Chapter 38

38

Charlie

Charlie’s Luck:

When I finally get a chance to show off my trialing skills, Mama can’t work.

That week was heaven. During the day we flirted quietly when no one was looking, and at night we took turns fucking each other until we were too spent to stay awake a minute longer. I could tell something was on Hudson’s mind, but I was fairly sure it wasn’t anything to do with me. I thought maybe he was still worried about Darci, who hadn’t yet moved out of his cabin.

“Do you need to… I don’t know, go stay with her or something?” I asked one night when we were taking a shower together after work. “I feel bad. I’m monopolizing your…” I couldn’t take my eyes off his flaccid cock. We’d gotten off on a mutual handie when we’d first gotten in the shower, but now I wanted to make him hard again. “Time.”

“Nah. She’s actually staying with Sassy tonight. They’re going to a painting thing.”

“What kind of painting thing?” I asked, not really giving a shit. I soaped up his crotch, paying special attention to every single twig and berry.

“The kind where you drink wine more than ah-ha-haaa. What are you doing down there?”

“None of your business. What are we doing for dinner?”

Hudson’s groan was deep and long, and he turned around to face the molded plastic wall before sticking his bum out at me. I dropped to my knees and tasted his clean skin. When I was done with him and our second helpings of ejaculate had splattered the cramped shower stall, I asked again.

“Dinner?”

“Oh, right. Doc and Grandpa went out, but Grandpa said there’s stuff to make pizza if we want. Or there’s still leftovers from the other night. What do you want to do?”

“Pizza’s good as long as you know how to make it. I’ll burn the place down, and we need another visit from the fire chief like a hole in the head.”

Hudson handed me a soft blue towel from the rack behind the toilet. “Yeah, what was that about? Did you see Stevie cringe the other day when Chief Paige walked in?”

“Cringe? The man leapt the bar in a single hop.”

“Evan called him sweetheart,” he pointed out. “Are they together? He’s twice Stevie’s age.”

We speculated about the two of them while we dressed in comfortable clothes and made our way over to the farmhouse. Mama showed as much enthusiasm for Grump in the evenings as she did for Milo during the day. I was beginning to wonder if my girl was a two-timer.

After we fixed the pizzas and slid them into the oven, Hudson grabbed us both a beer and gestured to the big sofa on the far side of the kitchen table.

“Sit. I need to talk to you about something,” he said. There was a tone in his voice that worried me.

“What is it?” I wondered if he was going to tell me he couldn’t come to the dog trial that weekend after all.

“There’s something going on at work you need to know,” he began. “I didn’t want to tell you this because I don’t want you to worry, but I was wrong to keep it from you. I trust you. And… well, it affects you too in a roundabout way.”

I was torn between being worried and being touched he trusted me enough to confide in me.

“Go on.”

“It has to do with work. With Ames itself, and the franchise.”

I winced at the eff-word. I hated that word used in relation to my family’s hundred-year-old business. It made it sound cheap and duplicable.

Hudson reached for my hand. “I’m sorry. That’s partly why I was worried about telling you. This is important to you, and I’m afraid what I have to tell you is going to upset you.”

I crawled over and straddled his lap before leaning in to kiss him on the lips. “Thank you for caring. Now tell me before I beat you to death with my beer bottle.”

“Bruce is selling Ames.”

It took me a minute to parse what he was saying. I slid off his lap but stayed snug up against his side. “Truly?”

“I’m not sure he planned it this way, but a very large firm has made an acquisition offer,” he explained. “And since Bruce is over sixty now, he’s decided to retire.”

“What does that mean for Ames? For all the people there?”

“That’s the million-dollar question. The investment assets will go to the new company, but many Ames employees will lose their position,” he said. “Since I’m helping with the negotiations, I feel a responsibility to make sure they’re covered somehow. I’ve been working with Bruce to make sure Ames puts together a strong severance package.”

I was shocked. Companies were acquired all the time, but I’d never thought about what would happen if Ames was acquired once they had a share in the Fig and Bramble brand.

“What does that mean for the pub?” I asked.

I could tell by Hudson’s face he’d been dreading the question.

“I don’t know yet.”

I reached up and caressed his cheek, feeling the late stubble on his handsome face. His eyes seemed to carry the weight of the world. “You’re upset about this, aren’t you? You feel responsible for everyone.”

Hudson pulled me back onto his lap and leaned his forehead against my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around his head and ran fingers through his hair.

“Yes, but I also feel guilty because Bruce is looking out for me. He’s promoted me to vice president and is making my continued employment a condition of the agreement.”

Instead of resentment of any kind, I felt relief. I knew how much Hudson’s self-worth was based on his career success. “That’s a good thing, yeah? It’s what you’ve always wanted. He must think very highly of you.” Along with the relief came a sharp sliver of disappointment. Hudson’s promotion meant even less chance of him miraculously leaving everything behind and following an Irish barman to an old rural pub in County Clare.

“I don’t want things to change,” Hudson admitted in a rough voice. “I want them to stay exactly as they are now.”

The lump in my throat took me by surprise when it really shouldn’t have. I hugged him closer and lowered my lips to his ear. “If things never changed, we’d never have met. And I can’t wish for that.”

I kissed along his jaw to his mouth and lost myself in deep pulls of his lips. We could have stayed like that the rest of the night if the pizza timer hadn’t buzzed after a while. We shook off the melancholy and enjoyed the meal together gossiping about Hobie residents and speculating about how the pub’s launch would do.

We finished eating and got up to clean up our mess. I thought about what it would mean for my family if the Hobie Fig and Bramble wound up owned by some large restaurant holding. Did it matter? We didn’t own it, even though after all the work I’d put into it a part of me wanted to. Should we still care about what happened to it after we earned the bulk of the fees and I returned home?

I could tell Hudson was still upset about the idea of people losing their jobs after the acquisition. As we cleaned up the kitchen, I stayed quiet, assuming he was running around in mental circles attempting to solve the problem.

When we left the house to return to the bunkhouse, he finally started verbalizing his thoughts. “I wish there was a way of guaranteeing everyone a new placement before their severance package runs out.”

I made sure Mama followed us across the gravel drive. “Hudson, a strong severance package is more than most people get when they’re made redundant.”

“I know, but—”

“You can’t fix this for everyone,” I said. “You’re not Father Christmas. The economy is plenty strong in a city as big as Dallas right now for these people to find other work. It’s not like an automobile plant laying off thousands of specially trained machinists. Ames employees are standard office workers and analysts. There are plenty of finance jobs in Dallas.”

He shook his head before reaching out to hold the door open for me. “But what if there’s a solution to this I just haven’t thought of yet?”

We walked across the open recreation room to my bedroom door. It both broke and warmed my heart at the same time how responsible this man felt for others. “Can we set Ames aside for the rest of the night?” I asked. “We can brainstorm ideas on our road trip to the trial this weekend. Meanwhile, I can think of several more pleasant topics we could discuss.”

Hudson’s forehead smoothed. “Yeah? Like what?” He reached for me and began pulling off my clothes.

“Why you’re ticklish behind your right knee but not your left. Why you don’t like my tongue in your ear. Why you—”

The rest of my list was cut off with a kiss.

It turned out all of the talking could wait. The night was for touching and kissing and loving. And that was a language all of its own.