Which meant, of course, that all of us were standing in the doorway, demanding to know who was dying, whether it was going to be painful, and in Vince’s case, if Charlie knew how to play chess. Wheels was rolling around at our feet, barking loudly in all the excitement.
Charlie barely looked fazed. “Get back in the house. You all sound like a bunch of screaming howler monkeys.”
I couldn’t argue.
Charlie pushed by us into the house. Darren closed the door while the rest of us trailed after Charlie. He headed for the recliner Sandy had purchased especially for him. It’d been part of a gift for his last birthday. The other parts had been three more matching recliners, one for Matty and Larry’s house, one for Paul and Vince’s house, and one for Charlie’s own. The look on his face had been priceless, and even though he wouldn’t admit it, I thought I saw even Darren sniffle a little. It was our way of letting Charlie know that he was welcome to any of our homes whenever he wanted to be there. All four recliners had gotten good use from him.
He sighed happily as he sat down, propping his boots up on the footrest, folding his hands in his lap. He smiled when Vince handed him a beer. He took a long drink before smacking his lips. “That’s the stuff.” He looked up at us standing around him. “Would you all sit down?”
We did as he asked, resuming the spots we’d been in before he arrived. Darren didn’t even try to fight me as I lay back against his legs again. Paul unbuckled Wheels from his cart and placed the wriggling dog on Vince’s chest. Vince started rubbing behind his ears, and Wheels’s tongue lolled out, his two feet twitching in the air.
“I’m not dying,” Charlie said. “Because I know that’s going to be automatically where your minds go. I’m not dying, I’m not sick. In fact, I’m as healthy as I’ve ever been.”
“You can’t just text someone that you need to talk,” Sandy
snapped at him. “When in the history of the world has that ever been followed by good news?”
Charlie’s brow furrowed. “Maybe to people who aren’t all drama queens every second of every day?”
“I wasn’t worried,” Darren told him.
Sandy snorted. “Bullshit. You were the worst. You kept saying how you could get your mom to recommend the best specialists and that money wasn’t going to be an object.”
I didn’t know why it was still so surprising when the Homo Jock King was shown to have a heart underneath that douchebag exterior. I tilted my head back to look up at him. “That’s really nice of you.”
Darren shoved my head away, though without much force. “I wanted to get Sandy to stop bitching. You know how he gets.”
We did, but none of us were fooled.
“Thank you,” Charlie said. “But it’s not necessary. And all of you should know that. I’ve never met a nosier group of people. I can’t even go to a doctor’s appointment these days without one of you hounding me.”
“We love you,” Vince said without a hint of artifice. “You know that. We just need to make sure you’re good.”
“I know that,” Charlie said. “And I am.” He hesitated. Then, “If there was ever something wrong, I’d let you know. I don’t do secrets. Not anymore. Sandy and Paul are my emergency contacts, and Sandy has power of attorney should it come to that.”
“But that’s not it,” Sandy said quickly.
Charlie smiled quietly at him. “No. It’s not. This is… well. This is mostly for Corey.”
I blinked. “Me? What did I do now?” I’d wondered—briefly—if something was wrong, why Charlie would text just me and not the others too. I should have realized that wasn’t the case. But Sandy was right; you didn’t just tell someone you needed to talk without the expectation of something bad.
“Nothing,” Charlie said. “It’s more….” He shook his head. “It might not even be my place to say, but it’s been bugging the crap out of me. You know when you’re trying to remember something and it’s right on the tip of your tongue but you can’t quite get it?”
I nodded. “Like an itch in the back of your brain that won’t stop.”
“Exactly,” he said. “And I couldn’t quite get to it. I might not be as sharp as I once was, but I’ve been worrying at it for a while, and then it came to me.”
“What did?” Vince asked.
“You know the leather bar.”
“Build-a-Bear Sweat Shop?” Sandy asked. “What about it?”
“Why have we never been there before?” Vince asked.
“Because they would eat you alive,” Paul told him. “I probably couldn’t even save you.”
“Oh, I doubt that,” Charlie said. “Vince, you know I think you’re gorgeous, but as soon as Paul walked into the bar, all the focus would be on him.”