About Time (Broken Vows #4)

Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Charlie Past- Age 29

It’s official, I’m disgusting.

I had one task today, take Liam swimming so that Griffin could have a break. Nowhere in that plan was I supposed to perv on my friend’s nineteen-year-old sister-in-law, especially when he sees her more like his own sister.

He would not approve of me sneaking peeks at Hattie in that combination of strings and fabric scraps she’s calling a bathing suit. I should not be noticing that she doesn’t look like a young girl anymore. And I really shouldn’t be glaring at age-appropriate young men who are also noticing how good she looks. To be fair, it’s hard not to stare at her the way her sun-tanned skin glows against the contrast of her bright white bikini.

Hattie looks down at herself. “Is there something on me?” She asks and cranes her neck to look at her back.

I shake myself out of my trance and slip immediately into a sour mood. “No. There’s hardly any fabric on your body either.”

She rolls her eyes. “You are not that old,” she grumbles.

I shift my eyes back to her and give her a disapproving look. “I feel old standing here with you.”

Her mouth falls open, and I push back against the surge in guilt I feel. I’m not blind, I have suspected Hattie had a little crush on me. I never took it seriously, but probably because I felt safe from being tempted.

I’m not safe anymore.

Hattie has grown to be my fantasy and nightmare wrapped up in one sinfully enticing package.

“Hattie, look at me!” Liam shouts as he launches himself off the bent knees of a bigger child.

I suck in a breath watching him launch through the air, and I don’t exhale until his little head pops back out of the water. I swear the two of them are going to have me leaving here with my first collection of gray hairs.

“Liam, be careful,” I shout out to him.

“Ugh, Uncle Charlie, be cool,” Liam whines.

He wants to impress the pretty lady. Just what I need, to be in competition with my eleven-year-old godson.

I mentally slap myself. I cannot be jealous of a child getting more attention from a pretty girl. I want to stress the word girl here because Hattie is barely old enough to be considered an adult. Quite unlike me, where I’m tipping my way toward thirty. I shouldn’t even be spending time with her.

It was different before, even when I started to suspect she had a little crush on me because there was a clear boundary between us. I was her brother’s friend, nothing more than that. We did develop a sort of friendship, but it was always within the confines of my relationship with Martin and Elisa. I was comfortable with it that way.

This new Hattie makes me feel off-kilter.

She bumps into me with her shoulder, and I realize I’ve been in my head too long. “Earth to Charlie. Liam was trying to get your attention. Is everything okay?”

I can feel the tension seizing up every muscle in my body. I need her gone from my sight before I do something embarrassing and completely immoral, like throw her over my shoulder and explore every inch of her soft skin.

“Look,” I start through a tight throat. “I appreciate you appeasing Liam, but I was really looking to spend some quality time with him today.”

Her shoulders drop, and I can tell that she’s hurt, but I would rather push her away now than accidentally give her false hope something could happen between us. Or worse, allow myself to slip down the slope where I start to think something could happen between us. She might be legal, but Harriston is a small town, and people have been ostracized for less.

“Yeah, I’ll uh…pack up my stuff.” Hattie scrambles to throw the few things she’s taken out back into her bag. “See you around, Charlie,” she mumbles, then scrambles her way back to the parking lot.

“I really hope not,” I grumble.

But that’s the thing about small towns, you’ll eventually run into everyone whether you want to or not.

I do my level best to avoid Hattie for a week. We are still a week or two out from our first softball game, so there was no risk in running into her there. No softball means there was no Sunday barbecue at Martin and Elisa’s. Not that they don’t have frequent gatherings the rest of the year, but it’s easier to make an excuse for those if one would have come up.

Since the Parker’s house is where I usually see Hattie, the only thing I need to do is avoid the other places that teenagers usually hang out in the summer around here. There’s no shopping center in Harriston, so that leaves a couple of parks, the pond, and the one restaurant in town. I don’t have kids of my own, so I don’t usually frequent the park. The few times I have gone have either been with Griffin or when I was watching Liam, but at eleven, he doesn’t like to go with us anymore.

Avoiding the diner is a little harder since it’s the only real restaurant in town, but contrary to popular belief I can actually cook for myself. I am not only avoiding it because of Hattie either. The diner fills with teenagers during the summer because it’s air-conditioned, the food is affordable, and they don’t hassle people to leave immediately after they finish eating. It’s the perfect place to hang out when your options are limited.

Since I’m an adult over twenty-one I do have an option not open to Hattie, the bar. The food selection is more limited, but at least you can eat without a cloud of Axe Body Spray hanging in the air.

Griffin and I both have a rare night where we are free to hang out at the same time. Ordinarily, the only time he gets a night out is when I am watching Liam. This time though, Mrs. Howell took Liam for a few hours. Dolores is a colorful woman who is like everyone’s grandma. She’s getting close to seventy, but she still has more energy than Griffin and I. It’s likely she’ll wear Liam out long before he does her. Which means we get a guilt-free night out, and I plan to make the most of it.

We claim the corner booth, where it’s easiest to see everyone who comes in. Griffin sort of collapses into the seat and tips his head back against the back of the bench.

“If you fall asleep, I will draw a dick on your face,” I warn him. Just because we’re legally adults doesn’t mean that we’ve matured a lot past our teenage years, at least I haven’t.

There’s a muted baseball game playing on the flatscreen. The few people inside have been loading the ancient jukebox with quarters, and it’s been pumping out classic rock since we walked in. I wouldn’t say it’s a nice place, but it is familiar.

The sedate atmosphere disappears when a crowd of college kids enter. They are yelling over each other in a battle to be heard. I barely pay them any attention, despite how loud they are, because it wasn’t that long ago that I was one of them.

“Were we ever that young?” Griffin asks.

“I was. You had Liam and a wife.” We usually don’t talk about Griffin’s ex-wife. She’s been away now longer than we’d even known her, but for him, time hasn’t softened the blow of her leaving.

“I thought Martin’s little sister was too young to be in here,” Griffin comments.

“You mean his sister-in-law? She isn’t his sister.” I’m not sure why I feel the need to make the distinction. Ever since the day at the pond, I haven’t really thought of her as his sister like I did before. It’s like if I start to make that distinction, I will somehow be less of a dirtbag for the thoughts I keep having about her.

Hattie is one of those rule-following good girls, so I don’t even bother to look and confirm that she’s not here. “There’s no way she’d come in here. She’s only nineteen.”

Griffin tosses back the rest of his beer. “It’s not like they card anyone, and everyone in town knows that.”

“Yeah, but she doesn’t break the rules. She’s—” A couple of the guys walk over to the pool table and let me see what Griffin is seeing. “Shit, Martin is going to blow a gasket,” I mumble when I see Hattie standing in the middle of the ruckus.

At this moment, I could give a shit what Martin is going to think. The thing that has my blood boiling is that one of the preppy douchebags she’s here with is eating her up with his eyes and standing way too close to her.

I start to stand up, and Griffin shakes his head at me. “Leave her alone. She’s not a child anymore, and if Martin doesn’t like it, then let him take it up with her.”

My blood simmers, but I force myself to sit back down. It gets harder and harder for me to sit there and watch her flirt. I have no one but myself to blame. Two years ago, I was coaching her on doing exactly what she’s doing now. It never crossed my mind then that watching her do it would drive me insane with jealousy.

We finish our beers and head out. At least, I follow Griffin out of the bar and make like I’m leaving as well until I see his tail lights heading down the road. He is going to get Liam earlier than he had originally planned, but right on schedule for when I knew he’d head out. He’s a great father, better than either of ours were. He’ll also be so focused on his son that he won’t be paying attention to the fact that my truck isn’t on the road behind him as he heads back toward the main part of town.

I go back inside the bar and move up behind Hattie. Taking hold of her elbow, I pull her toward the door. She doesn’t argue with me or protest my high-handed treatment. If we’re going to have this conversation, it needs to happen outside, away from prying ears.

“What the fuck are you doing inside a bar?” I ask her.

She gives me a saccharine sweet smile, which is a good indication she's about to say something to piss me off. “You're not my dad, Charlie. I haven't had one of those in a long time, and I've made it this far.”

Yeah, I was right. “You know those boys only want one thing.”

She cocks an eyebrow. “So? I'm nineteen, Charlie. Do you remember being nineteen?”

I clench my jaw so hard that I can feel the muscles snap over the tendons. I have to force a slow breath in through my nose to release the tension in my face. “Why this bar? Aren't there tons of them around Central Valley that you could've gone to? I bet there's even several that don't card.”

She shrugs. “There is.”

“I repeat, why this bar?” I push.

The look she gives me lets me know just how stupid she thinks I'm being right now. I know she has a thing for me, but I'm going to make her say it. I need it out in the open, but it has to be her so I’m not the pervy old dude creeping on a young girl.

“I noticed you checking me out at the pond last week.” Hattie pauses, probably waiting for me to leap in and confirm what she's saying. That's not going to happen though because no matter how attracted to her I am, I do have to walk away from her.

“Ugh,” she groans. “You're really going to make me spell this out, aren't you? Fine. I think you are attracted to me, and I know you know that I've always had a thing for you. I'm not a kid, and Martin is my brother-in-law, not my brother. Would it be so wrong?”

I take a step forward, and she moves back. I don't stop until she's pinned against the outside wall of the bar. “Yes, it would be wrong. I've known you since you were what, sixteen? I'm ten years older than you, Hattie.”

Her chin lifts stubbornly in the air. “Do you really think anyone really cares? Hell, half of the men in this town will probably high-five you.”

“Martin won’t. You might make the distinction between him being your brother and brother-in-law, but I can promise you he doesn't. He'd never trust me again, and that would ruin our friendship.”

“Who says that he has to find out?” Hattie says, and the weak threads of my arguments start to fray.

“You want to get fucked, little girl? Be careful my self-control only goes so far. You’re right, I was checking you out in that microscopic bikini, just like every other asshole at the pond. I almost forgot why you were off-limits,” I say, trying one last time to intimidate her away from this path.

Instead, her tongue slowly swipes across her bottom lip, and she leans closer to whisper in my ear. “You're the only one making me off-limits. When it comes to you, I won't say no. To anything.” Then she leans back again, letting her green eyes slowly slide up and down my body. She must be satisfied with whatever she sees because a naughty grin pulls at the corners of her mouth.

“Keep pushing me, and I'll give you what you think you want. Going home with me won't be some kind of romantic fairytale. Normally, I only hook up one time with a woman, but I might want to play with you for a while. If you really want to do this with me, I won’t be your boyfriend. I will treat you like my own personal fuck toy. If I want you down on your knees, you’ll get down in front of me and suck my cock. Anything I want, you’ll either do, or you can leave, and our arrangement will be over. You will give me complete access to your body however and whenever I want to use it. But you have to remember that we will not be a couple. I don’t do relationships, and I won’t fall in love with you. While it lasts, you’ll be my toy. You can say no anytime, but as soon as you do, we’re done. Does that really sound like the kind of arrangement you want?”

I’m not sure if I want her to say yes or no. To be honest, I started saying a lot of that shit just to shock her, but I won’t lie and say that I haven’t fantasized about having this kind of relationship with a woman.

Hattie takes a step forward until her full tits are smashed against my chest. Then she looks up at me and speaks quietly, “Whatever you want, Sir. I’m yours.”

“Fuck me,” I grumble to myself.

I look into her lust-filled green eyes, and there’s no backing down now. This is happening, so there’s only one thing to do. Keep this shit locked down tight.

“No one can know,” I say to her and grab a fist full of her hair to tip her head back further. “When the summer is over, so are we. Until then, your body is mine. No one else gets to touch it or see it.”

She doesn’t say anything, so I give her hair a little tug. Just enough to get her attention, not to cause her pain. “No one gets to touch me.”

“Say you’re mine,” I demand.

“I’m yours for the summer,” she agrees.

Something about her words gnaws at me, and I can’t help but wonder if three months will be enough time.

I clear my throat. “Saturday, come to my house.”