Page 71 of Take Two

Refusing to think of Charlie’s brother right now, I decide I’ll only say a very cool hello to him and spend the dinner talking to Mary Leigh and Vickie instead.

“Wow,” I say as I look around the houses in the gated community Charlie is driving through. The entire place is surrounded by a lake, and there are mountainous views throughout. The homes are all mansions, so I assume this is the house Colt bought for his mother and not their childhood home.

“Yeah, Colt bought it for Mama the first year he played professionally. Tomorrow I want to show you the house I grew up in. It looks almost the exact same as when we were kids.” He squeezes my leg.

“I’d love to see it.” He pulls into a circular driveway of a brick mansion. There’s a black Mercedes truck in the driveway, and Charlie parks his car next to it. There are vanity plates that say Queen Vee, so I already know who it belongs to.

After helping me out of the car and taking the orchid from me, he opens the garage and takes my hand. There’s a BMW in there and the same pickup truck that Charlie drives, only much older and black instead of red.

“That’s Daddy’s old truck,” he says. He runs his hand along it as if he’s paying his respects. “Mama only lets me drive it sometimes. Colt’s not allowed anymore because he hit our mailbox,” he whispers.

He opens a door that leads to an empty long hallway where he orders me to take off my shoes because that’s Mama’s rule. I hear a deep voice that sounds similar to Charlie’s, and we follow it.

“Son, you need to stop this now,” we hear Mary Leigh say to whatever Colt had just said. Charlie comes to a complete stop and puts a finger to his lips, signaling for me to be quiet.

“All I’m sayin' is that he’s moving too fast,” Colt says. From the tone of his voice, I know the ‘he’ he’s talking about is Charlie. “It hasn’t been that long.”

“It’s never too fast when it’s the right one,” Mary Leigh says.

“He told me he’s considerin’ marriage,” he whispers as if it’s a dirty word. I let out a soft gasp and look at Charlie’s profile. He won’t look at me, but I see color creeping up his neck. “She’s only his first real girlfriend. Who marries their first girlfriend?” he asks.

“You did,” Mama reminds him with a bit of an attitude.

“Well, look how that turned out,” he says. “And she might have been my first, but she wasn’t the only.”

“Well, that’s his business, Colt. They make each other happy. Isn’t that what we’ve always wanted for him?”

“But Mama, what if she doesn’t want to get married? What if she breaks his heart and he spirals out of control? What if—”

“He’s not going to do that. He’s worked so hard for three years. He was solid before Violet. Heaven forbid the relationship doesn’t work out, he’s not going to fall off the wagon. I know my son.”

I can’t see them, but I hear Colt sigh, and I imagine him tossing his arms in aggravation.

“That sounds like misplaced optimism,” Colt refutes.

“That sounds like I know my son better than you,” Mary Leigh snaps back. “I’ve been with him all this time. This is different. He’s sober for good. And yes. I hope for the best where he’s concerned, and that includes Violet now.”

I’d smile at his mother if I didn’t feel this burning rage coursing through me at Colt. I don’t really care how he feels or what he thinks about me, but I know this hurts Charlie, and that I can’t have. I don’t give a damn what he thinks about anything, most of all me, but Charlie does.

“It seems too good to be true to me, Mama. I don’t trust it. Maybe she came up with this scheme to get with him to—”

My eyes widen and my jaw nearly drops to the floor. I think of a million different ways I’m going to tell Colt Chastain off, but his mother speaks first.

“You stop right there. That girl doesn’t have a scheming bone in her body. She cares for your brother, and that’s plain as day. Open your eyes. Remember that it was Vickie who discovered Violet’s gym, so how is she schemin’? And you better change your tone before they get here because if Charlie hears, he won’t be happy.”

Colt continues as if his mother didn’t issue a warning. “I don’t understand why he has to move so fast with her. He should take his time. Like I said, she’s technically his first real girlfriend and—”

“Son—”

“And why did he move out of here? It’s not good for him to be alone, and this is why I don’t trust this. He’s only moving out because of her. He was fine living here all this time and now—”

“He hasn’t fully moved out yet, but he’s thirty-four years old. No one wants to live with their mother at thirty-four. And he bought his house before he and Violet got together.”

“Fine. He can use the other house as a rental property then. He’s not ready to be on his own—”

“Son, I know you love your brother. I know you worry about him. I do too, but we have to trust him. We have to believe in him. And aren’t you the same guy who married Vickie within six months of meeting her? And that includes the time she broke up with you. And don’t let me remind you that she had a belly full of baby when she walked down the aisle to you.”

If I thought that verbal beatdown would have shut him up, I was wrong. “That’s different, and Vickie and I never broke up. I think—”

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