Finally

by R. L. Mathewson

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Devin asked as he leaned back against the wall, watching her.

  “At first, there was no reason to tell you anything. You were my boss and I wasn’t even sure that I was going to be able to get this thing off the ground. It wouldn’t have made sense to tell you that I might be quitting in a year if it didn’t work out. I wanted to make sure that I did this right, but I was going to tell you, Devin. I wasn’t just going to abandon Bradford Creations,” she promised him.

  He glanced away for a moment as she stood there, trying to think of something else to tell him that would make this okay when he took her by surprise and asked, “Do you love me, Charlie?”

  “Why would you ask me that?” she asked, frowning as she moved closer to him.

  “Because you’ve never said it,” Devin said, shaking his head with a sigh as he looked back at her. When she didn’t say anything, he said, “Forget it,” as he pushed away from the wall and-

  “You make me nervous.”

  “What?” he asked as he slowly turned around.

  “You make me nervous,” Charlie said, nodding solemnly as she reached over and grabbed hold of his shirt.

  “I make you nervous?” he asked, throwing her a questioning look as he allowed her to pull him closer.

  “Mmmhmm, very nervous,” Charlie said as she reached up and wrapped her arms around him.

  “Is that good or bad?” Devin asked, wrapping his arms around her.

  “Oh, it’s definitely good,” she promised him, nodding as she took a step back, pulling him into the shower.

  “So, you’re saying that you love me?” Devin asked, reaching back to pull his phone out of his pocket so that it wouldn’t get wet and tossed it onto the bathmat on the floor behind him.

  “Maybe,” she said, leaning up so that she could kiss his chin as she felt his hands slide down her back.

  “Maybe?” he murmured, his lips pulling up into one of those devastating smiles that she loved as she reached for his belt.

  “Well, it depends,” Charlie said, pulling his belt loose before she set to work on his jeans.

  “On what?” Devin asked, ducking his head so that he could kiss the side of her neck as she reached inside his pants and wrapped her hand around him.

  “On just how thoroughly you worship me in the next thirty minutes,” she said, deciding that everything else could wait so that she could give the man that she loved a chance to work for the three little words that didn’t come close to explaining just how much he meant to her.

  *-*-*-*

  “Charlie, we’re here,” Devin said, reaching over to wake her up and-

  “I love you!” she shouted, instantly coming awake as she pushed back until her back was pressed up against the truck door, shooting him a panicked look.

  “Aw, thank you, baby,” Devin said, smiling which earned a whimper from the woman hugging the bakery bag filled with jelly donuts against her chest as she sat there, staring at him in horror while he sat there, unable to help but smile.

  She fucking loved him.

  Granted, he would have preferred to hear her profess her undying love for him over a romantic dinner, but she’d set down a challenge that he’d been unable to ignore. It had taken him ten minutes to get her to scream those three magical words and that should have been enough, but…

  He’d wanted to hear it again.

  So, he’d done what was required of him to hear those words again and again until the woman currently cowering against the door, watching his every move pointed out somewhat hysterically that they really needed to go to work. He considered talking her into skipping work and spending the rest of the day in bed with him, but…

  He wanted her to see the surprise that he’d been busting his ass setting up for her. The twins were going to be pissed that he didn’t wait for them, but he wanted to ensure that he got the first hug and he knew damn well that if the twins were here for this that the woman watching his every move would shower them with kisses and hugs that were rightfully his.

  “You ready?” Devin asked, reaching over to touch her only to re-think that decision when she mumbled, “My poor vagina,” making his lips twitch.

  Chuckling, he jumped out of his truck and turned around, gesturing for her to come closer. Licking her lips nervously, Charlie shook her head as she pressed herself more firmly against the door.

  Sighing, he said, “I have to show you something.”

  Shaking her head, she whispered, “I’ve already seen your penis,” making him chuckle as he reached over and-

  “I love you! Oh, my god! I love you!” Charlie mumbled, somewhat hysterically as he grabbed her by her ankles and pulled her closer.

  “Aw, I love you too, baby,” Devin said, sighing with satisfaction as he pulled her out of the truck, set her on her feet and promptly dragged her around the side of the old firehouse.

  “Why exactly are you dragging me?” the woman that was really starting to ruin this for him, asked.

  “I’m showing you something,” he said, pulling her around the front and-

  “Oh, my god…” Charlie whispered hollowly as she stood there taking in the large sign beneath Bradford Creations.

  “You did this?” Charlie asked with a watery smile as she glanced back at him.

  “Of course, I did,” Devin said, moving closer so that he could wrap his arms around her as she looked back up at Dabbi Digital Marketing’s sign.

  “It’s beautiful. Thank you,” she said, unable to take her eyes away from the sign that he’d called in a few favors to make while the question that had been nagging him for the past two days had him asking, “What does Dabbi mean?”

  “Dustin and Abbi,” Charlie said, confirming his suspicions and giving his kids another fucking reason to gloat.

  For the past two days they’d been bragging that she loved them more because she’d named her company after them and now, he’d never hear the fucking end of it. Unless…

  “You know, Bradford Marketing has a pretty nice ring to it, too,” he mentioned casually as he leaned down so that he could kiss her cheek.

  “There’s something that I still don’t understand. How did you find out about this?” Charlie asked, glancing back at him.

  “I went to pay for your hotel room, but the front desk said that the room was registered under Dabbi Digital Marketing. I didn’t think much of it until I went into work and your favorite customer service representative presented me with her resume, hoping that I’d give her the job.”

  There was a heavy sigh and then, “I’m an idiot.”

  Chapter 37

  “What’s going on?” Devin asked as Charlie quickly made her way into their office, telling herself that she was wrong, but…

  “Remember a couple of months ago when someone was trying to hack into Bradford Creations’ social media accounts? Well, before that, someone was creating fake accounts and trashing Bradford Creations. I wasn’t too worried about it because that kind of thing happens, but then I started to get locked out of Bradford Creations’ accounts after too many failed attempts to break into the accounts. It kept happening every day, sometimes a few times a day until I got sick of it,” Charlie explained as she stepped over Bradford, who was happily curled up with one of the kids’ teddy bears and headed for her desk.

  “So, I changed the login information from my Bradford Creations’ email to the one I created for Dabbi Digital Marketing to make it impossible for whoever was doing it since no one knew about that email. I also created a new Gmail account for you so that you had access to the account for the same reason. For the past couple of months, I haven’t had any problems, but then last night everything went to hell.”

  “What happened last night?” Devin asked as Charlie reached for her keyboard, only to frown when a stack of mail on her desk caught her attention.

  “All the social media accounts were locked after too many failed attempts, which meant that they’d figured out that I’d used my Dabbi Digit
al Marketing email to secure the accounts. They also managed to get hold of Bradford Creations’ web hosting information and got me locked out, changed the password, and tried to get the site deleted. It took me over an hour this morning to convince them that I was who I said I was. Thankfully, whoever did it had no clue what they were doing, so I was able to get Bradford Creations’ website back up and running,” she absently explained as she frowned down at the envelopes addressed to Dabbi Digital Marketing. “Where did you get these?”

  “They were sent here,” Devin explained as Charlie shook her head.

  “I didn’t use this address for anything. There’s no reason why any of this junk mail was sent here, Devin,” she explained as she focused her attention back on her computer and pulled up Dabbi Digital Marketing’s website and-

  “Damn it,” Charlie said when she saw that her email was on the bottom of the homepage, answering one of her questions about how Kelly got her email address.

  The question was, how did she find out about Dabbi Digital Marketing in the first place.

  Deciding to find out, Charlie headed for the door and-

  “I’m going to kill her,” she said as her phone alerted her to the fact that she’d been locked out of Bradford Creations’ Facebook page again after too many failed attempts to login.

  “Wait. What the hell is going on?” Devin asked as Charlie stepped back over Bradford, who’d rolled over onto his back in the last few minutes and headed towards the backstairs.

  Instead of answering him, because she honestly didn’t think that she could do it without screaming, Charlie headed upstairs and straight for the office in front of her. When she saw Kelly sitting at her desk, talking on her phone, she headed straight for her.

  “Hey!” Kelly snapped in outrage when Charlie shoved her chair out of the way and grabbed the mouse, clicking open the webpage that Kelly had minimized and-

  “Wait!”

  Charlie slowly exhaled as she stood up and looked at the women that had been working really hard to screw her over. “What the hell is wrong with you?” she asked, shaking her head in disgust. “Do you have any idea what you could have done? The kind of damage you could have done?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kelly said with a defiant tilt of her head that had Charlie shaking her head in disgust again because she really just couldn’t deal with this woman.

  “What’s going on?” Devin asked as he glanced at Kelly’s computer screen and-

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” Charlie heard Devin snap as she headed for the door, having had more than enough for one day.

  *-*-*-*

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” the small woman curled up on the beanbag with a bag of donuts, said when Devin walked into the office two hours later.

  “I fired her,” Devin said as he sat down on the floor next to her.

  “I heard,” Charlie muttered as she absently nibbled on a donut, making him wince because he was pretty sure the whole fucking town heard him screaming his fucking head off.

  He should have fired Kelly the first time that she pissed him off.

  At least now he knew why she wanted Charlie’s job so badly. Apparently, Kelly started noticing how many orders were coming in. That had made her curious, so she’d checked out the website and saw how much Bradford Creations was charging for its work and decided that some of that money should find its way into her bank account.

  That’s what led to the morning donut routine, because it gave her an excuse to walk around the upstairs offices, trying to find out as much as she could about Bradford Creations’ handled payments as she tried to work out a way to gain access to his accounts. It had also led to her interest in taking over Charlie’s job. She wanted access to the website because she thought it would give her access to the payments processed through the website. It wouldn’t have because they used a third-party system to process payments and he was the only one that had that password, but she didn’t know that.

  “I changed all the main passwords for Bradford Creations, deleted her access to email, called the security company, and I highly recommend canceling Bradford Creations’ credit cards as well as alerting the bank just in case. I would also change the locks and the codes for the alarm panel considering her fondness for breaking into things,” Charlie mumbled sadly as she finished off her donut and reached for another one before adding, “And I found the camera.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Devin mumbled in agreement as he reached over and pushed a strand of hair out of her face.

  He didn’t mention that he already knew that she found the camera that Kelly hid in here since he’d watched upstairs on Kelly’s computer as Charlie tore their office apart, looking for the camera and once she found it…

  He’d watched as a play of emotions had crossed her beautiful features from disbelief to the realization that someone had been watching them. He knew the moment she’d realized that all those private moments they’d shared had been stolen. Her eyes had closed as she slowly exhaled, struggling against the urge to smash the camera. Somehow, she’d managed to pull it together and carried the camera out to the shop and placed it on his workbench for the police to grab.

  When he saw the live video feed of their office on Kelly’s computer screen, he’d wanted to fucking kill her.

  She’d crossed so many fucking lines by placing that camera in his office and she’d apparently been doing it for a long time. He found folders containing video files for Charlie’s old office, the break-room, his shop, and the backstairs, taking away every last doubt that he had that she hadn’t known that Charlie had been hurt back in October. She’d fucking watched him carry Charlie inside with a white bandage wrapped around her foot and hadn’t been able to resist the urge to come downstairs and do a little damage.

  Fucking bitch.

  That’s when he’d started really yelling.

  He had to give her credit, though. While he’d yelled at her, Kelly continued standing there, looking pathetic, crying softly as she told him that she didn’t know what he was talking about. That all changed when the police showed up. She’d taken one look at the officer coming to arrest her and tried to make a run for it.

  That’s when Bradford reminded all of them that at one point, he’d been the top K-9 cadet in the academy until his love of snuggles got him bounced from the program. He’d blocked Kelly’s escape and fucking growled, baring his teeth while she was arrested. Bradford had more than earned a steak, Devin thought, deciding that he was going to buy him the biggest fucking steak that he could get his hands on.

  “I wanna go home,” Charlie said, looking exhausted.

  “I know you do, baby. I guess we could do that. I’ll have to make a few calls and cancel the appointments that I’d made for you,” he said, sighing heavily as he moved to stand up only to end up biting back a smile when Charlie said, “What appointments?”

  “Well, I thought that Dabbi Digital Marketing could use a few more clients, so I made a few calls and I set some appointments up for you today, but since you’d rather go home…” Devin said, letting his words trail off.

  “Appointments?” Charlie said, instantly alert as she sat up. “For Dabbi Digital Marketing?”

  “Mmmhmmm, in fact, your first appointment should be here in a few minutes,” he said, chuckling when she quickly got to her feet and rushed to the other side of the office to tidy it up.

  “Really? Who’s coming?” Charlie asked, looking really fucking adorable right now.

  “Oh, just a few people…”

  Chapter 38

  1:00 P.M.

  “This just isn’t going to work for me,” Lucifer, the very large man that owned Fire & Brimstone, an incredibly popular restaurant that was set to reopen in a month, said with a heavy sigh and a firm shake of his head.

  “What’s not going to work?” Charlie couldn’t help but wonder, mostly because they hadn’t even started yet.

  Instead of answering her, he simply pu
shed his chair back with another sigh, walked around her desk, and-

  Had her jumping out of her chair and stumbling back when he gestured for her to move. With another sigh and a muttered, “This is going to require a trip to The Container Store,” he took over her freshly vacated chair and began…organizing?

  Not really sure how to react, Charlie glanced over at his wife to find Rebecca shrugging as she took her time selecting a Hershey Kiss from the large Ziplock bag resting on her lap with a mumbled, “He’s disturbed.”

  “Okay,” Charlie said, not really sure how to react as she watched Lucifer pause in reorganizing the pencil holder that Dustin made for her in art class to glare at his wife.

  That somehow led him to sighing heavily as he took in the kids play area and muttered, “Definitely going to need a trip to The Container Store,” before returning his attention to organizing her pens.

  Charlie shifted her attention back to his wife only to frown when she spotted Devin standing in the shop next to T.J., laughing his ass off. She felt herself relax as she watched him, relieved that he no longer looked like he wanted to kill something with his bare hands.

  Thank god Kelly didn’t have a clue what she was doing, otherwise…

  Charlie didn’t even want to think about the kind of damage that she could have done.

  There was a heavy sigh and then, “Please tell me that you really didn’t mix black and blue pens together,” came the complaint that had Charlie looking back over her shoulder to find Lucifer shaking his head in disgust as he gave up trying to sort her pens and dumped them on the desk.

  That led her to glancing back at Devin to find the bastard laughing harder.

  Normally, she wouldn’t do this sort of thing, but…

  “If you think my desk is bad, you should see Devin’s workbench. I honestly don’t know how he gets anything done in that mess,” Charlie said with a sad shake of her head as she watched Lucifer frown as he glanced towards Devin’s shop.