Charmed (Death Escorts #2)(45)
Author: Cambria Hebert

Damn. I was getting sloppy. Exactly what G.R. wanted. Shit, I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew she was going out of town and he sent me here just so I would miss that much more time with her.

With a growl, I punched a button on my phone and dialed her. She answered on the first ring.

“Charming, this is a surprise,” she said. Her voice was friendly yet slightly reserved. My weird behavior at lunch the other day clearly left an impression on her. And now here I was calling her at a very late hour (for her).

“Rosalyn,” I began, interjecting warmth that I wasn’t feeling into my tone. “It has been a few days, sorry about that. I had an unexpected business meeting and had to fly to Los Angeles.”

“You don’t have to explain, Charming,” she replied. “It isn’t as if your every move is my business.”

I shut my eyes in frustration. See, this was the bad part about being “gay” because if we had some sort of romantic connection, she would feel entitled to knowing every move I made and I could likely romance her into forgiving the way I acted.

Still, the way I was feeling lately being her friend was hard enough, let alone trying to act like her boyfriend. My eyes strayed down onto the beach to look for Frankie. She was still picking up shells, using her dress as a bucket to hold them.

I laughed. “Well, of course not. But I figured since we were friends and also working on the fundraiser together, I should keep you informed.”

“About the fundraiser,” she began, and a ball of ice formed in my gut. If she told me she didn’t need my help anymore I was going to freaking kill her just to be done with her and forget about the damn money. “We will have to postpone our planning for a few days. I’m actually at the airport now. I must go out of town.”

The air in my lungs expelled. “That’s no problem at all,” I replied. “I can work on a few things on my end and then when you get back we can regroup.”

I wanted to ask her where she was going. I wanted to ask her why, but I wasn’t about to. Appearing too interested right now could be the nail in my coffin. She was already sounding a little distant and cool, and giving her any other reason to doubt my motives for hanging around her would be stupid on my part.

“Well, yes, that would be great,” she replied, her tone losing some of its coolness.

“Just let me know when you arrive back in Alaska and have a safe flight.”

“Thank you,” she said. I thought she would hang up then and after a second I pulled the phone away from my ear, but when she began to speak again, I yanked it back up.

“Charming, is there another reason you called so early?”

“Not at all. I was just sitting here watching the sun rise and I realized the last time I saw you was kind of rushed. I figured I would take a chance and see if you were still up.”

“Oh. Well, I’m sure the view there is much nicer than the one here.”

“I don’t want to make you jealous,” I teased.

She laughed. “Yes, I would think so. Okay, well, as long as everything is okay with you…” Her words died off.

“Absolutely. The other day I’d gotten up to go talk with a business acquaintance and then I received a call that there was a fire at one of the properties I own. Naturally, I rushed over, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the man on the phone made it seem.”

After that, I was glad most of her reserve had melted away and I hoped I managed to stay in her good graces. When we finally hung up the phone, the ache in my head had turned into a pounding.

Looks like the job was delayed for… well, for I didn’t know how long. I was going to have to have Storm find out where she was going and when she was returning.

I glanced at the clock. Not even eight a.m. and I was exhausted.

Frankie appeared on the deck below, dumping a huge pile of shells onto the floor by her feet. Sand scattered everywhere. Then she picked up the hose and started spraying them off creating puddles and globs of wet sand. I shook my head. This place had never seen such a mess. Not only was there sand and shells everywhere, but her towels were draped over the chairs, and her flip-flops lay forgotten near the stairs.

It looked like a home.

Like a place where people could be happy.

I thought again about the place I was missing earlier.

Without a second thought, I tore downstairs and out onto the deck, startling Frankie, who was still using the hose. She jumped, spun around, bringing the hose with her, and splattered me right across the chest.

I flinched and growled her name.

She burst out laughing. “That’s what you get for scaring me.”

I snatched her towel off the chair and began drying myself. “I came down here to tell you to pack up.”

“You want to leave?” I didn’t miss the disappointment clouding her tone.

“Yes, but we aren’t going back to Alaska just yet.”

“Where are we going?” she said, instantly suspicious. “Do you have another job?”

“No.” The relief in my voice made me want to mentally kick myself. “I want to go home.”

“I thought this was your house?”

“I have a lot of houses,” I answered, hoping she would get my meaning. I didn’t want to explain the way I was feeling right then. It was bad enough I was feeling it.

She nodded. “Where is home?”

“Scotland.”

Chapter Thirty

“Majestic – having or displaying majesty or great dignity; grand; lofty.”

Frankie

I was so getting fired. There was no way the dragon lady was going to let me call off sick the rest of the week from work without demanding pictures of me at the hospital, unconscious and with an IV sticking out of my arm.

But I got the impression Charming wasn’t ready to go back to Alaska yet, and to be honest, neither was I. This was my chance to see places I’d never seen before, to be spontaneous and do something exciting. If I got fired from the job I hated, then I guess I would get another one. I mean there had to be tons of crappy jobs just waiting to suck away my soul when I got back.

And then there was Charming.

He was as bossy and demanding as ever, hogging the remote on the plane, slinging insults about everything I did, and generally annoying the crap out of me, but even still, there was something different about him.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on what I was sensing other than… something about him was changing.

His insults weren’t quite as nasty, he handed me a blanket on the plane before I even asked for it, and on the way to the airport he stopped and bought a box of donuts and ordered me a coffee loaded with sugar. And he hadn’t once put on a pair of trousers.