Hector (48 page)

“She’s working all weekend,” she said then yawned.
“Twelve-hour shifts and then sleeping.
Besides I don’t think
I’ll have time.”

That seemed odd. Here Charlee had mentioned she hadn’t been back
once since she’d moved out here, and now she’d be less than an hour from home,
and she didn’t want to stop in and visit? Frowning, he figured she wasn’t
anxious to revisit all the shit she’d been through or to run into any of those
assholes in her small town that labeled her a freak. Squeezing his hand into a
fist, he kissed the top of her head.

She didn’t say anything else for a while, and when he looked down
he saw she’d dozed off. He must’ve dozed off soon after that, because the next
thing he knew, he woke up to the usual erection he always woke to, only this
time
Charlee’s
hand was wrapped around it, stroking
him under a towel she’d thrown over him.

With her free hand, she covered his mouth as his eyes flew open,
and she smiled that wicked smile that turned him on so much. For a moment, he
considered protesting but instead let his head fall back as the pleasure of it
was just too much. He did glance over at Walter, who was fast asleep next to
Charlee. Charlee lifted her finger to her mouth with that same smile that drove
him nuts and continued to stroke him. Okay, maybe she was a little freaky, but
he certainly wasn’t going to complain.

The cabin lights were all off and it was dim enough, but he
wasn’t sure how he’d get through this without making a sound. Already he was
beginning to squirm, feeling the buildup. Not able to stand it, he brought his
hand around the back of
Charlee’s
neck and kissed her
long and hard then froze when he thought he felt Walter move.

Looking over
Charlee’s
shoulder, he
could see Walter was still fast asleep. Charlee hadn’t even flinched,
continuing to stroke him until his toes were practically curling. He was too
close now, and he didn’t want to make a mess. “Do you have tissue?” he
whispered, panicking because he could already tell this was going to be a
messier than usual.

“Use the towel,” she whispered in his ear, and as if he needed
her to, she sped up the stroking.

Clasping the towel around himself, he held in the groan he wanted
so badly to let out as he came epically in the towel. He squeezed his eyes shut,
pushing his head back into the back of his seat, feeling any strength in his
legs drain completely. Charlee leaned her head against his chest as her finger
grazed the tip of the very tender area then pulled her hand out from under the
towel.

Hector opened his eyes and smiled at her, his heart pounding so
hard he was sure she could hear it and gave her the most pleading look he
could. He couldn’t take her touching it again even for another second. With
that smile that was going to be the death of him, she brought the finger to her
lips and licked it clean.

Immediately, he squeezed his eyes shut again, and she fell into
his chest, muffling her giggling. “
Shhh
,” he urged,
putting his free arm around her.

Walter shifted in his seat but didn’t wake. “Did I mention today
how much I love you?” he whispered in her ear. Charlee nodded but didn’t pull
away from his chest. “Well, let me just say it again,” he whispered even lower
this time. “I love my freaky little girlfriend.”

Charlee giggled even louder this time, and he hugged her harder,
muffling her laughter. Hector should’ve been trying to figure out how to clean
the mess up as fast as possible before Walter woke. Instead, all he could think
of was he had entire weekend of this to look forward to.

~*~

Arriving at their hotel at nearly three in the morning
last night should’ve meant they’d be too exhausted for any funny business, but
apparently not having slept together for over two days, Hector had a lot of
making up for lost time planned. They’d been up for hours last night and were
now paying the price. The meeting was purposely scheduled at ten to accommodate
travelers like them who arrived so late by giving them some extra sleep time.
Unfortunately, even early that morning as they both began to stir, they’d put
their extra sleep time to better use.

Charlee couldn’t help smiling, thinking of their night last night
even as she yawned; it was completely worth the exhaustion as far as she was
concerned. The speaker’s monotonous tone as he explained this weekend’s
workshops didn’t help either. She couldn’t help but giggle when Hector was
startled out of nearly dozing off when they introduced him to everyone as the
newest member of the team.

The surprised expressions on everyone when he stood as he was
asked and said a few things about himself, his love of the game, and how he
felt about being on the team, didn’t surprise her. Though catching the way two
of the girls eyed him then whispered something to one another smiling silly
wiped the smile off
Charlee’s
face.

None of them had been aware this was going to be a workshop with
scheduled tournaments between the team members. Hector had been scheduled early
that afternoon while hers wasn’t until later, which meant they’d be separated
most of the day. The only good thing about it was that Charlee was now having
visions of heading back to their room and taking a much needed nap while poor
Hector had to go straight to his tournament.

Halfway through the briefing,
Charlee’s
phone buzzed. She clicked on the envelope, holding it under the table so she
wouldn’t be caught reading her texts. It was from Gwen—her mom.

I know you said you might not have time to visit, but I
just wanted you to know Ted is not here this weekend. I’d love to see you if
you get a chance, honey. I could even meet you somewhere if you’d prefer.

Her step-dad Ted was the reason Charlee hadn’t made any effort to
plan something with Gwen this weekend. Gwen had obviously read through her
excuses about the visit being a busy one. Charlee was still angry at Ted
because of the way he’d all but abandoned her step-brother Ryan.

Charlee really missed Gwen, and now that she’d be free of both
chess and Hector for the morning, maybe meeting her for lunch wasn’t such a bad
idea.

I’m free for lunch, but I don’t have a car. Can you come
here?

She glanced up as Hector took his seat again and looked at her
curiously. Just then her phone buzzed again.

Yes!!! =) I’ll leave now and should be there by noon.
<3

Feeling bad now that she’d even considered blowing Gwen off, when
obviously she was anxious to see her, she texted her back with her hotel
information and then reminded Gwen how much she’d missed her and loved her.
Bad daughter.

When the briefing was over, Charlee walked Hector to the
convention room where he was expected to be at A.S.A.P and explained to him
about her change in plans.

“That was her texting me. We’re gonna meet for lunch. She’ll pick
me up around noon, and then I gotta be back here later for my tournament.”

Hector frowned, playing with her hair. “I guess I won’t see you
until tonight.”

“Yeah, but it looks like tomorrow we get to sleep in again.” She
smiled, biting her lower lip.

He leaned in and licked her lower lip. “I vote we stay in tonight
and order room service.”

Her body was still spent from the night and morning they’d had,
but already it came alive just thinking about getting back to the room with him.

She’d fallen asleep in the room when her phone pinged loudly.
Charlee had purposely set the ringtone to loud because she had a feeling she’d
doze off waiting for Gwen to arrive. Sitting up, she read the text from her.
She was downstairs, waiting for her.

Surprised that she actually felt a little choked up when she saw
her, Charlee hugged Gwen tightly. Gwen pulled away to look at her, her own eyes
a bit watery. “Oh, honey, you look so good. I’ve always loved your curly hair,
but this looks so pretty too.”

Charlee smiled, nodding. Her full transformation hadn’t been made
until she’d moved out to California, so Gwen hadn’t been privy to fully the new
and improved Charlee until now.

They ate lunch at the restaurant right there in the hotel. The
entire time their conversation had been pleasant enough with Charlee catching
her mom up on everything about school and the chess thing. Her mom was
noticeably surprised to hear about Hector.

Charlee showed Gwen the picture on her phone’s screen saver.
Charlee and Hector had taken a ton of cutesy pictures with both their phones of
the two of them kissing and hugging, but she especially liked this one she’d
taken accidently before either them were ready to pose. She’d been holding the
camera up above them and didn’t even realize she’s snapped the picture of them
staring into each other’s eyes. It was the same one he chose to use as his own
background picture for his phone.

“Very cute,” Gwen said smiling as she stared at the photo. “So
when do I get to meet him?”

“Not this weekend,” Charlee took her phone as Gwen handed it back.

Explaining quickly, Charlee tried changing the subject. She knew
it was as easy as bringing her mom back to the hotel and having them meet
quickly, but it would be a fast hello and goodbye in the lobby, and Charlee
wanted their meeting to be a little longer.

Moving on to other things, their conversation had already veered
on the tense side when Gwen told her about Ted making more of an effort to see
her step-brother, Ryan. Was that supposed to impress Charlee that the man was
making an “effort” to
spend
time with his son, when
nothing or no one was stopping him except himself?

But nothing brought the conversation to a faster screeching halt
than Gwen’s sudden and very blunt account. “I ran into Danny this week at the
Chili House.”

Charlee stared at Gwen, not sure why she felt the need share this
with her now. Then Gwen reached into the paper bag she’d walked in with and
pulled out an envelope with
Charlee’s
name written on
it.

“When I ran into him, I mentioned you would be in town this
weekend and that I was keeping my fingers crossed I’d get to see you.” She held
the envelope out to Charlee. “He came by last night and asked me to please give
this to you if I saw you.”

Staring at the envelope, Charlee gulped hard, refusing to reach
out for it. “I don’t want it.”

“Charlee, honey, he said he still feels terrible and that he
really needs you to read this. I saw it in his eyes. He really is sorry. I
haven’t read it, but I think maybe if you could understand why things happened
the way they did it might give you some closure.”

“I have closure.” Charlee said almost through her teeth. “I’ve
had it since I left, and I do even more now that I have Hector. I don’t need to
relive that part of my life again.”

She really didn’t, especially not after having just relived the
whole damn thing just this past week when she told Hector about it. She was so
over it now. The last thing she needed was to hear why Danny had chosen her to
invite to that party. She knew why. He’d be a sure win if he brought the freak.
But she wasn’t that person anymore. Even with all her faults and weaknesses,
Hector loved her unconditionally. That’s all she needed.

“I really think—”

“I said no.”

Gwen lifted her hands in the air. “Okay, okay.” she conceded.
“Have it your way.” Slipping the envelope back in the bag, her mom pulled out
what looked like a scrap book instead. “I haven’t had the heart to change
anything in your bedroom since you left. But I did go through some of the old
poems and photos you had on your corkboard, and I put this together for you.”
She smiled, handing the scrapbook over to Charlee.

This Charlee took happily. She opened it to the first page to a
picture of her and her late nana—the woman responsible for introducing Charlee
to the world of chess. Immediately, she felt overwhelmed with emotion.

“I was gonna say,” Gwen said as Charlee glanced up at her and saw
that her eyes were just as dampened with tears as
Charlee’s
felt. “You might wanna wait until you’re home to go through that. You’re gonna
need a box of tissues and a little privacy. I know I did as I put it together.”

Deciding her mom was right, she glanced back at the photo one
last time before closing the scrap book. With no room for it on the table, Gwen
placed it back in the bag until they were done with lunch.

She walked her mom back to her car and hugged her tight. “Will
you be home for Thanksgiving?”

Charlee shook her head. She’d warned her mother when she left she
may not come back for a very long time. And even though she’d been ready to run
home more than once, it was only to hide away from the entire world in her room
like a hermit again, not because it was a place she yearned to return to. For
now, she’d keep the thought to herself, but Charlee had no desire to step foot
in the town of Heron’s Nest ever again unless she wasn’t forced to. “But maybe
you could come out to California,” Charlee offered, “if not for Thanksgiving
maybe Christmas. You can meet Hector then.”

Her mom smiled, understanding, and handed Charlee the bag with
the scrapbook. They said their final goodbyes, and Charlee walked away with a
strange lump in her throat. Knowing she’d be seeing Hector soon, she forced
herself to snap out of her weird mood.

The rest of the weekend was as amazing as she imagined it would
be. Their night and the next morning were as passionate as always. They did
finally sleep soundly for a several hours Saturday night, and it was probably
the best night’s sleep Charlee had ever had.

Sunday afternoon, when they were packing up their things, Charlee
pulled the scrapbook out. “What’s that?” Hector looked at it curiously.

“A scrap book Gwen made me.” He looked at her strangely. “My
mom,” she explained. “She was a single teen mom when I was born and still lived
at home. We lived with my grandparents for the first eight years of my life.
Everyone around me addressed her by her name, so I did too, and no one ever
corrected me.” Charlee turned back to the scrapbook. “Anyway, she said I should
wait ’til I’m home with a box of tissues and some privacy to look through it.
But I think I’ll be okay,” she sat on the bed.