Page 45 of Guarding My Love

“There has to be more going on,” West said. “Because now you’re smiling and relaxed over this conversation and normally you’re ready to bolt.”

“Dinner hasn’t come out,” he said, relaxing into the chair. “I can’t leave yet.”

He watched his siblings look at each other, but there were no more comments made about Charlotte.

In the past, he’d be happy about that.

Today, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to do this alone since he seemed to be failing so badly.

15

HER PRIORITY LIST

Patience wasn’t one of her virtues.

Charlotte was waiting for Foster to return home from work on Tuesday.

She’d gotten home a little after one, having gotten on the first ferry off the island this morning.

This afternoon, she’d done her laundry, she’d shopped for food, and she walked Marco to Foster’s beach.

He wasn’t home and she didn’t know why she thought he would be.

After talking to Amanda, she started to realize that Foster was probably waiting for her to take that next step.

He knew what she’d gone through and that she was making a change.

She’d even joked weeks ago about men being low on her priority list.

Then why was she so intrigued by the man she knew very little about?

Because her sister was right. She knew what she needed to know to feel what she was.

When she saw a movement out the window around six, she turned to see Foster pulling into his driveway.

Should she rush out the door and go down to talk to him? Or should she give him time to settle in?

Charlotte hated that she was acting and feeling as she had prior to moving here.

That all her actions had to be planned out with men and nothing could just be spontaneous.

She liked all the spontaneous actions with Foster.

By six thirty, she was still pacing around the house and driving Marco insane.

Her puppy was jumping around her legs and running to the door. “Do you need to go out?” she asked.

He barked at her, which was a new thing, but it did make her laugh.

She clipped his collar on him that was attached to the leash she hung up and opened the door.

What she didn’t expect was that Marco would tug so hard that he would yank the leash out of her fingers when she turned to shut the door behind her.

She tried to step on the leash, but he was too fast and took off on a dead run down Foster’s driveway.

She was as fast on his heels as she could be in flip-flops yelling at him to stop.

At Foster’s front porch, she found Marco, who was quicker than she’d thought he was, sitting on the steps with Foster next to him. Her dog was in heaven getting his head pet.

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