“Dustin!” he said, moving his ass and headed into the kitchen to find it empty and…
He turned around and headed back to the living room and the closed door that he’d been trying to pretend didn’t exist, praying that the kids hadn’t listened to him. He didn’t bother knocking, he simply walked inside and-
“Damn it,” came the sadly sighed words that drew his attention to the left as his mind registered something soft sliding against his legs in time to see a large lilac sheet fall down onto a large lump on the bed. There was a soft grumble, and then, the sheet was pushed aside and Devin sighed with relief when he spotted his children curled up on Charlie’s bed, fast asleep.
“They just fell asleep,” came the whisper that drew his attention to Charlie to find her sitting on the bed with a warm smile as she pushed the sheet aside. At his questioning look, she gestured absently to the sheet with a sighed, “We tried to make a tent in the living room, but we couldn’t get it to stay up so we decided to make one in here instead.”
“I see,” Devin said, watching as she pushed the covers aside and climbed out of bed.
“I hate to say this,” Charlie said with a sad shake of her head, “but your daughter cheats at tic-tac-toe, checkers, and hide and go seek.”
“She really does,” he murmured absently as he watched Charlie make her way around the bed, untying the jump ropes that they’d used to create a tent as she went.
“Your kids are lightweights,” she said with a teasing smile as she walked past him and headed towards his living room.
“Oh, yeah?” he asked, following her through the living room and into his kitchen.
With a sigh and a sad shake of her head, Charlie headed to his refrigerator and said, “They couldn’t cut it playing Go Fish.”
“They don’t like losing,” Devin murmured absently as he watched her pull two foil-covered plates out of the refrigerator and placed them on the counter.
“They really don’t,” she said, smiling as she grabbed a carton of chocolate milk and some condiments out of the fridge and placed them on the counter before she set to work on replacing the foil with paper towels and-
“I’m not a bad father,” he found himself saying, for some reason hating the idea of her thinking that he was a horrible father more than anyone else.
“Why would I think that you’re a bad father?” Charlie asked, looking genuinely curious as she placed a plate with a large stack of pancakes, bacon, and home fries in the microwave.
“I don’t make it a habit of staying in bed all day,” Devin said, sighing heavily as he tried to figure out how this happened. No matter how fucking exhausted he’d been before, he’d never left his kids to fend for themselves.
“You were exhausted,” she said, shrugging it off like it was no big deal.
“I’m always exhausted,” he said, chuckling without humor as he rubbed his hands down his face.
“I know,” Charlie said, making him frown as he dropped his hands away to find her shrugging it off as she pulled the plate out of the microwave.
At his questioning look, she said, “The kids told me. They told me that you always get up with them in the morning and take care of them. They got nervous when you didn’t wake up, so we checked on you during the day so that they could make sure that you were okay. I think the selfies helped.”
Eyes narrowing on her, he swiped his phone open and-
Felt his lips twitch when he saw the first photo of the kids sitting next to him on the bed, giving a thumbs up. The second picture was of Dustin lying across his back, smiling. Another of him surrounded by dinosaurs, one of him with his daughter’s pink princess tiara on his head, one of his son kissing his cheek, one of his daughter kissing his cheek, and one of-
Charlie sitting on his bedroom floor with Dustin and Abbi sitting on her lap, smiling. For a moment, Devin simply stood there, staring down at the picture until he found himself murmuring, “Thank you,” as he saved the picture into his favorites folder.
Chapter 7
At least he wasn’t glaring anymore, Charlie thought, only to bite back a sigh when Devin looked up from whatever T.J. was showing him to narrow his eyes on her.
Great.
Giving up on trying to figure out what she did to piss him off, Charlie shifted to get more comfortable on her new lounge chair as she reached over and grabbed her glass off the small patio table that she’d purchased along with this lounge chair this morning to help her enjoy what was quickly becoming her favorite part about this apartment. She’d never had a deck before, but now, she was definitely hooked, she absently thought as she took a sip of her drink while she watched the man that really seemed to love to glare as he pulled himself back up the tree that they were building a tree house in and-
“I thought you were trying to save money,” came the heavily sighed complaint that drew her attention to the man who really didn’t seem to know what he was doing to find him running his hand through his meticulously cut jet-black hair as he released a frustrated sigh.
“And I did,” Charlie said, taking another sip before she gestured to all the patio furniture that she’d purchased this morning along with the gas grill that didn’t look like it was going to be finished anytime soon before adding, “All this stuff was half off.”
“I don’t understand why they couldn’t put this together at the store,” Ben said, sighing as he tried to make sense out of the directions that came in the box.
“It would have cost twenty more dollars,” she pointed out as she gestured for him to get back to work.
With a grumble, Ben shifted his attention back to the directions in his hands as she glanced over to watch as Dustin chased his sister around the large backyard, trying to show her something in his hand. They were so damn cute, Charlie thought as she found herself glancing back at the tree surrounded by tools and stacks of wood and-
“He looks pissed,” Ben pointed out as she once again found Devin glaring at her.
“He really does, doesn’t he?” Charlie murmured thoughtfully as she watched Devin continue to glare at her as he reached down and grabbed the board that T.J. was handing up to him.
“What did you do?” Ben asked, making her frown as she glanced back to find Ben trying to figure out how to attach the two metal bars in his hands.
“What makes you think that I did something?” Charlie asked, even though she’d been wondering the same thing.
Last night, he’d thanked her for watching his children before gathering them in his arms and brought them upstairs to tuck them in only to come back a few hours later when they snuck back downstairs and crawled back in her bed. That’s when the glaring started or rather, resumed. That had been followed by glaring at her when she made muffins for the kids and offered him one, which led to her deciding to go check out the end of summer sales at the mall, hoping that he’d grow tired of glaring at her by the time she came back.
He didn’t.
No, that short break seemed to rejuvenate his glaring skills. She’d barely had a chance to open the hatch on the back of her SUV when he was there, glaring at her until she stepped aside so that he could unload her car for her. When Ben showed up a few minutes later, mostly because she may have lied to her best friend and offered to make him lunch if he came over, he’d shot her one last glare before tossing the patio chair to Ben, who really needed to work on his reflexes, before heading back inside.
“Because I know you?” Ben said with a look that told her that it was more than obvious that she’d done something to piss off the man that she was almost ninety percent sure was still glaring at her.
“That hurts, Benjamin,” Charlie said with a sad shake of her head as she picked up her iPad and returned her attention to the article on small business accounting that she was trying to get through.
“The truth hurts.”
“So would throwing this iPad at your head,” she pointed out as she wiggled her toes, enjoying what was probably going to be the last warm weather
they had before fall hit.
There was another grumble and then, “Are you planning on helping me?”
“I’d only get in the way,” Charlie pointed out as she swiped to the next page and-
“Charlie, look what I found!” came the excited announcement that had her looking up in time to watch as Dustin came running up the small stairway with his hand held out only to accidentally knock over her table, sending her glass flying in the process before she could grab it.
The sound of glass crunching followed by a small gasp had her moving, she was off the lounge chair and had Dustin in her arms before the first tear had a chance to roll down his face.
“Shhh, it’s okay,” Charlie said, trying not to panic as she turned around and placed him down on her chair.
“I-It was an accident,” Dustin managed to get out through sobs as she leaned down and felt her stomach drop when she saw the thick piece of glass stuck in the bottom of his shoe.
Forcing her trembling hands to work, Charlie quickly untied his small sneaker as she absently mumbled, “It’s fine, Dustin. Accidents happen,” and carefully pulled his shoe off and-
Felt her shoulders sag with relief when she spotted his pristine white sock covering his small foot.
“You’re okay,” she said, giving him a warm smile as she leaned over and kissed his forehead.
“I’m sorry,” Dustin mumbled softly, making her chuckle.