You’re going to leave me.
I pulled my clothes off without looking at him.
You’re going to break my heart.
I climbed onto the bed to await his instructions.
What if you’re the one?
Charlie climbed on top of me and began dropping sweet kisses all over my face. I swallowed past the lump in my throat and begged my eyes to stay dry.
What if I can’t live without you?
I forced myself to let go and just feel.
40
Charlie
Charlie’s Luck:
Just when I prepare to confront the old man, a different one turns up and confronts me instead.
Thursday evening Hudson and I were wrapping up final details with the contractor before a last-minute dinner meeting with Bruce when I heard a familiar voice bellow across the pub.
“What the fuck is all this?”
My phone flew out of my hands and crashed into the floorboards, bouncing against the brass foot rail before settling under a stool.
“Bloody hell,” I gasped. “Dad?”
Hudson’s mouth opened in surprise, but it was nothing compared to the shock I felt at seeing my father for the first time in almost a year.
“Charles Murray, get your arse over here.” He sounded angry, but I knew it wasn’t directed at me. It couldn’t be. I’d been following Uncle Dev’s instruction like a good soldier.
“Dad?” I repeated, shaking off my surprise enough to rush toward him. He was big like my uncle Dev, tall and broad-shouldered like a bloody Viking. Christ knew where my scrawny self came from.
I flew into his arms and squeezed him tight. How in the hell did he still smell like SPAR shaving foam after all this time in Brazil? I held him firm and tried hard not to lose my composure.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I managed to ask.
“Came to see what’s what. Seems Devlin has sold us out now, hasn’t he?”
He looked angry as a hornet. I didn’t fancy being in Dev’s shoes when Dad got hold of him.
“Well, it’s a franchise location in the middle of nowhere. Hardly selling his share of the original,” I said. The irony of my defending the decision was not lost on me. Nor on Hudson from the look of it. He’d gathered the look of the smug about him.
“Dad, this is Hudson Wilde. Hudson, this is Sean Murray, my auld man.”
Dad’s eyes turned stormy as he focused on Hudson. I opened my mouth to stop him from whatever he was going to say, but I didn’t get it out in time.
“You. This is all your fault,” he boomed. His deep voice was loud enough to startle both Hudson and me.
“Dad,” I gasped.
“How dare you come into my house and convince my brother to—”
“Dad! That’s not what happened at all. Please stop. You don’t know the story.” It took a moment for my brain to catch up, but when it did, I was the angry one. “And who the hell are you coming in after the fact to give a shit? You left! You left us. You left.”
My chest heaved in and out, and I was surprised to find I could hardly draw breath. The pressure from the pub opening, the emotion of knowing my time with Hudson was running out, and the sudden arrival of my auld man crashed together like waves on a rocky shore, crushing the air from my lungs.
I can’t breathe.
The panic of thinking something was wrong with me made it even harder to suck in air. I looked wildly to Hudson for help, but he was already rushing forward to pull me into his chest.
“Shh, it’s okay. Just slow down.” His whispered voice was like sweet honey in my ear, and I clung to it. “Shh, deep breath, sweetheart. That’s it.”
I shuddered and felt tears smart. I pushed my face into the warm skin inside his collar and clenched my fists in his shirtfront.
“Hudson,” I breathed.
“I’m here. Your dad’s here. You’re fine.” His hands made soothing runs up and down my back. “Irish tempers all up in this place, huh? Feel like you need to christen the place with spilled Murray blood instead of whiskey or Auld Best stout?”
I felt the giant familiar hand of my father on the back of my head. “I’m sorry, Charlie,” he said in a gruff voice. “I didn’t mean to upset you. Maybe we could go somewhere to talk about things?”
I forced my fists to release the front of Hudson’s work shirt before quickly swiping fingers under my eyes. After taking a shaky breath, I leaned in to kiss Hudson lightly on the lips. The contractor had already seen Hudson comfort me and heard him call me sweetheart, so the cat was out of the bag. “Thank you,” I said softly.
“Hello? Anyone here?”
We turned around to find Darci standing in the doorway to the pub on the arm of her father. If my auld man realized who he was before I had a chance to speak to him, all hell would break loose. My eyes shot to Hudson in panic.