Charming: The Coast Book 9

by Hart, Eve R.

  “Think you said it all for me,” he replied with a quick smirk. “Some of these guys, I have to keep an extra close eye on. Not because I think they’ll fuck up, but because they don’t believe in themselves enough. We all got shit, hell, that’s why most of us are here. We don’t fit in anywhere else. Life either gave us a shitty hand or an odd way of thinking about things. But we fit together. We all work because we understand that we aren’t all perfect.”

  He paused and we both took a moment to look around the bar that was full of brothers.

  “Some might think that because you have a pretty face and an easygoing attitude that you have it all together,” he went on. “I know better. But what I also know is that despite all your shit, you have a damn good head on your shoulders. You use that brain you got up there so you don’t need me as much.”

  “Are you trying to tell me that I made the right move?”

  With a small shake of his head and a roll of his eyes, he chuckled under his breath.

  “Don’t make me take it back,” he said and I knew he was just messing around. “Yeah, I worry about her. But I also know her, and the reason she hasn’t left isn’t because she has nowhere else to go. She chooses to stay because she’s like us. She’s a little more sane than some of us, but she still has had that feeling of being lost and misplaced most of her life. Maybe one day she’ll find somethin’ better than what she has now, or maybe she’s already found her home here.”

  “Thanks, Prez,” I said with a smile on my face.

  “Don’t mistake me, though,” he said, his face hard and his tone stern. “You fuck this up and I won’t be happy. I promised Dade I’d look after her, plan on doin’ that until I take my last breath, you got me?”

  With a heavy sigh, I nodded.

  “I’ll do you one better, Prez,” I said finding my big man balls and taking the biggest plunge of my life. “I’ll take over that promise and protect her with everything in me.”

  I’d said it and there was no taking it back. Sure, they were just words and people went back on their promises all the time. But I wasn’t one of those people, I didn’t take shit like that lightly. If I gave my word, I’d give my life before I broke it. I didn’t need to tell Iron that because he already knew.

  His eyes met mine, serious and penetrating. A beat went by, then another. My heart pounded so hard and I could hear the beats echoing in my ears. It was almost like they were counting off the moments of silence as they ticked on.

  “That’s how you feel?” he asked and I nodded. “Alright then. But know, I’m gonna be there watching over your fuckin’ shoulder.”

  “I hear you, Prez.”

  I drank my beer, and then ordered another one. He did the same. He’d made his point and I’d gotten it, there was no need to talk about it anymore.

  “Blade gonna cause a problem with this?” he asked at some point.

  I rubbed the back of my neck and took a long pull of my beer. Could I answer that question for sure? No, I couldn’t. There was something between her and Blade but I hadn’t quite figured out what it was yet. She’d kissed him but I didn’t know what that meant. It wasn’t some moment between them, or at least it hadn’t been when she went in for the kill. But for a split second, it was clear that it had affected her. There were a million and one different reasons that I could come up with for why it had. Or those reasons could have been the hopeful part of me trying to explain it away. Maybe she did like him. She’d joked about comparing the two of us, but was it really a joke? And I wasn’t all that sure how Blade felt about the whole thing. He told me he wasn’t going to get in the way but as I’d said before, there was something there.

  In other words, I had no damn clue how to answer Iron. While I wished the answer was simple, I knew it wasn’t. Not in this type of situation.

  Then my thoughts went to that place that might have been there in the back of my mind. You know, the one that said I wouldn’t mind taking care of her with Blade. Was it crazy? Some might say yes. But it didn’t feel all that wrong to me. Blade wasn’t just anyone and it would never work for me with someone other than him. I was smart enough to know that much. However, there was something that told me that while Blade could handle it, he wasn’t quite ready to let someone in. He wasn’t ready for a steady woman in his life. Abigail had a fire in her but it wasn’t hot enough to burn through all the weeds and forest Blade hid himself in.

  “You’re thinkin’ too hard over there,” Iron said snapping me out of my thoughts.

  “I don’t know if the answer is that simple. Problems as in it will cause drama for the club? No, I don’t think so. Problems for himself, maybe. I don’t think he knows how he feels or what he wants. But he won’t ever admit it.”

  “Handle it delicately,” he told me with a jerk of his chin.

  “I will,” I said with a soft sigh.

  I never thought that Blade would be the brother I’d be closest to. He was a bit of an asshole and I never could stand the type. I’d been around that all my life, you know, the kind that got it in their head that their balls were bigger than they really were. The kind that bulldozed their way through life and fuck anyone that tried to stop them. He’d gotten better since he became part of the club but that part of him was still strong. I think most of us were on edge when it came to him, just waiting for that moment where he snapped and threw away everything he had here.

  “At least he still has Sketch to play with,” Iron said with humor in his tone.

  “Yeah, there’s that.” I huffed out a laugh.

  Hey, it was no secret about what we did. I wasn’t ashamed. However, I worked better with Blade than with Sketch. That wasn’t saying anything bad about Sketch, it was that sometimes he got a little weird when I shared with him. I felt like I had to keep my eyes and body away from him. It definitely made things less easygoing. Kind of took away from the moment and all. That was his personal shit and I wasn’t trying to make fun of it. I understood that things hadn’t been easy for him and hey, I had no room to judge.

  All of that said, there was still one thing weighing heavily on my mind. If I didn’t tell her, more than likely she’d never find out. But then again, if I didn’t tell her, I’d be lying to her forever.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Abigail

  Okay, I promised myself that I wasn’t going to freak out. I tried so hard not to but how could I not? For real?!

  It was early and I was standing at the stove. The whisk was almost violent in my hand as I stirred the grits. See, I knew to get that smooth consistency you had to whisk it constantly. If you let it settle, they would get clumpy. And that was just gross. Just add more water, some would say, but no, that was all wrong. In fact, I used a little less water than what it said on the side of the package. The second the water started rolling, you toss in the tiny ground bits and get that arm going the instant they hit the water. This worked every time, without fail, to have smooth, creamy, delicious grits. Thick enough to stick to your spoon but silky enough to slide over your tongue and down your throat.

  Oh, yeah.

  But the grits weren’t the important part. I seemed to have gotten sidetracked. My brain was mush because standing close enough so that I could feel the energy coming off of his body, was Charming.

  Yep.

  He was wordlessly leaning over me watching me work with a twinkle in his eye. If I so much as leaned back a half an inch I would feel him against me. Yes, I wanted that so friggin’ badly right now.

  “I never liked grits before. The only time I found they didn’t feel like slime and grit in my mouth was this one restaurant in the middle of nowhere.” I smiled and kept stirring as he talked. “I ordered the shrimp and grits because the menu promised me it would be the spiciest I’d ever had. I’d never had shrimp and grits, but it felt like a challenge, so I tried it.”

  My head fell back as I laughed and the back of my head brushed against his chest. I straightened and did my best to pretend it didn’t affect me. That
I didn’t feel little fairies traveling along the highway of my veins. I tried to ignore that I knew how it felt to have his lips on mine.

  Okay, so I was failing miserably.

  Like I was two seconds away from turning around and begging him to take me. Yep, the grits would be long forgotten.

  “But I remember the first time I had yours,” he said and I snapped back into the moment— like, oh, yeah, he was talking. “I think you put cheese in them. And they were creamy and so good.”

  “Wait, what about the shrimp and grits?” I asked, confused and feeling like I’d missed part of what he was saying while I was zoned out.

  He chuckled and it rang sexy in my ear. I didn’t have a clue what that meant but that was what it felt like.

  “You spaced out on me, didn’t you?” he asked, his lips right next to my ear, his breath fanning over my skin sending a shiver down my spine.

  “Maybe you’re a little distracting,” I said and for some odd reason my voice came out embarrassingly husky. I cleared my throat and stumbled for something to say to cover up what I’d just sort of admitted. “Or, you know, maybe your story was a little boring and I went someplace better.”

  Yep, mental face plant in palm.

  I closed my eyes not baring the thought of hurt that might flash across his beautiful face. But to my surprise, his laughter hit my ears.

  “The shrimp and grits happened to be perfect. So spicy I couldn’t breathe, but the texture of everything had me nearly licking the plate. However, my stomach was not happy for the rest of the day.”

  I giggled. I couldn’t handle any kind of spicy. If I ate anything remotely hot, I was stuck in the bathroom the next day. So I could only imagine how he must have felt at that moment.

  I turned the heat down to low and finally pulled the whisk away. They were good to sit until everything else was done. Covering them so they wouldn’t dry out, I used my hip to playfully bump Charming out of my way.

  “I have to make things. Do I need to chase you out of here with my spatula?” I gave him a playfully stern look.

  “If you want me to leave, all you had to do was say so.”

  “I don’t,” I rushed to say and instantly felt the heat hit my cheeks. “I just… I can’t concentrate when you’re near me.”

  “Hmmm,” he hummed as he stepped closer to me. “Then I guess I shouldn’t kiss you, huh? Wouldn’t want you to end up burning the place down because you can’t focus on cooking the eggs.”

  I wheezed out some kind of sound that wasn’t even close to being smooth or sexy. This made him chuckle and I loved that smile on his face right now. So… charming. Yep, I was rolling my eyes at myself too. But there was really no other word for it.

  “Do it fast, before I think about it too much and run out of here to hide,” I said as I finally got air back in my lungs.

  He didn’t hesitate once the words left my mouth.

  His lips met mine and he took control. It didn’t last long and it wasn’t anything crazy, there wasn’t even any tongue. But it was enough to knock me off balance and feel like I was falling through the floor.

  “Thanks,” I breathed out as he pulled away and I was having trouble opening my lids.

  I didn’t hear his laughter so much, as feel his amusement in the air around me. I smiled and he leaned in again to kiss the corner of my lips. It was such a light touch that I wondered if I was imagining it.

  “I’ll be back when you’re done, then. I don’t want to be responsible for you hurting yourself.” His voice held a hint of humor to it.

  My heavy eyelids opened and all I could do was nod.

  He tossed a smile— yes, a charming one— over his shoulder right before he rounded the corner out of the kitchen.

  “Oh, I know that look,” Ingram said as she suddenly filled my vision, closer than I would have expected. I hadn’t even realized that she’d come into the kitchen after Charming left, which was weird, considering I was staring longingly at the doorway.

  “Give me that baby!” I said abandoning the stove, not like I was doing anything but standing there anyway, and rushing over to her. I scooped Sparrow up in my arms and twirled around. Then I stole all the baby kisses while Ingram and Chry laughed. “Hey, cool dude.”

  Chry jumped up and gave me the loudest, hardest high-five known to man. Holy chips and salsa. I had to shake my hand out, which caused him to laugh harder.

  “Yeah, Dad says I got big muscles,” he told me with a wink as he flexed his little arms. I died with laughter and so did Ingram.

  “Such a little cheese ball. So cute,” I said as I winked back at him.

  She got Chry situated at the table with some apple slices and set Sparrow in her highchair with some oatmeal.

  “Chry told me he wants to eat with the big people today. He made me call Ky and Chris so they would come up here.” She shook her head but there was a smile on her face.

  “Is that why you’re here so early?” I asked.

  “No, well, sort of. Mouse had to come do some stuff and once Chry heard he was coming up here, he asked very nicely if we could tag along.”

  “Couldn’t say no to him, huh?”

  “Nope.”

  “It’s okay, I can’t either.” We laughed as she moved to the stove and started helping me cook.

  “Don’t think you’re off the hook. I might not see things like most people, but I saw that dazed, happy look on your face.”

  I groaned and tossed my head back dramatically.

  “Which one is it?” she asked like I had so many possibilities. I mean, I supposed I did crush on a lot of the brothers at one point or another.

  How did I answer that question? I wasn’t so sure. I mean. I’d kissed two people. Both of them were good and caused feelings to swim in my gut. Both were pretty much unexpected. I really wasn’t in my right mind when I kissed Blade. And Charming, well, I didn’t see that coming.

  Then I thought of how Charming had been this morning. He was almost flirty, right? I didn’t have much experience with that sort of thing. It was clear there was something different this morning though. Hey, I wasn’t saying I minded it. Not at all. In fact, I wanted more of it. More almost touching. More of his voice in my ear. More laughs. More kisses. Oh, yeah, definitely more kisses!

  “You’re silent. Why? It should be an easy answer. Right?” She sounded a mix of confused and amused.

  “Well…” I said with a shrug. “I sort of… kissed Blade and then Charming kissed me.”

  Her mouth opened and she blinked at me.

  Wait for it…

  “Oh! Like, two of them? You like two of them and you kissed them both? Wait, Charming and Blade like to do things together, right?”

  Yeah, I hadn’t even told her that part. The part where I walked in on them and saw just what they liked to do.

  There was no judgment in her tone, just pleasant surprise.

  “Yeah, they like to share. But I’m not sure how much they, like, um, you know?” I could feel the heat hit my cheeks.

  “They are together a lot.” Her head cocked to the side as she thought about it. “I figured they were close. I guess I never really thought about it. Sounds like it could be interesting.”

  That was one way to put it. Images flashed in my mind that left me feeling hot. I was worried that I was transparent and she could read my thoughts. My dirty, dirty thoughts. Oh, I was blushing again, I could feel it. I tried my best to hide behind the curtain of my hair and hoped she wouldn’t notice.

  Ingram seemed oblivious as she cracked eggs into a big bowl. I shouldn’t have expected anything else though.

  “Are you going to try to go after both of them?” she asked after a few minutes.

  “Oh, I, um…” I shook my head. “I don’t even know what is going on. It could be a game to them. And now I’m the girl in the middle. I guess it’s kind of my fault because I put myself there. I was the one that kissed Blade, maybe he didn’t even want it. I have no clue because that man is a bl
ank mask all the time. I couldn’t even begin to speculate what goes on in his head.”

  “Mouse says that Charming watches you.”

  “What?!” I said with a gasp. Sometimes I feel his eyes on me, but I figured it was simply because he was watching out for me. “No, not like that.”

  “Yes.” Her head blindly nodded. “Yes, like that. He says. I’m not good at reading people so I can’t help you out.”

  “I don’t know if I can talk about this. I don’t even know what there is to talk about. I’m probably overthinking things and being a crazy chick.”

  “You should talk to Bridget. She’s better with this sort of thing,” Ingram said as she began to whisk the eggs.

  “Maybe…”

  What had I gotten myself into?

  I needed to set myself straight before I went down some kind of super-crush hole. Before I blew this whole thing out of proportion in my mind and started to see things that weren’t there.

  Charming and Blade had been there since Dade died. They had kind of been like my little— well, big— guardian angels, looking out for me and comforting me when I was most sad. Neither of them had given me any indication that they thought of me as anything other than someone they had to look out for. I wasn’t even counting the kiss part or how Charming was this morning. I didn’t really see how things could change on a dime. Like one minute, Charming sees me as something like a kid sister and the next, he wants to bone me.