“Damn.” He rested his forehead against mine and muttered another dark curse.
I stared at him through hooded eyes. “Do we have to get that?”
Another knock. “Char?” Elise called from the other side of the door. Dex backed away right before she cracked the door open and poked her head in. She smiled and stepped into the room. “You’re here. We’ve been looking for you. What have you…?” Her eyes darted back and forth between Dex and me, and a slow smirk spread across her lips. “Shoot.” She snapped her fingers. “I just remembered where the blender was. I thought I needed you, but now I don’t. I’ll just… go get it.”
Justus walked into the room. “Char, where the hell have you been?” He glanced at Dex, then back at me. Then, at Dex. “What’s going on in here?
Elise tugged on Justus’ arm. “Come on. Help me in the kitchen.”
Frowning, Justus stared at Dex, but addressed me, “You good, Char? Why is your face so flushed?”
“Why are you so damn nosy?” Elise asked.
I let out a breathless giggle. “I’m fine, Justus. Dex was just listening to me cry for the umpteenth time today,” I lied.
Harper entered next. “Mom’s been looking for you, Char. The guests are leaving.” He gave Dex dap. “I didn’t know you were still here. V is looking for you too.”
Dex shot me a sidelong glance. “I better go see what she wants.”
Harper followed him out of the room, leaving me with Justus and Elise. I pointed at the door. “I’ll be out in a minute.”
Justus squeezed my shoulders and placed a kiss to my forehead. “Love you. We’re going to be okay.”
I nodded. “Love you too.”
When my brother left, Elise practically skipped over to me. “I want to know every damn thing that happened in this room while I was stuck out there with all those people eating fried chicken and promising to keep in touch knowing they won’t. I mean it, Char. Every damn detail.”
“We have to go,” I told her. “You heard Harper.”
“Did I walk in before you took your clothes off or after you put them back on?” I’d made the mistake of telling Elise about the gift Dex had given me the night of the wedding. “I need to know if the dick finally came out of the pants.”
“Why do you need to know that?”
“Because I’m nosy as hell. You already know that.”
I pushed my big sister toward the door. “Get out of here, fool. I’m not telling you anything.”
Elise argued with me all the way to the kitchen. “When everyone leaves, we’re having a heart to heart.”
“No, we’re not,” I said.
The kitchen was empty when we stepped in the room, which seemed odd. Elise looked at me, a frown on her face. “Where is everybody?”
I shrugged. “Maybe they left.”
“I’m pretty sure everybody didn’t leave. Dex was just here. And V said she was staying the night.” She disappeared into the living room.
When she didn’t come back, I followed her. I spotted Mom first, then Justus and Harper. To my right, Dex and Mama V were standing there. And my… “Dad?”
My father smiled sadly. “Hi, Charlye.”
I hadn’t seen my father since the wedding. He hadn’t called during the holidays, hadn’t reached out to give condolences. Anger welled up inside. We needed him and he’d failed yet again to be there for us. Glaring at him, I said, “What the hell are you doing here?”
It tooka few minutes to clear out the house after my father showed up, but we finally said our goodbyes to the people who’d actually been there for us. Mama V had stayed behind only because Mom asked her to stay. But she’d excused herself from the room, leaving us alone with my father.
“You might want to think about what you say today, Dad,” Harper warned, his voice low.
For the first time, I noticed that my father had been clutching his hat in one hand and an envelope in the other. Nodding, Dad said, “I’m not here to start a fight.” He handed my mother the envelope. “I wanted to drop this off for you.”
