someone, would he like . . . hit her by the end of the night?”
I laughed but covered my mouth with a hand as I saw it was inappropriate. “Sorry. No. No woman is that stupid to choose to be with an abuser from the get go. It’s not something that is just normally there from the beginning. Sorry.”
He shrugged and shook his head. “No need to say sorry. I don’t know anything about this kind of stuff. Just thinking. Hey, what if we can stage a thing with you?”
Raising an eyebrow, I said, “Continue.”
“Like a video camera or me and Brody hiding out while he beats you up.”
Shaking my head, I said, “How would you even predict that? It’s not like he just comes around and beats me every day at a certain time.”
“Dang.”
Touching his shoulder, I said, “It’s okay. We’ll figure something out.”
“I got it. What if we agitate him really bad? He’s got to have a short-tempered fuse somewhere in all that fake facade he has going on.”
“That could work.”
“There’s a community potluck at the Inn at the Lake tomorrow. I’m sure he’ll be going.” Charlie slid off the hospital bed and onto his feet. Turning to his hospital bed, he scooped the papers up and set them between his sling and chest. “Look at that. It’s a paper holder.” He smiled as he seemed entertained with the slightest thing. Though he had almost been killed by my ex-husband, he seemed goofy and light-hearted in the moment, and I appreciated that. It took away a lot of the guilt I had been feeling.
“We’ll get him at the potluck,” I said. “Lots of kissing and touching between us. That kind of thing would make him go nuts.”
Charlie raised an eyebrow and came closer to me, pulling me in close to his chest. Smiling, he said, “We should practice.” Leaning in, he kissed me and then smiled again as he pulled back. “I could do this all day.”
Smiling, I lifted my hands to his face and framed his jaw with my hands as I kissed him passionately. Charlie’s arms, or rather arm for now, was exactly where I wanted to be. He was everything that I wanted in a man, and though it took a broken road to find him, I’d do it all again if it meant being with him. We left the hospital and headed back to my house.
When we arrived home
, he got out first and scouted out the perimeter with the knife in hand that I left on the railing of the porch. After he finished, he came back to the car and gave me a nod. Getting out, I said, “Thank you.”
“I’m your protector,” he stated. “I might only have one good arm now, but that won’t stop me from kicking the snot out of him again.”
I touched his shoulder and said, “You can’t do that unless we have some sort of evidence against him.”
“If he’s here, that’s evidence enough.”
We went inside, and I made Charlie a big dinner even though it was after midnight. Chicken, mashed potatoes and corn. After we finished eating, he set his napkin down on his plate and smiled across the table as our eyes met. “This right here. This is what life’s about.”
“Food?” I asked as I finished chewing a bite of chicken.
He shook his head and held out his hands. “Spending time with people you care about. A home cooked meal is nice, don’t get me wrong. But just . . . just sitting here with you makes me so happy, Serenah.”
“I agree.” Standing up, I took both of our plates into the kitchen and set them in the sink. “What’s the deal with your job? They going to let you come back?”
Sighing, he replied, “No. They weren’t going to let me leave, so I just quit.”
My eyebrows went up and I looked over at him. “What about money? Bills?”
“I never liked paying bills anyway.” He laughed. “I’m just kidding. I already set everything up for that side business a few days before I quit. There are a couple of projects I already have lined up from old customers that don’t do business with Ikan anymore.”
“Wow,” I said, coming back over to the table. Resting a hand on the back of my chair, I nodded. “So you’re finally going to do it.”
“Yep.” Standing up, he pushed in his chair and walked around the table to me. My heart fluttered as his fingers touched my arm and made their way up my shoulder and to my neck. Tilting his head, he said, “I’ll have all the time in the world to spend with you. That is, if you can stand me.”
One Thursday Morning: Inspirational Christian Romance (Diamond Lake Series Book 1) Page 8
