Deal Makers (Dealing with Love 3)

I put my truck into park and kill the ignition. “No shit.”

“I can’t believe my mom was okay with the wedding and baby stuff.”

“Yeah, all that buildup for nothing.”

“I know, right? Trust me, that woman lives up to the Italian mamma stereotype. I have no idea what happened. Maybe my dad slipped her some of his special candies.”

I smirk. “Would he really do that?”

She chuckles. “I wouldn’t put it past him. Ever since they legalized weed, he can’t get enough of these butterscotch edibles. He says they’re the world’s best defense against my mother’s craziness.”

I bark out a laugh. “I’ll have to keep that in mind.” I nod to the elevator that leads into Charlee’s building. “Do you want me to walk you to your door?”

“Nah, I’ll be fine. I’m just going to change into my work clothes and take off.”

“Are you coming to my place after work? Or would you prefer that I come here?”

Charlee looks away. “Um, actually I’ll probably just go to bed early. I have a lot of housework and errands tomorrow since it’s my day off and I’d like to get an early start. Plus, I need to get those annulment papers in the mail. I was reading more about it and the process is even easier than I thought. Vegas is in Clark County and they don’t accept joint petitions. That means I can get the ball rolling without your signature. I’ll take care of that part tomorrow, then the firm that’s handling everything will have you served with a notice and file with the courts. Since it will be uncontested, the annulment should be granted within twenty days. Easy peasey.”

“You still want to do that, huh?”

She frowns. “That’s always been the plan, Drew.”

I shake my head, refuting her statement. “Not to me, it hasn’t. I haven’t wanted an annulment since that first day you came to the firehouse. Hell, maybe even before then. But I respected your need to do it so I went along with it. If I had my way, we’d give this marriage a real shot. Hell, I thought that’s what we’ve been doing. It’s been five weeks since we got back, Charlee. We could’ve filed the petition a long time ago if that’s what we really wanted. We haven’t even talked about it in weeks. Not once. Doesn’t that tell you something?”

She flicks her wrists in a what are you talking about gesture. “The only thing it tells me is that we’ve been too busy fucking to do what needs to be done. And you certainly won’t hear me complaining about all the orgasms, but if we wait too long to file, the judge might deny it. We should just get it over with.”

I zero in on her fidgety hands. “Do you want to tell me what’s really going on?”

“What do you mean?” Her voice rises two octaves with the last word.

Now her knee is bouncing so I place my hand over it to stop the motion. “Why are you acting so strange all of a sudden? You just did a complete one-eighty. Is there something you need to tell me?”

Charlee smiles but it’s undeniably forced. “You know what? Maybe I don’t need to get started super early. You’re on shift at eight in the morning, right?”

I nod. “Yeah. And?”

“Perfect! I can just head home when you take off for work.” She launches herself at me and presses her mouth against mine. Despite all of the questions swimming through my brain, my body can’t help but respond. Far too soon, she pulls away and hops out of my truck. “I’ll text you when I get out of work. See you later tonight, Drew.”

Do you have any idea what the hell just happened? Because I sure as shit don’t.

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

CHARLEE

Okay, I can do this.

I probably shouldn’t be standing in front of Drew’s apartment right now but I needed one more night with him before I have to say goodbye. I’ll just have to keep him distracted with sex until he’s so exhausted he crashes. That way, he won’t be able to ask me what’s going on and I won’t have to tell him. Not tonight, anyway. When I finally get the nerve to knock, Drew opens the door so fast, I swear he must’ve been right behind it watching me through the peephole.

He offers me a smile but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “Hey. Come on in.”

“Sorry I’m a little later than expected. I wanted to stop by my place and take a shower first.”

He furrows his brows. “Why didn’t you just shower here like you normally do?”

Because I needed time to remind myself that what I’m doing is for the best.

“Uh...I don’t know. Didn’t really think about it, I guess.”