A Charm Like You

by Sharla Lovelace

  “Micah,” I began.

  “I just don’t want either of you to get hurt over a hook-up,” she said.

  I covered my face for a second, then dropped my hands.

  “We aren’t a hook-up, Micah,” Thatcher said, not looking up.

  “What do you mean?” she asked, looking between us.

  He held up his whisk. “I’m Hot Guy,” he said.

  Micah blinked and chuckled. “No, you’re not.”

  Thatcher shrugged. “I didn’t make up the name.”

  “He is,” I said, bringing her widened eyes to me. I blew out a breath. “There were no names, remember?” I said. “I didn’t know who he was till you and I went to the office, and then—then I was so freaked out, and I’d told you all that stuff, and now it was about your brother—and then I was afraid of losing you, or losing the business, and so we tried not to continue,” I said, all in a rush.

  “She tried,” Thatcher said, banging the whisk on the bowl. “I didn’t care.”

  “Well, no, your sister isn’t going to stop being your sister,” I said. “I had to worry about my best friend freaking out that I was falling for her brother.”

  Micah said nothing, her mug halfway to her lips through the whole exchange. Then her dark eyes landed on Thatcher.

  “You went to a support group?”

  I gaped as he just nodded like it was no surprise.

  “That’s the most shocking thing to you?” I asked.

  She held up a finger. “I’ll get back to you.”

  Great. She was done with our friendship over this. Everything I feared was about to happen. I’d gotten the guy, but lost the girl, and I didn’t know if I could stand that.

  “You kept telling me to get out there and start interacting, so…” he said, leaving what he was doing to go close a cabinet door she’d left open.

  “I meant go to a club,” she said. “Meet women. I never saw you as the divorcee support group type.”

  “Well, it’s what I decided to do,” he said, turning on a griddle, “and I did meet women.”

  I snorted. “You met Aspen.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “You were more interesting.”

  “In my Wonder Woman super sexy hoodie?” I asked, grinning.

  “I didn’t come back for the fruit,” he said, dipping his head to kiss my hair on his way to grab a dishtowel.

  “Oh my God, y’all are for real,” Micah said softly, almost to herself.

  I sighed. “I didn’t want to be,” I said. “But it just kept being there, working on me.”

  “And you lied to me,” she said, her eyes back on me.

  The warm fuzzy that I had from Thatcher fizzled out, and my eyes burned.

  “I kept trying to end it so I wouldn’t have to,” I said.

  She frowned. “Why?”

  The question threw me. “What—I don’t understand.”

  “If it wasn’t just a hook-up, and you really had feelings going, why would you throw that away?” she asked.

  Thatcher pointed a spatula at her. “Exactly.”

  I held out my hands. “You were the one saying oh my God, y’all would kill each other and blow up the world, and then where would I be,” I said, letting my hands drop.

  “I’m pretty sure I never mentioned blowing up the world,” she said.

  “Well, you were right,” I said, “and I tried to avoid it for as long as possible, but—”

  “Gabi,” she said, interrupting me. “I don’t care.”

  I blinked. “You don’t?”

  “Are you kidding?” she said, thumbing between us. “You should see yourselves right now. You’re happy. He’s happy,” she emphasized, pointing at Thatcher, “and that alone is a miracle.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “If it works, it works,” she said. “I’m just upset that you felt you had to lie to me.”

  “I had just told you all the Hot Guy details in the car,” I said. “Everything we—”

  “Oh my God,” she said, her face scrunching up.

  “Yeah,” I said, pointing. “So I didn’t want to make things weird. I thought I could nix it and forgo all that.”

  “And then the kiss at the restaurant,” Thatcher said.

  “The fake date at Rojo’s,” I said.

  “Your apartment,” he said.

  “My house,” I added.

  “Y’all have been doing it every day?” Micah asked, cringing a little.

  “No, that wasn’t until today,” Thatcher said.

  “Oh, Jesus,” she said, dropping her head. “Please tell me I didn’t interrupt that.”

  “I’ll let you sweat that one out, little sister,” he whispered, pouring the first two pancakes onto the griddle.

  “I just didn’t know how to unlie to you about it once I started,” I said. “I’ve been spinning in circles about it. It’s the one thing that scared me the most.”

  She pushed off the counter and walked over to me.

  “You never have to cover things up for me,” she said. “Either of you.” She put her mug down and hugged me tight. “You’re the two people I love the most. Well, and Leo. And Jackson.” She let go, and spun on Thatcher. “Did Jackson know?”

  “Only when he walked in on us,” Thatcher said.

  “Oh, ick,” she said.

  I left out that I was pretty sure Jackson suspected from the very beginning. It didn’t serve a purpose to point out that he was much more observant.

  “But I’m putting him on my shit list for not calling me,” she said. “I get what you were trying to do, but he totally should have called me to gossip.”

  “Thank God he finally has a flaw,” Thatcher said.

  “How did you know I was outside?” I said. “And go wait for me on the porch?”

  “Seriously?” she said. “I made a career of climbing out of these windows as a kid. I know all the routes.”

  “So, we’re good?” I asked, laughing.

  “Girl, we’re always good,” she said. “You’re my person.”

  My eyes burned with happy tears. “You’re mine.”

  “No details, though,” she said. “I’m the only one that can talk about sex.”

  “And yet, not right now,” Thatcher said.

  “Okay, so first things first—Lanie and the baby are great. Everything’s fine. It was a clot, and she’ll be monitored, but everybody is awesome.”

  “Oh, thank God,” I said, feeling a little guilty that I hadn’t thought more about that in the last few hours.

  “And here’s the super question of the day,” Micah said. “What are y’all going to do with your money?”

  “Not sure,” Thatcher said. “Save a lot of it, but I have an idea for something.” He glanced at her. “What would you think if I hired an office manager for the farm and went back to finish my paramedic training?”

  I clapped a hand over my mouth, nearly bouncing with joy for him.

  “That would be awesome!” she said. “Do it!”

  He smiled, as he flipped pancakes. “Think I am.”

  “And you?” she asked, looking my way.

  My heart fluttered in my chest. I knew. I just didn’t know how it might affect the future. This suddenly very new, very real future standing in front of me flipping pancakes.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  “Oh man, I love Nick’s burgers,” Carmen said, piling all the fixings she could onto a delicious sizzling patty.

  “They’re what made me fall madly in love with him,” Lanie said, gently rocking the baby carrier next to her. “All those many moons ago in that little diner in Louisiana.”

  Nick grinned while he set two more patties on a tray, and added a bowl of caramelized onions.

  “That was the day she bought me ou
t of a parking lot,” he said, looking up and winking at his wife.

  “Best purchase I ever made, love,” she said, beaming at him and then turning all her love to the sleeping baby sucking in his sleep.

  Three whole weeks had passed since baby Bailey barreled into the world with gusto, and to further mark the occasion with the opening of the New Blue Grille tomorrow, Nick invited us all to the diner for a burger buffet to break it in. The layout was gorgeous, set with every possible topping you could put on a burger, specialty buns, and a variety of cheeses. He was so in his element, and I watched Lanie glow with pride every time she watched him work.

  “The diner is gorgeous,” I said. “Y’all truly outdid yourselves.”

  The old Blue Banana Grille had been—old—but it had an eclectic charm. They’d managed in the newly built and designed version to hold on to that charm, including some of Allie’s dad’s old photographs that had survived the fire and some other random items, but modernized the diner itself to be very streamlined, state of the art, with a hip retro feel.

  “Well, the extra coinage didn’t hurt,” Allie said on a chuckle.

  We’d all gone to the official reading of Albert Bailey’s will, which was really just a repeat of the original event, except with fancier wording and dressier clothing. I refused to wear sweats to the cutting of a $1.6 billion check. Yes. That’s right. Not that there were actual checks in this scenario. It was wire transfers and new accounts set up at Bailey’s preferred bank. Because our own local banks weren’t evidently trusted with that many zeroes.

  I wasn’t sure that I could be trusted with the zeroes, either, so I had a meeting scheduled with a financial advisor.

  “What was your daughter’s reaction to the news?” I asked Allie.

  “Angel wasted no time picking out her college of choice,” Allie said.

  “And a car,” Bash added.

  “Yeah, I think she’ll adjust to the new financial situation just fine,” Allie said, laughing. “I’m just trying to keep it real.”

  “Me, too,” Carmen said. “I don’t want to lose my mind, it’s a little intimidating.”

  “But we are gonna travel,” Sully said, kissing her head as he sat down next to her with his plate.

  “Definitely,” Carmen said in an excited whisper, her eyes shining.

  “Have to keep my woman’s wanderlust addiction fed,” he said.

  “Are you putting any of it into the Lucky Charm?” Bash asked.

  “Not planning to,” Sully said. “At least not right now. It’s really doing fine on its own, and honestly, this town wouldn’t support anything bigger. I mean, if something comes up later on, maybe, but I’d rather aim that money at other things.”

  “Like?” Micah asked.

  Sully shrugged. “Maybe other business ventures in different locations. Bailey’s holdings are so all over the place, I’m still going through files to find out what all I own, so it won’t be anytime soon.”

  “What about y’all?” Carmen asked Micah, pointing at Allie, too. “You told me what Angel wants, but aren’t there at least two weddings on the books in this room? Any plans?”

  “We don’t know how we’re going to do our wedding yet,” Micah said, punching Leo in the arm when he rolled his eyes. “We don’t!”

  “You completely do,” he said around a mouthful of food. “You have a binder thing full of notes.”

  “And notes are notes,” she said, throwing a tomato slice at him. “Not firm plans. I’m just keeping track of things when I think of them. And Gabi and I have a lot of work to do on Wild Things this spring, kicking it off. Preparing the new land, all that,” she said, smiling at me. “But honestly, after having a big wedding shoved at me last summer, I’m not interested in a big showy event. I’d rather fly us all to Cabo and get married on a beach.”

  “Oh, I love that idea,” Lanie said. “Holy hell, yes. Let’s go.”

  “We bringing Little Shit?” Nick asked.

  “Well, we can’t leave him behind, or my boobs would explode,” Lanie said. “So I guess so.”

  “Let’s get a date figured out first,” Leo said, poking Micah. “That’s a hint.”

  She looked at him. “You really want to go to Cabo? I was just throwing that out there.”

  “I will marry you anywhere, woman,” he said. “Anytime you want to.”

  “May seventh,” she said, making him nearly spew his soda.

  “That’s oddly defined,” he said.

  “My dad’s birthday,” she said. “In Cabo. On a beach. No shoes. All our friends and family. Your niece.”

  “I’m there,” Leo said.

  A chorus of “me toos” filled the room and a laughing Micah kissed Leo.

  “Oh, you know Addison will be excited about that,” Nick said, finally making himself a plate. “She’s a sun worshipper like her mom.”

  “What if we made that a double ceremony?” Bash asked, giving Allie a side-eye.

  She gave him a look. “They don’t want us crashing their day, Bash.”

  “Totally crash our day!” Micah exclaimed. “That would be a blast! You don’t have other plans yet?”

  “Honestly, we’ve been so busy, we haven’t had time to really think about it, so—”

  “Do it!” Micah said excitedly. “Let’s have a double wedding!” She slapped a hand over her mouth and looked at Leo. “Sorry—do you mind that?”

  Leo laughed and hugged her. “Not at all.”

  “What’s your plan, Lanie?” I asked, as the door opened behind us and I turned to see a gorgeous hunk of man walk in. The fact that he was there to be with me was the best bonus.

  “Hey, babe,” Thatcher said, dropping a kiss on my lips before heading straight to the food. “Sorry, I was running behind. My God, this looks good.”

  “Me, or the food?” I asked.

  Thatcher pivoted on a dime and circled back to me. “All you, love. All you.”

  I laughed, and shoved at him. “Go eat.”

  Don’t think my stomach didn’t do acrobats on his word choice, either. The others might not have noticed it, but Micah did. She was grinning at me like a fool.

  And I was ready. I didn’t think I would be yet, but I didn’t think a lot of things when it came to this guy. They happened anyway. I was in love like I’d never been before, and I was more than ready to say it. I just—got choked up every time the opportunity arose.

  “Well, Nick is talking about expanding The New Blue,” Lanie said. “Opening his own location, maybe in Denning. So that might happen.”

  “Long way to go before that happens,” Nick said. “It’s just talk right now.”

  “You’ll do it,” Allie said, winking at him. “And my dad would be so proud if he knew what was going on.”

  “I, for one, am quitting my job at the bank,” Lanie said, holding up a hand.

  “Me too,” Carmen said.

  “This little one coming into the world the way he did,” Lanie said, pulling a blanket tighter over him. “Taught me that life is too short. It’s all precious. So after maternity leave is up, I’ll go in to train someone, and then I’ll belong to my son and my husband and be wherever they need me to be unless a good book decides otherwise.”

  Laughs went around the room, and the chatter died down for a few minutes while we ate. Then I thought of something.

  “Does anyone know what Mr. Bailey meant when he said that one of us knows where his money originated from?” I asked. “I assume that’s you, Sully?”

  He shook his head and wiped his mouth. “No,” he said. “I wondered that, myself.”

  “It’s me,” Allie said.

  Bash looked at her curiously. “Really?”

  “It’s always the quiet ones,” Carmen said.

  “I found a bunch of money at my dad’s last year,” she said. “
Like a crazy amount of money—stuffed in a dresser drawer. My dad was still lucid then but would go in and out.” She played with a fry. “He told me that Mr. Bailey had come to visit, and I knew they’d been friends when they were young. I assumed he’d brought the money, but I didn’t know why, so I went to see him and he ended up telling me the story.”

  Allie took a bite of her burger, and everyone waited. When she took another one, Bash pulled her plate away.

  “Seriously, woman?”

  Allie laughed. “Anyways, Bailey, Lanie’s Aunt Ruby, and my dad were kind of all outcasts as kids. They didn’t have friends so they became friends. Bailey grew up in that house, with his grandmother, and my dad and Ruby would row out there and they’d play in the woods. And in the caves. One day, they were digging around in one of the caves, and found money buried in there.” She stopped with raised eyebrows. “A lot of money. And they were just kids, so in all their wisdom, they didn’t tell anyone, they just split it up and hid it. Grew up, Bailey invested his and grew it into—well, we’re seeing what it grew into. My dad didn’t handle money well, unfortunately. He and my mom opened this diner, so that was a positive thing, but he gambled most of it away. The money in his drawer was what he had left.”

  “Oh, holy shit,” Lanie said. “The money that Aunt Ruby left me that Carmen couldn’t figure out where it came from?”

  Allie nodded.

  “Wow,” Nick said.

  “Oh my God, that’s—wow,” Lanie said again.

  “Did he ever figure out where it came from?” Bash said. “Who put it there?”

  Allie shrugged. “I don’t know. He said it looked old, even then, so they figured no one would come looking for it. But I never talked to him about it again, so that’s all I know.”

  “Could be the mob,” Thatcher said.

  “Or pirates,” I said, nudging him.

  “Can you see either of those in Charmed?” Carmen said.

  “Well, but it wasn’t always a town, or a pond, but it was probably always woods and a cave,” Sully said. “I wonder if there’s more that the pond covered.”

  “Or if Bailey’s great-grandmother had a secret rich lover,” Lanie said, “and he stashed his money there for her. Then she got senile, or lost her mind and forgot about it and died.”