Charlotte's Tangled Web: L.B. Pavlov (17 page)

I felt my breathing pick up immediately, and the moans were escaping from both of us. I wanted her, every part of her, and there was no denying it. Her skin was soft and delicate, and I wanted to kiss every part of her body. I began kissing her neck and her ears. The moans that were coming from her ignited me more. I wanted her desperately.

I felt her kick away the blankets between us and pull herself against me. I couldn’t push her away. I paused to look into her eyes, and they were intoxicating. I was kissing her neck, and my hands had slid down her back against her thin tank top. She put her hands on top of mine and urged my hands to go beneath her tank top. Her warm breath was panting against my cheek. I was tenderly grazing her waist and traveling up her stomach gently and around to her back. Her skin was soft and delicate, just like she was.

She was pressing herself against me, and I felt her hands reach down for my jeans. She was unbuckling my pants. My hands continued to caress her as lust took over within me, more so than I had ever experienced. Still trailing kisses, I suddenly felt her pause nervously. Her hands were frozen on the button of my jeans. She didn’t know what to do next, and I could feel her becoming wary.

“It’s OK, baby,” I whispered in her ear.

I pulled my hands from her body and removed her hands from my buckle. I felt her sigh with relief as I drew her hands up to my lips and kissed them gently.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly, still breathing rapidly.

“For what?” I said, surprised. I was still trying to calm my breathing.

“For stopping,” she said.

“I’m glad you stopped. I think that was perfect timing. I love you so much,” I said softly.

“Are you frustrated?” she asked.

“No, I’m happy. You make me so happy,” I said, and we wrapped ourselves around one another and slipped into a deep sleep.

I awoke to a warm hand on my face. She was smiling at me and looking into my eyes.

“Daniel?” she said so shyly I only knew what she had said because I was watching her lips move.

“Yes?” I responded as my fingers began to tangle in her hair.

“That’s the first time in thirteen years that I didn’t have a nightmare on this night,” she said with relief in her voice, and it made my heart skip a beat.

“I’m so glad to hear that. This is progress,” I said.

My hands had somehow slipped underneath her tank top. Now that I had touched her, I couldn’t be laying next to her and not feel her skin against mine. I was tickling her back with my hands, and she was enjoying it. She was stroking my arm with her delicate hand. We just stayed in bed together until we had to get up for school.

Lenora and I had been baking every night for the past few days. Daniel sat and watched, and he ate anything and everything that we would allow him to. We all laughed a lot and danced around the kitchen. Lenora told us how she would probably move in with Carl once I went to college. I was dismayed by this news, but she said Dad wouldn’t really need full-time help once I was gone. I had never thought about that. I realized that Lenora had really put her own life on hold to raise my brothers and I.

“Lenora?” I said, looking into her warm and genuine, big brown eyes.

“Yes, my angel?” she responded warmly.

“Thank you for sticking around to raise me all these years,” I said, and my voice cracked as I said it.

“You’re my girl. I could never leave you,” she said, and it melted my heart.

“You and me both, Lenora,” Daniel chimed in, laughing.

“You are a sassy little firecracker, Daniel Hollingsworth,” she said, snapping a towel against Daniel’s arm. He yelped, and we all started laughing again.

Thanksgiving arrived, and I was so excited to have everyone home. I loved having my brothers at home, and I was so excited to see my grandparents. They would not be staying at our house though; they always stayed at a hotel a few miles away. We only saw them once a year, so I really looked forward to their visit.

I was also excited to meet Carl’s son Bruce. He would be bringing his fiancée Debbie. Lenora talked about them all the time. Jack would, of course, be bringing Sydney this year. I loved when Sydney was over because I had another girl to chat with. Sydney was super funny, and she loved to tease Jack, so that made it all the more fun. There was also talk that Eric may be bringing a girl to Thanksgiving. But he was very worried that we didn’t understand that she wasn’t his girlfriend, she was his good friend. I could tell immediately that he liked her. Her name was Abi, and he had talked to me about her several times. Abi would be having dinner with her family and come to our house for dessert afterward. I was psyched to meet her. I had never seen Eric excited about bringing a girl home before.

James joked that he would try to get a girlfriend before Thanksgiving. James had had lots of girlfriends, but he had never committed to just one person so far. He had not yet met anyone whom he wanted to have a serious relationship with. James was very social, and he liked to go out. I didn’t think he was at the point where he wanted to settle down just yet.

The Hollingsworth family also had a big group that would be joining us. Grace and Lenora split the menu and both made different dishes. There would be Grace and Tom, of course, and Preston would be bringing his girlfriend Lexi. They were very cute together. They had been dating for a few months. This was the first girl whom Preston had had a serious relationship with. He really seemed to like her, and she seemed to feel the same about him. Devon would also be coming. He was like James; they were younger and not in a hurry to date anyone seriously yet. Daniel’s Aunt Bunny and Uncle Dennis would also be joining us. Aunt Bunny was Tom’s sister. They were the best; I loved spending time with Aunt Bunny. She was the funniest person I had ever met. She told the funniest stories, and she teased the Hollingsworth boys better than anyone else ever could. She was very close to Daniel, and he adored her.

Lenora put me in charge of setting and decorating the table. I decided to use our good china because we had so many special guests attending that year. We had a huge dining room, and Lenora and I put the leaves in the table to adjust it to the largest length possible. We would need to be able to seat twenty people for Thanksgiving, so Lenora pulled our extra chairs from storage and had them all set up. The china I used on the table had been my mom’s. It was her wedding china and was stunning. The plates were white with a gold rim around the edge. The center of the plates had light pink roses with green leaves that were hand-painted onto the plates. Our table was a huge, distressed, dark-wood table, and I decided against a tablecloth because I liked the way it looked naturally. I used white linen napkins and wide, gold napkin rings. The table was long, so I made four large floral arrangements to place across the length of the table. Each bouquet was filled with white roses and white hydrangeas. I placed tall, white, pillar candles in between the vases of flowers. It looked really beautiful. We had a gorgeous crystal chandelier in our dining room, and it sparked beautifully in the candlelight. I wouldn’t light the candles until it was time for dinner. I decided to make name cards for each place setting. I wrote the names on each place card and used coordinating scrapbook paper as the background. They looked really cute on the table, and they coordinated with Mom’s elegant dishes.

I wanted to dress nicely for Thanksgiving dinner. I wore my tan pencil skirt that came just above my knee with my knee-length, high-heeled, camel-colored, leather boots and my cream-colored, cashmere sweater with my brown, wide, leather belt. That was as dressy as I ever got, but it was a special occasion. I was going to straighten my hair, but I spent so much time decorating the table that I just pulled my hair back into a knotted bun.

I hustled down stairs when I heard the doorbell. I opened the door, and there they were. My grandparents. “Grandma! Grandpa!” I shouted.

I rushed to hug them both. They always hugged me first, and then they would stare at me for an awkward length of time to see how I had grown and changed since our last visit. This time was different. While they were looking me over, Grandma’s eyes filled with tears. I looked down at myself, wondering if I had a big ketchup stain on my sweater. The cashmere sweater was from Grandma for Christmas last year, so I thought maybe I had ruined it.

“Charlotte Rose, you are the spitting image of your mother,” she said quietly.

I looked up at Grandpa and now his eyes were filled with tears as well. My grandparents were not usually this weepy, so this brought out quite a reaction from me as well. I leapt into my grandpa’s arms, and I hugged him so tightly. Then I did the same for Grandma. My eyes were all watery now too, so we were quite a mess. We all started laughing and walked into the kitchen.

“Where are the boys?” Grandpa shouted. Grandpa was hard of hearing, so he talked very loudly most of the time.

“They are on their way here now from school. Dad didn’t want them to drive home last night in the dark, and Eric had a night class, so they had to wait,” I said in explanation.

Lenora gave them both big hugs. We were all chatting when my dad walked into the kitchen. He immediately looked anxious when he saw my grandpa.

“Jack,” my grandfather said, shaking Dad’s hand and offering him a half-hug.

“Hello, dear!” my grandmother said and gave Dad a big hug.

“We can’t get over how much Charlotte looks like Katherine,” Grandma said, smiling and stroking my face.

“Yes, she is the spitting image of Kate, there’s no doubt about it,” Dad said as he grabbed a handful of nuts off the island.

“Charlotte, we have a little present for you, sweetie,” Grandma said, handing me a cute gift bag.

I opened the bag, and it was a new copy of
Charlotte’s Web
. My grandparents bought me a new copy every time that they came to visit, but I always read from the original one that my mom had given me on my first birthday. I saved all of the copies from Grandma and Grandpa and kept them all in our library. Grandma always wrote beautiful inscriptions on the inside cover. “Thank you so much,” I said softly and gave them both another hug.

“So, Coach Little flew out, and you signed your letter?” Grandpa inquired.

“Oh yes, he is so nice. He has been really supportive about helping me figure out where to live next year and all of that fun stuff,” I said. I knew that this kind of conversation was what my grandfather loved to talk about most.

“Good girl! You make sure you are in the best housing and that you are eating well,” he said in a very serious voice.

“OK, dear,” Grandma said, giving him a pat on the shoulder and a look that told him that he had asked enough about my running. “Tell us what else is going on. How is school? How is your friend Daniel?” she asked. Grandma was not as interested in the running. She was all about school, friends, and shopping. Grandma was a girl’s girl.

“Well, school is going well,” I said, but before I could continue, my dad interrupted.

“Charlotte will be the valedictorian of her graduating class as long as things continue the way they are,” Dad said as he winked at me.

I hated when my dad did this. No one was talking about my GPA. We were just having a nice conversation. I felt very self-conscious when Dad would say things like that, and I knew my grandpa would be all over the valedictorian topic.

“Oh, well-done, Charlotte! Stanford will be keen on those grades. They are lucky to get you,” he said with a proud smile.

I smiled back, and then I gave Dad a look to let him know that he had done enough bragging for one day. “Grandma, I wanted to tell you something. Daniel and I have started dating,” I said timidly.

Grandma squealed. “Well, I knew it would happen, honey. This was just meant to be. The way that young man looked at you, I just knew he fancied you!” she said, and she hugged me tightly. Grandma was such a sweet and kind person. I imagined my mom had gotten a lot of her qualities from my grandma.

“Nonsense. Boys are a waste of time,” Grandpa snarled. “We all know what can happen when you get distracted by a boy,” he snapped.

I saw Dad’s shoulders tense up in reaction to his comment. His face flushed with anger, but Dad knew better than to start an argument with Grandpa.

“Oh, Grandfather, you’re a boy! And I like you!” I said as I hugged him, trying to lighten the mood.

Grandma gave Grandpa another look just to let him know that she wouldn’t tolerate his shenanigans.

“Hello! Hello!” I heard my brothers yelling as they came through the door.

I heard a scuffle as they came through the front entry, and one of them had shoved the other into the closet door to get in to the kitchen first. My brothers always liked to roughhouse, and they always made an entrance. Everyone was hugging and excited, greeting one another.

“Hey, Charlie Brown,” Eric teased.

I gave them all a hug, and we all got our drinks and went to sit in the family room to visit some more. The fireplace was on, and it was very cozy. All of the guests arrived within the next thirty minutes, and we sat around snacking and talking all afternoon.