“I love it in here,” Charlye said, taking a seat on the couch. “I want one when I grow up.” She giggled. “Maybe my husband will be as generous as Papa Stew.”
“She is spoiled.” I sat next to her. “But she deserves it.”
Charlye entwined her fingers with mine. “She does. I can’t thank her enough for everything she’s done for Mom, for us.”
“How are you holding up?”
“Fine, I guess. Just sad.”
“Ready for your trip?”
“All packed. We’re meeting Elise and Justus in Cali, then we’ll all take the same plane to Hawaii. Harper is already there.” She swallowed visibly. “I was going crazy in the house. That’s why I came today. To get out. I’m so glad I did, because y’all are a trip.” She laughed. It was light, airy. Exactly what I wanted to hear. “Man, I needed to laugh. You missed it. Blake chased that little girl Pilar out of the kitchen.” Charlye fell back against the cushion as a fit of giggles took over. “You should’ve seen that girl run. She was darting through people, dodging Blake.” She smacked her legs. “Bliss had to block Blake from snatching the baby up.”
I imagined my sister trying to catch Pilar. I chuckled. “She’s silly.”
“Your mother sent her to her room.” She cracked up again. “Hilarious.” She told another story about how Duke played a game of tug-of-war with a little boy who tried to take his Apple Watch. My brother had set it down so he could clean his hands and somehow the boy picked it up. “Then, Dallas started crying because the ketchup squirted on her brand-new blouse. Preston had to take her to another room. I’m telling you… I needed today.”
“I’m glad my family’s antics were entertaining for you.”
“I love your family.” She beamed. “They’re my family too.”
“You know they love you.”
“Yeah. Makes me feel special.” She sighed. “I wanted to talk to you because we haven’t really talked since the funeral.” She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. “Is there a reason for that?”
“A couple of reasons,” I admitted. “Work. I met with my editor about my book, developed a guest segment for Blake and Bliss’ podcast. And… I figured you all needed some time to just be with each other.”
She nodded. “That makes sense. I just want to be sure there was no other reason.”
“No.”
“Mom asked me when I was going back to Atlanta this morning.”
“What did you tell her?”
“My plan is to come back here after Hawaii, but she keeps telling me she wants me to get back to my life.” She linked our fingers again. “Until now, I thought I’d always live in Atlanta. My job is there, my siblings, my friends… But I’m not sure my life is there. Does that make sense?”
“It does. Do youwantto stay?”
“In some ways. I’ve been spending time with Mom, you…” She closed her eyes shut and shook her head. “I’m getting to know Mom in a different way. And my father? We’ve talked almost every day since the funeral. I finally told him about Kelvin.” She looked at me, a soft smile on her lips. “He was livid, threatened to ‘crack his skull’.” Her fingers held up a quote sign.
“That would be something to see.”
“Pretty much.”
Charlye was a pro at beating around the bush. I could listen to her talk in circles every day, but I also wanted to watch my niece eat her cake. “Char?”
She blinked. “Yeah.”
“Did you want to ask me something?”
Dropping her head, she swiped her thumb over mine. It took a moment, but she lifted her eyes, held my gaze. “It’s not just my parents,” she admitted. “It’s you. You’re one of the reasons I want to stay.”
I leaned into her, bumping my shoulder with hers. “That’s nice to hear.”
“Something’s happening between us. Something new. Something exciting? Something scary,” she added under her breath. Her tongue darted out to moisten her bottom lip. I followed the motion like a hawk would its prey. “I like it.”
Just hearing her say that…Damn. Simple words, but full of sincere emotion. I’d never felt this way before, like I would do anything—beg, borrow, and steal—to hold on to the feeling. To her.
