Charmed (Death Escorts #2)(30)
Author: Cambria Hebert

I tossed the TV remote down on the coffee table and padded to the door, swinging it open wide, not caring if Piper saw me at my most unattractive.

Only it wasn’t Piper.

“Charming.” I practically gasped his name. It was almost as if I had thought of him so much since lunch that my subconscious somehow conjured him here on my doorstep.

I wanted to cross my arms over my threadbare oversized T-shirt, to cringe from his stare and get a comeback ready for whatever insult he was sure to throw my way about the state of my appearance. But he didn’t say a word. In fact, he acted like he didn’t even notice my old as the hills shirt and holey sweats.

He was leaning on the doorjamb, like he was so tired he couldn’t hold all his weight. My mind automatically went to the possibility that he was somehow injured or hurt and I looked him over for some kind of confirmation. But he looked perfect as always. Except of course for his heavy posture and silent tongue.

“Can we talk?” he asked, quietly.

“Uh, yeah,” I replied, stepping back from the door while resisting the urge to ask him if he was playing some kind of joke on me.

He came inside, shutting the door, and trailed behind me as I went over to the couch and settled into the corner, draping a blanket over myself and tucking it around my bare feet.

He surprised me some more by sinking down on the opposite end of the couch. “I’ve never really had anyone to talk to before,” he said, not looking at me.

“Is this about what happened today at the café?”

He rubbed a hand down his face. “Seeing her got to me.”

“I didn’t know you had a sister.”

“I don’t. Not anymore.”

I wasn’t used to seeing him like this. Morose and quiet. “I don’t really understand what you’re saying.” Just from how well this conversation was going, I would have known he never actually talked to someone about this before even if he hadn’t told me.

“I had a sister a long time ago. Before I died. Before I became an Escort.”

A million questions sprang into my head. A million things I would love to know. I never really thought about Charming’s story, but of course he had one. And looking at him now, it seemed his story was the key to who he really was.

You know all you need to know. I reminded myself. You’re supposed to be washing your hands of him.

“He wants me to fail. I didn’t really realize how much.”

This time I didn’t say anything. I figured he was having enough trouble saying whatever it was he wanted to say without me interrupting and asking questions.

“He knew the one thing, the one thing that could throw me off. He found my weakness and he used it against me.”

“Now you know how it feels,” I said. The words were just a thought, something I hadn’t meant to say out loud.

He glanced up, his green stare pinning me in place. “What did you say?”

I swallowed and shook my head.

“Say it again,” he insisted.

“I said now you know what it feels like. For someone to use your weakness against you. For someone to basically be working against you.” He just kept staring, almost as if he were looking right through me. “Whatever he did to you… it sounds a lot like what you do to other people.”

“You’re right,” he said, realization dawning on his features. “I’m the Target this time.”

“So, the Grim Reaper wants you dead?”

He stared off into space. “I’m already dead. He just wants to Recall me.”

“Do you want a beer?”

The side of his mouth pulled up. “Yeah.”

I took the blanket with me into the kitchen, tiptoeing across the cold linoleum, and took out two bottles from the fridge and popped the tops. I juggled them with the blanket back into the living room where Charming had propped up his feet on the coffee table and had taken control of the remote.

“You’re watching an old movie?”

“I like old movies,” I defended.

“Yeah, me too.”

I tried not to gape at him. He actually said he liked something. It was a miracle. I handed him a beer and set the other one by his feet.

“Is that one for me too?”

“I didn’t think one was going to cut it.”

“You trying to get me drunk so you can take advantage of me?” he said, tilting the bottle to his lips and taking a long pull. His throat worked as he swallowed and I noticed he unbuttoned the top few buttons of his button-down.

“Two beers will get you drunk?” I scoffed. “Lightweight.”

I sat back down on the couch, squishing myself into the corner. He seemed to be taking up a lot of space.

“Why did you let me in tonight?” His serious tone caught me off guard.

So did his question.

“You looked kind of lonely,” I replied, my voice hushed.

He took another long pull of the beer and turned up the TV. We sat there watching while he finished off both beers. He didn’t talk anymore and I didn’t ask him if he wanted to. I figured that the very little he said was more than he’d ever told anyone.

That knowledge changed something for me. It made me less angry with him, less appalled. It was hard to tell yourself that you shouldn’t care about someone when that someone desperately needed you to care.

At some point I dozed off. I don’t know how long I slept, but when I awoke, it was to the sounds of an infomercial for some kind of booty shaking workout. Charming was still beside me. He’d fallen asleep too. His arms were crossed over his chest as it rose and fell with every breath he took. He looked more relaxed than I’d ever seen him. Funny, I never realized how “on” he always looked until I caught a glimpse of him “off.”

I decided not to wake him. Instead, I turned off the TV and used the blanket in my lap to cover him. As the cover settled over him, he wiggled a little deeper into the cushions. I resisted the urge to stroke his cheek, settling instead for taking advantage of his slumber to stare at him.

“You know what I think?” I whispered, knowing he couldn’t hear me. “You aren’t dead. You just don’t remember how to live.”

I turned the lock on the front door as I went past and then climbed into bed. I fell asleep almost instantly and slept more soundly than I had in weeks. I woke to the sun streaming through my curtains, but I didn’t think about the weather or how I could languish in bed because it was Sunday. My first thought was of Charming. I wondered if he would still be here. Of what I would say to him if he was.