To See You (29 page)

Why?

And why was Layton so forgiving?

Everything was why, why, why.

My nervous bladder refused to let me rest, and I pried out from underneath him and padded to the bathroom. When I came back out, something by the TV caught my eye. There, halfway underneath the remote and casting a hypnotic prism around the room, sat an engagement ring. I picked it up with shaking fingers and turned it in my hand, hazily remembering him snagging his pants and rummaging through the pockets after he set me in bed.

I guessed he came to say more than
I love you
.

Well, my mom ruined that.

No, I did.

It was time I accepted responsibility for my actions. I went along with Mom’s plan, didn’t push back. And I’d allowed Janie to bully me when my mom wasn’t. I had to accept it all.

“Hey,” came from the bed.

Quickly, I set the ring down and turned. I’d been caught.

“I bought that for you.”

I stared at the floor, the floral pattern on the rug making faces at me. If I looked hard enough, I could see it sticking its tongue out at me.

Layton stood and walked toward me, pulling me against his chest when he got close. “I’m going to give you a ring, Charli. Just not this one, not today.”

“I ruined all this too,” I whined, nuzzling my face in his neck.

“You didn’t ruin anything. It just wasn’t the right time.”

His hand ran the length of my back. I was naked, and the warmth of his hand mixed with the cool air caused little goose bumps to raise up all over my skin.

He spoke softly, his breath warming my scalp through my hair. “I really wanted to tell you I didn’t want to live apart anymore. I hate the distance between us, and I was thinking I’d move here.”

Startled, I glanced up. “What? No, you need to live in LA.”

“But you’re here.”

I shook my head. “I don’t want to be.”

“Listen, let’s go back to bed and discuss this in the morning when we’ve both had a full night’s sleep.”

“Okay,” I said.

Before I could overthink it, I rejoined him in bed, where he took his time allowing me to fall asleep.

“Mom!” I screamed loud enough to wake the whole building. “What the hell are you still doing here?”

She sat up on the couch, blinking owlishly. “You never came back last night, and your phone was off. I was worried.”

“Be quiet. No, you weren’t, you’re just . . .” I waved a hand in the air, exhausted. All the fight had been fucked out of me. “God, I don’t even know what. Can you please leave?”

“Where were you?”

“I went to find Layton, who showed up here when I was walking out with Garrett.”

“He called me. Garrett, I mean. Not your freeloader,” she said, tossing her tangled brown hair over her shoulder.

“You need to go, Mom. Seriously.”

“I only want what’s best for you. You don’t want to be me, fancy-free. Your dad wouldn’t have wanted that.”

“Please go,” I croaked, my throat hoarse and dry. I had no more emotion left in my body. I was dehydrated from feelings.

“Please,” she said.

“No.” I flashed her the palm of my hand. “Just go.”

“Can we talk soon?” She stood, wearing jeans and a rumpled long-sleeved tee, and picked up her duffel at the foot of the couch.

“Maybe soon,” was all I could answer.

“O
h God, holy shit,” Charli screamed.

“You sound like you did in bed last night,” I said with a smirk.

It felt damn good to be an arrogant hunk for a moment. No way I would let her affection go to my head. She was the kind of girl you spent a lifetime loving and adoring.

I’d come straight to Charli’s apartment when I woke up and found her missing.

“Your door was open so I came in, but I’m going to lock it now. This is New York, you know.”

Charli scowled at me from her perch on the couch. “My mom slithered out after I begged her to go, and I didn’t have the energy to get up.”

I kneeled at her feet. “Charleston, about the ring. It was my plan to ask you when I flew here on a whim—”

“Shhh.” She ran her hand around my ear, curving my hair behind it. “It’s not the time right now. We’re figuring things out.”

“It’s going to happen. You feel that? It’s our destiny. Do you want that? Can you love me any way I am? Big or lean?”

She nodded and a single tear dropped onto her cheek. I kissed it away, taking a long inhale of the woman in front of me.

“Lay, I love you and your big heart. That’s the only way I see you. The only way I want to see you. This new outside is only a bonus, but the inside is the prize.”

I leaned in, wedging myself between her thighs, and tried to kiss her.

“But marriage is so big,” she said, “and this whole thing I just went through with my mom . . . God help me, but it seems like her whole marriage to my dad was wrong. So we need to put the ring away. I need to understand why she thinks she made such an epic mistake.”

“For now,” I mumbled into her mouth and kissed her. “And you may never understand. That’s parents. We don’t always know why or how or when. Like mine. They were married a long time before they had me. Almost as if one day, they decided, ‘Holy shit, we want to be parents.’ Then they were too old to even enjoy me and who I became as an adult.”

“A wonderful man,” she said and her stomach growled, ending our moment.

“Come on. Let’s get food, and then we can go see where I can live in this massive city.”

“I’m leaving here,” Charli declared. “Heading west.”

We went out for breakfast and I still refused to believe she was really moving . . . until she wouldn’t give up. Girl was stubborn, I’d give her that. She maintained she’d wasted too many years on her career track to be unhappy, and now she was “beyond happy.” Her words, not mine.

And she insisted she wanted to be happier where the sun shone and where she could wear “flip-flops instead of stilettos.” More of her words.

My girl was a very literal person.

A week later, I received an e-mail from Charli’s moving company. Her stuff was arriving in ten days, and she’d be here in eleven. She kept insisting she was going to find her own place, that staying with me was only temporary.

I disagreed, but I didn’t tell her that.

Charli was struggling with what happened with her mom, so I didn’t push. I knew she wasn’t leaving once she moved in with me, though.

Not to mention I had a few tricks up my sleeve. I laughed to myself as I let Harriette outside for a pee break. Oh yeah, I had a few tricks.

I nodded to the construction crew renovating the run-down garage behind my house. I never used the dilapidated thing, but soon it would be a writing studio for Charli. I was putting in new windows, hardwood floors, a kitchenette and bathroom, and painting the whole interior lilac. And she didn’t know.

That was only the first part of the plan.

Eleven days later, I went to the airport and grabbed my girl. Charli hurried down the escalator in her flip-flops and jumped into my arms at the bottom.

“Did you ship half of Manhattan to California?”

She laughed into my ear and slid down my body, leaving my chubby on display. “No, only a third. Now are you ready?”

“Oh, I am.” I grazed her wrist with my length.

“Come on, let’s go.”

She grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the airport and back to bed. Before I could show her the garage. Long before Harriette could steal her affections from me (yes, my dog loved her more than me.) Way before I pulled out the other tactics.

That night, we ate sushi on my back patio. Yep, sushi. I’d learned to survive on it at least one night a week. Or maybe I was filled up on Charli? I didn’t need a large pie when I had her waiting in my bed for me.

Fuck it, not just my bed but my life. I’d definitely learned moderation since reuniting with the formerly bitchy woman. So had she.

“Do you think it was meant to be? Us, the plane?” She ran her fingers down my forearm while we lay on the lounge chair.

“I don’t know. Maybe. I only work in movies.”

“I know, but I was on this path to nowhere special, and now I’m here with you, living my life.”

“Then it was meant to be.” I wrapped our hands together and kissed her earlobe. She was seated between my legs and leaning back on my chest. I breathed in and she breathed out.

“It was. I know it was. You taught me what was important. Oh God, I sound like a sap. But you did.”

“I know.” I turned her face and kissed her quiet.