Damon (16 page)

Charlie blushed.
She hadn’t even h
eard Damon leave this morning.
He was gone when she got up and his pillow was cold, that’s all s
he knew.
She pulled a glass from the c
abinet and poured her own tea.
Then she sat down next to Dane.

“What are your plans now that you and D
amon are going to get married? I mean, are you going to work?
You
wouldn’t have to, by the way.
The Grants are
very wealthy.
I’m not being nosey, just wondering for myself.”

“I hadn’t thought of it.
I don’t…I guess if I did decide to go to work, it would
be at the hospital somewhere.
I k
now that I could get hired on. My grades were good.
I’d just have to take
my boards for Ohio.
I hadn’t thought o
f it really, but I would work.
Connor is my responsibly and I’d have to make sure he’s cared for.”

Charlie knew that Damon liked Conn
or, but he was her little boy.
She needed to get him enrolled in school and then g
et him some clothes.
Everyone had been very generous, but she need
ed to get on her own two feet.
She was lost in thought when she heard the back door open and Jamie walked in.

“Hey, Charlie.
Mom has decided that Thanksgiving is going to be held here this year and I was hoping that I could get eve
ryone to pitch in and help Pi.
Love the woman to death, but I think
we all want traditional stuff.
Dane is good at organizing, but I don’t want her doing it all by herself.”

“I’d love to help.
I can cook very
well.
If you have everything, I can get a start on the bird and then when the others g
et up, we can work from there.
This is a wonderful kitchen to work in.”

“Wonderful.
But firs
t, I want you to come with me.
I have
something I need to show you.
Jamie, go get your brothers up and then you guys go to
your mom’s and get the stuff.
And make sure you make M
rs. Poole comes back with you.
Tell her that I need her to make the gravy.”

After they bundled up in winter coats, the two women walked over to the po
ol house.
There was construction stuff still around, a concre
te mixer, and a large dumpster.
And there were still a lot of empty pallets and something that looked like a big heater, covered now th
at it was no longer being used.
Dane unlocked the door for them and stepped back to let Charlie enter.

The room was white.
There was no other way to describe it, white furniture,
white carpet, and white walls.
Charlie put her hands behind her back and walked around the room,
careful not to touch anything.
The white shelf surprised her; there were white framed black and white pictures of t
he Grants and of other events.
She was even more surprised to find one of Connor with Spencer a
nd Cait’s little girl, Meggie.
She nodded to it then looked back at Dane.

“I took it the other d
ay when he was at their house. Meggie loves him.
She said that he is coming along nicely w
ith his sign language lessons. He’s a wonderful little boy.
Charlie, do you know what this room is?”

“It’s your white room, your room to relax a
nd to refocus.
I’ve read abou
t these in college, of course.
I would imagine that you would need a room l
ike this more than most would.
And your view, it’s perfect.”

“You’ve not touched anything.
Not even to pick up any of the pictures to look at them.
Why not?
Most people would have.”

Charlie though
t about it before she answered.
She’d heard what Dane could do. Dane had even told her about her ability when they had all gotten together at the house last week. She wasn’t sure if she believed it or not, but Dane obviously did. But the question, why hadn’t
she
touched anything?

“I’m not saying that I believe you, but I would assume that you had this
room as a sterile environment.
And I thought that my emotions or touches woul
d somehow negate that for you
. Y
ou need to come here and get away. If I brought myself in here, then y
ou’d have me in here with you.
Right?”

“Yes. That’s correct. My grandmot
her had one, a room like this. Hers was in the house.
It’s a room of tapestries that she and my grandfather c
ollected over the years.
I don’t know that over the years with Jamie and our child I won’t add to it, b
ut for now, this works for me.
I want to hir
e you to work for me, Charlie.
I need someone for my practice.”

Charlie stopped and turned to look at her.
Dane had sat down on the white love s
eat and was rubbing her belly.
Charlie remembered that. Rubbing Connor when she was pregnant made her feel so centered and relaxed.

“I wasn’t aware that
a psychologist needed a nurse.
I thought you guys just sort of made
your own assessments and all.
And I’m not so sure that I’d make a good receptionist either.”

“No, t
hat’s not what I need you for. I want you to be there for me.
I want to take on more cases that involve missing children and sometimes it’s unsafe f
or me.
I sort of go into a trance and when I do, I
forget how to come back home.
I’d like to hire you to be there in the event that would happen.”

“You want me to babysit y
ou while you go into a trance.
I tak
e it this has happened before.
How bad did it get and how did you get back, as you call it?”

“Jamie and his brothers broke down the door to my room and then
Jamie put me in a cold shower. I had gone far that time.
And when I was kidnapped and beaten, I nearly died. I need someone who cares for me to watch over me. Pi makes me too crazy and I’d never get her out of this room to concentrate, but you, I think you would be perfect.”

Charlie sat down on the couch when Dan
e patted the place beside her. She didn’t know what to say.
No one had ever thought
she was perfect for anything.
Well, Connor did most days, but she was sure that would change when he got to be a teenager, but for now, she was perfect.

“Charlie, I
can tell what you’re thinking.
Not because I can read your mind, but because of the emot
ions running across your face.
I do think you’ll be perfect. If you want to discuss i
t with Damon, that’s okay too.
I won’t be opening my practice until I can find someone and I hope it’s you.”

“I need a job. I need to provide for my son. I can’t expect Damon
to keep him. He’s not his son. I’d like the job.
But I have to tel
l you that Connor comes first.
If he’s ill or nee
ds me, then I can’t leave him.
Is that okay?”

“Of course.
I would
n’t expect anything different.
And Charlie, I think you’re underestimating the relatio
nship between Connor and Damon.
I think Damon already plans to provide for Connor. He really likes the kid. We all do.”

Char
lie knew he was liked by them.
He was a great little boy, but she didn’t expect anyone to help her w
ith him.
He was her responsibility, not anyone else’s.

Charlie worked with the others i
n the kitchen most of the day.
They laughed and joked, talked about the new babies, and
told stories about each other.
She never felt out of place or not a part of th
e family.
And when they sat down to dinner, everyone talked over each other, helped with the others’ children,
and even cleaned up together.
Several times she went to check on Connor only to not be able to pick him out of the crowd of children playing in the gaming room. She’d never had a family of her own, nothing like this, and she realized she was happy to be a part of this one.

~CHAPTER 1
3
~

The crowds o
f people were making him nuts.
Limos and drivers and overdressed and over done people walking in front of cars like
they friggin’ owned the place.
Anthony had heard there was a thing going on at the Polaris Center, some stupid chari
ty thing to help abused women.

Anthony snorted.
Abused women, that was an oxymoron if he’d ever heard one. A woman who complained she was being abused wasn’t being disciplined enou
gh as far as he was concerned.
If they’d just learn their place, a man wouldn’t have to hit them so much.

He was maneuvering between streets to get to his hotel when he saw a woman
with a kid.
He noticed her because she was so beautiful, but then someone honked their horn at him
and he lost her in the crowd.
Now that was a woman h
e’d like to have in his house.
He’d bet she’d be able to keep house and him satisfied in his bed.

Anthony was unlocking his door, still thinking about
the woman a short time later.
He turned on the television and there was a big
deal going on about the event.
He started to turn it to some of the pay per view stations when the woman came into the camera v
iew again.
D
amn, she really was beautiful.
Blond hair cut short, form-fitting black dress wit
h legs that went on for miles.
While he didn’t approve of showing so much skin and women should never cut their hair, he
thought they both suited her.
When the camera focused on the kid again, An
thony nearly fell off the bed.
It was the kid.

Mother fuck.
Her f
ucking brat was on television.
He picked up the remote and hit rewind, seeing if he could
catch his Charlotte somewhere.
When the camera flipped back to the woman
and paused, he looked at her.
It was her, his Charlotte.

He loo
ked at her now, really looked.
The smile on her face irritated him for some reason. He also didn’t like the way the man standing next
to her was touching his woman.
Anthony moved closer to the set and tried to will the woman to look directly in the camera
so that he could see her face.
When she f
inally did, his breath caught.
He never would have thought she was t
hat beautiful, that glamorous.

He kept watching the program. He would catch
glimpses of her now and then.
Always with the same
group of people, the same man.
He watched the brat walking around between the adults and wondered who
they were to her and the boy.

When the man leaned down and kissed his Charlotte, he lost
it.
His temper had always been right on the edge concerning her and to see that she had replaced him so
quickly made him lose control.
Taking the remote,
he threw it at the television.
The screen shattered and
the lights popped off and on.
It wasn’t e
nough.
He picked up the chair a
nd threw it though the window.
As soon as the glass shattered
, he knew he’d made a mistake.

He was sitting on the bed w
hen the knock came at the door.
He was hoping it was the fat fuck that had checked him in and was hap
py that it was.
Inviting him into the room
, he shut and locked the door.
Couldn’t be a more perfect way to work off some anger than to take it out on an asshole.

“There a problem here?
Seems like there was a lot o
f noise coming from this room.
Wanna tell me what happ
ened to the TV and the window?
Looks like there was a fight or something.”