Will held his tongue. Was Charlie giving up so easily?
“What if you called Elsie and explained?” Charlie asked.
“Can’t do that.”
Charlie’s shoulders dropped. “Yeah, maybe that would make this worse.”
Will hid a smile. The Elsie he knew would encourage Jane not to answer. And either way, this was between Charlie and Jane. “When did you last try calling her?”
“Two hours ago.”
“Okay, I’d wait until tomorrow. Quit worrying about it until then. You have some tennis player to vet. He’s coming to pick up your sister. I’ll be questioning our delivery man.”
“What?” Charlie rubbed his face. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”
Chapter 26 ♥Garbage Man
Jane caved. It was the flowers. Instead of roses, he’d sent yellow tulips, her favorite. She cried for thirty minutes, and then spent an hour fretting about whether she should wait for him to call again. Jane ended up calling him. When Elsie went to bed at eleven, they were still talking on the phone.
She stared at the ceiling, listening to Jane laughing in the other room, and tried not to wonder why Will hadn’t called. He didn’t call every night. But it would have been nice to discuss Charlie and Jane. Elsie was afraid this was one of Charlie’s whims. If Charlie broke Jane’s heart all over again, it would be much harder for Jane to ever go back to the sweet, trusting person Elsie loved. And Will would understand that. He’d be able to tell her if she had a reason to worry.
Jane came in and woke Elsie up early the next morning. “He’s coming.”
“Who’s coming?” Elsie asked, rolling over and covering her head with her pillow.
“Get up. I want to go grocery shopping and prepare a welcome basket for Charlie. He’s renting the house down the street again.”
That had Elsie sitting up. “Wow. When did you two decide that?”
Jane sat on the bed and shivered like an excited puppy. “Oh, Elsie. He talked to the homeowner before I’d even answered his calls, just in case.”
“What about his job?”
“They’re letting him work from home, like a satellite office. He’ll still have to travel from time to time, but he says he wants to be wherever I am.”
“That’s … amazing.” Elsie gave her a hug and couldn’t help smiling at the beaming angelic happiness radiating off of Jane.
They drove to the store and bought Charlie enough groceries to fill his fridge. Then Elsie went off to work, kind of glad she’d miss the grand reunion. She didn’t want to be a third wheel to that, though the alternative was mopping a restaurant floor and dealing with cranky customers. It was strange to think Will had once been one of those. A cranky customer ruining her evening.
The farther away she got from their dinner date, the harder it was to trust her instincts. Will was always friendly on the phone, but their calls didn’t go into the wee hours of the morning. They didn’t whisper sweet nothings or giggle and flirt. In short, Will was not Charlie. And though she wouldn’t want him to be, she could never decide who was the one pulling back from the other. Maybe they were better off as friends. The thought weighed heavily on her. She didn’t want to be just friends, and she definitely did not want to be just phone friends.
Will called as she was pulling into her driveway after work, apologizing for the lateness of the hour. She told him about her shift. He asked if it was raining there, as L.A. was getting drenched. She looked up at the clouds, wondering how they’d reduced themselves to conversing about the weather.
“Did Charlie make it?” Will finally asked.
“I’m not sure. I’m just walking in.”
She heard giggling in the kitchen and made as much noise as possible before entering. Jane and Charlie were cutting out sugar cookies. From the looks of things, a food fight involving flour had occurred at some point.
“Oh, Elsie! Come join us.” Jane leaned over and whispered something in Charlie’s ear. He laughed and playfully swiped at a spot of flour across Jane’s cheek. There was about to be a lot of kissing.
“Looks like fun, you two. I’m gonna shower and head to bed. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Is that Will on the phone?” Charlie asked.
Elsie remembered the phone she was still holding up to her ear. “Um, yeah. Good night, Will.”
“Good night.” He hung up, and she dropped her phone in her purse, feeling very tired as she heard Charlie and Jane whispering about her and Will. They sounded way too hopeful about the whole thing. Why was Charlie the one here, and not Will?
