Unspoken (26 page)

“Can you wink?”

“Not well. We don’t need a signal. I’ll just say, ‘Kiss me, Bryce.’”

He smiled. “That’s clear enough.”

She pulled over the flower vase on the counter and removed the blooms beginning to fade. “I enjoyed playing pool with you.”

“John mentioned you were good. He forgot to mention you were
really
good.”

“He taught me the game. He wanted me to get comfortable with a noisy, crowded room of guys—the definition of a pool hall—and still be able to keep my train of thought. The first several attempts lasted about ten minutes before I had to leave, and the others were pretty exhausting. He didn’t know my coping skills would be to block out everything but my next pool shot. That I’m good can be chalked up to ten years of playing pool with him to get comfortable with that many guys, that much noise.”

Bryce, reaching for the coffee mugs, paused. It was one of the more personal facts she’d told him about her past. It was painful to hear. But he could see John’s logic. “Did the crowd bother you tonight?”

“No. It was actually nice to realize I was comfortable there. It’s progress.”

“Ellie likes to play pool too.”

“She used to go with John and me, and she’s always been
good. Now it’s their version of going on a date. I don’t think she’s into pool as much as she is into flirting with him. Who won your dart game—you or Paul?”

“I did. We go back and forth at the board.”

“Ann said she encourages it—you and Paul hanging out together.”

“She does, and I appreciate it. He’s got family he’s very close to, some good friends from work, but the job he carries has some heavy weight to it. Ann likes the fact I’m not going to be asking him about a case. I’m going to talk coins, sports, and occasionally hit him with a question about God that I might be wrestling with preparing for a class. I’m the normalcy of life Paul doesn’t get in his day-to-day job.”

“Is he your best friend?”

Bryce stopped, surprised, and gave it some thought. “Good question. I don’t know that I have one, Charlotte. Paul ranks high up there as a good friend, as does Ann, surprisingly. She’s hard to get to know, but I like her a lot. If I had to say best friend . . . I guess I’d still put my father in that slot. I trust Dad’s advice and his perspective on things. My brothers and I are close, but we don’t get to see each other often, given their jobs.”

“I’m glad about your dad, Bryce. Ann and I could get to be pretty good friends. She’s got that quality to her that says she listens well.”

“It would be nice if that did work out. Ann and Paul would be good friends we could spend time with. The same with John and Ellie. We’re both comfortable with them.”

He brought over a cup of coffee, rested his arms against the counter as he held his. “I’m glad you said yes.”

She gave a small smile back. “I’m starting to feel that way too.”

“When do you want to get married?”

“I’ve been thinking about April the tenth, a Thursday evening.
It’s enough time to get the work done with the estate, so the only thing after we marry is the Legacy Trust. We’d still have a month in case something goes wrong and it needs rescheduling.”

“Then April tenth it is.”

She opened her tote bag. “If you don’t mind an early wedding present . . .”

He took the ribbon-wrapped box she held out and, at her nod, opened it.

A 38-O half-dollar. One of only twenty minted in New Orleans in 1838. It was uncirculated, in stunning condition.

“Charlotte. I don’t know what to say.” She’d given him a six-hundred-thousand-dollar coin. She wouldn’t think of that, just the fact it had been one of the two coins he’d mentioned he most wished he owned. She couldn’t have chosen something more significant as a personal gift. He looked over at her for a long moment, offered a smile to go with the words he finally decided on. “It is absolutely perfect.”

“I like to see you struggling for words.” She grinned and rested her chin on her hand. “Pencils. Every anniversary for the next fifty years. Give me a nice new set of pencils.”

“I could do that.”

“Maybe birthdays too.”

He laughed. “I won’t forget.” It was what was important to her—her art—as coins had been to him for the last decade. “They’ll need to be expensive pencils.”

“They are. You haven’t walked into a good art-supply store yet. Good pencils are ridiculously expensive and they come in a couple hundred different colors.”

He loved her return laughter and the way it lit up her face and reached her eyes. He wanted to kiss the woman. He wanted her comfortable enough with him he could lean forward and kiss her, for her to accept that. And the thought ran him smack into the reality of her history. It was going to be difficult, the first several
years, remembering what this was. She held his gaze, and her smile faded. She reached over and ran her hand down his arm.

“I’ve been thinking about your honeymoon offer—anywhere I want us to go, and someone else makes all the arrangements,” she said softly. “The idea of that sounds like such a luxury. There will be a day I want to take a trip like that. Go to London, or maybe Spain, with you—be tourists.” She interlaced her fingers with his. “But I was thinking for our honeymoon I would really like to stay home.

“I’d like to get comfortable in this house, not have company or guests or things to think about, just some sleep and good food and time to decompress, for about five weeks. There will be legal matters we’ll have to deal with. After all of it is finished, and life can be of our choosing once more—then I want that vacation with you.”

He didn’t mind her request; he simply answered the uncertainty he could hear. “We’re going to have a good life together, Charlotte.”

“Ellie says it’s just early wedding nerves, but what would she know?”

Bryce smiled and tightened his hand. “Can I talk you into kissing me good-night on Ellie’s front steps?”

“I’ll think about it between here and there.”

“You could consider it practice, in case you decide you want to kiss me on our wedding day.”

“I haven’t decided about that ‘you may now kiss the bride’ phrase yet either.”

Charlotte wished she had said yes to kissing Bryce good-night. For days that moment had been running through her mind as an unanswered question. She kept seeing him in that quiet moment between when she had unlocked the door and when he
had stepped back with a soft good-night. He hadn’t crowded her, hadn’t pushed. He’d simply stepped into her space, taken her hands, and given her time to think if she wanted to accept the invitation to kiss him good-night. She’d lost her nerve, given a small shake of her head, and he’d stepped back with that comfortable smile and quiet “Good night.” The moment was haunting her. He wouldn’t make the decision for her, and she didn’t have the courage to say yes.

“You’re thinking too hard.”

She glanced over at Ellie.

The Graham Enterprises warehouses were busy, trucks lined up along the road, and Ellie waited for one to pass before pulling out of the administration building parking lot. “You’ve been thinking too much ever since you said yes to getting married,” Ellie added. “Stop it. Life will be fine.”

Charlotte smiled at Ellie’s soft order. “I’ll work on it.” She glanced back at the admin building and the still nearly full parking lot. The days lately had been so full there shouldn’t be time to think. “I’m going to miss the guys more than I expected, and the job.”

Charlotte carefully placed the farewell gift from Henrietta in her tote—Henrietta had given her a beautiful scarf and a framed photo of Fred from back when he was a young man. The older woman had become a true friend, and Charlotte would miss her even more than the guys. Charlotte knew Henrietta would keep the company running smoothly through the transition.

“They did a nice farewell party for you and for John.”

“They did.” Charlotte watched the traffic. She’d concluded the sale of the rest of Graham Enterprises to the employees that morning as planned, with John’s resignation as head of security effective with the sale.

The guys who worked for Graham Enterprises had packed the admin building and the break room, told stories about her and
her grandfather, had her run the Number Nine Graham Express for the last time around the model tracks, hauled out a massive sheet cake decorated with icing versions of catfish bait balls. She’d battled the need to cry even as she shared their laughter. “How ’bout one more forklift run?” one of them shouted, which got another round of laughter and eased her emotions.

Bryce had offered to be here, but there was only so much she could handle in this day. Saying goodbyes while handling questions about her upcoming wedding with Bryce was more than she’d be up for, so she had waved him off.

And the goodbyes had been very hard. Charlotte sighed, forced herself to close the door on what was now the past, and concentrate instead on the coming week. Only a few remaining items were in flux. She looked over at Ellie. “Are you going to accept Fred’s house?”

“I think you should give it to John,” Ellie replied, slowing to let a truck pass. “Guys who work with him will enjoy Shadow Lake. Give him Shadow Lake and the family land, Fred’s home. The place would be ideal if he needs to tuck a client’s family away from trouble for a month.”

“Will you help him with the remodel job it needs?”

“I could do that.”

Charlotte watched the warehouses as they passed, wondering if she’d be seeing them again. “I wish you’d accept the house, Ellie. John loves you. You’d enjoy being up here at Shadow Lake, riding the trails John is talking about cutting through the woods, fishing with him on occasion, sitting on that patio watching Shadow Lake through the seasons of a year. I think you need to move up here, be near John, and seriously consider marrying him.”

“You know it’s not a simple decision.”

“Neither was mine, but I accepted that a yes needed to be the answer. You can always give the house to John in a few years if
you can’t open that door. At least put yourself enough into his world so you can make a decision after seeing how it could be.”

“You’re tossing my own counsel to you back at me,” Ellie mentioned, offering a smile.

“It was good advice,” Charlotte replied. “Trust me on this, at least enough to let me give you the house.”

Ellie finally nodded. “Deed it to me, and I’ll see how much time I want to spend up here. You know John’s not going to be around here much, not with you in Chicago, not with the job offers that are going to come his way. John is viewing Shadow Lake as a vacation property, a stopping-off point between jobs. He loves it here, but he’s not inclined to stop working. Until you need him full time, he’s going to be coming up with interesting things to do.”

“The man doesn’t know how not to work,” Charlotte agreed. “But I think Shadow Lake is something fairly permanent he’s ready for. He can handle Chicago for Bryce and me and be up here working on the land, be out on the lake, part of the week. He may surprise us both by picking up weekend assignments as part of someone else’s security plan for a concert or a speech. Whatever it is, I do think he’s going to base it around being back here at Shadow Lake during his downtime. I’ve watched him the last few years and seen the pleasure he gets being out on the water. He’s ready to settle down, Ellie. That’s the thing I’ve noticed the most. He really wants you to say yes, so he can build a life with you. The two of you would love living up here, and it’s not so far from Chicago that you can’t be back in the city whenever you want to be.”

Ellie slowed as the Graham Enterprises security gate came into sight. Charlotte could feel one chapter in her life end as Ellie handed over their credentials and they drove through the gate, possibly for the last time. Life had just transitioned again in a major way, and this time it was her own decision. She was
going to marry Bryce Bishop and accept the Legacy Trust as her future. The decision was made. She just hoped neither she nor Bryce regretted it in a few years.

Charlotte glanced at her friend. “Thanks for all your help with the wedding plans. I know you’ve been carrying more than your share of the details.”

Ellie smiled. “What are friends for? I do think you’re going to be glad you’re marrying Bryce. But I want to say one thing, as your friend. You get cold feet two minutes before you say ‘I do,’ if you change your mind, my guest room has your name on it. You’ll come stay with me. I promise I won’t question why you changed your mind. I’ll understand, and I’ll be there. John will be too.”

“I won’t change my mind. But it means a lot that you’ve offered.”