Charming (15 page)

“We’re just friends, Christine.”

“Uh-huh. From ‘don’t make me waste my breath on him, Christine’, to ‘friends’. Tomorrow you’ll be telling me you’re madly in love with him and ready to run off and get married.” She replaced the picture under the mattress, then lit a joint. Too much pain. Too much pain. Too. Much. Pain.

“I promise. We’re just friends.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night. I thought you’d sworn off men?” Christine offered her medicine, then quickly pulled it away for another hit. Tonight, joking cost more than she could pay.

Haley hugged her knees to her chest and rested her chin on them. “Just Niles. Well, just anyone who couldn’t understand my life or relate to it.”

Christine laughed. “And you think Chris can?”

“Niles sent me an anniversary card today. He stuck it in my locker.”

“Good God. That’s absolutely disgusting, you know?”

“To him, it’s romantic. To me, it’s a reminder of my personal failure. My weak moment dealing with the stress of the ‘Dad situation’ before Mom died. I thought I loved him until we had sex.” Only then did Haley realize she didn’t love herself. And even now, she didn’t love herself; Dad and Joce needed help, and Haley wasn’t doing anything about it.

Haley’s pocket buzzed with a message from Chris.

What r u up 2

Hanging out with u?

Swallowing a solid lump of fear and guilt, Haley said, “I’ve got to go.”

Christine winked. “Don’t get pregnant.”

“I won’t.”
Just have some things to figure out
.

Haley
would
figure this out, even if she had to play by the psycho’s rules.

he truck squealed as Haley pressed the brakes. She stared up at the Charmings’ house, trembling. Running in there and telling them everything would be so much easier than keeping secrets, would lower her heart rate.

Would kill Dad and Joce.

Play it safe.

Play the game. Psycho wanted the Charmings in the dark, no police. So, Haley would just keep Chris
in
the house.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Chris opened the front door, the late afternoon sun radiating warm and golden on his skin. He dangled his keys over his head. “I’m taking you out to dinner, or a movie, or anything other than staying in this damned house. Got it?”

Calm didn’t exist. Haley’s lips trembled, and her pulse pounded out a beat too fast. Everything swirled. Haley stumbled forward up the stairs, braced for impact with her hands, then slammed into the concrete. “Ow. Shit.”

Chris raced to help. Placing a warm, solid hand under Haley’s upper arm, he lifted her to her feet. He stood close, so close that his freshly showered scent rolled off him, right into her. She inhaled, leaned into him and loved the feeling of his support, then hated herself instantly. “She needs help breathing and walking. What am I going to do with you, Haley?”

“Tell me you can’t be seen with a pathetic soul such as me?” That would be so much easier than being responsible for his family. Knowing Dad and Joce’s lives rested in Haley’s hands was already too much, but Chris’s too?

Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, Chris led Haley into the house and asked, “Truth?”

She nodded.

“Are you afraid to be seen in public with me? Because of the rumors I let people spread? Is that why you stop breathing when I want to take you for a drive? Why you throw yourself at my poor, unsuspecting concrete when I ask you to dinner?”

Tears pricked the back of Haley’s eyes, but she held them at bay. Tears would not do any good. Never did. “No.”

Just afraid our families will die.

“I heard a few rumors about you that involved me today.”

“I swear I’m not pregnant.” Despite everything, Haley smiled, and that smile grew broader, less inhibited when Chris laughed. He was so carefree, so young and energized and full of life.

He tugged her closer, if that was even possible. “Well, that’s good to know. Could you inform me if you somehow conceive my child without my knowledge?”

“Sure.”

Turning on the tap, Chris pulled her hands under the stream of water and dabbed them with cold, wet paper towels, washing away the blood and dust. “I didn’t hear any pregnancy rumors, but I did hear that we’re screwing so you can get back into the business. Supposedly, you and Niles Hemingway are plotting against Berkshires, but your plan is going awry. Trouble between you and Niles—or some stupid crap.” He laughed again. “You pretty much shattered the poor dude’s heart. I doubt he’ll ever want to plot anything with you again.”

Shattered? They were just kids, kids too young to do things they were doing. And yet, Niles still cared. “Well, we were arguing on the side of the road last night.”

“How did that go down?”

“Typically. Him wanting more than I’m willing to give.” Did she really just say that? “He thought there was trouble in
this
paradise. Because, you know, you and I are supposedly screwing.”

“If you’d let me take you out, I’d prove to the entire state that there’s nothing wrong in
this
paradise.” Chris dried her palms, applied Neosporin, and blew his breath to cool the sting—if only he could cool Haley’s heart. “There. All better.”

Breathe, breathe, breathe. Haley had to tell the Charmings; she had to come clean to protect them, to protect this amazing version of Chris. Allowing anything to happen, for him to become anything like the shell Haley’d become…
not going to happen
. “Picnic?”

The psycho could probably hear their conversations in this house, maybe even track their cars, her phone. She’d have to take everyone somewhere the psycho couldn’t predict.

“Not quite public, but it’s a start.” Chris dove into the pantry, then returned with a basket, bread, and fruit.

Mr. Charming walked into the kitchen and grabbed a beer from the fridge. “You two heading off somewhere?”

Chris beamed. “This young lady would like to take me on a picnic, Dad.”

“You should be ashamed you weren’t the one to ask her.” Mr. Charming winked at Haley and twisted the cap off his bottle.

“You and Mrs. Charming should come too.”

Chris raised an eyebrow and quirked a smile.

Fan. She need a fan. Maybe another cold paper towel. Anything to get the heat out of her cheeks. Poor Chris.

“It’ll be fun,” Haley added.

“Where would you like to take us, ma’am?” Mr. Charming poured his beer down the drain and helped make sandwiches, calling for his wife. Dad would’ve died to witness such a waste of precious alcohol.

“Can I surprise you?” The psycho would probably kill Dad and Joce for this, but coming clean was the right thing to do.

“You keep surprising
me
,” Chris muttered, not smiling as brightly as he had when Haley first arrived.

“Sounds great.” Mr. Charming clapped his son’s shoulder. “I like her.”

“Always have,” Mrs. Charming said, carrying in a blanket. “I heard picnic and grabbed this from the closet.”

“She’s a genius.” Mr. Charming grinned at his wife as though Chris and Haley weren’t in the room.

Several minutes later, they packed up two cars because the older Charmings had a movie to attend in the evening, then headed out, Haley not giving any directions by voice, only by pointing.

“Are you taking us to—?”

“Shh. Don’t ruin my surprise.” Hoping he didn’t notice her finger shaking, she indicated for Chris to turn right onto Sugarloaf Mountain Road, and they drove all the way to the summit, winding up the narrow asphalt lined with white pillars draped with steel cables and surrounded by trees. Deep red and brilliant yellow leaves hung over the road, glowing like fire in the setting sun.

They reached the top and got out of the car, then met Mr. and Mrs. Charming at the covered picnic pavilion with the basket of food and blanket. Chris’s parents smiled, lost in each other’s eyes, and Mr. Charming whispered something that made Mrs. Charming laugh.

“How’d you do this?” Chris asked, slipping his arm around Haley’s waist.

“Do what?” A growing ache wormed its way into her heart and made Haley long for something ages dead: the love her parents shared, the good times.

“You have no idea how happy you make people, how easily.” He spun Haley to face him, staring with unbridled intensity, gaze locked on her lips. “Dad proposed to Mom here.”

Of all the bad luck. She couldn’t ruin this place for the Charmings, not a place overlooking the Connecticut river, a silver strip of curving water cut out between two rows of fire-colored trees, bright green farm fields on either side. The sky, so blue yet full of orange and pinks, completed the landscape, a perfect portrait for anyone’s wall. Maybe she could take them somewhere else. A gas station? Anywhere but here.

“Didn’t know. Just thought it would be a nice place to go.” Haley draped her arms over Chris’s shoulders without thought, just a natural reaction to the way he held her hips, the way he looked ready to claim her lips, to the exhilaration being this close made her feel. All that on top of her racing heart, the dread of what could happen to Dad and Joce, and Haley could barely hold herself upright.

Chris leaned closer, pressed his fingers against her lower back—

And Haley stepped away, shaking her head. “Sorry.” And she was so utterly sorry. Never had she wanted someone to kiss her as badly as she did then. Never had she needed it, wanted it with every piece of her soul. And never had it been so wrong.

Chris cursed. “You have nothing to be sorry for. That was…”

Amazing—or would have been under any other circumstances.

“Come on, kids.” Mrs. Charming spread out the blanket on the ground next to the pavilion, stating she preferred the feel of the cool September grass under her over the hard picnic tables. “John and I used to come up here all the time when we were in high school. Of course, we hated each other back then. I thought he was the world’s most pompous, jerky—”

“Hey, now,” Mr. Charming snapped, “You did marry me.”

She handed him a sandwich. “Only after you went to college and learned some manners.”

Haley rubbed her palms and chewed her lip. She wanted nothing more than to run from this place, find another place and tell them everything. She wanted nothing more than to hide from Chris, from the devastated look in his eyes when she backed away from him. Why did the one good thing that entered her life have to be tainted with evil?

“You know that your mother and John accepted positions at Berkshires at the same time?” Mrs. Charming asked.

“No. I didn’t know. How long were you two friends?”

Mr. Charming’s eyes lost some of their twinkle; his shoulders sagged. “From day one, Haley. And just like Mrs. Charming here, I hated your mom for how quickly she climbed the ladder, always one rung above me. But when she was appointed CEO, that’s when my work experience was at its greatest height. She was an amazing boss.”

“And mom,” Haley added, knowing she needed to just man up and tell them but finding every excuse not to. What if the psycho really could hear Haley in this place? Then what? “And she liked you too. She used to joke that she needed to watch her back with you around.”

“I never…” He held a hand over his heart.