Chapter 25

25

Hudson

Hudson’s Words To Live By:

Never assume. It makes an ass out of u and me.

Of course I overheard the end of Charlie’s phone call that afternoon where he was Flirty McFlirtson with whoever was on the other end of the phone. I assumed it was Stevie, who was known as the flirtiest gay man in Hobie. And considering how many gay men lived in Hobie these days, that was saying a lot.

I tried to put the image of the two of them together out of my head. If Charlie wanted to screw around with someone else, that was his decision. It wasn’t like I’d offered him an easy alternative, and Charlie wasn’t looking to screw around really. He was looking for a relationship, in which case maybe I should warn him about Stevie’s reputation for being big on the casual hookup.

No. It was none of my business. Plus, I had bigger things to worry about. I couldn’t very well sleep on the sofa forever, which meant I needed to help Darci find a new place to live.

She kept herself busy Monday and Tuesday with shifts at the hospital and came home each night to the cabin where we shared meals, researched apartments, or did our own thing. Wednesday night took me completely by surprise, however. I should have known with both of them living on the ranch, Darci and Charlie would eventually meet, but I didn’t spare a moment to consider what that would actually look like.

Doc texted to let me know he was making gumbo and cornbread for whoever wanted to show up. Bruce had put off our meeting in Dallas until later the following day, so I asked Darci if she wanted to join me over there for dinner. She happily agreed and raced off to touch up her makeup so she didn’t have to answer any questions about the bruise on her chin. I knew she’d appreciate a chance to see Doc and Grandpa, but it didn’t even register with me that Charlie might be there as well.

When we entered the kitchen, Charlie was singing a bawdy pub song at full volume into a wooden-spoon microphone and shaking his little round ass as much as he could in the tight red jeans he was wearing. The same tight red jeans I’d been trying my hardest to ignore all day at work.

The lyrics to the song didn’t help my libido stand down at all.

“As I went home on Sunday night as drunk as drunk could be, I saw a thing in her thing where my old thing should be, well, I called me wife and I said to her: Will you kindly tell to me, who owns that thing in your thing where my old thing should be!”

I froze on the spot and felt my face heat up right about the time I realized what the “thing” was.

Darci, on the other hand, joined in.

“I know this one! It’s called Seven Drunken Nights,” she exclaimed with a smile, joining Charlie when he got to the chorus of “You’re drunk, you’re drunk, you silly old fool.”

I thought I might die of mortification when Darci’s higher voice alerted Charlie to our presence. He whipped around, hair following in a silky arc over his shoulders. He wore only a tight white undershirt that barely reached the low waistband of his jeans, and I caught a flash of pale bare skin over one of his hips as he turned. He had old battered sheepskin slippers on his feet, and part of me melted at the realization he felt completely at home in my grandparents’ kitchen.

Charlie took in Darci’s tall frame. She was dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt but had grabbed one of my new fleece hoodies for the walk from the cabin to the farmhouse. Charlie’s eyes took in the familiar Fig and Bramble logo and widened a bit before shifting to me. I thought I detected disappointment or hurt in his gaze, but I wondered if that was some kind of sick wishful thinking on my part. And if so, what kind of selfish idiot wished jealousy on someone? I was an ass.

“Uh, hi,” I said, as if we hadn’t spent ten hours together already that day.

“Cheers,” he muttered before putting the spoon down on the counter and wiping his hands on his thighs. He reached out a hand to Darci and flashed the fakest smile I’d ever seen. “Charlie Murray, pleased to meet you.”

Darci was all smiles and charm as usual. “Darci Ames. I’ve heard so much about you.”

Charlie’s quick glance at me betrayed his confusion.

I cleared my throat. “I told her what a great job you’ve been doing at the pub.”

He pursed his lips together and nodded. “Yes. The pub. Hopefully your father will be happy,” he said to her.

His emphasis on the term “your” brought my head up. Was his own father aware of what was happening with Fig and Bramble’s franchise agreement with Ames? Was he upset about it? And why hadn’t I thought to ask Charlie about it before now?

Because you avoid personal conversations with him like the plague.

Darci continued to gush about how exciting it was to have an Irish pub opening in Hobie. I knew she was trying to be her usual friendly self, but I also knew her chipper chattiness was the last thing Charlie wanted to listen to right now.

“Would you like a drink?” I asked her.

“Sure. Wine if there’s some open.” She smiled at me before moving over to give Grandpa and Doc hugs hello.

I made my way to the fridge, not realizing until I got there I hadn’t offered Charlie anything. I turned back to him. “Sorry, would you like something?”

“Yep, but I’m quite sure you don’t have it to give,” he said softly with a wink before turning back around and busying himself with Doc’s little dog Sweets.

As his words sunk in, my heart dropped. He’d said it with a teasing voice, but the lightness hadn’t reached his eyes. He was clearly disappointed in me, and who could blame him? I was acting like the freaked-out straight guy he’d probably pegged me as.

I poured a glass of white wine before grabbing a beer for myself. After handing over the wine to Darci, I took a seat around the large wooden table in the center of the large kitchen and living room area. Darci propped her hip on the table next to me but angled herself toward Charlie, who stood at the kitchen counter picking his way through a bowl of mixed nuts.

“So, Charlie, my dad has told me how charming your family holdings are in Ireland. What was it like growing up in a historic pub?”

I closed my eyes for a second, knowing how he’d take her inquiry.

He scraped his lip with his teeth before answering. “Well, I didn’t know any different, did I? It was good and bad, I suppose. Boring for a little tyke living on the cliffs, but more exciting when I was old enough to nick a pint behind my dad’s back.”

Darci smiled. I knew she was genuinely interested in him and his family’s business, but I also knew her Southern manners would come off as condescending to someone like Charlie.

“Are your parents missing you? You have a sister too, I believe.”

Charlie’s eyes flicked to mine before looking back at Darci with the same fake smile from before. “My parents aren’t there. My mom took off when I was younger to pursue her career in the city. My dad recently met someone and moved with her to Brazil. That left my uncle in charge. My sister, Cait, and I help out where we can.”

Darci opened her mouth to ask more questions, but I cut her off in a desperate attempt to save her from igniting the Irish temper in the room.

“How did your date with Stevie go?” I blurted.

You could have heard a pin drop. My grandfathers gawped at me, Darci turned to me with a questioning eyebrow, and Charlie’s eyes widened.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to—” I stammered.

“No, it’s fine. We had a nice time. I took him to the Italian place out past the hospital. What’s the name of it?”

Darci clapped her hands in excitement. “Nonna’s. We get takeout from there all the time at work. Ooh, how romantic.”

“What did he wear?” Doc asked with a devilish grin.

Charlie snorted. “Yellow trousers, purple button-up, and navy jumper. I believe his shoes were silver glitter trainers.”

Grandpa wandered over to stir the giant pot of gumbo on the stove. “Navy sweater, huh? Seems he toned it down a bit for you.”

Darci glanced at me. “I love how confident he is to be himself. That can’t be easy in a town like Hobie.”

“No, certainly not,” I agreed.

I caught Charlie sneaking a glance at me. “It’s not easy in many places. I’d imagine anywhere other than the biggest cities.”

I wondered not for the first time what it was like growing up gay in the isolated coastal area of Ireland where he lived. I was surprised he was as out and proud as he was. Maybe Ireland was more accepting than Texas was.

“Was it hard for your siblings, growing up gay here?” Charlie asked before realizing Doc and Grandpa might be better ones to ask. He glanced at both of them. “Or what about you two? I can’t imagine being out here a few decades ago.”

Doc and Grandpa shared a look before Grandpa answered. “It took us a while before we were brave enough to come out. For a long time, we let people believe I was simply the foreman on his daddy’s ranch. Liam was a physician in town, so everyone understood the ranch needed someone else looking after it once Mr. Wilde passed. Then people began to suspect we’d become close friends. It wasn’t until the kids were old enough to refer to me as Pop that people realized we were more than friends. Soon after that, we began to suspect our daughter Gina was gay. We realized we had to set an example and show her how to live out and proud. I won’t say it’s been easy, but it surely gets easier every day.”

He shot a warm glance at his husband. Doc looked at Charlie with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “It helps if you recruit all your grandchildren to the dark side and populate the town with your own little mini-gays. We’re still working on poor Hudson here, but so far the gay hasn’t stuck.”

Grandpa gasped and smacked Doc’s ass. “Hush. People will talk.”

Doc snickered. “They already think we turned them all gay, babe. Might as well have fun with it.”

My stomach lurched, and I couldn’t help but glance at Charlie.

This.This was exactly why I was scared to tell my family what I’d been going through with my attraction to Charlie. The speculation between nature and nurture, the idea some people had in town that my gay siblings had been influenced by my grandfathers. They joked about it, but I knew there was some part of them that worried about what people thought. And how in the world could I come out as questioning at the age of thirty-five without starting up all that chatter and speculation again?

Charlie didn’t look over at me, and I closed my eyes in relief. I wasn’t sure I could handle making eye contact with the only person in the room who knew how I might be feeling about this right now.

The rest of the evening progressed with an uneasy balance of Darci trying her hardest to be friendly to Charlie and Charlie trying his hardest to resist. It was a losing battle. Darci Ames was the kind of woman who’d become a nurse to help people feel better. She had one of the biggest hearts I knew, and her greatest wish was for people to be happy and healthy. Resisting her charms was almost impossible, and sure enough, by the end of the evening, Charlie was agreeing to Darci’s suggestion to visit an Irish pub she knew of in Dallas.

“You’ll love it, I promise,” Darci gushed. “They have excellent meat pies and a woman who plays a gorgeous fiddle on the weekends. I’ll finally have someone who can sing with me. Hudson refuses to sing even though he has a lovely voice.”

“You had me at ‘meat pies,’ woman,” Charlie said with a soft smile. “Let me know when you want to go, and maybe we can impose upon Hudson’s brother for an overnight at his flat. He said I was welcome to come back and stay anytime.”

I felt the familiar jangle of jealousy at the idea of him being cozy with my brother Saint, but I knew it was stupid. Even this night, Charlie had implied his interest still lay with me. And if that was the case, I needed to decide what, if anything, I wanted to do about it. It was time for me to stop acting like a bear with a thorn in its paw and do something.