Chapter 21

If there were a contest for keeping it casual, Charlie would be winning. Over the past few weeks, she hadn't treated me any differently.

When we passed in the hall, she didn't avert her eyes. She still teased me and pretended to be annoyed when I ate her food or used her body wash. But she also wouldn't let me sleep in her room anymore, claiming I snored. She would hug me, but she wouldn't cuddle.

Men everywhere would probably think I was crazy, but I didn't want a casual thing with Charlie. The sex was out of this world, but I found myself wanting more. I wanted her to look at me the way she did that first night, like she saw something more in me than just a good time. Instead, she seemed to be doing everything possible to take us back to day one: two roommates who could barely tolerate each other's company.

After dealing with Janelle's constant demands and clinginess, you would think a non-clingy woman would be right up my alley. It wasn't.

I hated it.

I hated everything.

Sunday afternoon, I pulled to a stop at the end of my parents' driveway. My brother's car was already here and no doubt Tana would arrive thirty minutes late, as usual. I blew out a breath. Sunday dinner was non-negotiable unless you wanted my mom to appear at your door the next day, so I always pulled my shit together enough to show up.

When I'd left the house, Charlie was curled up on the couch watching something on her laptop. She'd finally agreed to take that awful plastic off and had covered the couch with about a million throw blankets. It still wasn't exactly comfortable, but I would have given anything to dive under one of those blankets with her.

I opened the front door and was immediately hit with the sound of voices. Van and Beth sat on the couch in the living room watching TV.

"Is that Hendrix?" Mom called from the kitchen.

"Yes. He just got here," Van yelled back, smirking at me.

Mom came into the room, wiping her hands on a dishtowel. "Hey, sweetie. Can you help me get this bowl down in the kitchen? Your father is out back."

I looked over at Van. There was no point in asking why she hadn't asked him to do it. Now that he was her best chance for grandchildren before the next century, he had officially hit favorite child status.

"Of course, Mom." I followed her into the kitchen and inhaled the delicious smell wafting in from the open window behind the sink. "Is Dad grilling?"

She grinned. "He made his famous baby back ribs."

The prospect of having one of my favorite meals immediately lifted my mood.

Just as I was getting the bowl down, I heard a loud voice coming from the living room.

"Sounds like Tana's here," I commented needlessly.

When I walked out into the living room, I paused in the doorway. Van and Beth had moved to the recliner in the corner and Tana and Charlie were on the couch.

My mom had apparently taken things into her own hands and invited Charlie for dinner directly. So now I'd have to spend my Sunday eating across the table from a woman who'd ride me like a pony but wouldn't hold my hand.

The situation was so bizarre, but of course I couldn't talk about it with anyone. What would I even say?

The sex is amazing, but I want her to like me for more than that?

My friends would laugh their asses off if they could hear my thoughts. I was living every single guy's dream but somehow it didn't feel right.

Not with Charlie.

Luckily my Dad came in then with a tray of ribs. As usual, I set the table while Tana got the drinks and Van went to call the kids. A few minutes later Beck and Campbell came running into the room, carrying the scent of sweat and grass with them.

"Wash your hands!" Mom yelled over the chaos as she handed a bowl of coleslaw to Tana before bringing out a platter of grilled corn.

After we all filled our plates, we settled around the scarred oak table that had been in our family since before I was born. Without having to be told, we all linked hands. Right before I bowed my head, my eyes snagged with Charlie's. She quickly shut her eyes. After my mom said the blessing, we all dug in.

"Thank you for inviting me, Mrs. Evers," Charlie said. "Everything looks so good."

"You have a standing invitation, Charlie. You know that." Mom grinned.

Charlie took a bite of her corn and hummed in appreciation. Butter ran down her hand and she quickly licked her finger. A flashback from the prior night of her licking something else almost made me moan out loud. I tucked my head and took another bite of ribs, relishing the heat in the sauce. At least if I started sweating everyone would think it was from the food.

When I looked up Tana was watching me. She narrowed her eyes. "Rix. Guess who I saw at the store today? Janelle."

Mom sighed. "She was such a nice girl. I know you don"t want to talk about it?—"

"I don't."

"But if you ever need to talk about it, you can," she continued, unfazed.

"I won't."

She smiled sweetly. "No need to be so grumpy."

Van snickered. "Yeah, little bro. You're even worse than usual. When was the last time you got laid?"

I choked as a clump of barbecue went straight down my throat before my eyes instinctively flew up to meet Charlie's. Her eyes widened before she stuffed a rib in her mouth.

"Van!" Mom scolded, but we could all hear the amusement in her voice.

"Leave the boy alone," Dad interjected, his voice stern. "Janelle wasn't the one for him. If she was, he would have known. There would have been a sign. A soul tie."

Charlie looked up then. "A soul tie? What's that?"

A collective groan filled the room. Everyone knew that once Dad started talking about this, there was no stopping him.

He ignored us. "My grandfather always told us growing up that souls recognize old friends. He truly believed that loved ones from our former lives would find us again in this one."

"I wish I could have known him," Tana said. She'd only been a baby when our great-grandparents had passed away. Even though we have pictures of me sitting on their laps, I don't really remember them.

"I wish you could have, too. When he met Grandma, she was going by her middle name of Rose. It wasn't until they were much older that he found out she had the same first name as his sister."

Charlie smiled at that. "He fell in love just like that?"

"Oh no. It's not that easy. It's just a way for the universe to let you know you're on the right track." Dad blotted his mouth with his napkin before continuing. "When I met Maria, I was a twenty-three-year-old punk who had no idea what I was doing with my life. Then I met an angel at a Van Halen concert who happened to have parents from Mexico. The same place that I was born."

"You were born in Mexico?"

He laughed. "I was. My parents were on vacation when my mother went into labor unexpectedly. I was born premature."

"So it was destiny?" Charlie asked, hanging on to his every word.

"Exactly," Dad said, pointing at her with a rib. "And when it happens, you'll know. Everything will just fall into place. Of course, at the time I didn't know whether I'd ever see her again. She was like a silent breeze."

Van whispered. "When he starts quoting song lyrics, you know he's serious."

Tana snickered. Charlie covered her hand with her mouth to hide her laughter.

"Anyway," Dad shot Van an annoyed look, "that wasn't what made me fall for Maria. It was all her, her personality, her sense of fun, and of course that incredible heart."

Mom covered his hand with hers and gave it a little squeeze. "He promised me forever. And we've been together ever since."

Dad leaned over and kissed her right there at the table. "Forever Evers."

Tana raised her wine glass. "As gross as they are, that deserves a toast."

Beth rested her head on Van's shoulder. "I agree. To your parents."

I met Charlie's eyes before I raised my glass. "Forever Evers."

* * *

I was elbow deep in sudsy water when I realized that things were suspiciously quiet. Everyone was either sprawled on the couch or still in the dining room talking. Charlie, however, was conspicuously missing.

"Hey Santana, have you seen Charlie?" I asked my sister when she came into the kitchen with a stack of dirty plates.

"Nope. Maybe she's getting some fresh air?"

I dried my hands on a dish towel before going to the back door. As I stepped outside, my gaze swept across the backyard. I looked past where Campbell and Beck were kicking a soccer ball around to where the yard dipped before it connected to the neighbor on the other side. Nothing.

Then my gaze stopped on the old treehouse.

On a hunch, I ambled over and began to climb. There, in a nest of old blankets, sat Charlie.

"Wow. You're brave."

She tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"Touching those blankets. Who knows how long they‘ve been up here. In fact I'm shocked this thing is still standing."

Charlie rolled her eyes. "Always a critic. Can you ever just enjoy anything?"

I pulled my body up the rest of the way and then sat with my back to the opposite wall.

"I'm not trying to be critical. It's just … I'm a fixer. If I can't identify what's wrong with something, then I can't fix it."

She watched me with a strange expression. It made me a little uncomfortable so I let my gaze wander over the carved names and scribbles on the wooden walls.

"It's strange to be up here as an adult. I used to spend so much time here when I was a kid wishing I could be anywhere else."

"You did?"

"The world seemed a lot smaller then."

She blew out a breath as she looked around. "I was so jealous of this treehouse."

"Really? Why?"

"I just always dreamed of having a treehouse in my backyard. But I knew it would never happen." She sighed. "You only got one of these if you lived somewhere a long time."

I was hit with a sudden, inexplicable urge to pull her into my arms. But that wasn't what we were, was it? We weren't together and she didn't expect or need comfort from me.

No, she only needed one thing from me.

But I couldn't take it, seeing that longing on her face. I would have done almost anything in that moment to take that pain away.

"Well, consider this your honorary home," I said, gesturing around the treehouse.

She chuckled. "Gee, thanks. I don't know what to say."

We sat in silence for a while, the quiet only broken by the occasional yell from one of the kids in the distance. I peeked out the door of the treehouse. No one had figured out we were up here yet. Hopefully it would stay that way.

When I turned around, Charlie was watching me.

"Do you know how lucky you are to have a childhood home to come back to?"

I turned to her. "Didn't you have that with Gran Grace?"

She sighed. "For a little while. It's the only place I've ever lived that felt like home. But what made it home was being with her. Now it's a disappointment every time I look to her chair at the kitchen table and it's empty."

"I guess we always want what we don't have. I was jealous that you got to travel all over the world."

She made a face. "All the traveling definitely wasn't my choice."

Since she didn't seem bothered by me being up here, I took a chance and moved a little closer.

"Every summer you would come back with the coolest stories about the places you'd been. I figured we were just country hicks to you."

She shoved my shoulder. "I never said that!"

"I know. That was just how I felt, I guess. We were the kids with the parents who drove the junky old bus and were too poor to take vacations." I laughed. "I still haven't gone anywhere."

Her gaze softened. "All I saw was a family with two parents who loved each other and their kids like crazy. I would have given up vacations to have that instead. To have a real family. To belong somewhere."

"Don't be fooled by my dad's little kismet story in there. He left out a lot. My great-grandpa might have been a romantic, but that didn't extend to the rest of the family. Dad's parents disowned him when they found out he was marrying a Hispanic woman."

"Really?" She drew her knees up to her chest. "So you don't know his parents at all?"

"Not very well. Ironically, my mom is the one who always urged him to stay in contact with them. She never wanted him to have to choose. His older brother Adam lives nearby in Violet Falls. We have a bunch of cousins that we barely know. Uncle David was always closer to Dad, so as soon as he was eighteen, he moved in with us."

"I never knew that."

"My dad has always said that it was worth it. He says he lost relations, but he gained family."

She toyed with the end of the blanket. "I guess there really is no such thing as a perfect happy ending, is there?"

"Maybe not but I'm okay with an imperfect kind of happy. Our family is crazy and loud and drives me up the wall half the time, but we love each other. What more do I need?"

"You're right," Charlie whispered.

I nudged her. "You're part of this family too, you know? You and Tana have been thick as thieves since you were in diapers. The question is, do you want to belong here?"

She looked at me, and she looked so sad that I instinctively put an arm around her. I expected her to pull away but to my surprise, she settled into the embrace and rested her head against my shoulder.

"I want to make this work. I'm just not sure how. Even if I finish renovating the house, I'll need a job. And it's not like I have the kind of skills that are useful in a small town."

It was wild to me that she couldn't see her own potential. "Charlie, you have plenty of skills. You can find a job here."

She gave me a skeptical look. "I'm not fishing for compliments, Rix. I"m smart. I worked hard for that finance degree. But unless there are some big companies headquartered in The Ridge that I don't know about, it'll be kind of hard to get a job with that. Maybe I could brush up on bookkeeping. That's more useful for most small businesses."

"You're the most organized person I know."

She smiled. "If only organizing could be my business. I could whip people's messes into shape."

My chest tightened. If only she could see herself through my eyes. "You can. Bet I can prove it."

She didn't say anything to that, but I could tell she didn't believe me. That was okay. Charlie didn't really understand the power of being an Evers in this town. Not only did my parents know everyone but they were owed favors by everyone. If Charlie wanted a job, we would find her one. I already had a few ideas.

I sat up. "Come on. I know exactly what you need."

To my surprise, Charlie didn't let go when I tried to get up. Instead, her arms wrapped around my waist, holding on tightly. I put my arm back around her shoulders and at the touch, she buried her face in my shirt and let out a satisfied little sigh. When I looked down, the sight of her snuggled so contentedly in my arms made my heart turn over.

"Rix?" she whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Can we stay here for a little longer?"

I settled back against the wall. "As long as you want."