Beyond the Orange Moon (Mathews Family Book 2) (16 page)

“What are you doing?” Charlie asked when Lucy shot to her feet. “You can sit with us.”

“I have some things to do while I’m … breaking. I mean while I’m on break.”
 

Charlie pulled out a strange-looking toy and suction cupped it to the table. He spun the top of it around and smiled when Jackson tried to grab it. “Please sit down with us,” he murmured without taking his eyes from his son.
 

Lucy sat back down. How could she possibly say no to this man? If he asked her to run outside naked and jump on top of cars like a gorilla, she would more than likely do it.
 

Lydia brought over the coffee and placed her hands on her hips while she stood over the three of them. “I’ll keep an eye out for your sister,” she said, and gave Lucy a look that demanded she stay in her chair.
 

Lucy watched her walk away and could only imagine what she was up to now, though she had an idea. Between her and Grace, Lydia always seemed to lack reasonable thinking. She was the dreamer while Grace was the analyzer. When Lucy got advice from them both, it was really confusing.
 

Lucy picked up a toy that Jackson dropped and plopped it back down in front of him. She smiled when he knocked it back off the table.
 

“That’s a fun game,” Charlie said, and reached back down to retrieve it.
 

“So, when is Jackson’s birthday?” Lucy asked, knowing exactly when his birthday was. She even knew what time he was born: 2:13 AM. He only had his mother for an hour.
 

“March eleventh,” Charlie said, and ran a hand through Jackson’s soft hair.
 

Lucy nodded and sighed as “All of Me,” by John Legend came on the radio. It was quite possibly the most romantic song she’d ever heard.

Charlie pursed his lips, his breathing heavier than it had been only minutes before. He stared into her eyes, which only made her cheeks flame with a rosy color.
 

“Good song,” she said, breaking the deafening silence between them.
 

“It is,” he agreed and finally looked away.
 

Lucy noticed that Jackson had dropped another toy. She leaned down to get it and smacked her head on the bottom of the table on her way back up. The table shook with the contact and rattled the contents on top, causing Jackson to exclaim, “Whooooa!”
 

“Lucy!” Charlie called.

She couldn’t sit up; she didn’t want to get up. Maybe if she just stayed hunched over with her hands on top of her head he would forget that she was there. She closed her eyes as the shaking took over and a tear slipped down her cheek.
 

She opened her eyes and saw Charlie’s feet in front of her, then his knees as he crouched to the floor. “Lucy?” he asked, and lifted her head. “Are you crying?”

Lucy sat up and covered her face. She shook her head. “Did he just say whoa?” She covered her face as the uncontrollable laughter took over.
 

Charlie blew out a breath of relief. “You’re laughing,” he said, and shook his head. “I thought you were hurt.”

“Oh, believe me, it hurts.” She rubbed the new bump on her head.
 

Charlie snuck a look at Jackson, who was grinning down at them. “He says whoa for everything.”

“I think it’s the way he said it.” Lucy wiped the tear from her eye. “It must have been like an earthquake for him,” she said, and mimicked Jackson’s “whooooooa!” before slapping her leg and making Jackson burst into hysterics of his own.
 

Charlie straightened up and smiled. “Let me see,” he said, and leaned in to inspect her head. He placed his gentle hands on top of her hair and ran his fingers around in search of the bump. “Here?”
 

Lucy winced and nodded.

Charlie ran one hand down the side of her head and grazed her ear before settling his open palm on her cheek. “Are you accident prone?” he asked with a tender curve to his lips.
 

“Only when you’re around,” she said, and licked her lips.
 

He narrowed his eyes. “I’m going to have to start bringing fire extinguishers and first aid kits with me.”

“Da-yee?” Jackson asked, a little concern in his voice.
 

“Lucy got a boo-boo, Jack.”

“Ow,” Jackson said, and touched his head.
 

“Ow,” Charlie repeated quietly as he held Lucy’s eyes with his.
 

Lucy got lost in the emerald and golden blend of colors as her heart picked up its pace. “You have the prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen,” she whispered.
 

Charlie tilted his head to the right. There was something there—something that he was about to say, but he was interrupted by a voice calling his name.
 

Lucy slowly turned her head to find a beautiful girl standing above them, giving them a peculiar look. Dylan, she assumed. She looked just like her brothers, absolutely gorgeous, with green eyes and long, beautiful hair that curled at the ends.
 

“Hey,” Dylan said with a big smile on her face. “What’d I miss?”

Charlie took his hands from Lucy’s face and slowly stood up. “Dylan, this is Lucy. Lucy, this is Dylan.”

“Ow!” Jackson said when Dylan leaned down to kiss him.
 

“Hi,” Dylan beamed when she stood up again. She held out her hand to Lucy. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Lucy stood up and shook Dylan’s hand. “Nice to meet you, too.”

“You don’t have to get up,” Dylan said. “Please, sit back down.”

Lucy collapsed back into her chair for what felt like the twentieth time. People really wanted her to sit today.
 

“I’m going to grab a coffee,” Dylan said, and looked from Charlie to Lucy. “So, please … continue whatever I just interrupted.”

Lucy snuck a look at Charlie, who glared at Dylan in annoyance and then ran his hand through his hair. Dylan, on the other hand, didn’t seem to care at all about her brother’s irritation. Lucy pretty much came to the conclusion right then and there that Dylan had Charlie wrapped around her finger. She suspected it might be the same for her other brothers, too.
 

“She’s stunning,” Lucy said to Charlie.
 

Charlie slid his gaze from Dylan’s back and smiled at Lucy. “She knows it, too.”

“I don’t think she does,” Lucy said, and laughed. “I think she’s just happy. She glows.”

“Glows?” Charlie gave her a funny expression. “What do you mean?”

“When a woman is loved, when she is shown that every day, she radiates it. It doesn’t matter who she is or how she looked before.” Lucy stopped talking when she saw the look on Charlie’s face.
 
She shrugged her shoulders. “That’s my assessment, anyway.”

“My mom used to always say that loving a woman is like taking care of flowers; when you neglect them they wither away. I guess that applies here.”
 

“It does.” Lucy smiled when she looked at Dylan again. “If a woman feels beautiful, then she is. But when a woman feels cherished, everyone in her presence can feel it. It’s that simple, really. When women feel loved, they glow.”

“I can see that being true,” Charlie said, a thoughtful look in his eyes.

“Hey, Char, you didn’t tell me they had cupcakes! Do you want one?” Dylan asked from the counter. “They look yummy!”

“I didn’t know, but sure,” Charlie said without looking away from Lucy. “Get a little knife, too, so I can share with Jack.”
 

Lucy whipped her head around to the counter and saw the excitement in Lydia’s eyes. She slowly shook her head no, silently telling Lydia to keep her mouth closed about who made them.
 

Dylan came back over and placed her coffee and two cupcakes on the table. She exhaled with a hint of a smile as she glanced between Charlie and Lucy. “So, Lucy,” she began, “do you work here?”

“I do.” Lucy lowered her chin and wondered if this was the beginning of an interrogation. She couldn’t say that she blamed anyone in Charlie’s family for having questions; he was, after all, a widower with a son. That would make anyone protective.
 

“Is that how you know each other,” she asked, waving a plastic knife between the two of them. “Did you meet here?”

“Not quite,” Lucy answered.
 

“We
unofficially
met at the park.” Charlie winked at Lucy when she looked at him. “We just didn’t really talk until we ran into each other here.”
 

Dylan flashed a sly look. “Interesting,” she said slowly.
 

“I hear you’re getting married,” Lucy said, trying her best to ignore whatever Dylan was picking up on.
 

Dylan stopped cutting her cupcake and raised her sparkling eyes to Lucy’s. “This June,” she confirmed with flushed cheeks and a grin.
 

Lucy cut a glance at Charlie. “See?”
 

Charlie moved his head up and down in agreement. When he noticed Dylan’s confusion, he said, “You glow, Dylan.”

“You would glow, too, if you were marrying Ben,” she said, and winked.
 

Charlie’s eyes narrowed as he reached for a cupcake. “I don’t think so.”

“So, the party is Saturday,” Dylan said, and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. “Is there anyone specific you want to invite?”
 

“Mike,” Charlie answered. “And Meredith’s sister.”

“Okay, so that’s Chloe and Mike? Really?” Dylan frowned while she wrote his name
   

down. “Good luck with getting Mike there. He never comes to anything, Charlie.”
 

“He’ll come,” Charlie said quickly.
 

“I don’t know. He didn’t even come to your wedding,” Dylan said with a puzzled look. “I didn’t even invite him to mine. What’s the point?”

“Invite him to your wedding,” Charlie said, and shot Dylan a look that told her to move along with the list.
 

“Mike it is,” she said simply, and tapped her pen on the table. “What about Meredith’s parents?”

“They’re in Michigan now to stay in their summer home. They left last week.” Charlie let out a heavy lungful of air. “They want Jack to come visit for a weekend when the weather gets nicer over there.”

“Are you going to do it?” Dylan asked. Lucy couldn’t help but notice how big her eyes had grown at that. “He might not like being away from you for a weekend.”

“If I do allow it, I’d go with him, of course,” Charlie said. “They’re Jack’s grandparents. I could never keep him from them, no matter what happens between us.”

“Yikes,” Dylan said quietly.
 

Nothing more was said, but it was obvious to Lucy that a strain had grown between Charlie and his in-laws. Maybe it had always been there, but it seemed a bit deeper than just a typical disliking; it was definitely something that wore on Charlie’s conscience.
 

Lucy watched as Dylan bit into her cupcake and began to chew. After a moment, her eyes grew wide, just as Lydia’s had, and Lucy’s stomach roiled with hope. She leaned forward, waiting for Dylan to make some kind of sound that would drive it all home. For some reason, Dylan’s response was important.
 

An unmistakable “Mmmmm” burst from Dylan as she closed her eyes. She swallowed that first bite and picked up the cupcake to look at it. “Wow,” she said, which made it nearly impossible for Lucy to subdue the smile on her lips.
   

“That good, huh?” Charlie asked with a laugh. “Are you eating it or making love to it?”

“I want to roll around in it,” Dylan confirmed, and took another bite. “Charlie,” she said with her mouth full, “Try this.”

Charlie cut his right down the middle and put one half in front of Jackson. He cut Jackson’s half into smaller pieces and shook his head. “This is about to get dirty.”

Lucy leaned forward and couldn’t help but smile as Jackson eyed the treat before him and flashed her a drool-filled grin. “Try it,” she urged, as her insides turned to goo.
 

She was a Jackson Mathews lover, indeed.
 

With two chubby little fingers, Jackson picked up a piece that Charlie had cut for him and held it up to his eyes. He squished the cake between his fingers and went cross-eyed as he inspected it, before sticking out his tongue and placing the cake on top. He slid his tongue back into his mouth and moved it around, his cheeks expanding on each side.
 

Lucy took in each chew and the way his curious eyes seemed to widen. Everything was new to him and she found it truly miraculous to experience it all from his tiny world.
 

When the cake had been swallowed, he poked the frosting and pulled it up to inspect it again. This time, however, he didn’t wait as long. He stuck his finger in his mouth and closed his lips around it. He slid his wet finger back out and then his entire body shook when the sugar hit.