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I take her hand and lead her back into the house. “Speaking of which, you might want to take it easy. May not feel it now but you’ll feel it in a few hours.”
“I’ve been on my feet for three minutes,” she argues, scanning the living room and then the hallway behind the kitchen. She points to it and I nod her along.
“This is the guest bath, but you’ll have your own in the master.”
“The master what?”
“The master bedroom.”
She exhales a soft laugh. We're so close in the small space that I pick up the scent of strawberries and coffee on her breath. “I’m not taking your bedroom, Noah.”
I remind myself that I’m prepared for this argument, but knowing Charlie, she’ll challenge me to the death.
“The guest bedroom is…unavailable…at the moment.” As an attorney, I would have deadpanned myself and called bullshit. Suspicious bullshit. Because that was pathetic.
“What’s wrong with it? Is someone else staying here?”
“No.”
“Are you going to use it?”
“Not exactly.”
Charlie steps back and watches me. “I want to see it.”
I don’t bother getting in front of her as she tries the door at the end of the hall.
“Why is it locked?”
“It’s…Jackson’s room.”
I’m going straight to hell.
“Oh. Does he stay here often?”
“My brother needs a break from time to time…”
And now I’ve made Levi sound like a bad father.
“Oh.” She frowns just before her brows jump in understanding. “Oh. I see.” She glances back at the door. “How often does he…” she twists from side to side and I want to laugh because of how awkward she is about it. “Need a break?”
“Uh…”
“Oh my God, it’s none of my business. I’m sorry. Please don’t tell him I asked. I don’t—I never really—looked at him like that. More like an older brother.” Her eyes grow even more. “Not that I ever felt like one of your siblings, he’s just—”
“Please. Stop, Charlie.”
She blows out a breath. “Okay. So…” She points to my bedroom. “This is my room, then?”
I exhale a laugh. “Yes. Come on, let’s get you settled.”
Two hours later, I return to the house from the Inn with the rest of her things.
I worked as fast as I could loading up my small car before asking Dad if he could drop off the rest, using Charlie’s car.
It’s not that I don’t trust Charlie alone in my house. It’s that I don’t trust her not to hurt herself because of her stubbornness.
It took a twenty-minute argument before I left to convince her not to use the shower without someone in the house.
