“Let’s.” She and Charlie turned from their friends, but they didn’t notice. Asher was making explosion noises and big hand gestures and everyone was laughing. Ever the consummate entertainer, he was ironically providing enough distraction for Gloria to sneak out of his sight.
Not bothering with pretense, Charlie pulled a full bottle of white wine out of a nearby cooler and pointed to a blanket in the grassy sand near the lake. Torches burned all around, but most of the party had convened at the deck where music played—a sort of pop-up band had occurred between a few members of Knight Time and Arrow’s Flag.
The setup on the beach, blankets and a few throw pillows, had not been taken advantage of yet. It was the perfect oasis away from the fire so she could talk about Asher.
Charlie opened the wine—screw-off top, but not a cheap bottle by any means—then sat. The Pinot Grigio was one of Glo’s favorites. Charlie filled their cups, wedged the bottle in the sand in front of their shared blanket, and waited.
That’s it. Just waited.
“You know, don’t you?” Gloria asked with a sigh.
“That you and Asher sneaked away after an interaction with Jordan and one of his band members and then didn’t return for a very long time? What could I possibly know?” Charlie asked, her hazel eyes innocent.
Gloria stuck her tongue out.
Charlie laughed. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Did she? Gloria watched the ripples in the water on the lake. Probably caused by a fish or a turtle beneath the surface. Or maybe a turtle eating a fish. Sometimes the worst disturbances are hidden deep, the aftereffect muted despite the turbulence below.
She took a drink of wine. Now she was wallowing.
Gloria flicked a gaze over at Asher and said, “I gave in and I swore I wouldn’t.”
“It happens. I gave in to Evan, you know.”
Heck yeah she had. Evan had caved Charlie’s self-control repeatedly.
“I guess…I don’t know what to say.” Gloria pursed her lips.
“You thought sex would solve things but it only made things more confusing,” Charlie offered.
“That about covers it.”
“That happens, too.” Charlie sipped her wine.
“Asher makes things confusing. He’s…different.”
“Different than when you were together three years ago?” Charlie asked. She wasn’t wrong, but she wasn’t completely informed. Gloria took a breath. And told her what she didn’t know.
“Different from when I slept with him at the toy drive at the mansion last year.”
Charlie’s mouth dropped open. “No!”
“Yes.” She smiled weakly and drank down her wine, reaching for a refill immediately. Charlie was wise to bring the bottle.
“Faith said she saw you two fighting in the hallway. She didn’t say what she heard, just that she worried…” Charlie trailed off, but it wasn’t hard to guess what Faith had ended that worry with. Faith had been on the tail end of a very ugly breakup at the time.
“She was worried about me being taken advantage of,” Gloria guessed.
“Yeah, well. She had her reasons to think that way.”
One of those reasons was that Faith’s ex-fiancé was a dirty cheater who broke Faith’s heart. Glo couldn’t blame her for being wary of Asher, and even though Faith never properly voiced it, Gloria was incredibly grateful that she had taken her side so solidly. Charlie was another story altogether.
“I don’t know what to make of you and Asher. I can see you want to be together so badly, but there is this huge wall you’re standing on opposite sides of. With Evan and me, that wall was obvious. Rae.”
Evan’s late wife. Rae and Charlie had grown up together and were best friends—more like sisters. Rae had been gone four years when Evan moved to Evergreen Cove, but Charlie had battled guilt over falling for him.
“I didn’t want to betray her,” Charlie said. “I didn’t want to feel any of what I was feeling. But I couldn’t resist him.” She grunted, a light, happy sound as she watched the pale moon over the water. “He wouldn’t let me resist him.”
“You put up a valiant fight, Charlie.” Evan had been persistent. He’d tried to take the backseat when Gloria gave him the misguided suggestion to give Charlie some space, but it backfired and he’d gone right back to fighting for her again.
Smart man.
“Yeah, well. Don’t we all?” Charlie turned her head and Glo followed her gaze to Sofie and Faith, who had put up valiant fights of their own. Sofie was sure she’d be able to move on after Donny went back to New York. Faith was sure she’d stand her ground and finally claim her independence. All of her friends had put up a fight only to crumble beneath the attention and love of their men.
But that was Evan. Donovan. Connor. Asher was a different breed of man. He’d built his life on a foundation of work hard, play harder.
“I don’t think Asher is the forever type,” Glo said, voicing her real concern aloud. “And to be honest, I get it. Because neither am I.”
“Maybe you don’t know yourself as well as you think you do.”
“I think maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do.”