He gently touched her cheek and then turned away with a sigh. He couldn’t do this. Just a simple game on the beach was making him crazy. He fell harder for her every day and it was setting him up for disaster. Huge disaster. And she wasn’t immune either. She was going to be hurt as well. When they got back to Montana he knew he had to try to stay away from her so he didn’t fall any harder for her. He knew it, but he hated it. The day she climbed into her stupid Taco Rocket and drove away was going to kill him.
Charlie reached up and adjusted the tiny fan above her seat on the plane and then turned out the light that shone down on her. It was a little before nine p.m. Connecticut time and although she had managed to make it clear onto the plane without that dreaded discussion with her mother, she was still tired and discouraged.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes as the plane began to taxi toward the runway, wondering if she’d honestly be able to sleep during this long flight across the country. All afternoon and evening she’d been trying to figure out just what had happened there on the beach between her and Luke when she fell to make him look at her the way he had and then sigh and turn away. It was as if the fun and the friendship had offended him. He had pulled away from her so hard afterward that she was positively lost.
As they were loading into the cars, she had asked him out right if she had done something to offend him and although the look he had given her was almost soul searching, a moment later he had simply shaken his head, assured her she had done nothing and sighed again as he climbed in behind the wheel.
Then Chase and Tuckett had climbed in with them so she wasn’t even able to ask him about it as they drove back into Waterbury to catch their plane. He’d been polite and helpful and kind, like he always was, but she could just about swear he’d decided something about her that subtly held their easy friendship at bay. It wasn’t even anything she could put her finger on. It was simply a silent, invisible door he had shut on his smile toward her.
Now, seated beside him on the plane, she wondered if he’d even speak to her on the long flight home. As the plane lifted off, she swallowed the lump in her throat, determined not to cry in front of him again, even though that’s what she felt like doing. Feeling the tears well up behind her closed eyelids, she willed herself to think of something else to counteract her discouragement. This had to be a culmination of the other things going on in her life right now with a few hormones thrown in for good measure, but regardless of what was causing it, she really didn’t want to cry right now.
Without opening her eyes, she reached up and brushed away the one tear that overflowed and escaped, then turned her head toward Fo’s side so her emotions wouldn’t be so apparent to Luke.
****
Fo Eldridge sat in the big air bus with his two best friends on the planet and wondered what in heaven’s name was going on in his world. Luke was a silent bear, and Charlie was sitting beside him quietly crying and hoping no one was noticing. What the heck had happened since he’d last seen them laughing and joking with each other? He wanted to lean over and shake them both and demand an explanation, but that didn’t appear to be much of an option on this packed flight. He sighed like both of them had. This was going to be a long, long night.
****
Charlie had been right. There hadn’t been a lot of sleeping going on for her on the flight home to Montana. She honestly tried, but thinking kept getting in the way. Her thoughts ranged from wondering what had happened with Luke, to wondering what was going to happen with her mother and father, to wondering why she was still planning to go back to Utah to law school, to wondering if maybe she shouldn’t just go somewhere different than all three places and start completely over with her life.
Luke obviously wanted nothing to do with her all of a sudden; she didn’t want to go home to Connecticut ever again after this last fiasco of a visit and law school held no intrigue for her whatsoever. She wished they didn't have church first thing in the morning. It would have been nice to talk to Fo for a while about the whole mess. Thinking about Fo made her even more tired. It was beginning to look like maybe he truly had found his princess charming and while Charlie was thrilled for him, she was also wondering if there was life after Fo eventually did get married.
When they finally made it back to the ranch it was three forty in the morning and as she prayed and laid down on the bed that felt heavenly spacious and comfortable after the flight, she dearly hoped the little ones would be as tired as she was and would sleep the morning away instead of popping out of bed as usual.
****
It was not to be. She felt as if she’d only been asleep for seconds when the phone she’d put under her pillow began its ringtone. She answered groggily to hear Evie’s cute little voice asking, “Charlie, will you come help us make some breakfast? We’re starving and Madge has a headache and Daddy and Lukey and Tuckett had to go out and take care of some cows early.”
Still wondering if she could focus her gritty eyes to make breakfast, Charlie answered, “Sure, sweetie. I’ll be right there, what did you have in mind?”
“Oh, we already started making it. We’re having waffles. We just don’t know how to get them to stop running out of the sides of the waffle cooker thing. That’s why we called you. Do you know how to get it to stop doin’ that?”
Charlie sat straight up in bed. “Who’s we?”
“Oh, me and Elsa and Jamie. We were going to surprise you!”
“You have. Where’s your mom?”
“Hmmm. I’m not sure where Mommy is. I’ll bet she’s gone on a plane somewhere. Do you want me to go look for her?”
Pulling some warm up pants on, Charlie replied, “No. Don’t worry about finding your mommy. Just go get Elsa and Jamie and take them out to the sand box and wait for me there, okay? I don’t want one of you to get burned in the kitchen.”
“Oh, Jamie already got burned on the waffle thingy. We put some of that blue stuff out of the cold thingy in the freezer on it and he’s gonna be fine. He says the blue stuff is fun and tastes like Jell-O.”
Charlie hit the door of her cabin running. “Evie! Don’t let him eat the blue stuff! Take them outside. I’ll be right there. Don’t touch anything else.”
When she finally did reach them in the sand box, Jamie had decided the blue stuff in the cold thingy also made great sand mud and that the sand mud felt funny when it squished through his toes. Charlie picked him up and inspected the burn on his pointer finger and was immensely relieved to find it was wonderfully minor. He was quite offended when she confiscated his cold sand mud and shoveled it into the garbage dumpster and then washed his hands and feet off with the hose. When she was relatively sure they were out of the woods as far as ingesting anymore cold blue stuff, she left them playing in the sand and squared her shoulders to brave the waffle kitchen.
It was even worse than she had feared.
They had literally emptied the set of cupboards that housed the baking supplies, as well as two dozen eggs, a jug of orange juice and two bottles of jelly. They had mixed and spilled and walked around in a concoction that would have rivaled any mad scientist’s lab, hands down.
Unsure of where to even begin the clean up, Charlie glanced down the hall toward Madge’s room and decided she needed to check on her first and call poison control. She slid as she went to step across the mess on the kitchen floor and would have fallen except for coming up sharply against the countertop on the far side of the room. Rubbing her hip where she’d banged it, she was slipping out of her sandals to head to Madge when Luke asked from the kitchen doorway, “Are you okay?”
Charlie spun around to face him, self consciously running a hand through her undoubtedly wild curls as she did so. “I’m fine, thanks. It’s the kitchen that isn’t. Are they still safely in the sand box?”
Luke gave her a tired smile. “Not exactly. Jamie just threw up in the sand box and it made Evie and Elsa join him. I sent the three of them to the hose.”
Charlie picked up the phone book and tossed it to him as she headed for the hallway. “Call poison control.” She handed him the blue gooey wrapper from the cold pack Jamie had tasted. “See if whatever is in this is toxic. Jamie says it tastes like Jell-O. I need to see about Madge. They said she isn’t feeling well.” She rushed from the room and after groaning about the way Luke had just seen her, she knocked and went into the older woman’s bedroom.
She quietly approached the bed and when Madge wearily raised her head, Charlie asked, “Madge, the kids said you weren’t feeling great. Are you okay?”
Madge bravely smiled, but then shook her head and admitted, “I’m afraid I overdid yesterday Charlie. I’ve given myself a migraine. And after what I’ve been hearing from the kitchen I’m also afraid there might be a disaster in there. How bad is it?”
Charlie chuckled. “Uh, well, that would depend on if you’re using the Richter scale or not. The kitchen’s fine. What can I do to help you? Do you have anything you take for migraines?”
Madge sounded almost feeble as she answered, “I do, dear, but it’s still packed in my suitcase in the garage. Would you mind bringing my bag in?”
Luke spoke from the door, “I’ll grab it, Charlie. You stay here with her.”
Charlie turned back to Madge. “What do you need with the medicine, Madge? Do you need to eat with it?”
“No. No food or drink, thank you. I’d never keep it down. I simply put the little tablet under my tongue. Then dark and quiet for a few hours. Will you be all right with the children without me this morning?”
Luke appeared with the suitcase and set it on the nightstand and he and Charlie dug through it looking for the medicine. They were standing side by side with their heads together and when the medicine was found, Luke helped Madge sit up as Charlie carefully handed her one of the pills.
She looked terrible and was hesitant to even open her eyes. Charlie was proud and grateful when Luke quietly asked, “Madge, would you like a blessing? That’s always helped in the past.”
She nodded gratefully. “I would appreciate that very much, Luke. Is Richard around? Or is he gone somewhere?”
“He’s gone, but I could go find Anthony. He’s in the north pasture if you want.”
“No.” She shook her head. “Just you will be wonderful. Thank you, Luken.”
Charlie quickly sat down in the chair beside the window and Luke gently put his hands on the elderly house keeper’s head and gave her a short, but powerful blessing of comfort and peace. When he was finished, he leaned down and kissed the older woman on the forehead. “You rest, Madge. Get feeling better.” He rose and left the room and Charlie patted Madge’s hand and followed him.
Luke was waiting for her in the hall. “Poison control said the blue stuff shouldn’t be toxic, but it might make him sick to his stomach. I guess we already knew that. How much did he eat? Do you know?”
“I’m sorry, I have no idea. I was still home asleep when they called to say they’d been making waffles and Jamie had been burned and thought the blue stuff tasted like Jell-O. I hurried, but… The damage had been pretty much done.”
They stopped to take in the hurricane that had hit the kitchen. “Pretty much. Waffles huh? What do you suppose the popcorn and spaghetti were for?”
Charlie nodded to the peanut butter smeared across the counter and the top of the still smoking waffle iron. There were popcorn kernels and spaghetti sticks and various types of pasta and dried beans stuck into the peanut butter in a spiral pattern. “Decoration. Waffles are an art, you know.”
Just then Richard walked in the far door and stopped stock still and stared. “Holy Toledo!” He looked at the mess for several seconds and then turned around and headed into the living room where he opened a cupboard near the entertainment center.
Charlie whispered to Luke, “What’s he doing?”
Luke grinned. “He has this saying that’s kept us all alive from time to time. Don’t get mad. Get the camera. He’s digging for the camera.”
“Oh.” Charlie stopped and looked down at the t-shirt she had slept in, her warm up pants and bare feet. “I think if there’s a camera involved, I’d better slip out the back and go get dressed. I wonder where the kids are.”
Luke looked her up and down and grinned again. “You got a problem with being immortalized on film looking positively edible? You know that’s what Chase would say about you.”
She shook her head and laughed. “You got a problem with being called a complete dork? That was what I called him, I believe.”
Luke groaned. “I remember that now. No. I do not want to be a complete dork, thanks.”
Just then, Elsa came running in, hit a broken egg on the floor, slipped and landed full length in the thick of the mess. Evie and Jamie were right behind her. They all three went flying and Charlie was both appalled and couldn’t help laughing at the same time. She’d never seen anything like this.
The front door slamming brought Luke’s head up, and he made a lunge for the other kitchen door just in time to keep the three dogs that were following the kids from taking a mud bath in the mess as well. He chased the dogs out and Charlie latched the door lock and they hurried back to the kitchen. Richard was standing in the living room door quietly filming the kids as they tried to help each other up, only to slip and fall right back down. The three of them were so caught up in trying to get up and help each other they didn’t even realize they were being either watched or filmed.
By the time they were finally all three on their feet and out of the worst of the goo, Charlie and Luke were in stitches and there was no way Richard could keep the video camera steady as he laughed while he was filming. The kids all turned to look at the adults as if they had lost their minds and then they looked at Charlie and Evie asked, “Can I have a tubber? I feel yucky.”
At this, Richard roared with laughter and Luke and Charlie laughed so hard they had to lean on each other. Finally, Charlie was able to contain herself enough to tiptoe across to the bag drawer and take out the roll of plastic wrap. She carefully took the roll out and then taking the end of the plastic, she stuck it down into the edge of the worst of the mess on the kitchen floor and then with a flourish, she tossed the roll toward the front door and let it unravel all the way across the great room floor. She followed it and carefully strung it out the front door that she propped open. Then she grabbed the dogs before they could go inside and said to the children. “All right, you three. One at a time. Walk across the plastic and come out here. You’re going to have to start in the hose and at least get the big chunks off before you can go into the bath tub.