“Let’s get outta here,” I beg, hoping he’ll get the hint that if we stay, he’ll never leave the bed again.
Charlie presses one last soft kiss to my mouth before pulling out of my grip. Cupcake watches us with what I only assume is dog side-eye, but she lets out a happy yip when Charlie invites her outside to tag along on this post-hurricane adventure with us. Charlie opens the passenger door of his truck for me, only closing it once I’m settled in. I watch with what I assume are hearts in my eyes as Charlie picks Cupcake up and settles her into the back seat.
But I notice the wince on his face when he tosses himself into the driver’s seat, despite how very hard he obviously tried to hide it.
“Knee?”
Charlie nods, lip caught between his teeth. He fumbles around with the stereo for a second, happy when a satellite radio station covering football comes on. The road has some debris in it, but it’s not as bad as it could’ve been. Checkingmy phone confirms the storm downgraded to a two just before hitting land. The eye hit about a hundred miles north, so we only got hit with the left side of the storm, which is always weaker. We got lucky the dirty side avoided us.
Charlie’s big truck handles the debris with ease. He parks in front of my parents’ house and starts to get out, but I wave him off. “It looks like they have power. See, the outside light is on.”
Charlie hums in agreement and doesn’t follow me inside. I do a quick check in all the rooms, noting no damage inside, and no leaks, which is always Pop’s biggest worry since we’re by the shore. The quarter inside the freezer hasn’t moved at all, so they never lost power like we did. Outside looks about the same here as it did at Charlie’s house. I stand still for a moment, taking in the wild waves at the beach, the bright blue of the sky.Home, my heart whispers.
When I get back to the truck, Charlie’s eyes basically smile at the sight of me. My traitorous heart smiles back, but at least he can’t see that.
“Wanna head into town?” Charlie asks when he has to make the decision to go right or left out of the driveway.
“Let’s go into town. I texted River and he said his parents’ house is fine, so he’s at the coffee shop. His apartment is above the shop, so he still has power. Doesn’t seem too bad from the photos he sent.”
“Maybe we got really lucky.”
“Maybe we did,” I agree, but I’m not talking about the hurricane. Charlie doesn’t seem to notice, just navigates the car toward downtown. I spend far longer than I’d like to admit watching his forearms as he drives. I’ve always been a sucker for great forearms, prominent veins, just the rightamount of hair dusting over them, and strong enough to no doubt pick me up, if it wasn’t for his knee.
A few signals are flashing yellow on the way into town and the marsh on either side of the truck is high, but otherwise the town seems to have fared pretty well. Definitely not as bad as the hurricane we experienced as a kid where the island was shut down for almost a month. We had to make up time in high school all the way into June due to how long we’d been out.
Charlie parks the car in the lot just before downtown starts, but before he can jump out, I rest my hand on his arm. He turns to me with a clear question in his gaze.
“I want to go out on a real date.”
The corner of Charlie’s mouth curls up in what I’m learning is his pleased smirk. “Yeah?”
I nod softly. “Yeah. I wanna get dressed up nice, maybe go to a restaurant, eat and talk, then give you a good-night kiss and go home.”
“Oh,” Charlie says sadly, a frown marring his features. “Won’t you stay the night?”
“Well, I don’t put out on the first date, Charlie.”
Charlie laughs, open and free. I can’t help but smile because his laugh is so infectious. “How about a date and then you sleep over, but just for kissing and cuddles?”
“Perchance.”
“Perchance,” Charlie says with a pleased snort. We hop out of the car, and Charlie helps Cupcake climb out.
“Did she come to you with that name?” I ask as we make our way downtown.
Charlie lovingly pats the top of Cupcake’s head. “Yeah, a teammate gave her to me. His family adopted her as a puppy, and their kid ended up being deathly allergic. He mentionedrehoming her and I couldn’t let her go somewhere that might end up not working out again. So I took her. That was a little over ten years ago.”
“Wait. What teammate?”
“Barton,” Charlie answers without any preamble.
“Oh! Defense.”
Charlie sends a puzzled look my way. “Yes. I didn’t realize you kept up with football.”
“Eh,” I say with a shrug. “I played fantasy football sometimes and would stay up to date on all the trades.”
Charlie hums but stays quiet. When we get to River’s coffee shop, the place is half packed. River makeshelp meeyes, so I squeeze Charlie’s arm, then join River behind the counter.
