Seduced by Moonlight (13 page)

 

At dinner on Charlie's first night in the Patterson home, Danielle kept the conversation lively, interjecting notes on her day whenever it lagged. She seemed more than a little manic to her mother, who knew how badly she wanted her dad to feel at home.

Taking pity on her child, Cherisse was more than civil to Charlie. She even served him dessert at the end of the meal. Shortly after she put the piece of apple pie in front of him, Danielle announced that she was tired and would forego dessert tonight, an occurrence that happened about as often as there was a total eclipse of the sun, and said she was going to wash the dishes and go on up to bed. She said good-night, going to kiss both of them on their cheeks. Soon after her performance Cherisse watched as her mother, a woman who was a night owl to the core, said she, too, was feeling a bit sleepy and would turn in early tonight.

Left alone at the dining room table with Charlie, Cherisse felt certain she was the victim of a conspiracy. She smiled at Charlie. “They obviously want us to talk.”

“Obviously,” Charlie said and put his fork down. The pie could wait. His eyes met hers across the table. “I know you don't want me here, Cheri, and I would have said no when Danielle suggested it but I couldn't. I didn't want to disappoint her…again.”

To his surprise, Cherisse's smile didn't waver. “I'm okay with your staying here, Charlie. I know Danielle dreamed it up so she could have you all to herself. She's missed you a lot. Besides, it's not as if you and I detest each other. It's been ten years. There're no bad feelings between the two of us. It's all about Danielle now.”

“That's right, it's all about Danielle,” Charlie assured her.

“Good,” said Cherisse as she picked up her fork and daintily cut off a piece of pie with the tines. Her eyes meeting Charlie's again, she said, “I'm glad we got that out of the way.”

Charlie picked up his fork and began to eat, but he could barely swallow because he was being deceitful and felt bad about it. The fact was, he was still very attracted to his ex-wife and if she gave him the slightest encouragement he would do everything in his power to win her back. There, he'd thought it even if he hadn't said it.

Earlier today, while Danielle had been helping him get his suitcases out of the SUV, she had been prattling on and on about her life and her life included her mother's life. She'd dropped an innocent enough tidbit about Cherisse dating Harry Payne and Charlie had felt his heart plummet.

Harry Payne was everything he was not—rich, successful, even richer now than he had been when he'd been a quarterback for the Broncos. Yes, they had met on the field of battle years ago and even then Harry had won. The Broncos had beaten the Eagles several times.

He bet Payne remembered that. Remembered it and was inwardly gloating now that he was dating his ex-wife. It probably gave him some sort of sick satisfaction. Cherisse was ignorant of such things. She had shown very little interest in football while they were married. According to Danielle, Cherisse hadn't even known who Payne was when they met. But it must have been quite a coup for Harry Payne to learn that she was Charlie Washington's ex.

Charlie saw no reason to pretend he was unaware she was dating Payne. The thing to do was to treat it as casually as possible.

“Danielle says you're going out with Harry Payne this weekend,” he said, after which he took a bite of his pie and chewed thoughtfully.

Cherisse was at once wary of his interest. When they were married Charlie had been jealous if a man even looked her way. “Harry and I just met,” she said. “I suppose Danielle also told you he's her sponsor. This will be our first date.”

“Wonderful,” Charlie said. “You
should
go out and enjoy yourself.”

“Harry said you were one of the best defensive backs in the game,” Cherisse said, trying to keep the conversation light. She gave him a sincere smile.

Charlie
had
been good in his day, a fact that escaped Cherisse. She had been too busy worrying about paying the bills. He wished he could make it up to her somehow.

Sitting there looking at her, how her mouth—he'd always loved her mouth—turned up in a smile that would melt any man's heart, and how her eyes danced with joy at the thought of Harry Payne, his stomach turned sour.

Pushing his plate away, he said, “I guess I'm full, although Miss Jo really did a fine job on that pie. She was always such a great cook.”

He cleared his throat. “I think I'll turn in. Good night, Cheri.”

Cherisse smiled at him. “Good night, Charlie.”

He took his plate with him.

Cherisse watched him go. There was something he wasn't saying to her. She could tell when he was holding back.
But you know what,
she thought,
I don't
care
what's on Charlie Washington's mind anymore!

She finished her pie and drank her coffee, then got up to go upstairs for a long soak in the tub.

About an hour later, after she'd come out of the tub, had dried off and was smoothing moisturizer all over her body, there came a knock at her door. It was by then nine-thirty and she knew Danielle was probably either finishing up homework or already sound asleep. Her daughter got up early and had never fought going to bed at night, except on weekends when she wanted to party with her friends. That left her mother.

Since her mother stayed up until one or two in the morning, she sometimes came by her room for chats after they had both bathed and were ready for bed.

Cherisse walked over to the door and opened it with the expectation of seeing her mother on the other side. Instead she found Charlie, freshly showered, wearing only a T-shirt and a pair of pajama bottoms.

“Cheri,” he said, talking low and stepping into the room on bare feet, “my conscience is bothering me. I've got to come clean with you.”

Charlie was six-one and weighed one-ninety-five. He hadn't been a slacker since he'd retired from the game and still made an imposing figure with tight abs, taut biceps and leg muscles. Cherisse didn't feel comfortable alone with him in her bedroom when they were both in their nightclothes.

She didn't object to his coming into the room, but she left the door open. Charlie shut it. Turning to face her, his eyes swept over her. Cherisse experienced a momentary chill when it dawned on her that Charlie was still sexually attracted to her. She supposed she would have been aware of how he felt if she had allowed herself to be alone with him for any length of time over the past ten years. But whenever he came to visit Danielle, Cherisse invariably left the room as quickly as possible, or Charlie would take Danielle elsewhere for their visits. Cherisse liked it even better when he didn't come to town at all and Danielle went to visit him in Philadelphia. That way, she didn't have to see him at all.

Well, she wasn't the inexperienced little wife who had put up with years of neglect from him. Neglect in the form of lack of support and the long lengths of time he would spend away from home on gambling binges and God knows whatever else he got into with his buddies. She suspected he'd cheated on her, too, but never saw proof of it and at the end of their marriage when she told him she was leaving him and he had begged her to stay, he had sworn that in their nine years of marriage, yes, he had gambled and put them in financial straits, but at least he had never cheated on her with the groupies who followed the team from town to town.

That wasn't enough to make her stay.

And now, this…whatever he had on his mind when he stated that he needed to come clean with her…wasn't going to sway her about him, either.

She rounded on him before he could utter another word and cried, “Charlie, if you are in this house for any reason other than to spend time with your daughter, I want you out in the morning. And
you
can explain to Danielle why you have to leave!”

Charlie looked contrite. His handsome face crinkled in a frown. Running his hand over his bald head, he sighed. “I know you don't believe me, but I have changed, Cheri. In the past three years I've gotten out of debt and I haven't gambled in years. I can tell you the exact date, but I don't think you're interested. I would never do anything to jeopardize my relationship with Danielle. But with this change that's come over me I've also been bold enough to dream of a better life, the life you and I were cheated out of because of my habit. I regret…”

“Don't say it,” Cherisse hissed, trying her best to keep her voice down, but it was hard to do because she was so angry with Charlie. “Don't tell me you want to date me, Charlie Washington, because if you do then your being here was all a ruse to get close to me and that would really hurt your daughter, who has done everything she can to finally get your sorry attention.”

“But, Cheri, I know we could all be happy together. I want the chance to make it up to you. Just give me a shot.”

Shaking her head in disgust, Cherisse backed away from him. “What brought this on? You haven't dropped any hints over the years. Aside from that look you just gave me I had no notion that you even thought of me, let alone in sexual terms. Why bring it up now?”

“I'm here now,” Charlie said simply. “We're going to be living in the same city. And honestly, Cheri, you and I haven't been alone in the same room since we met with the lawyers that last time. What was I going to do, phone you and tell you how I felt? E-mail you? You wouldn't have spoken to me and you would have deleted any e-mails from me.”

“Damn right I would've,” Cherisse said vehemently. “We are divorced! There is nothing left between us. I haven't avoided you like the plague for nothing. I've moved on. I've been in love since the divorce, Charlie. His name was Neil Kennedy, he was a police officer, we were planning to get married but he was killed in the line of duty.”

“I heard about that,” Charlie said, to her utter amazement.

“How?” she asked, her voice sounding hoarse from disbelief.

“A friend of a friend,” Charlie said. “I don't have any family left in Denver but you and I still have mutual friends here, Cheri. We have a history here. We fell in love in high school. We left here with such high hopes of a wonderful life together when I got drafted by the Eagles in college. Remember my mom wanted me to finish college instead?”

“She was right,” said Cherisse.

“Yeah,” Charlie admitted. “She was right. I didn't get the chance to tell her that before she died.” Looking more determined than ever he strode over to her, grabbed her by the shoulders and made her look him in the eyes. “I don't want us to miss our chance. Please, tell me it's not too late for us.”

Cherisse stared up at him, clearly distressed. “You're not still in love with me, Charlie. You're trying to create a happily ever after that more than likely would never have been. Aside from your gambling we had other problems. We rarely saw eye to eye on anything. Face it, our marriage was based on our being high-school sweethearts. We let our overactive hormones get the best of us. If I hadn't gotten pregnant with Danielle we might never have gotten married. That fact plus your gambling did us in, Charlie. Let it go. You've got a new job. You'll meet someone. But I'm not going to go back in time with you. This is my time and I like it. I like Harry Payne.”

“He's a womanizer,” said Charlie. “Why do you think he's never been married?”

“Quite a few professional athletes have had that reputation, including you,” Cherisse told him, wrenching free of his hold and walking over to the vanity, where she sat down and began brushing her hair.

Charlie sighed out of frustration and sat down on the bed. “I don't see why you can't give me a chance. You're willing to give him a chance and he is twice the ladies' man I ever was!”

Cherisse met his eyes in the mirror while she braided her hair into a single plait that fell down her back. “Did something happen between you and Harry that I should know about? Why don't you like him?”

“He's trying to get my ex-wife into his bed, that's why I don't like him. That's reason enough!”

“Will you lower your voice?”

“He will use you, Cheri,” Charlie insisted. “And I'm not going to sit around and let that happen, even if you don't want me.”

“Stay out of my personal life!”

“Now who's shouting?”

Finished braiding her hair, Cherisse rose and began walking to the door. “It's time for you to leave.”

Charlie, displaying the quick reflexes he was known for on the football field, was up in an instant. He adeptly pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

Cherisse promptly bit his lower lip.

Setting her away from him, Charlie's hand went to his injured lip. “Fine,” he said. “I'll leave in the morning.”

“No need for that,” Cherisse told him calmly, looking away from him as though the sight of him repulsed her. “We've got everything out in the open now. You're not going to make any more advances toward me. You're going to stay out of my personal life. And Danielle never has to know you came here under false pretenses.”