“Might I interest you in cereal heaven, Miss Miller?” He held the milk carton toward me with that mischievous look on his face, and a warm feeling spread across my neck, leaving me feeling more than a little embarrassed.
“Don’t listen to him, Trina. That’s so gross.”
Pulling out an extra bowl, he gave me one more look, his blue eyes sparkling in the early morning light filtering through the window. “Come on,” he whispered. “You know you want to try it.”
He was totally wrong about that—I absolutely didn’t want to try it. Still, for whatever insane reason, I found myself absently nodding my head like an imbecile, and then watching in clear disgust as he dumped that concoction into a bowl. Once the milk was poured over the top of the colorful marshmallows and the bright puffs of cereal, he handed the bowl to me, lowering himself to a chair at the kitchen table.
“What happened to your face?” Camdyn inspected him carefully, narrowing her eyes at her brother.
Shoving a spoonful of cereal into his mouth, he hesitated as he stared up at the ceiling, most likely preparing an excuse. I took the opportunity to stare at his profile, noticing the light bruise on his cheekbone that Camdyn was referencing.
“Funny story, actually,” he finally stated. “I got into a bit of a scuffle last night.”
“You got into a fight.” Judging by the look on Camdyn’s face, she didn’t believe his story.
Charlie twisted his face so he was looking at me, and he offered a hint of a smile. “Yeah, it wasn’t a big deal. Misunderstanding mostly, and I couldn’t get out of the way fast enough.”
“Some guy hit you,” Camdyn attempted to clarify.
“Yep.” He nodded, scooping up another spoonful of cereal. “Big guy. Really big, burly guy.”
I didn’t offer any comment, since I was fairly certain I was the one who had given Charlie the mark on his otherwise flawless face. I covered my awkwardness by shoveling a spoon’s worth of that cereal into my mouth. The mix of a million different forms of sugar competed for attention on my taste buds, and I cringed.
“You don’t have to eat that, honey.” Willa moved up behind me and rested her hand on my shoulder. Charlie shot me a challenging look, and I sat up a little straighter.
“Thanks, but it’s fine.” Normally I wasn’t one for lying, but something inside was telling me to stand up to him. Doing so for the sake of a bowl of cereal seemed pretty idiotic, but I didn’t want him to get the best of me.
“What are you girls doing today?” Charlie wanted to know, crunching on that cereal concoction like it was delicious. I forced another bite down my throat, pretending I wasn’t about to go into sugar shock.
“Girl stuff,” Camdyn answered, shaking her head. “Aren’t you going to hang out with your friends?”
“I want to hang out with you. I cleared my calendar so I could entertain your friend, just like you asked.”
“Aw, that would be sweet of you, if ‘leave us alone’ sounded anything like ‘entertain Trina,’ which it doesn’t. Nice try.”
“I apologize to you,” Charlie added, looking at me with a rather sad expression. “You probably came here expecting to have fun, but Camdyn is determined to keep you away from your only possible source of excitement.”
“Don’t let him sweet talk you, Trina. He’s just being ridiculous.” She turned her eyes to her brother in exasperation. “Leave her alone, would you?”
“What’s the 21st?” I asked, attempting to break the tension.
“The 21st what?” Camdyn questioned.
“You know, the 19th was the wreath, the 20th was the cookies, so the 21st is…”
“Charlie’s birthday,” Willa answered from behind me, pulling out a chair and settling at the table with her own bowl of whole wheat, nutritious cereal. In my innermost thoughts, I was tempted to steal it to avoid the impending cavities.
“It’s your birthday?” My eyebrows drew together as I focused my attention on Charlie. “I had no idea. Happy birthday.”
“Thanks,” he told me with a smile, dropping the spoon into his empty bowl. “Technically it was my birthday last night too, when I was attacked. Not really a nice way to treat a guy on his birthday.”
“Take that up with the guy who hit you,” Camdyn muttered, placing her elbows on the table.
“If it’s Charlie’s birthday, shouldn’t you do what he wants?” My suggestion didn’t go over well with Camdyn, who widened her eyes.
“I like you already,” Charlie stated with a grin as he rose from his chair and began to pour more cereal into his bowl. How he planned on cramming down more of that sugary breakfast was beyond me.
“Don’t feel sorry for him, Trina,” Camdyn said. “After Charlie time, he always disappears, and I’m sure today will be no different.”
“What’s Charlie time?” I asked as he took his seat beside me at the table.
“We watch ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ every year,” Willa answered. “It used to come on television, but the last few years we’ve made a point of watching it on Charlie’s birthday.”
“They hold me here against my will.” Charlie’s words captured my attention, which instantly seemed like a mistake as those blue eyes threatened to hold me hostage.
“You don’t feel bad about skipping out on your poor grandmother?” I teased, trying to ignore the seriousness in his gaze.
“I don’t skip out. Camdyn’s exaggerating because she wants to change the subject so you don’t find out about the crying.”
“The crying?”
“Sure, she cries like a baby when she watches Charlie Brown. He reminds her of herself, you know.”
“Knock it off.” Camdyn reached across the small table to poke him in the shoulder. “Trina knows me way better than you think, so she won’t believe your lies.”
He began eating his cereal again, and I pushed around the contents of my own colorful bowl, which had quickly become a soggy mess.
“You know, Cam, you really are a great sister. I think I should go Christmas shopping today and buy you a fantastic gift.”
Those words were unexpected enough that all of our eyes shot to Charlie at once.
“That’s nice, Charlie,” Willa stated with obvious pride.
“What do you say, Trina, are you up for it?” There was no mischievousness in Charlie’s eyes as they stared into mine, awaiting my response.
“How do you expect me to go shopping with you if you’re buying a gift for me?” Camdyn said.
“I didn’t ask you, I asked Trina.”
“She doesn’t want to do that,” she quickly answered. Too quickly, because I was still wrapping my mind around his question.
“Actually, I could probably do a little shopping myself,” I lied. Camdyn’s present was in my suitcase, and I’d had it since October. Procrastination was not one of my personality traits.
“See? Look at me, doing your friend a favor. You really should thank me, sis.”
“You’re a piece of work,” she told him, dragging her gaze from Charlie to me with clear disappointment. “Whatever. If you really think you need to go shopping, I guess I’d rather you were with Charlie than traipsing about by yourself.”
I probably should have been mildly insulted by that comment, but I’d rather you were with Charlie was translating in my mind to please hang out with my gorgeous brother. Why hadn’t my best friend ever bothered to tell me that her brother was incredibly good looking?
“I’m going to try really hard to be nice to you since it’s your birthday,” Camdyn continued, “but don’t pull any funny business with Trina. I mean it.”
“What do you think I’m going to do, leave her at the mall?” He turned to me then and winked, and I averted my eyes for fear that Camdyn might be able to read my thoughts.
“You know very well what I mean, Charlie. No funny business.”
Chapter Five
Charlie Taylor was at least five-foot-eleven and was built like one of those soccer players my dad
used to watch on television. Not that I was trying to notice, but I couldn’t help but admire him as he helped Willa move the couch over a couple feet, or peek at him while he was watching the morning newscast, or study him every time his lips moved. Truth be told, I was flat-out staring at him like an infatuated preteen, trying to hide it and praying that Camdyn wouldn’t discover my fascination. To my knowledge, she hadn’t.
When it neared lunch time, Charlie announced he was ready to head out, and I grabbed my purse and my coat, hurriedly stepping into the bathroom to check my appearance one last time. Making an attempt to look my absolute best would have been my play had I been back at school preparing for a date, but Camdyn would have noticed my efforts and discovered my intentions. In fact, a week before she would have called me out for having a crush on Charlie, but here in her grandmother’s house, she wasn’t as observant as usual.
“Bring her back in one piece, Chuck,” Camdyn called as we headed out the front door.
“Good grief,” he countered, shaking his head. “She knows I hate that. You’re lucky to be an only child.”
I stepped up to the passenger side of his black sedan, pulling the door open and sliding inside. The warm scents of coffee and vanilla wafted toward me, and I glanced at the console, noting two insulated cups in the cup holders.
“Sorry about the mess,” he said as he closed himself inside the small space next to me. “I drank a lot of coffee last night to keep myself awake.”
My eyes drifted to the backseat, where I saw a few more to-go cups with the telltale lids scattered on the floorboard.
“That’s an insane amount of coffee.”
“That’s not all from last night. I drink a lot of coffee when I’m studying.”
“In the car?”
Sighing, he placed his hands on the steering wheel and offered a lopsided grin. “I drink a lot of coffee, period. Satisfied, Sherlock?”
“Whatever you say, Chuck. How did you know I was an only child?”
Turning the key in the ignition, he glanced up to his rear view mirror before backing out of the driveway. “I know many things about you. You’re Camdyn’s favorite topic of conversation, outside of history, grades, and whatever guy is annoying her at the moment.”
Peeling my eyes away from him, I stared out the passenger window. The fact that he knew things about me was slightly terrifying. Camdyn had talked about Charlie’s goofy attributes, and told me stories about them as kids, but she never mentioned that he was witty or charming or handsome. Suddenly I wondered if she had done the same while talking about me. Oh, Trina’s such a big goofball. Always insists on eating Oreos in bed. Never takes her studies seriously. Thinks she has to constantly be on the lookout for a boyfriend.
I could practically feel my blood going cold in my veins at the thought.
“So, your parents are going to Florida for Christmas, right?”
“Yes, to visit my aunt.”
“And what about Ash?”
“Ash?” Wrinkling my nose, I turned toward him. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Sorry, I just thought I’d be polite and ask. If you don’t want to talk about it, no problem. Seat belt.”
He grasped the front of his seat belt and pulled it back slightly, snapping it into place. Taking his suggestion, I reached for my own safety device, tugging it across my chest.
“I have no opinion one way or the other, because I honestly don’t understand your Ash reference.”
“Your boyfriend, the football player? Everyone just calls him by his last name?”
It would have been easy to tell Charlie that I had no boyfriend, knew no one named Ash, and hadn’t been out with a football player since high school. For whatever reason, I chose to hold that information in my back pocket for a minute.
“You know everything about my love life?” I shot him an accusatory glare, and for a split second he looked like he might want to backpedal. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders.
“Just what Cam told me.”
“When did she tell you about Ash?”
“Last summer.”
“Last summer?” I almost gasped out a laugh, but composed myself just in time. Right before summer break, Camdyn broke up with Blake and I officially swore off dating, a sort of pact between us not to settle for less than Mr. Right. I made it a whole three weeks before I went to the movies with Porter McClain, but I never admitted that to Camdyn. “Why was she even telling you about that?”
“She had a picture of the two of you on her dresser.”
“Me and Ash?”
“No, you and Camdyn. I happened to see it and asked if it was you, and she promptly told me that you had a boyfriend. Football player, goes by his last name, really intimidating guy…”
The laughter couldn’t be held back any longer, and I brought my hand up to my mouth to try to conceal it.
“All that just because you asked if the picture was of me?”
“Mostly.” The bottom of his cheek started to flush, and I knew instinctively he wasn’t being honest. Camdyn always blushed when she got uncomfortable too, naturally aided by her light coloring.
“Tell me the truth.”
His eyes darted to me for a split second before he returned his attention to the road, a muscle working in his jaw.
“I might have said something,” he admitted, draping his arm nonchalantly over the steering wheel. “Maybe something like…huh. Oh. Wow…”
“Huh.” I turned my face to the passenger window again so I could hide my smile.
“So, what does Trina Justine Miller want out of life? To become a professional cheerleader for the Dallas Cowboys? Cure cancer? Be hired as an executive of some company?”
“I’m working toward a degree in Elementary Education.”
He turned the car away from the sleepy road onto a busy intersection.
“That’s what you’re doing, not what you want—two different questions. Is that your dream, to be a teacher?”
“Part of it, I guess.”
“Then lay it on me, no holding back.”
Biting the corner of my lip, I prepared to say the brutally honest words that would terrify nearly every male my own age.
“I’d like to work with kids, meet a nice guy, get married, find a house in the suburbs, and be a really great mom.”
And…that should send him running for the hills. Good thing I’ve got Ash to fall back on.
“Huh.”
“Huh.” I cringed just a bit.
“That’s a pretty specific list, but admirable. Speaking as a guy who didn’t have a mom, I like your goals.”
“Don’t patronize me.”
“I’m not,” he said, holding one hand in the air as though surrendering. “You mentioned meeting a nice guy, so I assume that means you haven’t locked in on the candidate?”
He took the opportunity to smile in my direction, and I let my guard down.
“I’ve always imagined myself marrying a doctor,” I teased.
He raised his eyebrows as he drew the car to the right, heading off the interstate.
“You know, I’m in the process of earning my Doctor of Pharmacy degree right now. It’s my last year at UNC. Not that it matters about the whole doctor thing. Just thought I’d throw that out there.”
As he was checking for oncoming traffic, I used the opportunity to study his profile. Charlie would certainly make an attractive doctor. I could imagine some of the girls back at school faking an illness so they could go to the emergency room if he was on call. To be honest, I could imagine myself doing that.
But would I get a flu shot simply to see the pharmacist?
Peeling my eyes away from his face, I realized it would be awfully tempting.
“What made you go to North Carolina?” I asked, driving the conversation away from my guilty conscience.
“One of the best pharmacy schools in the country. And I wanted to get out of the Lou for a while to stretch my horizons. Once I’m back, I’ll be here
for good.”
“Devoted to ‘the Lou’ for the rest of your life?”
He smiled at my use of the nickname for his city. “I don’t know. I have to stick around for Grandma, and once Camdyn’s out of college I’ll most likely stay to keep an eye on her. When your family consists of three people, you have to stick together.”
“You think she’ll come back to St. Louis? I’m pretty sure she wants to travel the world.”
“Heaven help the world then.” He laughed as he gave me a charming grin, but then cleared his throat. “Don’t get me wrong. I love my sister, and I’d do absolutely anything for her, but she gets herself into some messes. Usually I’m the one who has to pull her out of them, although I’d guess you’ve probably performed your share of rescues.”
“She can be dramatic, sure, but I don’t know how I would have survived without her. My roommate before her was really messy, and she never takes my toothpaste.”
“Because she has fifteen tubes of her own toothpaste.”
“She once helped me rewrite an English paper four times.”
“That’s not particularly altruistic. I’m pretty sure she gets a kick out of rewriting things, both in her mind and on paper.”
“She brings me out of myself,” I added. “She’s really taught me to let my hair down and try to let life happen instead of having to plan every single moment. Except for my classes, which she thinks I should plan to the smallest detail.” I studied his hand against the console as I searched for the right words. “Camdyn encourages me to soar a little higher, and I keep her grounded. We’re a good combination.”
“That’s a lovely speech. Admit it, though—she drives you a little insane, right?”
My heart lurched inside my chest, because I wanted to like Charlie, but I really didn’t want to hear him say anything disparaging about my best friend.
“She’s really a phenomenal person, you know? I guess from your viewpoint she might be your annoying sister, but I thank God every day for her. If I had a sister, I’d want her to be Camdyn.”
I dared to let my eyes linger on him, and he rewarded me with a breathtaking smile. “Perfect answer. I was just testing you.”
Unwrapped (The Camdyn Series Book 5) Page 3
