The Best Next Thing

She laughed. “Your mind is a weird and wonderful thing.”

She snuggled up against his chest again, her fingers toying with his shirt buttons. After a beat, he went back to humming, his hands gently stroking her back. But Charity couldn’t settle down and she sighed restlessly in the middle of what she assumed was the second verse. Hard to tell without the accompanying lyrics.

The humming stopped. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s all I can think of now,” she complained, and his hands stopped stroking.

“What?” His voice was puzzled, and she lifted her head to meet his somber gaze.

“How very much too sexy you are for this damned shirt.” Her words startled a laugh from him, and she grinned. “So maybe you should get rid of it. You’re too sexy for your pants too, by the way. And definitely way, way, way too sexy for your boxers.”

“Christ, you’re just…” He paused in mid-sentence and swallowed, his eyes devouring her face. The gravity in those gray depths, at odds with the lightness of the moment. “So, fucking adorable.”

“Stop speaking, Mr. Hollingsworth,” she whispered, framing his face with her palms. “And kiss me.”

“Charity I—” She made an impatient sound in the back of throat and covered his mouth. Swallowing the rest of his words as she triumphantly claimed the kiss that she had demanded.

No further words were required after that.

“Why do you love these monstrously huge cars?” Charity complained as she heaved herself into the rental car the following morning. This one was a cherry red Jeep Wrangler…big, boxy, and uncomfortably high.

The drive back would take between six to eight hours and they had to leave immediately after breakfast.

The morning meal had been subdued. Her family still reeling after the previous night’s revelations. Faith had obviously filled Stuart in, because the first thing he had done upon seeing her that morning was tug her into a protective bear hug. It had been comforting. Stuart had always been like a brother to her. Her sister’s high school sweetheart, he had been a constant presence in their family for as long as she could remember.

Faith, in the meantime, could barely make eye contact with her. Her responses to Charity’s comments and questions had been clipped to the point of rudeness. Charity was trying to be patient but part of her wanted to grab her sister by the shoulders and shake her.

Her mother was over-compensating, lavishing her with attention and hugs and endearments, while looking on the verge of tears throughout breakfast. While her father had been so quiet. Her father who always found the funny in every situation, who was filled to the brim with stupid dad jokes, whose voice was always the loudest and most cheerful in every room, had barely spoken half a dozen words all morning.

In the end, it was almost a relief to leave. But the farewells had been genuine and gut-wrenching. Her father and mother clung to her in a three-way hug that felt like it would never end. Stuart kissed her on the cheek and made her promise to call if she needed anything.

And Faith…Charity’s eyes flooded with tears as she waved her family goodbye and watched them grow smaller and smaller in the rear window. Faith had hugged her fiercely, almost painfully and had whispered, “I’m so fucking angry with you. And Blaine. I’m pissed at everything and everyone right now. And I don’t know how to cope. I love you, you dozy cow. Okay? But I’m just so… mad at you.”

“I know.”

“I shouldn’t be.”

“You should, I’m angry with myself as well. I should have told you. Told someone.”

“You should have trusted us.”

“Yes.”

“I love you. We’ll work it out. And heal. As a family.”

“I know.”

“Go. Enjoy the rest of your shagfest with Mr. Know-It-All over there. But you hurry home. Your life has been on hold for far too long.”

The car took a corner, and when she lost sight of her waving family, Charity promptly burst into tears.

She wasn’t even aware that Miles had pulled over until she felt his arms around her.

“Charity.” His voice was a gruff, pain-filled whisper. “You don’t have to leave. You can stay. I won’t hold it against you. I just…I want you to be happy.”

The thought of staying hadn’t even occurred to her, and his words made her cry harder, because with the offer now on the table, she had to consider it. She could stay. Give up the little time she had left with Miles, and start the healing process with her family.

What was to be gained by returning with Miles? A few weeks more of tormenting herself with something she could not have? There was nothing back there for her. Her future, her life…it was here.

All she had to do was tell him to turn around.

She pushed herself away from him and stared into his harsh face resentfully. Hating that he had offered her this choice.