“Ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention for just a moment,” the DJ said into a hand-held microphone. He’d stopped the music and made some announcements.
Lark barely heard anything he said. She wanted to find Charlie again and thought he might be playing a game with her tonight.
“First of all, I want to welcome every one of you to the Christmas Festival for the Children’s Auxiliary. It’s hard to believe a whole year has flown by and we’re gathered again tonight for a very good cause. Thank goodness the storm hit two nights ago, instead of tonight. Aurora Metcalfe and Bernice Bickens would have been in a pickle with all those wonderful pies and cookies.”
Lark heard scattered laughter as she moved through the crowd, looking left and right for Charlie.
“The pre-sales figures at this time are over five-hundred dollars and several of the ranchers and businesses in the area have promised to match the final amount, so I don’t want to see any crumbs left tonight. I know for a fact Mr. Taylor still has ribs on the barbeque out back and there are still other delicious fixings around. So please give all you can. Now, I don’t normally do this, but a gentleman wanted to know if he could ask a lady a very important question. Since I’m a romantic at heart, I agreed.”
Lark turned to the riser where the DJ was set up for the evening and saw him hand the microphone to Charlie. She froze in her steps.
Charlie smiled at the crowd. Lark saw his eye catch hers and her heart pounded harder in her chest.
“Hi everybody, I’m not a very good speaker so I’ll get to the point,” Charlie began and then cleared his throat. “My name is Charlie Stone and I was born and raised here in Canon City. For reasons I won’t go into, but, I’m sure, some of you remember, I went away for awhile. When I was a kid, I lived next to a neighbor who was my best friend in the whole world. Lark Metcalfe and I went on picnics; we saved Canon City from alien invaders more than a few times and cleaned out her grandmother’s freezer on a regular schedule. It was usually the Fudgesicles that went first.”
There was some laughter and a few people looked at Lark. She suddenly felt warmer and crossed her arms over her chest. She became mesmerized by Charlie and couldn’t move her feet
when she saw him look back at her.
“Lark and Aurora Metcalfe saved me several times and taught me many important life lessons. The most important being to not turn your back on the place you’ve always called home and those who love you and make you feel safe.” He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a small box. “Lark, I’ve loved you for going on forever, first as a sister and then as a soul mate. With all these friends and family as witnesses, I want to ask you to marry me.” She heard his voice crack. “Please, will you consider being my wife?”
The crowd held its breath and turned to Lark. Some of the ladies sniffed and dabbed their eyes. They watched her expectantly.
She felt tears began to trickle down her cheeks and was stunned. She watched Charlie hand the microphone back to the DJ and step off the riser. The crowd parted and let him through. He stopped about ten feet from her.
She took a breath and tried to say yes, but couldn’t get her voice to work. She cleared her throat and wiped her face. She moved a step closer to him and smiled. “Charlie Stone,” she said, loudly. “I would be proud to be your wife.”
The crowd clapped and Charlie took a step closer to her and opened the box. She didn’t even see the ring. All she wanted to look at was him. She felt him slide the ring onto her finger, but still couldn’t take her eyes off him. She put her arms around his neck and felt his hands on her back. They held each other and then she realized the DJ started to play a slow song.
She looked up at him still stunned and unsure of what to say.
“Babe, will you dance with me?”
She nodded as he pulled her close and they started to sway. “Why didn’t you tell me about getting your hair cut?” she asked.
Charlie looked down at her and bounced his head back and forth. “Well, I sort of wanted to surprise you, but you looked at me about twenty times and I realized you didn’t recognize me anymore. I didn’t think I looked that different.” He pulled her closer and held her hand on his chest.
She touched his cheek. “You shaved, too.” She looked up into his eyes and ran her finger along his jaw. “You don’t look that different and you do. I think it was your ears that threw me off. I haven’t seen them for a very long time. I’m going to miss your long hair to grab onto when we’re fooling around.”
“You look so beautiful tonight.” She felt his hand move to the small of her back. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear your hair up and your legs are killing me.”
She moved her hand to his shoulder. “I can sort of tell you like my appearance tonight.” She saw his eyebrows pop up. “There’s something hard pressing against my stomach.” She smiled and laughed.
“It’s that illness I told you about,” he whispered into her ear and nibbled the lobe.
“I hope medical science never finds a cure.” She finally saw the ring on her finger and stopped moving. It was an oval cut diamond in a brushed silver-lace setting. “Oh my God.” She looked up at him. “You didn’t break into your school savings, did you?”
“Nope, I sold my truck this morning and got a pretty good price for it. After I found an acceptable four-wheel drive Jeep to get me up to school in the fall, I discovered I had enough left over for a really good ring, not just a nice ring. I’ll have enough to live on for awhile, too.”
“It’s really beautiful. I have to show Gran.”
As they turned to walk off the dance floor, Lark stopped. She held her breath and wanted to run from the room. Thomas stood on the edge of the dance floor with a crowd of people and smirked at her.
Charlie put his hand on her arm. “Go over to Gran’s table, Lou.”
She turned and put her hand on his chest. “No. Charlie, he’s not worth it. Please, it’s still a wonderful evening. I don’t want him to wreck this for us.”
He looked down at her and she could see a fire blaze in his eyes. She knew he wanted to protect her and beat Thomas for hurting her in the past, but she couldn’t let him do it.
When Lark turned back around, she saw Thomas move closer to them. He wore a smug look on his face and Lark felt intensely disgusted by him. A few of the people from the crowd moved in closer as the scene developed.
“I was going to cut in and congratulate you, my dear.” He looked at Charlie. “It would seem you’ve won the slut, Mr. Stone. You’ll have to ask her about her sexual choices. It’s very interesting.”
Lark pulled Charlie back. “Thomas, I don’t know why you’re here tonight, but I have nothing to say to you.” She took Charlie’s hand and attempted to move him away.
“It looks as though she might have told you about our little adventure a couple of months ago,” Thomas said and a few more people around them turned to stare. “She was very entertaining that night, you know? She begged for the attention and became quite distraught when she wasn’t punished for the screaming.”
Lark turned back to Thomas and felt her own fury stir in her head. “I’m not sure you want to discuss that here, Thomas. I have an appointment with the Denver district attorney to give a deposition about your adventure and what happened. It seems there have been many complaints made about your club.” She let go of Charlie’s hand and stood her ground. “You always denied it to me, but there are enough people here tonight if you want to admit the truth of your actions, I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to help me out with my testimony. Maybe you should start out by telling them how you drugged me. The blood tests that were done that week showed I still had the drug in my system. The district attorney found that of interest and wants copies of the reports.”
“Be very careful, my dear. You might be stepping onto an i
ced over river. If you fall through, there might not be anyone to help you,” he hissed at her.
“I don’t think so, Thomas, or you wouldn’t look so angry.” She turned back to Charlie and took his hand. “Come on, babe. He’s a loser and not worth wasting a beautiful night.”
They started to walk away and she saw Charlie stare at Thomas.
“Mr. Stone, did she tell you she begged to be tied down? She moaned very loudly and experienced multiple orgasms that night. She was quite sated in the morning when we left. Lark asked me when we could return for more.”
Lark felt bile rise in the back of her throat. She looked up at Charlie and tilted her head. “I tried to give him an out. Ducky, you told me about all those anger demons you’ve bottled up for years; I think it’s time to let them loose. Remember when I said he wasn’t worth it?”
“Yes.” Charlie continued to stare at Thomas.
“He’s worth it; plug him a good one for me, babe.” She stretched up and kissed his lips lightly.
“Right.” He looked down at her. “This won’t take long.” He took off his coat. “Would you hold on to this for me, sweetheart?”
Lark took the coat and watched Charlie walk up to Thomas. He pushed the sleeves on his turtleneck up his arms. They stared at each other. Charlie had a good five inches on the aggressor. Gran came up along-side of her and took her arm.
“So, you’re a body guard now, Mr. Stone,” Thomas sneered and it wasn’t a question, but a statement.
Charlie laughed, but didn’t look away from him. “Have you ever played chicken, Tommy?”
“I can’t say that I’ve had the pleasure and my name is Thomas.”
“The first man to blink gets a bloody nose, maybe even a broken nose.” He slapped his right fist into his hand. “Sheriff Bennett, if I were to clock this guy in the puss, because of the degrading statements he just made about my fiancée, what would the law think about it?”
Lark looked around and saw a circle of people watching the two men face off. A couple of the men moved their women behind them and Jay Hager walked up behind Charlie and crossed his arms. She didn’t realize that Sheriff Bennett was one of the people, but saw him put a hand up to his jaw. He was a tall, older man with graying hair and she knew he was quite muscular under his coat.
“Well, Charlie, it would seem this prick has disrespected your woman with lies. I don’t know that I’ll have much sympathy for him,” Sheriff Bennett said.
Thomas looked away from Charlie and stared at the sheriff. Charlie grabbed the lapel of Thomas’s coat.
“You shouldn’t have blinked, Tommy,” he growled and brought his fist up into Thomas’s face.
The smack was loud and Thomas went down on one knee, holding his nose. Charlie pulled him up and grabbed onto both sides of Thomas’s jacket. Charlie reared back and pounded a fist into the man’s gut. He let the creep fall to the floor where Thomas held his stomach and coughed. Charlie grabbed hold of the back collar of his jacket and pulled him back up to his feet. He started to turn Thomas toward the door that led to the parking lot, but Lark saw Sheriff Bennett walk up to him and put his hand on Charlie’s wrist.
“Charlie, let me take care of this. I’ll be sure he leaves Canon City,” the sheriff said.
Charlie let go of the jacket and nodded. They watched the sheriff escort Thomas out of the building. She saw him turn around and look at her. He smirked through the blood coming from his nose. “This isn’t over Lark. You’ll be hearing from my attorney,” he said and Sheriff Bennett pulled his arm and got him out the door.
Some of the folks who’d watched the scene started to clap. Charlie shrugged and walked up to her. She saw the blaze had simmered down in his eyes and he gently put his hand on her cheek. He moved closer to her and she could feel his warm breath on her lips.
“How about that?” he whispered and put his lips on hers. He pushed his tongue into her mouth and gently stroked around her teeth and cheeks and connected with her tongue.
Warmth flooded her system and her heart pounded in her chest. She realized her core was pulsing and her nipples had grown very hard. “Ducky, you are so hot, right now. Are you okay? Is your hand all right?” she whispered back and smiled at him.
He looked down at his hand and flexed it a couple of times. “Yep, I don’t think I broke anything.” His lips curled and he leaned over to kiss her, again.
She heard whoops come from the crowd and turned with Charlie to look around them. He bent at the waist and bowed. Lark laughed. He took his coat out of her hands and put it back on. The DJ started the music again.
“Sweetheart, if you wouldn’t mind, Gran looks a little dismayed over there and I’d like to ask her for a dance. Maybe I can let her know that we’ll fill her in later when we get home,” he said.
“Yeah, I’ll sugarcoat it a little, but I’ll have to let her know what happened.”
He touched her lips with his fingers. “I’ll be there with you, Lou. You won’t have to tell her alone.” His eyebrows rose and he put his hand on her cheek. “Now, I think we should plan on leaving soon. I’m very interested to see what you have on under that dress.”
“Gran would probably be over-the-moon if you asked her to dance,” she said and kissed him again. “And I think I’ll give her the keys to the rental. I want to see your new Jeep and, of course, show you what’s not on under the dress.” She arched her eyebrow.
He kissed her again and whispered, “You are such a tease, and how will I ever tame you?”
“That’s funny, I just wondered the same thing about you.” She grinned.
He ran his tongue over her bottom lip and then turned. She watched Charlie walk over to Gran. He offered his arm and Gran grinned and took it. They made their way out to the dance floor.
Nancy came over to Lark and linked arms with her. “My oh my, if this hasn’t been a crazy week. The business is almost taken over by your ex-fiancé and then was saved by our oh-so-brilliant attorney. You got rid of a loser, but are now engaged to a hottie and, may I say, a very good defender. I’m out of breath. It’s hard to keep up.”
“You’re right, it seems like I blinked and everything changed. Wait, is it okay for me to blink?” Lark said.
“Have you set a date yet?”
“He just asked me, Nance. I think I really want to enjoy this engagement though. He’s going to start veterinary school at Fort Collins in the fall. I’m not sure if we’ll do a wedding before or after.”
“Will you let me do a bridal shower this time?”
“We’ll have to discuss it. I’m still not sure it’s necessary.” Lark held her hand up and showed Nancy the ring.
“”You’re not going to be grumpy-pants with me again?” She took Larks hand and examined the ring. “This is beautiful.”
“Charlie has good taste. And I was not grumpy with you. I just didn’t want to get good stuff and then have to share it with Thomas.” Lark laughed.
“Point taken. I better go find my significant other. See you Monday.” Nancy walked over to the beer section and Lark saw her find her husband.
She looked out at the dance floor and watched the dancers. She saw Charlie come toward her with a look on his face that made her toasty warm. He put his arm around her shoulder and kissed her. He laced his fingers with hers and kissed the back of her hand.
“Where’s Gran?”
“She wanted to talk to Mrs. Bicken’s about the bake-off and I had to thank Sheriff Bennett for his support. I don’t know if you ever knew this, but he was one of the officers who arrested me on that really bad night years ago. He testified at my hearing and convinced the judge that I shouldn’t be sent to prison. There were many, many times when he and his partner came to the house because of complaints. He’s a good man.” He looked at her. “It just hit me. You’re going to be Mrs. Stone. How v
ery cool is that?” He smiled at her and kissed the palm of her hand.
“Yes and you will be my husband, at my beck and call. I’ll require breakfast in bed every Saturday morning. I will also want you to meet me in the shower on a regular basis.” She noticed Charlie’s grin get bigger. “So, you liked the shower?”
“Oh yeah. In fact, I’m thinking we may want to invest in a bigger hot water tank. The water gets cold too fast.”
“I noticed that, but you did keep me very warm.” She laughed. “We could always bring your rubber duck in with us.”
“Nope. Sorry, I’m not sharing you with anything. You’re mine, toots. You better get used to it.”
“It might be a struggle, but I’m sure I will.”
“How about you come out on the dance floor and let me feel you up?” Charlie wiggled his eyebrows.
Lark sighed and let him lead her out.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Lark woke up and felt Charlie’s arm move tighter over her stomach. She pushed back to his chest and yawned. “Good morning, Ducky.”
“Good morning, Almost Mrs. Stone,” he said and kissed her ear.
She looked over her shoulder and saw he was propped up on his elbow. She smiled and twisted around to face him. “Merry Christmas.”
“Hey, that’s right. Merry Christmas to you.” He brought his hand up to her face and traced her lips with a finger. “You know, I love waking up with you so much. When the light starts coming in the window, I have to wake up and watch you sleep. It confirms that I’m not dreaming and we’re really together.”
She kissed his finger and felt warmth run into her pelvis. “You’re the best Christmas present I’ve ever received, except...” She stopped and got a serious look on her face.
“Except what?”
“Except for that one year. I don’t remember how old we were, but you saved up your paper route money and got me that pretty little heart pendant with the fake diamond in it. I wonder what I did with that.”
Love's Embers (Canon City Series) Page 21
