Love Renewed (Love Trilogy) (5 page)

Charlotte walked to her mother, enveloping her in an embrace. She missed her father too and regretted the fact she hadn't seen him as much as she could have in those first years she'd left. Moving so far away had made it almost impossible due to financial reasons for her parents and for her and Jack.

Pulling away, Anna kissed Charlotte on the cheek, moving back to the stove to check on the lasagna. Determining that it needed a few more minutes to be ready, she turned towards her daughter. She gave Charlotte a pointed look, her eyebrow raised in question.

Grimacing, Charlotte knew what her mother wanted to know and she didn't think she would be pleased.

Chapter Four

Charlotte looked down at her hands, taking a deep breath in order to prepare herself for an outburst or noise of disapproval. Her mother hadn't spoken a word about Trevin since the day he had left until her little talk with Charlotte the other day so she assumed her mother did not like him.

"Yes, I did see Trevin today," she admitted, her eyes flicking to her mother to gauge her reaction, but who didn't look surprised. Instead, she was grinning.

"I know. The neighbor told me there was a strange vehicle in my driveway."

"Ah. I almost forgot what it was like to live in a small town where everybody is always up in another person's business." It was one of the reasons she had always wanted to leave.

At this Anna's grin widened, but she quickly subdued it, her eyes widening in excitement. "So, tell me what happened!" She let out a hoot of laughter when Charlotte blushed, which always made her whole face look sun burnt due to the deep shade that colored her face.

"He wanted to talk to me," she spoke softly, looking at her hands again, which were folded in her lap. "He said he didn't cheat on me and that he doesn’t know how to make me believe him."

"Do you want to believe him?"

"I don't know. Well I do, but I don't, if you know what I mean. I don't want to think that I would even if he swore the truth on his life. It was so long ago, how can I be sure he was telling the truth when he said it wasn't what I thought? I am so confused, I am not sure what to feel. I thought I had resolved my feelings for him a long time ago."

Anna nodded, her teeth worrying her bottom lip as if she was thinking about what to say. Not certain of when she should tell Charlotte about Trevin calling all those years ago, she decided this wasn't the right moment to bring that topic up.

"I think you should give him a chance." When Charlotte looked up at her in surprise, she smiled. "You deserve to be happy and he obviously wants you still. It has been ten years; he's not the same man just like you're not the same woman. Now, go get Douglas since dinner is ready." She turned to the sink, ending the conversation.

Charlotte looked her mother's back for just another moment, in utter confusion of the support for Trevin her mother had just admitted to, then turned away to do as told.

Her feet tread lightly up the steps, her thoughts wandering to her mother and Trevin.

She knew her mother just wanted her to be happy again, but she didn't understand why her mother would say to give Trevin a chance.
 
She had been furious that Charlotte left town due to Trevin's apparent cheating at the time. Her mother would call her often to see how she was doing and to beseech her to come home. She hadn't understood when Charlotte had married Jack either and then it became even harder to get her to come home and visit.

Charlotte had come home for her father's funeral but Trevin had not shown up to see her. Perhaps he had thought it would be disrespectful and Charlotte had been grateful for him making that choice even if he had actually wanted to see her. From his confession today, she was hard pressed to
not
believe he had felt that way and had never actually let her go like she figured he would have.

I really need a hobby
, she mused. She knew that letting Trevin take over her thoughts would be bad right now. She didn't know if she could trust him.

"
Douglas, it's time for dinner!" Announcing this as the door opened, Douglas looked up from the floor where he was coloring and then before she could catch his eye, he looked back down.

Mumbling, he got up off the floor and trekked past Charlotte who had a concerned look on her face. Then, she just shook her head and followed him downstairs. She was going to have to see if her mother agreed with her that perhaps Douglas should be seen by a doctor.

~*~

Trevin walked up the path that led through the woods behind his house, the wind blowing through the leaves of the tree like his thoughts whispered through his mind. The path was a private one yet many people walked along it during the day since the lake was just beyond the trees.
 
He'd bought the house five years earlier when he'd decided to stay in town for good.
 

He realized now that even then he'd been waiting for the day Charlotte would return, a purchase which could have turned into total foolishness if she hadn't.

She did come back, though.
That's all Trevin could think of at that moment. She was back and he had a chance to try again - at least that was his hope. His entire head was filled with thoughts of Charlotte, of their embrace earlier that day and the happiness he felt about her being back in town.

Damn, he hadn't realized how much he had missed Charlotte.
He had always missed her, but the amount just blew his mind; he couldn't get her out of his mind even though he had other important issues to deal with.

She still fits into his arms as nicely as when they were younger. Her fullness surprised him though, but not unpleasantly. She was a woman full-grown and there was no denying that. She'd been a skinny little thing ten years ago and part of the reason he'd always called her Sprite. Her height plus her weight and the way she looked had just made the nickname perfect.

He had wanted to devour her right there on the spot. He still wanted to, her taste still upon his mouth, her feel still imprinted upon his hands and their embrace burned into his brain.

Trevin knew he was acting like a love sick puppy, but he couldn't stop himself. He had missed
her
: her joy when he'd surprise her with something she'd remarked upon wanting badly or the mischief that would suddenly appear in her eyes when she would pull him into an alcove and make him touch her privately in a public place; the moans she'd made when he'd roam his hands and mouth all over her body.

Oh, yes.
He was getting aroused just from thinking of Charlotte. It's amazing he hadn't torn off her clothes earlier, but he had wanted to desperately. He wondered if she remembered their frenzied lovemaking too; they'd never been able to get enough of each other it seemed.

After she had moved away, Trevin frantically searched for her yet never had enough information to find her. As time went on it had become less and less likely. He had given up when it was clear she wasn't coming back and it still took him two years to begin dating. Nobody had ever been able to compare to Charlotte, however. He had never married and now he knew it was because he'd never given up hope completely.
 

He wondered what she would think of that, when all the sudden he heard the sound of a branch snapping somewhere close to where he was standing.

Snap!

Trevin jumped, startled. He hadn't realized how deeply in thought he was.
 
Looking around, he didn't see anything.

"Hello? Who is there?" When there wasn't an immediate answer, he commented loudly, "I heard you, so you might as well come out and show yourself!"

A figure came walking out of the trees and Trevin squinted to see who it was.

As the person stepped onto the hiking path, the darkness of the evening made it so he could only see the outline of a woman. The summer dress clung to her body in a way that left little to the imagination.

He could hear the laugh in her voice as she joked in a singsong voice, "Hey there sexy. Are you out here looking for trouble? That would be me!"

Trevin groaned and she let out a peal of laughter.

Shelby was standing in front of him, carrying a teddy bear he'd given her for her birthday this year, staring at him with a grin on her face.

Right then, Trevin knew it was going to be a long night.

~*~

Trevin really didn't want to deal with Shelby right now, but knew it was unavoidable.
 

Scowling at her intrusion upon his private walk, which she couldn't even see due to the darkness of the evening, he turned on his heel and walked towards his house.

Of course, she followed him, seemingly oblivious to his discontent he felt at her intrusion.

When they were almost at his house, he could hear her giggling and mumbling to herself so he stopped and turned to face her. She was skipping, but she stopped once she saw him do the same.

"What are you doing here Shelby? Is there something you need?"

She blinked at him, her eyes widening as if his question caught her by surprise.

"Isn't it obvious? I have come to see you Trevin! You are my friend!" Her smile was impish as she spread her arms wide, twirling in a full circle before standing before him again, the teddy bear cuddled against her chest.

He realized that standing out here was probably a bad idea so he turned back towards the house. "Follow me inside, Shelby."

She did follow him, getting right on his heels while blabbing his ears off with nonsensical chatter. The door slammed behind her, making him wince at the sudden noise in surrounding silence.

Watching her flit around the kitchen was amusing, even if he felt bad for her. Opening the fridge, he took out a soda and offered her one.
 
She shook her head, throwing him a smile before sitting at the table where he joined her after a moment.

"Where is your friend, Shelby?"

Her eyes rounded. "She's at home. I wanted to go out by myself so I could see you!"

He had to grin at that. "You always were resourceful in finding me when I'm all alone."

Shelby blushed, but the impish grin was still on her face. "You're a hard man to stay away from, Trevin." She stuck her lower lip out in a pout. "I really wish you could find someone to make you happy. You deserve it. I don't like to see you frown."

"Aw, Shelby, you don't have to worry about me and my lack of a love life. I'm not unhappy at all." He had been unhappy for a while now, but she didn't need to know that.

She smiled at him, brushing his cheek with the back of her hand. Her hand glided up his head until she ran her eyes through his hair, giggling like a little girl.

Trevin let her because he hated the guilt he carried knowing he'd been the cause of her turning out this way. She wasn't all there in the head anymore and it was his entire fault.
 

After Charlotte had caught them together and he'd yelled at her to get out, he had put Shelby out of his mind. Having gotten drunk and staying that way for well over a week, he didn't find out until two weeks after Charlotte left town that Shelby had gotten into an accident on the way home from his father’s house.

Not paying attention as she crossed the street, she'd walked right in front of an oncoming car.
 
The driver had stopped immediately and called 9-1-1, but Shelby had been thrown into a tree by the impact, her head slamming into it. Along with two broken legs, her traumatic head injury had caused permanent brain damage.
 
She was in a coma for several months following the accident, followed by a lot of intense physical therapy. Mentally though, she was rendered a child and hadn't been the same since.

Trevin had gone to the hospital and offered his assistance when she'd finally awakened after the accident. He had been close to apologizing when her mother had told him Shelby had no recollection of the accident, which meant her mother didn’t know about the argument either. All she knew was that Shelby had gone to his house that night and was hit while walking home. Unwilling to cause problems he wasn’t sure he could handle, Trevin hadn’t said anything about the trouble Shelby had caused before her accident.

It was then and there that he had told Shelby that he would be her friend always, no matter what. He had stood by his word all these years, even when she wouldn’t leave his side – which usually tended to be at very inconvenient times, this evening being a perfect example.

He just hoped Charlotte would give him a chance even with Shelby still around, but she couldn't possibly begrudge Shelby his friendship because of past events, could she?

Frowning, Trevin realized he was sad because he didn't know what Charlotte would or wouldn't do. It had been ten years and she had definitely changed. Maybe he should tell her what had happened to Shelby and her current habit of hanging around him before Charlotte saw them together and got the wrong impression once again.

Chapter Five

Writer's block was being a pain this morning; the words Charlotte wanted to convey were stuck on the tips of her fingers but unwilling to be shared with her yet. She put on her running outfit, hoping a little fresh air and exercise would clear her mind enough to get work done.
 

It didn't help that she hadn't heard from Trevin since she had told him to leave her house the other day. She knew that he had not left her alone completely; for when they would fight in the past, he would give her space while he took his. Then he would show up one day like everything was fine and apologize, rendering the argument irrelevant. He had always been so kind and thoughtful, which had made his betrayal that much more hurtful.

Putting aside all thoughts aside so she could focus on the intended excursion outside, she grabbed her sunglasses and left the house.

Closing the door as she stepped outside, Charlotte's hand came up to shield her face from the sun. The sky was a beautiful light blue this Saturday morning, with only a smattering of clouds visible. The sun was out in all its glory, high and bright in the sky rather than hiding behind the clouds as it had in recent days. The slightly cool breeze was the only hint of the seasons' changing; autumn was demanding attention now that summer was coming to an end.