Beyond the Orange Moon (Mathews Family Book 2) (17 page)

Lucy, Charlie, and Dylan all erupted into laughter, which made Jackson jump. He looked from face to face, and then let out an adorable chortle before going back to his cake.
 

“Damn,” Charlie said after taking his own bite. “Apples, bacon, and frosting.”
 

“And cheddar cheese,” Lucy corrected.
 

Dylan wiped her mouth. “Where do you get these from?”

“They’re made right here,” Lydia said as she approached the table. She winked at Lucy. “Everything here is made in-house … or, of course, in Lucy’s kitchen at home. That’s where the cupcakes are born.”
 

Charlie raised his eyebrows as he chewed. He swallowed and then pointed to Lucy. “You made these?”

Lucy smiled slowly. “I did.”
 

“She’s our very own cupcake whisperer,” Lydia said, and grinned. “The girl can do anything with a cupcake.”

“Oh!” Out of nowhere, Dylan jumped, and turned to Lucy. “Make the cupcakes for Jackson’s party!”

Charlie pulled out a pack of wipes from the diaper bag, which Lucy only then realized was Coach. “Is this too late of notice?”

“Of course not,” Lydia answered for Lucy.
 

Lucy exhaled through her nose and stared at Lydia, silently telling her to shut up. “How many do you think you’ll need?”

“Hang on.” Dylan pulled out her piece of paper and counted the names she had written down. “Five dozen or so,” she finally said with a fearful look. “I know for sure that Brandon can’t make it, but I still don’t know if Jonah and Hugh will be back in time.”

Lucy looked up at Lydia. “You have that wedding this weekend, right?”

Lydia frowned. “Yes, or I would totally help you.”

“How much help do you need?” Charlie asked. “Is it something Dylan can do?”

“Just little things,” Lucy answered. “Nothing too crazy.”

“I have an idea,” Dylan spoke up. “I want to spend time with my nephew here and I still have a ton to do for the benefit, so why don’t you help her get things ready, Charlie?”
 

“Perfect!” Lydia exclaimed, a bit too enthusiastically for Lucy’s liking.
 

Lucy met Charlie’s eyes and her heart beat erratically. It was a habit now; those eyes made her insides do uncontrollable things.

His lips slowly lifted into a lovely curve, making his white teeth appear. “I honestly don’t know how much help I’ll be to you,” he warned.
 

Suddenly, Lucy was very aware that the entire group was staring at her and waiting for a response, even Jackson. “I’m sure it will be enough,” she finally said, and shrugged indifferently.
 

Dylan looked between them, and asked, “Do you have her phone number, Charlie?”
 

Charlie sighed loudly and looked at Lucy. His cheeks flared with a red color that Lucy hadn’t seen on him before. He brought his folded hands up to his mouth almost bashfully. “I suppose I’ll have to get that, huh?”

“Perfect!” Dylan said with a smile. “Lucy, this means so much.”

Lucy smiled and nodded. “No problem.”

Dylan got a sly look on her face, like she was planning more than a birthday party. “And then, after you bring the cupcakes to Charlie’s house, you can just stay for the party. We’ll feed you and praise you with compliments on your perfect cupcakes.”

Charlie closed his eyes and shook his head.
 

“It’s my pleasure, really. I think I would do anything for this guy,” Lucy said, and rubbed Jackson’s cheeks. “You had me at ‘Bee,’ Jackson Mathews.”

“Bee!” Jackson yelled, and giggled when everyone repeated him.
 

“So, I’ll see you Friday night, then?” Charlie asked Lucy.
 

Lucy let out the breath she had been holding. “Friday night,” she confirmed.
 

Chapter Eight

“Subtle,” Charlie said when he walked into his mother’s house.
 

Dylan’s lips pursed as she tried to suppress the expression that would give her away. Charlie, however, didn’t need a smile to confirm her intentions. He was well aware that his sister was meddling, which was annoying. All he had ever heard from her while growing up were protests about how her family needed to stay out of her life and here she was doing the same thing to him.
 

If he thought about it too hard, he just might realize that he deserved this from her.
 

“Don’t look at me like that,” he warned. “You know exactly what you did.”

Dylan squinted at him. “What?” she asked. “We need cupcakes for the party and I have my hands full with other things. Why can’t you help her?”

Charlie sat on a chair and placed Jackson on the table in front of him. He began untying his son’s shoes, a little bit too quickly. He pulled one shoe off and tossed it to the floor. “I’m not ready for what you’re forcing, Dylan. I don’t think I’ll ever be.”

Dylan swiveled around in her chair to face Charlie. “I really don’t think I’m forcing anything. You’re the one who suggested I use Lydia’s Delights for the benefit. I never even knew about that place until you told me about it.”

“I was just trying to help them out,” Charlie said, and began untying Jackson’s other shoe. “You took it to a whole new level.”

“All right, look,” Dylan said with a sigh. “I thought you liked her, but I guess I was wrong.”

“Just stop.” Anger bubbled up in Charlie’s chest, which was confusing. He loved his sister. He could never yell at her. Even when they were children he just couldn’t seem to stay angry at her. “I didn’t forget how to talk to women. Why is everyone acting like I need help?”

“You’re right,” she said. “This is none of my business and I’ll stay out of it.”

“Thank you,” Charlie said, and put Jackson down on the floor.
 

Upon his release, Jackson ran off to the basket of toys that Linda kept in her living room and dumped it upside down just to make a mess that served no purpose. He wasn’t interested in anything in the basket; he just wanted to destroy the room. He was a boy through and through and someday he would make a mess of other things in his life, just to make the mess. Charlie knew that it was the testosterone in him; men were senseless that way.

“Can I just say one thing?” Dylan asked, watching Jackson. Charlie narrowed his eyes at her and she added, “You don’t even have to answer. Just listen, and I’ll be done.”

“Go ahead,” Charlie said through gritted teeth. He was close to violating his own rules about yelling at his baby sister. She was getting insistent like their mother as she aged.
 

“Okay,” she began, her eyes wary. “I just saw something when I walked into the café and I thought maybe I would help you along. I guess I was wrong about what I was picking up on. I’ll cancel the cupcakes and get some from Fry’s or something.”
 

“No, Dylan,” he practically growled. “You can’t cancel the order now.”

“Then I’ll help her instead. You’re free and clear of whatever it is that you’re afraid of, okay?”

Charlie got to his feet. He was seething and he couldn’t figure out exactly why. All he knew was that he was done with this conversation. “Dylan, I swear to God I’m going to lose it on you, so stop.”
 

Dylan leaned back against the counter and met his eyes. She wouldn’t end it there. She was a fighter—probably the strongest one out of them all—and she wouldn’t back down easily.
 

“I miss her, too, Charlie,” she said quietly. “I still have these moments when I pick up my phone to call Meredith and tell her something funny, or even just to say hi. But then I remember that I can’t and it’s like I lose her all over again. She was supposed to stand up in my wedding and now I don’t know what to do with that place. I want to hold it and save it for her, but then I know that she would only tell me how tacky an open bridesmaid spot would look at the ceremony.”

As angry as he was, Charlie couldn’t help but be amused by that. She was right: appearances were everything to Meredith and she would, indeed, find it tacky. He shook off the thought and tightened his jaw. “She’s not here to say that, Dylan.”

“No, she’s not,” Dylan agreed. “So the spot needs to be filled.”

Charlie looked back at Jackson, who had focused his attention on the photo coasters from the coffee table. He stacked them up and babbled away at the pictures inside them as if they were talking back to him.
 

“Some spots just can’t be filled,” he said, and headed for the door. “Keep an eye on Jack for me.”

Charlie drove away without even thinking about where he wanted to go. This entire situation was the most confusing one he had ever been in. He had never put so much thought into one thing. It was like his brain had been awakened and now refused to shut down.

When he was younger, he just acted. When he was attracted to a woman, he slept with her. He didn’t even feel bad when he realized that he had hurt her. Of course, he did now, when he looked back, but that didn’t really help his conscience. He went through women like they were a table of desserts set out only for him. He had deserved to be called a dog. He’d never thought he would fall in love someday, but when he met Meredith, there was—again—no thought. He’d just known he loved her. He’d proposed and that had been that.
 

And then he lost her.
 

Since then, he hadn’t had the time to think about other women, but when he’d stumbled across Lucy at the park, it had done something to him—something he couldn’t control or make go away.
 

And, God, did he want it to go away.
 

Some days he would have a clear head and know to keep his distance. Other days it was like he was on autopilot and just found himself right in front of her gorgeous face. It was the most confusing feeling ever and he didn’t know what to do with it. He certainly didn’t want to die alone, but he knew without a doubt that losing Meredith was even more painful than the day he’d lost his father. He never wanted to experience that feeling again. It made him feel weak and vulnerable, neither of which were feelings that allowed him to function as a good father.
 

This was the heart of it all, of course: Jackson. He needed a sane, capable father who wasn’t always wondering when the rug would be ripped out from under him again. Lucy’s presence only clouded his ability to think as a rational human being.
 

He pulled onto the jobsite and looked up at the work they had done. It was almost finished. Soon, they would wrap it up and move on to the next job, though he wasn’t sure just yet where that was.
 

As he walked to the trailer, he spied Mike’s motorcycle parked in front. He wasn’t surprised by this; Mike always found a reason to be on the site, even on Sundays. And maybe that was the trick that Mike had mastered: when you kept your mind constantly occupied, there wasn’t much time to dwell on everything else. He didn’t know much about Mike’s past; he only knew what Mike wanted to share. The one thing he did pick up on, however, was that Mike was always trying to put something behind him. Like Charlie, there was something that Mike wanted to forget.
 

“What are you doing here, kid?” Mike asked, sipping coffee. “I thought I was the only workaholic.”
 

“Just trying to make my brain focus on something else,” Charlie grumbled, and picked up a pile of invoices from his desk. “Mike, we have to get that bid out to Marshall and Smith. I want that job.”

Mike leaned back, and brought his eyebrows closer together. “I’ve got it under control, kid. Marshall and Smith will be ours. I did one of their banks out in Mesa years back. Trust me, they’ll wait patiently.”

“Well, they’ve grown since then and everyone knows it. If we land this contract, we’ll be putting up the rest of them, too.” He narrowed his eyes at Mike. “I want to know that I have work for the next five years.”
 

“When the hell have you not had work in the last seven years?” Mike asked, and put his mug down. He crossed his arms. “Have I let you down somehow?”

“No. I just think you’re starting to drag your feet a little. I don’t know if you’re losing interest or what, but I think you’re slowing down and it scares me.”

“Listen here, you whiney little baby, I’m not slowing anything down,” Mike snapped. “I just know when something’s a sure deal. I’ve gotten you this far, Charlie, and I’ll get you even farther. And then, when I’m ready to throw in the towel, I’ll hand you a completely functional company with a solid reputation that will get you jobs without even worrying about a damn bid, ya hear?”

Charlie spun around to face Mike, who was grinning smugly. “What?”

“Anyway, I already have Jonah working on it. He’s still figuring it all out, wants to take a few more classes on it and graduate, but he’s learning a lot faster than I did. He’s a goddamn baby out there as a laborer.” Mike lowered his chin and glared at Charlie. “Why do you look so confused?”

Charlie shifted his weight to his other leg and leaned against the desk. He needed to sit down for this. “Did you just say that you’re leaving
me
your company?”