Chapter Nine

CHAPTER NINE

C AL ' S brAIN FROZE for a moment. Just plain froze. His eyes were seeing the two people in the doorway, but it took a while for the rest of his body to catch up.

Catch up and realize that Noah was there.

Right there. Staring with his mouth open at him and Charlotte. Apparently, Noah was having an issue with being frozen, too, because other than that soft gasp, he didn't make a sound.

Charlotte managed to make a sound. One word, actually. "Shit." That was it for several more seconds.

"Uh," Mandy piped in, "Noah made a surprise visit, and I brought him up to see you. I'm so sorry, Charlotte," she muttered.

That apology jump-started more talk. Unfortunately, it was the four of them talking at once.

"I should have called out to you," came from Mandy.

"Noah, clearly I wasn't expecting you," from Cal.

"What the hell is going on here?" Noah's contribution.

"Shit," Charlotte repeated.

For some reason, Charlotte's reaction stung, even though it was a perfectly normal response. Still, it seemed to be some sort of apology and What have I done? rolled into one. Had she forgotten that she had a right to the kiss that had caused the What have I done? response? Had she also forgotten that Noah had dumped her for another woman and had sent Cal to do his dirty work?

Possibly.

Her mind had to be whirling right now, so it was possible none of those thoughts were getting through the muck.

"What the hell is going on?" Noah repeated, and this time there wasn't so much shock, just more of a pleading tone that he aimed at both Cal and Charlotte since he was volleying gazes at both of them.

"I kissed Charlotte," Cal fessed up, though that was a big-assed duh since Noah had seen the kiss.

Noah's frozen expression completely thawed, and he started cursing. Cursing and pressing his hands to the sides of his head as if trying to stop it from exploding.

Cal automatically moved in front of Charlotte. As far as he knew, Noah had never been aggressive toward her, but then, he'd probably never walked in on her kissing another man. Except it wasn't just another man. It was his best friend. But Cal was certain that his best-friend status would soon carry the label former .

Charlotte didn't stay put behind him. She moved to Cal's side and faced Noah. "Obviously, we weren't expecting you," she said.

"Obviously," Noah snapped, and oh, the anger was rolling in fast. "My deployment was delayed so I decided to come home and see you." He stopped, and it seemed to take a couple of moments to get his mouth working again. "What the hell, Charlotte?"

Cal was about to intercede and defend Charlotte, but she managed it herself. "Noah, you and I are no longer together," she spelled out.

So she did recall the breakup after all. Good. Because Cal didn't want her to feel any guilt over what had just happened. Even if he was feeling plenty of it himself. And he was. He was drowning in guilt here.

No way should he have kissed Charlotte when it'd been only a little over a week since the end of her really long relationship with Noah. Cal wouldn't even mentally add that he sure as hell wasn't in any position to dive into a romance. Especially a romance with the one woman in Emerald Creek who wasn't in any position, either.

Noah started pacing, and occasionally he would stop and fire looks at them. His mouth would open and shut just as quickly. Apparently, like Cal, he was having a hard time figuring out what to say. He finally settled on a question.

"Was that kiss part of the fake engagement my dad told me about?" Noah demanded.

"No," Charlotte answered before Cal could speak.

Mandy must have decided that this conversation was too private for her, and she muttered something about having packing to do, and she hurried out of there darn fast.

Noah huffed and shifted his attention to Cal. "What the hell? I asked you to break up with Charlotte, not seduce her."

Again, Charlotte jumped in. "Cal didn't seduce me. I kissed him because I'm attracted to him." Noah howled out some profanity, but she rolled right over him. "And remember, you broke up with me. How's Elise, by the way?"

Noah stopped howling and looked at Cal as if this was yet another betrayal.

"No, Cal didn't tell me about her," Charlotte was quick to point out. "I saw her name in a text you sent and filled in the blanks."

That wasn't entirely true. Cal had done some blank-filling, but no way would he have brought up Elise if Charlotte hadn't seen the text.

"So this is payback," Noah snarled, jabbing his index finger at them. The jabbing settled on Cal. "You were pissed at me asking you to break up with Charlotte, and you thought this would be the way to repay me."

This time, Cal was the first to answer. "I wasn't thinking of you or repayment when I was kissing Charlotte. I was only thinking about her and the kiss."

That brought on more howling and headshaking from Noah. "I can't believe this," he muttered, spicing that up with some raw profanity.

"That was sort of my reaction when I learned you'd gotten another woman pregnant and were marrying her." Charlotte folded her arms over her chest and glared at Noah. "When's the wedding, huh? And when will you hear the pitter-patter of little feet?"

Noah didn't answer. He just continued to glare at Cal, but that expression softened considerably when he looked at Charlotte. "There's no baby. Elise lied so she could manipulate me into marrying her, and when I found out the truth, I ended things."

That was a lot of information in just a pair of sentences, and if that kiss with Charlotte hadn't happened, Cal might have gone to his old friend and doled out some sympathy.

But the kiss had occurred, and it'd changed everything.

Well, for him anyway. Cal wasn't so sure it had for Charlotte. She certainly wasn't muttering any condolences or reassurances that all would be well. But then, she wasn't telling Noah to get lost, either.

"I feel like an idiot," Noah said. He groaned and scrubbed his hand over his face. "I threw away what I had with you for a liar." His gaze locked on Charlotte. "Please tell me I haven't ruined everything."

When Charlotte opened her mouth, Cal was very interested in what she had to say. But she didn't get a chance to say anything because there was a bloodcurdling shriek from somewhere else in the house.

"Mandy," Charlotte blurted, and she broke into a run.

Cal was on her heels, and Noah was right behind him. Whatever the heck had happened, it was no doubt bad because Mandy let out yet another shriek, and before they even reached the second floor, Cal heard the running footsteps. Mandy was going so fast that she nearly smacked right into them.

"In there," Mandy said. "It's alive. The creepy thing is alive."

That got Cal's attention, and he considered all sorts of possibilities from spiders to snakes to bats. Charlotte must have been considering that as well because she slowed a little, enough for Cal to overtake her.

Cal hurried into the room where Mandy was pointing, and once he looked in the open closet door, it didn't take him long to see, well, he wasn't sure what it was. An acid-green thing with big teeth and curly red hair. It was bobbling up and down, its little feet making scraping noises on the top shelf of the closet.

"What is it?" Charlotte asked, moving next to Cal.

"I think it's some kind of animated...thing," he settled on.

Charlotte sighed. "This must be one of the dolls Becker mentioned."

They moved closer, studying it. Yep, in the strictest sense of the word, it was a doll, all right. The sort that could be used on the set of a horror movie.

The doll did a few more dancing jig steps, and the movement must have propelled it forward because it plunged off the closet shelf and smashed onto the floor. Its false teeth and wig went flying. So did the little mechanical device that it'd been attached to. Cal looked closer and saw that it'd been connected to some kind of trip wire that activated the device when the closet door was opened.

"Well, it's definitely creepy," Charlotte muttered just as Becker called out.

"Did y'all find one of Gertie's dolls?" he shouted.

"Yes," Charlotte confirmed. "A green, dancing one."

Cal thought he heard Becker groan, and the man said something else that Cal couldn't make out.

"He said Gertie sometimes used motion devices," Maybell relayed, her voice a lot louder than Becker's. "And that she used to put little sacks of corn and such in the dolls so the mice would crawl in there to eat it and cause the dolls to move around."

Cal couldn't remember crossing paths with Gertie, and he was glad of that.

"By the way, Izzie and Taggert are here," Maybell added a heartbeat later.

"Great," Charlotte muttered, and she turned away from the doll as if just remembering that Noah was there.

It didn't take long, just a couple of seconds, before there were yet more hurried footsteps. No shrieks, though, when Izzie and Taggert came rushing up the stairs.

"Good," Izzie declared when she saw Noah and her daughter. "You two are together. Noah told you that it's over between him and that other woman?"

"He mentioned it," Charlotte said with plenty of sarcasm. Not aimed at her mother, but rather at Noah.

"Good," Izzie repeated, clearly ignoring the sarcasm. "Then, that sets the stage for the two of you to get back together. Noah's very sorry for what happened," she tacked on as an afterthought.

"He mentioned that, too," Charlotte muttered, and Cal could practically see the mix of emotions coming from her. Anger, for sure, and annoyance, but he thought there was some hurt in the mix.

"Now that Becker's sold you the place, there's no need for the fake engagement," Izzie went on. "You can let everyone know you're with Noah again."

"Izzie," Taggert muttered like a warning. Not an especially stern one, but the man was definitely telling her to throttle back.

Izzie didn't. She shot Taggert a dismissive glance before she reeled back around. Not to face Charlotte this time, but Cal.

"Do the right thing, Cal," Izzie begged. "Tell Charlotte not to throw away all these years. Tell her not to throw away a man who loves her."

A week and a half ago, Cal might have agreed that Noah loved Charlotte. And maybe he actually did. But Noah hadn't just made a little mistake. Then again, his kissing Charlotte might fall into the same non-little category, too. Yes, Charlotte wasn't running into Noah's arms, but she sure as heck wasn't hurrying into his, either.

Izzie huffed when Cal didn't respond, then turned to Charlotte. "Do I need to remind you of your father?"

Of all the things that Cal had thought Izzie might say, that wasn't one of them. "Her father?" Mandy and Cal asked in unison.

Izzie's stare stayed on her daughter. "Charlotte knows what I'm talking about. Some things can't be undone, and the consequences can be devastating."

Clearly, Cal didn't have the big picture here. Yes, he knew that Charlotte's father had left her and Izzie when Charlotte was a teenager. That'd been over twenty years ago, and as far as Cal knew, Charlotte and Izzie hadn't heard a peep from the man since. But Cal couldn't figure out what that had to do with Noah dicking around with another woman and then slinking back to beg Charlotte's forgiveness.

"My father," Charlotte muttered, and this time there was a different emotion in her voice. Really pissed-off anger, and even though Cal didn't know the details, he was pissed for her. Izzie was clearly trying to manipulate her by dragging up something that'd happened in the past.

"My father," Charlotte repeated, and it seemed to Cal that she wasn't even trying to rein in her anger.

Charlotte whirled toward Cal, and in the same motion as the whirling, she hooked her hand around the back of his neck, dragged him to her.

And she kissed him.

Right there, right on the mouth. Right in front of her mother, Noah, Mandy and Taggert. From the corner of his eye, Cal saw that even Jack was watching.

Unlike the kiss upstairs, this one was all for show. And that told Cal loads. That Charlotte obviously had way too many unsettled feelings for Noah, and she might end up forgiving him and taking him back.

Hell.

Cal voiced the Hell aloud when Charlotte broke away from him and stormed out.

C HARLOTTE JUST KEPT WALKING . Down the stairs. Out of the house. Into the yard. Thankfully, neither Maybell nor Becker tried to engage her in conversation. Probably because she looked ready to rip off someone's head, and they didn't want to risk that. She wouldn't have lashed out at them, but mercy, she wanted to at someone.

Noah for starters. Then her mother. Then this crappy situation that was also known as her personal life. Great day in the morning. Things had certainly gone to hell in a handbasket very quickly.

Well, partly it had, anyway.

She hadn't wanted to deal with Noah or her mother. She'd only wanted to focus on the renovations and continue to lust after Cal. The latter was because her body hadn't given her much of a choice about it. But she'd been enjoying the tingle and sparkle of attraction. She'd been enjoying just being with him.

And now she'd ruined it.

That anger kiss had been all wrong. She'd used him, and not only did Cal not deserve that, he was likely now feeling plenty of anger of his own. Added to that, she'd left him to clean up the mess with Noah and her mother. Soon, very soon, she would have to go back in and deal with it, but for now, she just needed some space. And really loud music. She cranked up her go-to, My Chemical Romance's Black Parade , and she sped away from Port in a Storm.

At the moment, it didn't feel much like a port or a peaceful place to recover.

Then again, nothing did.

How dare Noah come back like this. How dare her mother take his side. And bring up the holy grail of guilt trips, her father. Izzie had no doubt thought that would whip Charlotte into submission. It had certainly worked at other times over the years. Izzie probably hadn't bargained on the father card prompting her to kiss Cal in what had to be the worst kiss ever.

Well, maybe not that bad. After all, it'd been Cal, and she wasn't sure he was capable of a bad kiss, even one that had been fueled with so much anger that it was possible it'd bruised their mouths.

Yes, she would owe him a huge apology.

First though, the drive. The music. And maybe trying to wrap her mind around everything that'd just happened. Charlotte started with a mental list.

Noah was back. He had broken up with Elise. He wanted to reconcile.

That was problem number one. Part of her—the really angry part—wanted to just tell Noah to go to hell, but that seemed a little extreme since he hadn't actually broken her heart. Hadn't come close to doing that. In fact, if she was being honest with herself, the breakup had been a relief. Now here he was, apparently wanting to undo the breakup and therefore the relief.

Mental list number two was all about Izzie. Izzie wanted her to get back with Noah. Maybe because of that whole double-wedding deal. But there seemed to be more to it than Izzie being her usual Izzie self.

Mental list number three. Cal. Before Noah's arrival, Cal and she had ditched any trace of caution and kissed. Had it meant anything other than lust? And would Cal back off now that Noah was back?

Charlotte might have started whittling her way down the lists to try to come up with some answers, but her phone dinged with a text. She was ready to curse, but then she saw it wasn't from Izzie or Noah. It was from the San Antonio Rehabilitation Center.

"Harper," she muttered, and Charlotte instructed her phone to read the text aloud.

It's me, Harper. Dr. Kentrell showed me pictures of the room where I'll be staying at the ranch.

Charlotte had indeed sent photos to the doctor so she was glad Kentrell had shared them with Harper. The room had an amazing antique bronze bed and was currently in the process of being painted a soothing sea-mist green.

Since she wanted to take time with her response to Harper, Charlotte pulled off the road and onto one of the many ranch trails that threaded through the area.

"The room will have a seating area and some workspace for a computer," Charlotte dictated verbally through the Bluetooth. "And the door's wide enough to both the room and the en suite bath to accommodate a wheelchair if needed." In fact all of the downstairs rooms had had that modification, since Becker's mother had needed the use of a chair during the last few years of her life.

Charlotte sent the response and waited. And waited. Because Harper couldn't speak and had only limited use of her hands, Charlotte imagined that it was taking the woman a while to type out the response.

I'm supposed to say it's nice and thank you , Harper finally texted.

Charlotte frowned. "Supposed to?" she repeated. "What do you actually want to say about it?"

There was another long wait, and Charlotte wished she could see the woman's face so she'd have a clue what Harper was actually feeling. It was possible that Harper was just in a mad-at-the-world mood, but it felt like more than that. It seemed as if Harper was reaching out to her for more than just a remark on her soon-to-be living quarters.

It took several minutes for Harper's response. I don't want to be around people just yet.

"That's all right," Charlotte assured her. "The room is large, and your meals can be brought in to you. You can do your physical therapy in the room as well."

Though the hope was that eventually Harper would want to leave the main house and use the facilities in the barn. Or make use of the walking trails that would also be wheelchair-friendly.

Heard you were hooking up with Cal. Gossip or truth?

Charlotte froze for a moment, and her first reaction was to ask who'd told Harper that, but it was possible it'd come from Paul or from another family member who was keeping in touch with her.

"I'm not sure what's going on when it comes to Cal," Charlotte answered.

That caused Charlotte to groan, and again she wanted to kick herself for kissing him in anger. It was entirely possible that it'd riled Cal enough that he would want to wash his hands of her. Especially since he had his own problems to deal with. Especially, too, now that Noah had returned.

Cal has that effect on people , Harper responded.

She stared at the reply. And stared. Not sure how to answer it. However, it turned out that a comeback wasn't necessary because several seconds later, Harper ended the conversation with a simple Bye .

Charlotte continued to sit there, wondering if she should contact Dr. Kentrell to check on Harper. It was possible that checking on her wasn't even necessary, but the whole text conversation had Charlotte wondering and worrying. She was still doing that when she saw the car pull in behind hers.

Izzie.

"Great," Charlotte muttered.

She definitely hadn't wanted to see her mother, and now with Izzie parked behind her, she was trapped. Well, unless she was ready to start a jogging trek down the rugged ranch trail. Which she just might do after she got a glimpse of her mother's expression. Izzie seemed to be spoiling for a fight.

Izzie didn't wait for an invitation. She waltzed right to Charlotte's car and tried to throw open the passenger's-side door. It had automatically locked, and Charlotte considered keeping it that way. A childish response for sure, but then, her mother probably wouldn't be on her best behavior, either. Still, after Izzie tapped on the window multiple times, Charlotte finally unlocked it.

Her mother slid onto the seat, and Charlotte geared up to defend herself. Izzie put a stop to that with two words. "I'm sorry," she said.

That threw Charlotte. She definitely hadn't been expecting that, and then it occurred to her that the apology wasn't for the things she'd said but rather for something that'd gone on at the house after Charlotte had left. It was possible Cal and Noah had gotten into some kind of altercation that'd turned physical.

"Is Cal all right?" Charlotte had to ask.

Izzie blinked, clearly surprised by the question. "As far as I know. He left right after you did. I assumed he'd come after you, but then I saw you parked here and realized he hadn't. That's good. He didn't need to be crowding you when you obviously need time to think."

Charlotte gave her mother a blank stare that should have conveyed that Izzie was crowding her, but she clearly didn't pick up on it.

"Noah left, too," her mother went on. "Oh, Charlotte. He's positively crushed to the bone over what he did to you. You got him back, though, by kissing Cal, so I hope you'll see that as a score settled."

So, Izzie's apology hadn't been real. She'd likely said it to throw Charlotte off balance so she could continue the browbeating.

"Mom, I don't want to talk about Noah or Cal," Charlotte spelled out. "You've made it crystal clear that you want me to get back with Noah, and I've made it equally clear that's not going to happen."

"But you haven't," Izzie insisted. "You were hurt and angry enough to kiss Cal in front of Noah, so you must still have feelings for Noah."

Charlotte was sure she blinked. "How do you figure that?"

Izzie blinked, too. "Well, because if you didn't still care for Noah, then you wouldn't have tried to lash out at him that way."

Charlotte huffed and wanted to say she'd done it purely out of anger. Something that'd just popped into her head. But she was certain that spelling it out to her mom wasn't going to help, so she went with a different approach.

"I haven't been in love with Noah for a long time now. Truth is, he did me a favor by breaking up with me."

Izzie stared at her a long time and then sighed. "Noah made a mistake with the breakup, period. A mistake he deeply regrets. And as for not loving him, well, that's because you haven't been around him much over the past couple of years. Once he's around again, I'm sure the love will return."

Charlotte did her own round of staring. "It won't." She would have added more, but her mother talked right over her.

"I'm worried about Taggert," Izzie said out of the blue. "He loves his son, and all of this has put him between a rock and a hard place. I'm not sure how Taggert would feel about you breaking his son's heart."

It took Charlotte a moment to process that jumble. It didn't land well, and she felt the anger seep through her again. "And you and Taggert weren't worried when you believed Noah had broken my heart?"

Izzie rolled her eyes. "Of course we were concerned, but we knew Noah would come to his senses. And he did. He came back to make amends with you." She paused only a heartbeat. "This is nothing like what happened with your father."

And there it was. Her mother's secret weapon that she pulled out any time she needed an emotional hammer.

Sadly, Charlotte knew that it usually worked.

That's what happened when there was so much unresolved guilt, and her mind flashed back to the note Cal had shown her on his phone. A copy of the one Harper had written before she'd driven off that bridge.

The playing field is all yours now. I'm bowing out of this shitshow.

Charlotte had gotten a similar note when she was sixteen. Oh, the words weren't the same, but the gist was. And it'd come from her father, who hadn't driven off a bridge but had instead disappeared from her and Izzie's lives forever. He hadn't left the note for Izzie, either.

But for her.

Because her father had blamed her for the reason he was leaving. So, yeah, lots of unresolved guilt, and she didn't need the note to recall each and every word of what he'd said.

I can't do this anymore. You've made it impossible for me to stay .

Hard not to give that the worst interpretation possible. That if she'd been a better daughter, then he wouldn't have left, and her mother wouldn't have lost her husband.

Charlotte waited for her mother to go into steamroller mode. It could take a couple of different directions. Izzie could drone on about how hard it'd been to be a single parent and that Charlotte hadn't made it easy. Which she hadn't. Nothing major, just normal teenage-angst stuff, but Izzie had a way of using that to make Charlotte believe she owed her. However, before Izzie could begin steamrollering, or anything else for that matter, her phone dinged with a text.

Huffing, Izzie yanked her phone from her purse. "Oh, God," she muttered a moment later.

Charlotte tried to see the message that'd caused her mother's reaction, but Izzie pressed her phone to her heart, hiding the screen.

Izzie's tear-filled gaze flew to Charlotte's. "Oh, God," she repeated on a hoarse sob. "You've ruined everything again ."