Charity For Nothing: The Virtues Book III (6 page)

“They were a ‘welcome to Ft. Royal’ gift, and ‘you break, you cry, I break, I buy’ on the picture frames. Take it, or you might hurt my feelings… all one of ‘em that’s left.” I said and tried a smile to soften the harshness of my tone. I was angry, but not at her, just at myself for being so messed up.

She nodded silently and took the money from my fingertips, tucking the bills into her white bikini top. It took a second to register I was staring, but I think the glasses hid it. To be fair on my end, it’d been a long time, and she was something else in just her white bikini and long, gauzy, see through, blue and aqua wrap that sat low on her hips.

“Thanks,” she said, voice low and careful, and I could almost detect a faint blush on her cheeks. I propped the glasses up on my head, and sure enough, there it was. I couldn’t explain the tight feeling in my chest that the sight caused.

“Don’t mention it.”

We sat in silence for a time, and she sighed, “You want to talk about it?” she asked.

“Talk about what?”

“I kind of figured you wouldn’t remember,” she said and she sounded a bit chagrined.

“Remember what?” I asked, careful not to let on that the boys had told me full well of my asinine behavior.

“I woke up and you were on my bedroom floor, trying to put my pictures into unbroken frames night before last, you don’t remember?”

“Fuck, you serious?” I asked and tried to sound surprised. Her face held no lie, “Shit, I’m sorry.” The embarrassment I felt now I didn’t bother to hide.

“So, where you been?” she asked, changing the subject for me so I didn’t have to.

“Stuck around the house, working on my bike. The boys showed up this morning to help me board up and get ready for the storm. ”

“I see, is it really that serious?”

“The hurricane coming? Yeah,” I shrugged, “It’s a hurricane.”

“We don’t have storms like that in California.”

“Yeah, I guess not… What’re you doing out here?” I asked, changing the subject again when the silence went too long.

“Needed to go for a walk. Hope and Faith opted for an afternoon nap, but I was feeling a little restless.”

I got up, probably a little abruptly, but this feeling I had buzzing through my veins… I just wanted it to quit. I covered up my eyes with my glasses and held a hand down to her. She smiled up at me and grasped my hand and I hauled her lightly to her feet. She dusted off her shapely ass and I forced myself to look away from her and out to the water. I’d intended to walk with her some, but that’s when I saw it and the emergency medical professional in me leapt out to the surface.

“Oh, god!” I heard Charity exclaim and she was right on my heels as we ran full tilt down the beach and onto the wet sand. A woman was struggling onto the shore with her child in her arms, limp… arms and legs flopping, likely not breathing.

Fucking shit.

Charity didn’t miss a beat as I snatched the little boy from the screaming and crying lady and laid him out on the sand. She knelt by him, ear to his chest, and shook her head.

“Begin chest compressions,” I snapped out and she assumed the trademark position and began her count. Bones and cartilage crackled and popped beneath her hands as they worked to pump life back through the kid’s veins. This shit was real, and nothing at all like in the movies, but Charity the nurse was in the house and I was suitably impressed.

“Breathe!” she called and I bent, sealing my mouth over the boy’s. Tilting his head back and pinching his nose.

“Again,” I said and she began her count. We were a team, the two of us melded into a working unit and I was surprised at how seamlessly. She’d had some good training, and me? I’d kept up with my certifications, mostly for the club and for the odd emergency like this one.

The kid coughed and choked, my mouth filling with sea water and I sat up, spitting it off to the side. Charity rolled the kid into the recovery position and helped him choke it all up. His color started to return from the sickly blue purple he’d come out of the water with, and he started to cry.

“Somebody call an ambulance!?” I called out and was met with a random ‘yeah’ out of the crowd. I didn’t see where it’d come from, because my eyes were on Charity who was all about her patient right now.
Fuck that’s hot…
I thought to myself and instantly, the guilt slammed into my chest at the same time my respect for her rose more than a few notches.
Fuck my misplaced attraction for her.
I struggled with it.
Corrine doesn’t deserve it.
I chastised myself, but for the first time, maybe
ever
, a tiny voice flitted out from the back of my mind and whispered,
Corrine is gone, maybe you’ve punished yourself enough?

Sirens, medics, she and I helped carry the kid across the sand on a backboard, his mother thanking us over and over again profusely.

“Good thing you were here, Shepard.”

I shook my head at O’Reilly, one of the medics I’d used to work with and told him, “It was mostly her,” inclining my head towards Charity who was consoling the mother.

“Man, wish you’d never given it up. Any thoughts on coming back?” he asked me, eyeing Charity critically, as if taking her measure.

“Nope.”

“Then why you keep up with all the certs? Saw your name on the re-cert course at the community college last round. Perfect score and putting us all to shame, per usual.”

“Reasons, O’Reilly. I got my reasons.”

O’Reilly shook his head and sighed, “So who is she? Where she come from? You know?” he asked.

“Up north, just graduated with a nursing degree. She’s my club captain’s girl’s sister.”

“A nurse? Well fuck, there goes that idea.”

“What idea?” I tore my gaze away from Charity’s which was locked on mine and looked up at O’Reilly who was a tall bastard at six foot eight. He rubbed a hand over his close buzz cut and shook his head.

“We lost Phillips to a heart attack last month,” he said and I bowed and shook my head. Phillips had been one of the older medics to show me the ropes when I’d first gotten down to Ft. Royal with Corrine.

“Man, I hadn’t heard.”

“You were out of town.” O’Reilly kept talking, “Anyways, Phillips went, and Marty retired. A couple of the young bucks quit on us; couldn’t handle it. We’re hurting, we’re hurting
bad
for personnel. Will you at least think about it?”

“You know what this job cost me…”

O’Reilly sighed, “I know what you
think
it cost you, but Shep,” he put his hand on my shoulder, “You know deep down there was nothing you could’a –“ I shook the hand off and started walking away to O’Reilly’s sharp exhalation of breath and muttered curse.

I didn’t feel like it. I really fucking didn’t. It was selfish as fuck, but I’d been having a good day as far as days went. I didn’t want to think about it too much, which was hard as is, with the date coming up. Charity eyed me curiously and helped the woman into the back of the ambulance with her son. O’Reilly climbed in after her while his partner, a guy I didn’t know, got in to drive.

Charity waved and rapped twice on the back of the cab and the bus pulled away from the curb, lights going up and siren wailing, piercing through my receding hangover like a marlin spike to the temple.

I needed a fucking drink, so I took the opportunity to disappear into the crowd before Charity turned back, making long strides down the boulevard heading for The Plank, and the familiar taste of oblivion that was Crown Royal before the ugly memories splattered themselves up on the inside of my skull in horrifying, living color.

Chapter 7

Charity

I saved a life. I stood at the curb, watching the ambulance drive away and felt lighter than air, but at the same time, full of an effervescing energy.
Wow.
I’d
saved a life
, what’s more, I’d saved a life
with Nothing
. Who knew we had medical training in common? I turned to him and said, “I didn’t know you were a med-“ but the words died on my lips. He was gone, and I couldn’t see through the throng of people in which direction he’d travelled.

“Son of a bitch,” I whispered.

“Hey!” I turned and an attractive man stood on the curb, hands buried in his cargo shorts, button down shirt open at the collar, sleeves turned up casually to the elbow.

“Yes?”

“Not going to lie, that was pretty spectacular. Let me buy you a drink?”

I smiled, “And you are?”

He grinned, an award winning smile, and held out his hand, “Greg Hanson, what’s your name?”

“Charity,” I took his hand and shook, his grip light, but firm.

“Nice to meet you, Charity. Can I interest you in that victory drink?”

I smiled, “Some other time, maybe? I’ve got to get going. There’s a hurricane coming don’t you know?”

“Ah, yeah, I’m in town on business. Bad timing yeah?”

“At least you can
leave
,” I said laughing, “I just moved here.”

“Is that right?” he smiled and flashed perfect white teeth. He was attractive, as far as men go, probably no older than his late twenties, but he didn’t have that general dark mystique that I was finding so attractive in Nothing.

“Yeah, moved here to be with my sisters.”

“You know, I really do hope you’ll take me up on that offer of a drink. If I ever see you again.”

“It’s a small town, so yeah, likely as not, we’ll run into each other again.”

He grinned broader and winked at me, “I’ll be sure to keep an eye out, but then again, a woman as beautiful as you, you
do
stand out in a crowd.”

I laughed outright and started up the sidewalk, looking back over my shoulder I proclaimed, “Flattery will get you everywhere!”

“I’ll keep that in mind!”

I went down the boulevard, back in the direction of Cutter’s house where everyone was supposed to meet anyways at the end of the day for some grilling and drinks. It was a fifty-fifty shot that Nothing had already gone that direction.

I wondered about him as I walked, he’d looked awful drawn and when he’d moved his glasses, he had been clearly hungover. After spending four years in college, it was hard not to recognize a night, or several, of binge drinking. I was surprised to find I was worried about him. It was probably just the natural caregiver in me… I was well aware that I couldn’t save the world but it didn’t stop me from trying.

My thoughts drifted back to the boy and to the medic climbing into the back of the ambulance, the taller one, he’d said to me,
“If you could get Shep to come back, you’d be doing this area a bigger service than you could imagine…”
It made me wonder about the man called Nothing. Why had he stopped in the first place? Clearly he had the training and was a phenomenal medic… why just stop?

“Hey! Here comes Trouble.” I looked up and smiled, surprised at how far I’d come in so little time.

“What’re you doing out here?” I asked and Cutter shrugged, opening up the mailbox.

“Can’t a man check his mail?” he asked. “You look thoughtful, wanna tell me what’s up?”

“Yeah, I think I just saved a life. Well, Nothing and I did.”

“No shit? What happened?”

I told him as we ambled up the driveway at a sedate pace and he listened, thoughtfully. Finally, he nodded.

“Well I’ll be damned, good on you, Darlin’!”

“Thanks,” I said and smiled, “I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”

“Yeah, what’s that?”

I stopped and looked up at him, “Why do you call Faith ‘Firefly?’”

He smiled, that easy, lazy grin of his that I could totally see why Hope got all twitterpated over it. “Because,” he said, “Your sister has a fire inside that’s been dulled by some really shitty circumstances, but when she doesn’t let all that get in the way, and she remembers to do it, boy can she ever let that light of hers shine!”

I smiled broadly and looped my arm through his, giving his arm a hug, “I am so glad someone sees it.”

“Oh, I ain’t the only one. Marlin sees it clear as day.”

“I’m glad she has him.”

Cutter nodded, but said nothing. I looked up at him, “So why you call me ‘Trouble’ then?” I asked.

“Oh because you are. You’re trouble that’s just waiting to happen.”

I laughed and he let us into the front door of the house, Hope was sitting on the couch, Faith on the floor in front of her while my eldest sister brushed my older sister’s hair.

“You need a trim,” I observed.

“That mean the salon is open?” Hope asked.

“I’ll run up and get my scissors,” I said and breathed out a sigh of contentment. It’d been a good day. A jumpstart to my heart, but so far, a good day… even with Nothing’s peculiar behavior. The mystery had deepened, and my curiosity was definitely piqued. I was wrestling with myself a bit on if I wanted to learn more or if I should just take the brush offs he’d been giving me to heart.

I went and got my scissors and trimmed both Faith and Hope’s hair, all the while listening to Faith prattle on about some man named Bobby and his orange grove. I smiled, and I was happy for my sisters, both of them, but I couldn’t help but have my thoughts pulled regularly back to a pair of solemn gray eyes.

Damnit, I think Dominic Shepard AKA Nothing had gotten under my skin. There was something different about that. I’d never had anyone make me so curious after a couple of nonchalant, scratch that, a couple of nonchalant, one creepy, and one
intense
meeting. I think I’d decided then and there, that I would make an effort to get to know him which made me make a wry smile… I could be persistent if need be, and I think I’d figured out where my new nickname was going to come into play. Cutter was an insightful bugger.

Trouble indeed.

Chapter 8

Nothing

Shit.
Charity dropped onto the barstool beside mine and dropped her keys on the scarred wood surface of The Plank’s bar. She raised an eyebrow at me.

“What?” I asked.

“It’s raining again, figured I could offer you a ride home, seeing as your bike is in the shop and Marlin has your car.”

“I’m good,” I said and downed the shot of Crown in front of me. Lightning took the shot glass off the bar and sighed.