Chapter Eighteen
“I was given this address from a friend of Charlie’s. I thought it was her dad’s place?” I glanced back down at the scrap of paper with the address Katy had given me. Thankfully, she hadn’t been in touch with Charlie and I was able to give my heavily edited side of the story. Reluctantly she gave up Derrick’s name and address after threatening me with a whole slew of torturous things she’d do to me if I hurt Charlie.
The toothpick switched sides and the hulk of a man looked down at me with such derision, I was already waiting for the punch in the face. Especially if Charlie had already told this guy about our deal. Whatever he was to Charlie, hopefully a relative of some sorts and not some former fling, any man worth his salt who cared about her would have laid me out flat. A part of me wanted to be reassured that even if I couldn’t convince her to forgive me, she’d have someone in her life besides Katy who was willing to stand by her. Another part of me wanted him to throw the damn punch so I could justifiable hit back, on the odd chance he was an ex.
“Ford, right? That’s a bullshit name if I ever heard one.”
“Yeah, that’s me. I take it you’ve seen Charlie.”
“Yup.” The toothpick migrated again to the opposite side of his mouth.
“But you’re not going to tell me where she is? Or how I can find her?”
“From what I hear, you’re the exact person she doesn’t want to find her. So not sure why I would give you any info.”
“I take it she told you, about me. About what I did.”
“Yup.” He took the toothpick out and flicked it over my shoulder. Right, the punch was coming any second. “Got to say, you’re pretty much all I expected after she told me why she’d come home. That’s a lot of money to just throw around. But then again it’s not much at all when it comes to a girl like Charlie.”
“I didn’t—it’s not what you think. I didn’t know how to get her to stay. It was never about the sex.”
“Then what the fuck was it about?”
I grabbed my hair in frustration. I didn’t want to have a damn heart to heart standing on the steps of his trailer. What the hell was it going to take to get this guy to tell me where she was? The fact he clearly knew but wasn’t planning on telling me made me see red. And it didn’t take a genius to see offering money was probably the least helpful thing I could do right now.
“What the fuck it is about? It’s about being in love with that crazy woman for the past two years. It’s about seeing jackass after jackass jerk her around, treat her like shit, and never realize they were looking at the most fucking fantastic woman on the planet. It’s about figuring out new ways to not go crazy with jealousy as I worked next to her and didn’t lose my goddamn mind that I couldn’t have her. And then why I found out she was thinking about leaving, that the chance to make my move, to convince her I was the right man for her, that she was worth so much more than all those assholes were ever going to offer her, she decides she’s leaving town. So I gave it a shot and she let me in. For one fucking night. And then that was it. She tried to shut me out and pack up, get out of town, despite the fact that I know she felt it. It was so fucking real, there was no way she couldn’t have felt it. And dude, whoever you are, I’m sure you can kick my ass and I don’t care if I look like a pussy saying this shit if it gets me a chance at seeing Charlie again.
I admit it—I panicked. Completely out of my mind fucking panicked and I did what any other dumbass dipshit rich kid does when things don’t go his way—I threw money at her. And I knew she’d take it. I dangled the check in front of her and figured I had two days to show her I loved her and I would do absolutely anything just to have a real chance with her—”
“—Absolutely anything?”
I paused mid-rant and looked up at him.
“Fuck yes.”
“I take it she told you about prom?”
“Yeah. Fucking broke my heart when she told me that story.”
“I was already moved out by then. Had my own shit to deal with. Didn’t visit much. I’m Derrick by the way, I’m her stepbrother. Or was her stepbrother for a few years. I’m the only real family she’s got left. And I’m not even that on paper or by blood. But I’m sure as fuck am her family. So we need to figure out how the hell we’re going to get Charlie to give you another shot?”
“You’ll help me?” I couldn’t contain my shock.
“Yeah, man, I’ll help. Charlie’s stubborn and proud, despite what just happened between you. She makes people think she’s all feisty but it’s an act. Been doing it ever since she was a little kid. She tell you much about what it was like growing up?”
“Not much, I get she was poor but she didn’t mentioned much else and that your stepmom wasn’t crazy about her. Oh and a little lesson about how girls like her didn’t get invited to prom. As if that means anything.”
“No shit girls like her don’t get invited to prom. I think you need a little catch up on what makes Charlie tick.” Stepping aside, he waved me into the trailer.
Having never actually set foot in a trailer before, I was surprised by how roomy it was. The place was also spotless and a hint of kitchen cleaner lingered in the air. Apparently living in a trailer didn’t stop Derrick from being house-proud. Embarrassed by my outrageous judgment, I gladly accepted the cold beer he offered. Charlie had told me we came from different worlds and although I rationally knew she was making an extreme delineation that didn’t exist anywhere but in her head, I was realizing quickly maybe my rational approach to this whole trailer-trash thing meant I was actually missing something.
He leaned against the counter in the cramped kitchen and began to paint a not-so-pretty-picture of what Charlie’s life was like growing up and how her messed-up-beyond-comprehension list of life rules had developed over the years. He told me about her mother ditching her, only to find out the woman who abandoned her was living just a few counties over but simply didn’t care enough to see her own daughter, about the evil Tina who sounded like a step-mother out of damn fairy tale. Then there was a story about a library card and how Charlie learned to keep everyone happy by spending most of her time out of the house.
And then he got to the men. Boys really. How learning from her step-mom and step-sister Selena, Charlie decided she had nothing to offer the world except herself. More specifically her body. And not in a post-feminist sex-is-fun-I-own-my-body-so-it’s-all-good, but more in an archaic notion that her self-worth was limited to how attractive she was to men.
I cringed, thinking about how dismissive I’d been about her makeup, not understanding the depths she went to be attractive, to morph herself into whatever fantasy a man wanted. Bog-standard self-esteem issues, I thought. Maybe she’d read one too many women’s magazines and thought she needed all that shit.
How was I supposed to know it was something much more complex?
Fuck. This was so much worse than I thought.
There was no way in hell she was going to take me back.
Chapter Nineteen
Charlie
“Derrick, I swear to God I’m going to kill you.” He ignored me. Just as he’d ignored me for the past hour when I finally realized where we were headed. Back to Ford. For a few minutes, I entertained the idea Derrick was just taking me to my old apartment but that didn’t make any sense. Also, he didn’t know where I used to live.
Derrick had surprised me when I found him sitting outside the library when I finally emerged out of my hours of job searching online. It was sort of like old times, Derrick picking me up from my favorite safe haven, except he didn’t head back to the trailer park. Instead he headed north, mumbling something about needing to get “stuff done.”
The big giveaway was when he finally cracked, only for a second, and told me I was the most frustrating woman on the planet and that Ford better appreciate what he was doing, considering how annoying I was. Somehow Ford had gotten to him.
“Did he offer you money? Is that it? You’re goin
g to throw me to the wolves for a couple hundred bucks?”
“Don’t insult me, Charlie. You know it’s not about the money.” A vague answer, but it was better than the silence.
“I’ll never forgive you, you know? If you take me where I think you’re taking me, I’ll never forgive you. I’ll never forget I came to you in a time of need, and you basically just dumped me right in the middle of the shitstorm I’m trying to escape from.”
His jaw tightened but he kept on driving.
Fine.
Derrick was stubborn, just like me, and once he set his mind to something, there was no changing it.
The sun had set by the time we pulled in to the road that took us through the woods to Ford’s house. A few miles back, Derrick had pulled up the GPS app on his phone and tapped in Ford’s address, just confirming once again they’d been in contact.
A cold sweat covered my body as we finally drew up in front of the house. From the car, I could see the front door was open but Ford was nowhere in sight.
“Get out, Charlie.”
“No.”
“Get. Out. Now.”
“Why?”
“Why not?”
“That doesn’t even make any sense. Because I obviously don’t want to be here. Because I don’t want to see him. Because he tried to buy me. What don’t you understand from what I’m saying?” I yelled.
“Have I ever done you wrong? Ever lied to you? I might not have protected you as much as I should have when were kids, but I never purposely hurt you. Now trust me on this and get out of my Goddamn car,” he yelled back.
Jerking the door handle with more force than necessary, I climbed out and slammed the door shut. Turning back to face him, I lifted my middle finger as he turned around and drove off.
Without looking back even once.
Not only did he miss the finger, but the look of betrayal on my face that I made no attempt to hide.
Turning around to face Ford’s house, I knew I didn’t have a lot of options. Derrick had dumped me in the middle of nowhere. Once again I found myself stuck at Ford’s with my only option being, once again, Ford.
Derrick’s last words rattled around in my head. It was true, he’d never deliberately hurt me or lied to me. Not like Selena, who was just a plain bitch when it came to throwing me under the bus to get what she needed, hence the credit card fiasco. But Derrick was different and I knew he wouldn’t have left me here like this if he didn’t think it was worth something. We weren’t close, my stepbrother and I, but I could trust him. It had been the nature of our relationship since I asked him to help me out with my library plan when I was just a kid.
Better get this over with then, I told myself. No point standing out here waiting for a rabid raccoon to eat my ankles.
A small folded card with my name on it rested on the floor just inside the open front door.
With my heart beating so hard I thought I might throw up, I opened it and read:
For one final time, let me lead. Go to the bedroom.
This was not what I expected. As I stormed upstairs, I ran through a selection of insults I could hurl at him, then categorized them into the best order to maximize their impact. If he thought he could pull the dominant alpha bullshit on me for one last lay, he had something coming. I might have enjoyed him ordering me around, okay more than enjoyed, but my heart, my poor heart, couldn’t even fathom the idea of him touching me again.
Did he think I’d just roll over and agree to some sort of good-bye fuck? I left a note, I left the money. What else did he want from me?
Storming into the bedroom, I stopped in my tracks and stared at what was laid out on the bed. A dress, dark blue silk and chiffon, strapless, about knee length. A shoebox sat next to it and I peeked inside to see a pair of simple but delicate stiletto heels in a matching blue.
But it was the color of the dress, the dark blue, that hit me. He’d remembered my fake prom story and for some reason had essentially gotten me the dress I’d described. I picked up the second card placed on top of the dress.
Get dressed and come downstairs.
A twinkly string of fairy lights led out to the back deck and as I stepped through the French doors, I gasped. Ford stood in the middle of the deck that was lit only by dozens and dozens of strands of fairy lights. Wearing a black tuxedo, in his hand he held a corsage box. From a small speaker on the side of the deck, Louis Armstrong sang about rainbows in the sky and I took a deep breath as Ford looked up and met my gaze.
“I couldn’t figure out a way to actually pick you up in a limo, because, well, you know, you weren’t talking to me. But I figured everything else was manageable.” He swallowed and pulled at his bow tie. “But this is nothing in comparison to what you deserve. I thought about hiring a string quartet to play music and filling the house with fresh flowers and then I realized those were all things looked like grand gestures because they cost money. And you don’t need me to spend money on you. You don’t need any guy to spend money on you, do you, Charlie?” He kept talking though, not really wanting an agreement to his rhetorical question. “You learned a dangerous lesson early on—you weren’t worth very much to anyone, not worth their time, not worth their energy, not worth their money, and most importantly not worth their love. I didn’t realize that until recently.
The smartest thing you ever did was walk out on me. Making me realize how little I’d actually invested in this relationship. I was a pussy for two years and then I tried to play catch up with a crude and insulting gesture, thinking you’d see past it and find the good intention behind it. But why would you? What I did was monumentally stupid. But you know—”
“—I know. I know, Ford.” I scurried over the deck, careful not to break an ankle in my shoes, and threw my arms around him. I didn’t need him to say anything else, at least not right now. He’d remembered every detail of some silly made-up prom story I’d fantasized about for years. Down to the fairy lights strung around the deck, he’d replicated it for me. There was no he could have known how much this gesture would mean to me unless he understood me. He saw past it all, the makeup, the attitude, the incessant dating, the mask I put on for the rest of the world.
One thing I’d wondered about these past few days and never asked was why he never made his move. He could have had me years ago. I would have jumped at the chance to go on a date with Ford, even if I thought I wasn’t good enough for a guy like him. But he never did.
He described it as cowardice holding him back from making his move, but I knew it was something else. He waited for me, until I was ready to find my own way, to be true to myself.
His arms wrapped around my waist but he didn’t stop talking.
“I love you, Charlie. I love all of you. And I know I messed up but please believe me when I say I had the best intentions. Give me a shot to show you the kind of man I am and I promise you won’t regret it.”
“I know because I love you too, Ford.” I wriggled until he loosened his grip enough so I could grab his face in my hands. “Of course, you dork, I love you and I know now that what you did, the stupid check, all that, it wasn’t the real you. I’m not going to lie and say it didn’t kill me to think you were the kind of man to do that, but it also didn’t stop me from loving you. And now I get it. I wasn’t willing to hear you and so you took drastic measures.”
“Fuck, Charlie, I thought I’d lost you.” He lowered me down until my feet touched the deck. “You said we made beautiful memories that weekend. Well, tonight I want to make some more. Just you and me, no money, no pasts, no judgment. So Charlie, will you have this dance with me?”
“Our first dance. Together.” I slid my hand into his waiting palm and wrapped my arm around his shoulders.
“Everything we do together will be the first time together and that’s all that matters, baby. Just you and me.”
Epilogue
Ford
I watched Charlie plate up another one of her sea-salt and butterscotch cupcakes alongside
my latest espresso blend to a return customer. I knew he was a return customer because I never forgot the faces of the little pricks who thought they could hit on her. She smiled at him, not her real smile though, it was her I’m-uncomfortable-as-hell-but-you-just-laid-out-eight-bucks-on-my-cupcake-but-that-doesn’t-give-you-access-to-any-other-of-my-cupcakes-buddy. Or at least that’s what I called it.
She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, before wiggling her ring finger at the guy as her response. The engagement ring I’d slid into place last week shimmered brightly. The guy’s defeated expression proportionally matched my elation at seeing the ring in action. It was already serving its purpose—letting everyone in the world know Charlie was mine.
Mine.
And in a few months, if not sooner if I could convince her to elope, I’d make an even stronger statement by slipping a wedding band on that hand. Charlie had a dream of getting married on the same deck where we’d reconciled. It was cheesy and romantic and I fucking loved the idea but if she didn’t make a decision soon about what types of appetizers we were going to be serving and a dozen other tiny details I couldn’t give a shit about, I was taking her to Vegas.
Sensing my stare, Charlie looked up and caught me looking. And I got a smile. One of her whatever-you-have-in-mind-I’ll-match-it smiles, as I liked to call them, I knew tonight I’d be in for a treat. Well, she’d be in for a treat.
Not a lot had changed since we danced on the deck. Well, a ton had changed actually. Charlie refused my money to start her business but she did take up my offer to pay for a lawyer to sort out the identity theft and all the subsequent credit problems her sister had caused. After that was sorted out, Charlie reapplied for the business loan and charged ahead with her plans. I did manage to convince her that regardless of the fact she was sleeping with the boss, I wanted her to stock her cupcakes in the café. She capitulated and I was her first stockist.
Into the Woods (Lust in the Woods Book 2) Page 10
