Loving Charley (18 page)

As the door shuts, Cash
uses one hand to lock the door while the other continues to hold me
close to him. With no chance of interruption, Cash and I fall
deeper and deeper in tune with each other. Every kiss of his is met
perfectly with a kiss of mine. We don’t talk, but tell each other
exactly what we are feeling with our physical movements.

Cash teases me, and I tease
him right back. I know in my heart of hearts that Cash isn’t going
to cross that line, so tonight I don’t even try to force him. I
play his game, and by the time we are finished playing, we are both
out of breath and content with each other.

We lie on my bed and hold
each other. As I look at the clock, I know that he needs to go to
sleep. He has a long drive and day ahead of him. I’d never forgive
myself if something happened to him. Before long, his breathing
slows, and he drifts off to sleep. Glancing over my shoulder, I
watch him, and it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever
seen.

At some point, I can no
longer keep my eyes open, but I’m pulled from my sleep by the sound
of Cash’s alarm. He doesn’t hit
Snooze
, but he does take a minute to
hold me a little tighter before he slides out of bed and puts his
jeans back on. He grabs a Choice Cherry Gold from the fridge and
sits on the side of the bed.

Running his hand through my
hair, he kisses my cheek. “I love you, Char-coal. Thank you for
being my forever.” He kisses me sweetly again before he
stands.

Grabbing his hand, I pull
him back to the bed, leaving him with a kiss he won’t forget. Then,
as quickly as he surprised me last night, he’s gone, and my bed
feels empty without him. I toss and turn until the sun begins to
rise. I know there is no point in trying to sleep, so I do the only
thing that can clear my mind. I pull out my swimsuit and toss it
into my bag along with a towel. I knock on Georgia’s door, and she
answers half asleep.

“I’m going to the pool. I
need to clear my head,” I state.

“Hold on, and I’ll go with
ya,” she says.

“You don’t have to. I just wanted to
let someone know where I was going.”

“Nah, hold on. I’m going,
too.” Seriously, I don’t need someone to go with me. I just want to
clear my head, but if I have a tagalong, I’d rather have Georgia
than anyone else.

I hear her stumble and
then talk to someone.
OMG! I bet Tucker is
in there!
She emerges from her room a
little later.

“Who’s in there?” I question as she
shrugs her shoulders. “It’s Tucker!” Her face turns bright red.
“You know you don’t have to go.”

“I know I don’t, but you
need me. I don’t care if you think I’m just tagging along. I’m not.
I know you, Charley, and when something’s on your mind, you swim to
escape. There’s only one problem. We don’t have a key to get in.
Wanna run instead?”

She’s exactly right, and I
don’t have anything to add to her comment. We go back into our
rooms and throw on running apparel before exiting the dorm. The air
is cool and crisp as we walk outside and to the stoop. We don’t
talk as we take a few minutes to stretch and then begin at a slow
and steady pace around campus. We spend the next hour running,
breathing, and escaping what I have in my future. On the final mile
of the run, Georgia breaks the silence.

“Char, you know I love you,
right? I knew from the moment I met you that you’d be my best
friend on campus, but this has got to stop. You can’t keep doing
this to yourself; it’s not healthy. You can’t worry about everyone
else when you’re the one that people should be worrying
about.”

I stop mid-stride.
“Huh?”

“Charley, you are the
victim here, and it seems to me every time something goes wrong,
you are the one that tries to fix the situation. I know you miss
Cash, and you don’t want anything to happen to him, but he made
that choice. He has to live with the consequences. Piper and Joe
have to deal with that issue as well… alone.” As I start to
interrupt her, she holds up her finger. “I know you feel at fault,
but you aren’t. Dylan is. You need to accept that he’s the problem,
and nothing will be fixed until the judge is done with
him.

I don’t know what to say to
her. I’m pissed, scared, happy, sad, and one damn bottle of mixed
emotions about to spew like a shaken two-liter. Doing the only
thing I know to do, I turn and continue to run. Georgia stays with
me, well, maybe a stride or two behind me due to her height
deficiency, but she doesn’t leave me alone. Not for one
minute.

When we reach the woods at
the edge of campus, I take the path that Joe and I took not too
many months before, and when I see the bench in the distance, I
slow and then sit without saying a word.

Georgia doesn’t say a word;
she sits beside me and places her hand on my back to comfort me as
I let all the emotions leave my body. I’ve said I’m done running,
but it took Georgia telling me what everyone else was thinking to
realize I’m not okay. I’ve always been one to hide my emotions and
only let a few people in, but undoubtedly, the only person I’ve
been fooling is myself.

When I have no more tears
to cry, I sit with my head in my hands. She’s right. I never
realized that my way of controlling the situation was to control
what happened around me, but when in actuality, I was the one that
needed saving.

“Georgia, thanks for saying
what needed to be said.”

“Char, you’re my dearest
friend. I knew you wouldn’t like it, but it had to be said. I’m
here for you no matter what. No matter what you say about Thursday,
it’s gonna be hard; I’m here if you need me.

I shake my head okay as I
stand. Together, we walk back to campus because I’m done running.
Georgia goes back to her room to find that Tucker has left. For
most people, it would have been a walk of shame, but we all know
that he has nothing to be ashamed of as he walks across campus to
his dorm. Georgia smiles as she sees her empty room; she knows
she’ll see him at Hank’s tonight. Then, we both get ready for the
day.

I spend the remainder of
the weekend with the Kluft girls. We pig out, dance our asses off
at Hank’s, and sleep until lunch on Sunday.

When I wake up, I sit up quickly in
bed. The first thought that crosses my mind is Piper and Joe.
Wondering what happened, I text Joe. My phone rings almost
instantly.

“Hey, is everything okay?”
I ask with concern in my voice.

“Yeah, I’m just now coming
home. What are your plans for dinner?”

“Nothing, I don’t
think.”

“Okay, well, we need to
talk. Meet me at my Jeep at five,” he states.

“Is everything aight?” I
ask as my nerves begin to increase.

“Yeah, it’s gonna be fine. I just want
to talk to someone about everything.”

“Gotcha. Be
careful.”

We disconnect, and I call
Piper. I can read her like a book, so I know I’ll be able to tell
if something is up. She sounds sleepy, but tells me about their
night and about seeing Blanton. She doesn’t hold back anything, and
I can see how proud she is that Joe stood up for her, but also that
everything is okay. We make a little small talk, and she tells me
that she’s coming home for support. I try to argue with her, but
it’s no use. She’ll be there when I testify in court, and honestly,
I feel relieved.

Looking at the clock, I
have a little over four hours to spare before supper with Joe. I
shower, look at my syllabi for my classes, and make sure I’m ahead
of schedule. I want all my schoolwork done, so I can focus on
Thursday. Thinking I should get a five-page paper for biology out
of the way, I dive in and finish it within a couple of hours. It
feels great to have it finished with time to spare. I send Cash a
text to see if they are back yet, and he responds that they should
be back late tonight. I let him know what little bit I know about
Joe and Piper and that I’m having supper with Joe, and he tells me
he will call as soon as they are home and settled. That won’t be a
moment to soon.

Trying to kill a little
time, I make my way to Tori’s room. She’s studying for a
biochemistry test.
Thanks goodness, I’m
not a pre-med major!
Anna is watching TV
in the room, and I make myself at home. After a few minutes, Tori
finishes studying, and we watch reruns of
90210
.

“Dylan is so damn hot!” Anna
says.

“Yeah, he is,” Tori agrees,
but doesn’t say another word.

My face must say it all.
Just the sound of his name has me motionless.

“I’m so sorry, Char. Luke
Perry is so damn hot!” Anna corrects herself.

I try to smile, but it’s almost
impossible. Never in a million years would I have imagined that I
would have reacted that way with just the mention of his name. I
really must be losing it.

“It’s okay. I’m not sure
why it bothered me really because he is definitely not
that
Dylan.”

After we finish watching
the episode, I head to my room to grab my purse to meet
Joe.

Georgia is on her way up
the stairs as I make my way down. “Where ya goin’,
Char?”

“Supper with Joe.”

Her eyes get huge. “Is
everything all right?”

“I think so. I’ve talked to Piper, and
she sounded good. I think he just needs to talk about
it.”

“Oh, okay. Well, if you
need me, I’ll be here the rest of the night.”

As I walk out of the dorm,
I see Joe already inside his Jeep. Looking both ways, I cross the
parking lot and open the passenger side door. He jumps when I open
it.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to
scare ya.”

“It’s fine. I’m just tired
and still trying to process this weekend.”

“I can drive if I need to.”

“Nah, I’m good. So, how
does the BBQ Shack sound?”

“Fine by me,” I say as I
close the door.

We make our way to the
little hole-in-the-wall BBQ place. There aren’t many people here.
They probably came for lunch. We find a seat, and the older
waitress comes to take our order.

After she returns with our
drinks, Joe takes a deep breath and begins to talk. “So, it went
pretty well this weekend.”

“And…” I know there is
more. He wouldn’t have wanted to leave campus without something
else on his mind.

“I confronted Blanton. He
was like a little puppy dog with this tail between his legs when I
told him about Dylan getting caught. He apologized to Piper and her
friends. He also told her to watch out for another group of guys in
the area. Undoubtedly, they get their kicks drugging college girls
and then leaving them as quickly as they find them.”

“Great! So, other than
that, did things go well?”

He begins to grin from ear
to ear. “Yeah, they went
really
well. You’re probably gonna think I’m crazy,
though.” With that statement, I’m a little scared to hear what Joe
is going to say next. But, he doesn’t talk; he takes something out
of his pocket instead. It’s a perfect square velvet box.

Ohmygosh!
Ohmygosh!

“I love her, Charley,” he
says as he opens the box, and inside is a stunning emerald cut
diamond ring sitting in the center.

“Joe!” I gasp and put my
hand over my mouth. The waitress looks in our direction and has
this excited look in her eyes. I hear her holler our
way.

“Well, honey, are you gonna
answer that poor boy or what?” Joe and my eyes dart back to each
other before we burst out laughing.

“Ma’am, it’s for my best
friend,” I correct her politely.

“She’s one lucky girl! That is
absolutely beautiful!”

“That she is,” I say as I
look at Joe. “So, is this what took you an extra hour to get
home?”

“Guilty. Do you think I’m
crazy?”

“It’s like this. You know
when you’ve found your forever. It is soon, but one thing that I’ve
learned is that life is too precious to waste. Go after what you
want, and live every moment to the fullest.”

Letting out a huge breath
of air, he responds, “Shewwww… I just knew you were going to tell
me I was rushing things.” The waitress returns with our
food.

Choosing my words
carefully, I reply, “I’m not saying I’d propose right now, but you
will know when it’s right…
and
when you ask her daddy.”

Joe’s eyes bug out of his
head. “Ask her daddy?”

“Joe, you’re wanting to
marry a Southern Belle. Rule number one is to get her daddy’s
permission.”

Joe looks a little pale. “I’ve only
met him once. He’ll think I’m crazy.”

“Well, you are… for his
daughter. He loves you. It will be aight,” I tell him as I begin to
eat my food.

“Squirrel,
really
? I have to ask
him?”

“If you want her to say
yes, you
have
to
ask.”

“Alright.”