Page 81 of Into the Mountains
I can’t help but watch them walk away with a dimple deep smile on my face, ready to see what’s next. To see what a real second chance might bring for the two of us.
“Holy shit,” I hear Avery say behind me.
With one look at Avery, Hudson throws his own disbelief into the mix. “No way?” he yells like he’s almost questioning his own existence. He must be more in tune with his wife than I knew. George and Isabelle crowd the porch behind them, wondering what all the commotion is.
I imagine all they had to see was Eli throwing a wink over his shoulder at me to know exactly what my question was.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
ELIAS
It’s been two days since Charlotte has asked me on a date. Two agonizingly long days. Two days of thinking and overthinking every possible scenario of where this could go perfectly right or where this could go disastrously wrong.
We haven’t spoken in person since Sunday dinner because we have both been busy. Mostly me. I’ve had a few projects come up that I couldn’t ignore and a deadline for a grocery store in a nearby town that was due today. The drawings were sent in this morning—ten minutes ago to be exact. And now I’m in the back room at the clinic I converted into an office space with Jacob’s permission, waiting for Charlie to arrive. With our new relationship and our differences set aside, I am hopeful we can finally make some kind of progress on this project. Probably one of the most important ones for both of us at the moment. Both because it’s for good friends, family in my case, and because it’s really good cash.
I’m hoping the change of scenery to a more professional setting will help us one: keep our hands off each other, and two: make progress. But with the date on the horizon, the idea of my hands being on Charlie again has been circling my thoughts non-stop for two days and our night in the tent from last weekend has provided me with enough imagery to start enjoying longer showers again. More than once in the past two days, I’ve found my fist around myself as hot water trickles down my back, imagining it was her fingertips instead. Wishing it was her hand gripping me soft at first and then harder strokes, the other hand wrapped around my chest pinching my nipple until I spill on the shower floor.
A knock sounds at the door and I practically leap out of my chair. “Shit, sorry man. I figured knocking would be enough. Didn’t realize I had to announce my presence as I was coming.”
Bad word choice. I look up to see Jacob leaning against the door frame in blue scrubs per his usual, a wet spot visible near the hem of his sleeve. I don’t even want to know what that’s from.
“Sophie is running out for some lunch. Do you or Charlotte want anything?”
“Maybe just coffee? Black for me and a latte for Charlie. Extra espresso and no froth on top. She hates the froth.”
Jacob narrows his eyes at me. “What?” I ask.
“You really like her, don’t you?” He doesn’t ask it in an accusatory way, but in a way that says he already knows the answer.
“Quite a lot actually.”
“Oh, she’s turned you into a proper man now too?”
I respond with an eye roll and a stray pen that grazes his ear.
“I didn’t realize we were in a war with the local vet,” comes a voice from the other side of Jacob. Charlie steps into the door frame and the light from the large room behind her illuminates her figure and it’s all I can do to stop and bask in her sunshine.
She’s dressed in more casual attire than normal—leggings and an oversized sweater—and I wonder if it’s because she’s getting more comfortable around me or if it’s because we hadplanned to be at the shelter for the day. Even though we are in an office space, the kennels are only a short hallway away.
“What am I supposed to do?” I shrug my shoulders and put my hands in the air. “We aren’t at war anymore and I have no idea what to do with all my pent up energy.”
“I have a few ideas.”
My eyebrows practically recede into my hairline and Jacob lets out a long breath. “And on that note, I’m out of here. I’ll be back with coffee.”
“I meant work,” Charlie calls after him, but he’s either already gone or doesn’t care to respond.
Then, it’s just the two of us and the space is silent aside from the distant barks and other noises that come from having a work space two rooms down from where the animals are kept.
For a minute, it seems like Charlie hesitates to come in and make herself comfortable. It’s like I can visibly see the war with herself inside her head written on her face. It scrunches together as she looks at the spot on the desk I cleared off for her. There’s an empty chair off to the side and then her eyes glance over her shoulder as if she’s hoping Jacob will come back or Sky will make an appearance.
“If we were still on the outs, I’d make a joke about you being a vampire that needed to be invited in,” I say, clearly interrupting her indecision as she looks up at me confused.
“Huh?”
I gesture to her spot barely on the other side of the doorframe. “Oh,” she says like she hadn’t realized she was still standing there. Finally, she crosses the threshold and starts unpacking her bag, emptying her items on top of the desk.
It doesn’t take long before there is no part of the surface that isn’t covered with our combined work. Different color palettes than last time are fanned out along with the same dinosaur computer she unfortunately still uses. The fan kicks on and thecomputer starts to boot up making damn sure it’s no longer silent in the small space any longer.
