Chasing Charlie (7 page)

EIGHT

Charlie

“I don’t want to go to work tonight.” I stretched and yawned before curling around the solid-bodied man that’d shared my bed last night. The only man to ever do so. 

I couldn’t believe I’d asked Liam to come up last night, but his constant thoughtfulness and generosity had hooked me. I’d never met a man more charming, more genuine, more real than Liam Fitzpatrick. Somewhere deep in my bones, I knew I couldn't lose him. I knew he was good for me, even if I couldn't quite figure out exactly why. 

“We’ve got all afternoon. We could do something fun.” Liam walked his fingers up the underside of my arm, making a delicious shiver rip through me. “Or stay right here and have a love-in.”

I laughed before launching across his body and straddling his hips. The sheet that had been around my naked form fell away, and his eyes instantly fell to my round breasts and the nipples I knew were pebbled from the cold. I pressed against his morning erection, sandwiched between us and driving me wild with lust. “I like the sound of that last one.” 

“I vote in favor of that last one too.”

“Perhaps we’re in agreement more often than I thought,” I teased and took his lips in a rabid kiss, pulling at his bottom lip when I backed away. 

A violent vibration came from the direction of my nightstand, and I swiped Liam’s phone, about to pass it to him when a new picture message caught my eye. 

“Who’s this?” I tilted my head as I took in the elegantly posed picture. A large family, seven people at least, were dressed in the poshest clothing, including neckties and military medals. It looked totally old-fashioned except for the high quality of the photo. They were definitely a modern family. 

“Ah, my dad.” Liam glanced at his phone then flipped it over on the nightstand, his hands at my hips again. “We had a family picture taken last time I was home, I haven’t seen it yet.”

“That was your family?” I swiped the phone and inspected the picture still waiting for him on the home screen. “Does your dad make you do reenactments or something?” 

“No.” Liam pulled the phone from my hands again. Now I wanted to see it more than ever.  “Charlie, no.” 

I was already studying the picture again, this time taking in the opulent furnishings of what looked to be like an old English estate house. 

Then my eye landed on an intricately wrought coat of arms hanging on the wall directly behind the family. I zoomed in as close as I could on the picture to make out the large inscription gracing the plaque.

Fitzpatrick Royal Irish Lineage, HRH The Queen

“Wait… are you…?”

Liam’s gaze burned up all the oxygen between us as he watched me. The details suddenly lined up, the pieces finally locking into place. 

“Your dad isn’t just into history, is he?”

“No, he’s not.”

“And he’s not a politician either, right?”

Liam’s eyes swam with desolation. 

“Liam? Is he a politician?”

“Charlie—”

“I can’t believe you!” I leapt off the bed, sped across the hallway, and locked myself in the bathroom. 

“Charlie, just listen to me for a second!” 

“No! I told you no secrets, and you kept the biggest fucking secret of all?” I swung the door open, pushing aside when I sped by him. I pulled a shirt over my head before yanking his clothes off my floor and pounding past him again. “How could you?”

“Charlie—”

“Don’t
Charlie
me, don’t
beautiful
me. You’re a fucking prince! You’re part of the royal family! You lied to me about everything!”

“I didn't lie to you about anything! What you saw, all of it is me. I’m not like them. Ireland doesn't even have a royal family. It’s an honorary bullshit title that means nothing!” 

“How can I believe anything you say anymore?” I screamed, my head pounding with white-hot rage. He’d been dishonest, either by lying or lying by omission. “I let down my guard with you. I let you into my heart, yet you didn’t even tell me the biggest detail of your life? God, you talked about your childhood, your siblings. How wealthy are you? Huh? You could probably buy twelve of my apartments. Could you buy the bar? The whole town?”

“That doesn't matter.” 

“Of course it matters. We’re from opposite sides of the tracks. Oil and water don’t mix, will
never
mix. Everything about the way you and I live is different.”

Liam’s eyes cast away for a second, his beautiful hard edges only covered by the dark scrap of his boxer briefs. God, I wanted to fall into him and forget this morning had ever happened, forget that photo, forget that I knew what I now knew. 

“Money doesn’t matter to me at all, Charlie. Who gives a shit if my family could buy all of Cambridge if they wanted to? Or half of Boston too? That isn’t me. I don’t take shortcuts, and I work for everything I’m given. If you don’t know that by now, then I’m not sure what we’ve been doing.”

 “Money is the only thing that matters when you don’t have any of it.” I shook my head. “And we agree on one thing—I'm not sure what we were doing either.” I turned my head away, trying to hide the tears burning my eyelids. “I just wish you had told me before I begged you to come up last night.” 

I crumpled his clothes I’d been holding, then I swung the front door wide and threw them straight over the railing. They landed in a heap on the street below. “Goodbye, Liam.”

“Charlie—” He groaned and lurched for me as if he hadn’t even seen me throw his clothes out of the front door. “Christ, I’m sorry.”

“Bye, Liam.”

“Charlie—” 

My heart exploded into a thousand painful shards as I pushed him out the door. The shards sliced through my organs before they fell to my feet in a hopeless pile. 

“I love you,” I whispered after I’d slammed the door, and I allowed tears to stream down my cheeks. “I trusted you.” 

The past tense of that statement crushed the only remaining pieces of me left. I pressed a hand against the old wooden door, imagining him pounding down the steps after his clothes, shamed so completely that he’d never return to my doorstep or my life. 

I felt the warmth of the door bleeding through my palms as I sucked in a shallow breath and tried to compose my thoughts. “Liam…”

NINE

Liam

I stood on her stoop, my palms pressed against the aging wood door, my heart bleeding for the pain I’d put her through. 

Maybe I was too much of a coward. I’d sensed my family’s wealth could be the thing that would push her over the edge. The prejudice against the upper class that she’d grown up with had been so present, even in just one conversation with her dad last night. But I’d overcome it. We were meant to be together. I’d ridden the high of her all night and had the best night of my entire existence in her bed. 

And now I was here, naked and alone on her fucking doorstep. There had to be something I could say, something I could do to get her back. 

I heard a door slam across the street, pulling me from my bubble of knife-edged pain before I ducked quietly down the stairwell and retrieved my shirt and jeans. No shoes. Fuck. I’d tucked them under her bed last night—my habit—and now I hoped she’d find them. Even if she hurled them at my head the next time she saw me, that meant she’d have to see me again. 

A plan started to form in my head. 

I would win Charlie back if it was the last thing I did on earth. We were too good together to let go. She just needed to see that too. 

I was creeping around the corner of the bar, aiming to get to my car as quickly as possible so I could plan what to do before I saw Charlie at the bar tonight, when I ran smack into the wall of Vince Jr. 

“Hey, man, where you off to so early?” He looked me up and down before his eyes widened. “Oh, shit.” 

“Yeah, I’m just running home. I’ll be back in time for my shift.”

“What’d you forget your shoes this morning? Come on, I’m not a dumbass. Walk of shame, man.”

“That’s not it at all, fucker.” I pushed Vince against a wall, instantly feeling as though he’d betrayed the purity of what Charlie and I had shared, even if it had been just one night. 

“Hey!” He held up his hands. “Whoa, this doesn’t have to do with…?” His head whipped toward where the stairs led up to Charlie’s apartment. “No fucking way, man!” 

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” I pressed a hand against my forehead.

“So my sister’s finally gettin’ some, huh?” His eyes twinkled when he stalked around me, arms crossed, looking me up and down. “And then she booted your ass.” 

“That’s not what—”

“Dude, you’ve got no shoes.” He pinned me with a serious stare.

I shrugged. I didn’t have an excuse. I’d betrayed his sister's trust, and she’d kicked me out on my arse. End of. 

“So how are we going to get you back in her good graces?” He tapped his chin comically. 

“What? You’re going to help me?”

“Of course, man. Even I can see how you look at her from across the room. Guy code—you’re whipped, buddy. Plus my sister needs to loosen up a little. Not sure how much you know about her history with men, but—”

“She told me everything.”

His eyes widened in surprise before he continued. “Well, good. The fact that she told you anything means a helluva lot. So what’d you do to piss her off?”

I sighed and thrust a hand into my pocket, thankful I’d at least shoved my keys down deep so they weren’t lost in the trip down the stairs. “She found out my family is wealthy.”

“Oh shit,” Vince said, “that’s a problem.”

I glanced up, and a determined frown was marring his face. “How am I supposed to fix that? I can’t change what I was born into.”

“I dunno, man.” He smacked me on the back and walked with me down the sidewalk. “No sweat though. We’ll figure it out.”

We. I didn’t know what the hell I was thinking, looking for any help from her brother. But I knew he at least had her best interests at heart, and since I did too, we could come together on that. I just hoped he knew her better than I did, because from where I was standing, there was no coming back from the fire and brimstone she’d rained on me. 

“Go home and get some sleep. I’ll work recon here.” Vince winked at me as I unlocked my car door and slid in. “See ya in a few hours, buddy.”

That didn’t sound good. Whatever he had up his sleeve, I could not believe that the state of my love life was in his hands. Vince Jr. didn’t look like any kind of cupid to me.

TEN

Charlie

I slipped on my sneakers, foregoing the cute wedges I normally wore at work. I was drained, completely and utterly drained. Memories of last night flashed through my mind, and a smile fought to pull up my lips as I remembered the scent of his skin, the touch of his hands, the confidence that spilled from his lips when he was turned on. 

God, now I was getting turned on again. 

“Toughen up, Charlie. You knew it would be like this,” I grumbled before pressing my fingertips against my closed eyelids, still burning from the tears that had tracked down my cheeks after I’d kicked him out. “They’re all like this.”

I hadn’t been thinking straight, that’s for sure, because unless Liam quit completely, I was bound to see him every night for the rest of the week, and the one after that…

I shoved a hand through my hair and, with butterflies in my stomach, left my apartment. I walked around the corner of the building to the back entrance to the bar and sneaked in, trying to walk quietly to my little cubby. I spotted Vince out of the corner of my eye, gave him a half smile and wave, then I caught the mischievous look in his eye. I narrowed my eyes at him, pausing to take in the way he was watching me. 

“Lookin’ rough today, little sis.”

That wasn’t like Vince at all. He liked to tease, but he never blatantly insulted like that. 

“What’s up your sleeve?” I cocked my head, and his grin twitched for a moment before he shrugged and walked away. 

“Grr, men.” 

I turned back to my cubby and spotted an envelope addressed to me. I lifted it, recognizing my dad’s handwriting instantly, before turning it over and tearing it open. 

Charlie,

My girl, my everything. You know I’d go to hell and back for you. You’re the first thing I think of in the morning—Is my little girl okay? Did I do enough? Is she happy? 

Those are the things that haunt a father as children grow, but you, you’re so much more than that. 

After your mama left, I fear I put too much responsibility on you. My own heart was crumbling, and I couldn’t see reality through my pain, but I’ll regret how I handled that time for the rest of my life. 

You aren’t your mama, Charlie. Never were, and I know as sure as I know how to pour a beer, you never could be like her. 

You’re thoughtful, funny, and so kind. I don’t know who you get your generosity from because I think we both know it’s not me. 

I’ve made a lot of wrong decisions in my life, and it breaks my heart to see you making one now. 

Don’t let him go, Charlie. 

When you find someone who fills up all the dark cracks in your heart, you hold onto them like a lifeline. 

The Irishman loves you. I can see it when he watches you when you aren’t looking. 

I see it in the way he listens to you. 

I see it in the way he makes you laugh. 

You haven’t laughed like that in a long time, baby girl. 

I always want what’s best for you, and as it’s pretty widely accepted that fathers know best, I’m here to tell you, Liam is best for you. 

Please don't shut him out. 

Listen to him and really hear him. 

He deserves it and so do you.