Love Letters: Saving Gideon (The Angel Chronicles Book 4)

by Mary May

  Chapter 13

  The late spring breeze ruffled Charlie’s hair as she gave Stormy a bath. The first bath of the season was always the worst as she tried to scrub off his thick winter coat. Luckily Stormy tolerated it well enough, standing still until she ran the curry comb over a spot just under his belly. He flinched then reached around, shoving her hard with his nose.

  “Ok! I’m sorry…I know that’s your ticklish spot.” She rubbed the horse between his ears in apology.

  Gideon stood on the roof with Zareck and Charlotte. “How do you think she’s doing, Gideon?” Charlotte asked.

  He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Honestly, I don’t know. Most days she does just fine. She enjoys being with Logan, and if wasn’t for the fact that she still cries in her sleep for Nate, I would say she was over him.”

  Charlotte made a tsking sound low in her throat. “Poor baby. She truly and deeply loves him.”

  “If love can make you feel like that…they can keep it.” Charlotte turned to Zareck who was standing with his arms folded.

  “Oh, you don’t mean that! You wouldn’t miss the beauty of love just to avoid the pain, would you?”

  He looked down at her with an arched brow. “Uhh…yeah?”

  She looked at Gideon. “Well, what about you? Would you be too scared of a little pain to experience true love?”

  Gideon thought about her question for a moment. He had seen love carry Sabrina through so much, but he had also seen it nearly destroy her when Luke died and Devon left. Charlie was going through her own version of hell right now with Nate and her internal battle over whether or not to love Logan. Love was definitely risky business, but he thought it was probably worth it in the end. After all, if it wasn’t, then why did people keep falling in love even after being hurt? He decided that if most people thought it was worth it, who was he to knock it?

  Weeks later Logan watched as Charlie spread the red and black checked blanket out on the ground next to the creek. She then set out the food: crispy fried chicken, chunky potato salad, tomato and cucumber salad, a pitcher of sweet iced tea and last but certainly not least a box of her mom’s homemade chocolate chip cookies. Logan sniffed appreciatively at the wonderful smells. “Mmm… that smells so good!”

  Charlie smiled as she finished setting up their little picnic. “I can’t take credit for anything except the potato salad; the rest is all Mama.”

  Logan reached for her hand as they both bowed their heads and said grace over their lunch. This was what she loved about being with Logan. It was so easy to be exactly who she was with him. She never had to water down her relationship with Christ around him. Nate had always tolerated it, but she knew his heart wasn’t in it. That didn’t bother her -- she thought it was something that would come in time. They spent the afternoon talking and sharing stories from their childhood. Charlie tried to find memories that she could share with Logan that didn’t have Nate in them, but there were very few.

  Logan reached up and rubbed at the frown lines between Charlie’s eyes.

  “Stop it.”

  She looked at him. “Stop what?”

  “Stop trying to remove him from your childhood. Stop trying to pretend that your love didn’t exist. Stop trying to protect me from it. I know what he meant to you. I understand that there will most likely be a part of your heart that will always belong to Nate Jackson. As much as I wish I could have your whole heart, I would be more than happy with whatever you have left.” He stood up then offered Charlie his hand, pulling her to her feet. “I love you, Charlie. I love you with all your worries and confusions and conflicts of your heart. The way that you love with your whole heart makes me love you that much more. I will never ask you to throw away your memories of Nate or your love. So much of who you are is because of him, so if anything, I owe him my thanks.” She started to speak but he silenced her with a kiss. After a few moments he pulled back.

  Charlie looked up at him with tears in her eyes but a soft smile on her lips. “I love you, too, Logan. I still love Nate and I think you’re probably right that a part of me always will love him. But that doesn’t lessen what I feel for you. I thank God for bringing you into my life. You saved me.”

  Gideon stood off to the side watching the air around them. He didn’t see any shimmering. Logan’s guardian didn’t come into view. He wondered about that for the rest of the day.

  Charlie sat on the couch watching television. Well, she was actually replaying the scene with Logan from earlier that afternoon over and over in her head. She couldn’t believe that she had told him she loved him. It wasn’t that she didn’t mean it because she did. The biggest problem was that she didn’t understand how she could love both men. What did that make her? One of the twins came in and plopped down on the couch next to her. She glanced over and saw it was Luke.

  “Hey, Lukie.”

  He smiled. “Hey Char-Char. What are you doing?”

  Charlie rolled her eyes. “Clearly I am watching TV,” she replied.

  Luke rolled his eyes that were exactly like Devon’s right back at her. “I beg to differ, sis. Clearly you are not.”

  Lifting her hand, she gestured toward the TV that was in front of her. “Well, it’s on and I’m looking at it, so what would you call it?”

  Luke laughed. “Staring off into space. I know you’re not actually seeing what’s on that screen. You hate golf.”

  Startled, Charlie actually looked at what was on the TV. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, how long has that been on?”

  Luke picked up the remote and hit the guide button. “Over an hour,” he said with a grin. Tossing a pillow at him, she relented.

  “Ok, fine. I wasn’t watching TV.”

  He caught the pillow, hugging it to his middle.

  “So what were you thinking on so hard?”

  Charlie sighed as she laid her head on the back of the sofa staring up at the ceiling. “Nate, Logan, then Nate again,” she admitted.

  “I like Logan. I think he is a good guy and it’s easy to see he cares about you.”

  Charlie rolled her head until she could see her baby brother who wasn’t a baby anymore. At nearly fifteen he was nearly grown.

  “Lukie, can I ask you a question? Do you think it’s possible to love two people at once?”

  He considered her question. “Do you mean you love Logan and Nate?”

  She nodded. “I still love Nate very much, but I also love Logan.”

  Luke played with the ruffle around the edge of the pillow he held. “I’ve heard that true love never dies. But it would seem to me that if that is the case and you can’t be with that person for whatever reason, that maybe your heart grows a little bigger to make room for someone that you can be with. It doesn’t make you love the first person any less and it doesn’t mean that you can’t love the second person just as much. I don’t really know. I’m no expert on this, but that makes sense to me.”

  Charlie reached over and dragged her brother into a tight hug. “You are so smart! Thank you! I love you!” She planted a loud kiss on his cheek before running out of the living room, leaving a dazed Luke staring after her.

  Logan drove out to Charlie’s wondering what in the world was so important that he had to come right then. The only thing he could think of was Nate had to be back. Charlie was most likely having him come over to tell him goodbye. He knew this was always a possibility. He had known it was very risky to fall for someone who still had strong emotional bonds to another man, but he couldn’t stop his heart. Once it had decided to love Charlie, there was no talking it out of it. He pulled into their driveway and felt better for a moment when he didn’t see any strange cars.

  “Idiot. Nate most likely can’t drive.” He shut off his truck, prayed for strength, then got out and walked to the house. Charlie met him on the porch, indicating she wanted to speak to him out there. He figured Nate must be inside and she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable. He swallowed down the knot of pain that was already lodging in his thr
oat. Charlie smiled and patted the cushion beside her. He sat next to her on the swing and waited for the axe to fall.

  Charlie took a couple of deep breaths. She was so nervous. After talking to Luke this afternoon, she felt like the world was lifted off her shoulders and had opened right up for her. Telling Logan that she was finally ready to move forward with him was something that she couldn’t wait until tomorrow to do. His expression seemed a little guarded, so she hoped he wasn’t upset at her for asking him to drive back out here so late.

  “So, this afternoon I had a chat with Luke. You know, for someone so young he has some deep insight into the female heart.”

  Logan just nodded and waited without saying anything.

  Charlie pressed on. “After talking to him I had to tell you something and it couldn’t wait until tomorrow. I’m sorry. I had to get it off my chest and this isn’t something I want to tell you over the phone.”

  The knot in Logan’s throat became a little bigger, but he still sat silently and let her speak. Charlie turned in the swing so she was facing him.

  “Logan, I love you. When I told you that this afternoon, it was the truth.”

  “Oh, God help me…here it comes,” he thought.

  “But as you know I will always love Nate. He was… is too big a part of my life for me to try and ignore.”

  Logan ran his suddenly sweaty palms down his denim-clad thigh.

  “How do I say this?” she muttered.

  Logan quickly stood up, unable to take this kind of blow sitting down.

  “What’s wrong?” Charlie looked up at him in concern.

  “Charlie, you don’t have to say anything, ok? I know what’s happening and honestly I expected it. So, no hard feelings… really. I wish you both the very best and I pray that you will be very happy with Nate.”

  He had just stepped off the porch when he heard Charlie laugh. Well…now that was unexpected! He didn’t figure she would laugh at his pain. He just kept walking toward his truck trying to make it before he made a blubbering fool of himself.

  “Logan! Logan! Stop! You have this all wrong! Wait!” He heard the crunch of gravel as she came after him. Grabbing his arm, she swung him around with surprising force. “Would you stop already?”

  He stared into the darkness over her head. He just couldn’t look into those eyes when she told him goodbye.

  “I want to be with you, Logan! You! I know now that loving Nate doesn’t mean that I can’t love you just as much and that’s what had me so tore up inside. I didn’t want to give you only half my heart. You deserve all of it.” She reached up, cupping his face with her hands she pulled his head downward to look into his eyes. “Is any of this sinking in? Are you hearing me?”

  He looked into her face, searching those beautiful eyes, seeing only love and truth as she stared up at him. He couldn’t say a word; all he could do was crush her lips under his and wrap her up into his arms…

  Gideon, Zareck, Skye and Raphael all turned accusing eyes to Charlotte. She looked up at the wall of towering warriors who were giving her dirty looks like she had done something wrong.

  “What? Why are you glaring at me?” She stared back, tapping her bare foot against the shingles of the roof where they were all standing watching the scene between Logan and Charlie play out.

  “I thought you said she would never pick Logan? Didn’t she say that, G?” Skye looked over at Gideon for confirmation.

  He shrugged then nodded. “I do recall you saying something like that, Charlotte.”

  The tiny female angel placed her hands on her hips. “Hey, I haven’t heard any wedding bells yet, have you? This isn’t over…not by a long shot! Nate will eventually get his head out of his…”

  The rest of her words came out garbled as Raphael slapped his hand over her mouth. Seconds later he was yelling as he jerked his hand away, wiping it frantically on his tunic! “She licked me! Oh, sweet heavens! I’m contaminated!”

  Charlotte looked at him with a smug expression. “Ha! Ha! That’s what you get for covering my mouth again! You better be glad I didn’t bite you. The next time one of you big bullies decide to censor me, that is exactly what is going to happen!”

  All the male angels, except Raphael, who was still trying to wipe girl cooties off of his hand, laughed at her threat.

  “Well, if you would control that mouth of yours, then we wouldn’t have to. Have you thought about that?” Zareck asked her.

  “Name one time I have said something that I shouldn’t have,” she challenged.

  When no one could actually recall her saying anything un-angelic, they all mumbled something about having somewhere they needed to be then flew off into the night sky leaving Gideon to try and soothe a very irritated Charlotte.

  She looked at him, crossing her arms and fluffing out her wings to make herself appear bigger. She reminded him of an angry kitten. All she needed to do was hiss at him to complete the picture. Judging from her furious expression, he wasn’t entirely sure that she wouldn’t, but he was curious about one thing.

  “So, what were you going to say before Raphael covered your mouth?” She glanced at him, sparks still shooting from her light green eyes.

  “I was going to say that Nate will one day pull his head out of his own pain and see Charlie’s.”

  Gideon looked back at the couple still locked in a sweet embrace. “Oh,” he said.

  Charlotte smiled as she shook her head. “Yes, oh!

  “Ok, Nate, now nice and slow…We are not in a race.”

  Nate gripped the rails of the parallel bars tightly. Just standing under his own power once more felt amazing! He never would have thought that getting to his feet would take so much effort and concentration. But he did it! Now he looked down the length of the bars and felt his legs wobble.

  “Don’t worry about making it to the end; let’s just see how many steps you can take. Don’t push it,” Hattie cautioned and encouraged at the same time.

  Mac was sitting on a pile of athletic mats with his ever-present grin on his face.

  Sliding his right hand a couple of inches down the bar, Nate shifted his weight to his left leg then swung his right leg with the prosthesis forward. He repeated the process with his left leg. Sweat dripped down his temple as he fought to stay upright. Left, right, left.

  “Nate, let’s stop right there. I don’t want you to over-tire yourself.” She started to push the wheel chair to him when Nate stopped her with a look.

  “No. Let me do this.” He gritted his teeth, ignoring the pain screaming through his body. He was readjusting his grip on the bar when his left leg gave out, sending him crashing to the gym floor. Hattie hurried to his side.

  “Nate! Are you ok? What hurts?” She frantically ran her hands over his legs, feeling for any injuries. “Tell me what hurts,” she repeated.

  Nate groaned as he stretched out his legs. “Can I tell you what doesn’t hurt? That list isn’t as long.”

  He closed his eyes and tried to breathe as the unused muscles in his legs jumped and cramped. Dr. Reed had said that his new prosthesis was state-of-the-art and lightweight. Right now it felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.

  Hattie rubbed hard on the knotted up muscles. “It sure seems like I told you not to push it! If you would listen to me on occasion, I could save you from a lot of unnecessary pain,” she snapped.

  Nate put his hand on hers, stopping her. “I know. I’m hardheaded and stubborn, but I appreciate your efforts.”

  Shaking her head, she sat back with a questioning look. “Why? A few months ago you could have cared less about walking; now all of sudden it’s your reason for living. Care to tell me what brought on all the determination?”

  Nate glanced over to where Mac was now reclining on the mats doing sit-ups. Apparently angels needed to work out too…Who knew?

  Shaking his head, he mumbled, “Hattie, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

  She walked around, carefully helping him back into his chair. �
��Oh, yeah? Well, whatever it was it certainly lit a fire under your butt. While I admire your sudden interest in your recovery, I need you to listen to me, ok?”

  After she had returned Nate to his room and got him settled once more in his bed, he asked when she thought he could go home.

  Hattie pulled a chair from the corner, putting it next to his bed. “Well, it’s been well over a year since your accident. Your burns have all healed and you’re working on walking. I would say that what we need to really concentrate on now is getting your stamina and strength back. A few months, maybe less.”

  Nate looked at her with a smile. “Christmas?” he said hopefully.

  Hattie nodded slowly. “I think we can make that. A Christmas homecoming sounds real good.” Nate closed his eyes, drifting off with the image of snowflakes, Christmas trees, and Charlie filling his mind.

  Three days later Shana looked in horror as the hell leech suddenly had a friend. “How can this be? Nate’s attitude is getting so much better! How is he attracting more of those nasty things?” she asked Mac in dismay.

  He shook his head as he looked at the new bitter-heart demon that was now lying on Nate’s left side. “I don’t think it’s anything that Nate is doing. I think the first one is calling in reinforcements. It must know that it is losing him.”

  “So, what do we do? I won’t stand back and watch Nate lose all the progress he has made lately.”

  Mac’s chocolate brown eyes met her crystal blue ones. “Well, if he can call in reinforcements, why can’t we?”

  Shana shook her head. “How? I’m a guardian, so I’m limited on who I can reach out to.”

  Mac grinned that self-important grin of his. “Yeah, but you are forgetting one very important factor here. Me! I’m S.A. so I am very much not limited. Give me until this evening.”

  Shana watched as he started to shimmer from view. “But what are you going to do?” she called out.

  “You’ll see!” he answered before he disappeared.