Page 29 of Lady Luck's Kiss
Charlotte scrambled to her feet, clutching her arm and bracing for him to haul the car away. Instead, he stomped back to his truck, slammed the door, and peeled out of the lot. Gravel and dirt spat from his tires, spraying directly at her.
She stood frozen, holding her injured elbow, watching the dust settle in the empty lot he left behind. For several long moments, she couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe—just stood there in shock, feeling bruised in more ways than one.
12
CHARLIE
For Charlotte, time seemed to stand still. A week went by, then two weeks. There was no word from Jack and no more tow-ins from Buddy. One hurt her financially, the other hurt her emotionally. Both were painful, but one was absolutely devastating.
Jack.
All the doubts, wondering and fears she’d had tickling the back of her mind were rushing forward. Was he sincere? How many girls had he used the corny pick-up lines on? How stupid had she been to fall for them?
Not only did she flail herself mentally, she was kicking herself daily for not collecting the payment on the repairs for his truck. She’d totaled the bill but hadn’t rung him up. Instead, she’d given him his truck back. So now she was out $800 for the repairs and her dignity.
The only thing she had going for her over the last two weeks was the fact that her phone had dried out enough to actually work. She’d been shocked that the rice-trick had done the job after seeing the screen flicker wildly. Instead, three days ago it had rung when Beth called her. She’d scrambled to reach thephone, thinking it was Jack calling and broke down crying with her friend on the phone.
“Beth, I screwed up royally,” she whispered tearfully. The whole sad story came out, to which she was promptly called a moron by her best friend.
“I don’t get it,” Beth railed at her. “You have some fairytale mush stuff going on in your life and you chicken out? Of all things out there, that is the looniest! You? The girl who yanks apart motors without an instruction guide for the heck of it?” Both sat there silently on the phone for a long while.
“Do I call him?”
“Do you want to?”
“I think so.”
“Well don’t do it until youknowso. You don’t ever play with someone’s emotions. It’s a ‘poop or get off the pot’ moment, my friend. You either want him or you don’t. The man is serious about you if he said the la-la-la-love word.”
“Having problems saying the word, Beth?”
“Never felt it, so yeah. Big time.”
“Thank you for being there and listening to me.”
“Thanks for not being an unredeemable nitwit. Call or text your man when you are ready.”
Laughing, Charlie smiled to herself and ended the call. She could always count on Beth to cheer her up. Sitting cross-legged on her bed, she held the phone for several moments before texting Jack.
Hey there
It was quite a while before he texted back.
Charlie had kicked herself mentally over and over again, wondering if he was on a date or missing her like she missed him. She was tempted to call but didn’t want to seem asdesperate as she felt. Setting her phone down, she flipped on the tv and tried to relax.
Instead, she found herself checking her phone every few minutes, just in case. Finally, she heard that sweet ding indicating that she’d received a response.
Hello
How are you doing?
Awful, honestly
Charlie felt tears well up instantly and smiled at the phone.
She really liked that there were no games between them. That was one thing that impressed her from the very beginning and probably what terrified her. He didn’t fool around ever, it seemed. It was as if he saw something he wanted and went after it with everything in him. It was intense.
I’m pretty awful, too. I miss you.
