Page 6 of Just One More Affair
He glanced at the clock on the nightstand beside her and grinned. “Seven o’clock.”
She stretched her arms over her head and her breasts popped out from beneath the blanket. Blushing, she grabbed the covers and pulled them back up. “Oops.”
“Didn’t bother me,” he said with a chuckle. Despite wanting her again—how could he not?—he had the sudden urge to also know more about her. “Are you ready to go back to your dig?” he asked her, curious about her lifestyle.
She paused, wrinkling her nose as she thought. “I guess so, but when I’m there I miss home. But we still have work to finish.” She sounded more resigned than excited.
“Is it hard to leave the girls?” He couldn’t imagine just taking off to another country for a couple of years if his kids were here.
“Very hard. But there’s a part of me that’s following my mother’s dream.Ourdream,” she clarified.
“How so?”
She pulled in a deep breath and exhaled before beginning an explanation. “Mom, her name was Kylie, was a curator at a museum. She loved ancient artifacts and history, and passed that love on to me. From the time I was young, she used to take me with her to work. My older brother stayed with the babysitter but I was a bookworm, so I never minded being at the museum. I used to ask her so many questions.” Her lips tilted upward at the memory.
“You sound like Dakota and her never-ending facts.”
Charlotte laughed. “She’s more precocious than I ever was. I was more serious. But I couldn’t get enough of paleontology and history and my mother always indulged me with patient answers.”
“You two were close.” It wasn’t difficult to figure that out.
Smiling, she nodded. “I miss her.”
“What happened?”
Charlotte swallowed hard. “She died from cancer when I was sixteen.”
He reached for her hand. “I’m so sorry.”
Given his age when his own mother passed away, murdered by one of his father’s clients when he was thirteen, he knew how hard this must have been on her. It didn’t seem like the right time to bring up his past. He was focused on hers.
“Thank you,” she murmured. “Mom had always wanted to go on a dig for ancient artifacts, but she became pregnant with my brother. And let’s just say my father was nothing like Noah.”
Jared appreciated the insight she was giving him into her life. “Noah is an exceptional parent,” he said. “And he’s understanding when it comes to you and your work. You two have an unusual but very fortunate agreement about raising the kids.”
She nodded. “I’m forever grateful to him. Mom and I used to talk about trying to go on a dig together after I graduated college but… obviously, it never happened and I was determined to do it on my own. I just never expected this dig to keep getting extended as often as it has.”
They lay in silence, her story settling inside him as he thought about their shared loss and how much she’d loved her mother. “Thank you for telling me,” he said.
“I don’t mind talking about Mom. It makes me feel close to her, as does being on the dig. But I have a lot to make up to Dylan and Dakota.”
Her love for the kids was obvious. “You’re setting a good example for them about being true to themselves.”
“I appreciate you saying that. I fight the guilt daily.” She shook her head, as if ridding her mind of unhappy thoughts. “Now, how about someustime before I have to meet the girls for breakfast?”
She didn’t have to ask him twice. He reached out and pulled her into his arms, his lips coming down on hers when her phone rang from her nightstand. She must have gotten up for it during the night.
With a groan, she rolled over and answered the call. By the time she hung up, he knew from the gist of the conversation the girls wanted to come see her and their time together was over.
Chapter Three
Two Months Later
Charlie packed thelast of her things and zipped her large duffel bag closed. She looked around her trailer to make sure she hadn’t accidentally left anything behind.
Nope.
Even the picture of the twins that had sat on the table beside the bed was safely tucked away for the trip home.
