Town of Chance: Sweet Caroline (The Dare 5)

“I don’t know. I like books and Marlena had mentioned that volunteers were needed today.”

Rita passed them a small box with their ice teas and lunch in it and they said thank you and left the building to head to the park.

“Thank you for buying lunch.”

“My pleasure. So, you were really sweet to talk to Mora and get her interested in that book.”

“Well she was looking for something with princesses so I thought she might like it. The story is one of my favorites.” They set everything onto the table and she helped C.J. place the food down. Instead of sitting across from her, he sat next to her so they could look out at the rest of the park.

“Why is it your favorite story?” he asked as she took a sip from her ice tea and then began to unwrap her sandwich.

“God, this smells incredible,” she said to him.

He winked at her and smiled. “I told you that it was worth it,” he said, and she smiled softly and then took a small bite as he bit into his.

“Wow,” she said and then wiped her mouth.

“So tell me about the story.”

“Oh, you don’t want to hear about the princess story.”

“I do. If it’s a story you like, I want to know about it,” he said to her.

She felt a little embarrassed but figured it would pass the time while they ate so she could get back to the book table.

“Well, it’s just a sweet story about a young woman going through some hard times. No matter what happens to her, she always finds it in her heart to do good deeds even for strangers. She struggles and wishes that she were a princess with special powers and an ability to make her wealthy, to live in a mansion, and have all the things she ever wanted including a family and people who love her. So then she makes a bad decision, in hopes and desperation to get what she thinks she wants. It nearly cost her everything. Because of those kind deeds, when she gets into a predicament and is about to get hurt, someone she helped comes along and intervenes. She learns that she had this power all along. The power of love, of compassion that come along with giving, not receiving. The magic she feels when she does a good deed to help a stranger or someone in need, those people feel it, too, and so they do the same thing and it continues. It’s a beautiful story,” she told him.

He held her gaze and reached out to gently stroke her cheek with his finger.

“God, you’re beautiful. You brought that magic to Mora, to everyone that heard you talking to her, including me.”

She swallowed hard. She couldn’t believe the attraction, the desire she felt for C.J. just from his touch. It shocked her speechless, until he started moving toward her as if he might kiss her. She quickly turned away and lifted her sandwich. “It’s a story, C.J. Everyone can make another person smile if they just take the time to do it. It wasn’t a big deal,” she said and took a bite of sandwich even though she felt nervous and excited. This was a mistake. To be friendly with him. To know that he more than likely just wanted to share her with his brothers. Her stomach felt like she was eating rocks instead of food. She placed the sandwich down and then took a sip of her drink. Then C.J. placed his hand on her lower back.

“Why didn’t you show up at Spencer’s last night?” he asked her.

She swallowed hard and tried not to fidget or jump off the bench just because C.J. was touching her again.

“What do you mean? I wasn’t planning on going.”

“Hunter mentioned that he told you he was going. You told him your sister was attending and that they wanted you to go see the band play.”

“I don’t know. I don’t like crowds,” she said and looked away from him.

He scooted closer as he stood up and straddled the bench seat. His knees were touching her legs. He had his hand on her waist and she turned toward him, surprised by his bold behavior and shocked at how she felt being touched by him.

“Don’t be scared of me. God, Caroline, you look as white as a ghost, and as if you think I could hurt you. My gut clenches with concern about you and about your reaction, but damn it, I like you. I want to get to know you and so do my brothers.”

She shook her head and lowered her eyes. “No,” she said and clasped her hands on her lap.

“Look at me, baby.” His tone of voice and his warm breath against her cheek had her looking up at him and those gorgeous blue eyes.

“I don’t know where you’ve been, or who hurt you, or made you mistrust people, but I’ll be damned if I’m not going to try real hard to make you smile.”

“Why are you doing this?” she asked him.

He squinted his eyes at her and reached up to caress near the not-so-swollen bump on her forehead. She cringed.

“I just want to be alone,” she whispered.