Charlie couldn’t help but laugh. “How much you want to bet he sent out copies of that exact card to the other women of Monroe? I’m new around here and even I know not to go near that cad with a ten-foot pole.”
“And what does Tommy’s say?” Nathaniel cooed, batting his eyelashes before reading through the lengthy note. “Yup… that man wants to marry you.”
“Hell would freeze over first,” she snorted, very unladylike.
From the crack in his office door, Matthew watched the exchange. James Thompson was gonna get a fat lip and black eye next time he saw him. And as for Tommy, the last punch he got was nothing short of a swat. Matthew would smash his handsome nose flat.
“How about you, Nathaniel?” Charlie offered a devilish grin. “Did you get any valentines?”
He let out a playfully forlorn sigh. “Sadly, no.”
“You want one of mine?” Jeering, she handed him the card from James Thompson, then stood up and snuck back into the storage closet to grab a heart-shaped cookie. “Happy Valentine’s Day, you fool.”
Nathaniel took a big bite and groaned in approval, “That’s a damn good cookie, Charlie.”
She grinned, absentmindedly rubbing her sore arm. Once Nathaniel sat down to a game of poker with some of the regular drunks, the office door opened, and Charlie looked up with a smile. Once again, Matthew was glaring, really glaring to the point his pale eyes were aflame.
He stopped at her side and sneered at the discarded letters before speaking. “Why you rubbin’ your arm?”
She looked down at the sore appendage. “Let’s just say I put it to good work today.”
He grunted, reached into his pocket and silently slid a small box in front of her. Her eyes saw the gold tin and grew wide. When Matthew saw the smile bloom on her face, he added a modest card to the offering, the tips of his ears red at the sudden quiet from gawking customers.
Charlie’s fingers went to take the pink envelope and opened it with care. Inside was a sweet little card, tasteful and not too frilly. Something about getting one from him, from a man she knew must have hated buying it with a passion, made her leap from her chair and lay one on him right there in the middle of the grill, not a care for who saw what she did.
Catcalls and whistles sounded when she pulled back, blushing and happy. Unwilling to let the moment go, she smiled beautifully, and told him, “Wait right here while I fetch yours.”
Once she was out of sight, pale eyes burned every man making a whoop with such concentrated intimidation, the fools quickly shut their traps. By the time Charlie came back with her beautiful pie in hand, the room was back to behaving. Except Nathaniel, who was still snickering as he organized his cards.
“I made this,” she was bashful, stumbling over the words, “I wasn’t sure if you…” Charlie swallowed, smiled and just handed the damn thing over. “I hope you like it.”
It was a fancy looking pie, covered in stiff whipped cream and shaved chocolate, smelling as sweet as the woman who’d made it.
“If you like, take a seat and I’ll cut you a slice.” She looked so eager, Matthew couldn’t deny her.
Grinning like a fool, she cut him the piece, eager to watch him take a bite.
When the fork was between his lips, the scowl all but fell off his face. “That’s a mighty fine piece of pie, Charlotte.”
Matthew didn’t think it was possible for her grin to get any bigger or any brighter, but at his praise it surely did. She opened her tin of chocolates and popped one in her mouth, very happy she had followed Ruth’s advice.
Nathaniel went to get himself a taste, only to have Matthew take it from him, giving his brother a look that made it clear if anyone so much as tried a bite, they would deal with his wrath.
“You ate your cookie, leave my pie be.”
Matthew didn’t realize the slip, but Charlie caught on. He must have been watching as she opened her cards… his little burst of temper when he showed up with letters from other men.
Matthew Emerson had been jealous.
When he started eating the fresh piece he took from Nathaniel, Charlie warned, “If you eat that whole pie, you are going to make yourself sick, Matthew.” He just took another bite, completely unconcerned. She laughed, “Since you seem so keen on it, I almost
hesitate to ask… but… I will trade you one of my chocolates for a taste.”
Her eyes glowed playfully when he loaded the fork with a perfect bite and held it up for her. He slid it between her lips, and watched Charlie close her eyes when it hit her tongue.
It was a damn good pie.
When her eyes opened, he was poking through her box of chocolates, picking one with a look on his face that said fair is fair. Giggling, Charlie snatched her treats and took them upstairs before Nathaniel or Eli tried to steal one… and knowing them they would.