“You think? I’d hate to wake her up and start her stressing again.” Charlie’s eyes held genuine concern, and if Harper hadn’t already been falling for her, that look would’ve done it. The fact that she was willing to keep sitting on the uncomfortable floor in wet clothes just so Harper’s dog wouldn’t be stressed had warmth radiating out from her belly and coating every inch of her skin.
“Yeah. The poor girl exhausts herself from her physiological responses. The shaking, the panting for so long, takes a lot out of her, so even when she doesn’t get her meds, she’s always knocked out once she can finally settle.” Harper stood. “Here, let me grab the dog bed, and I can kind of scooch that under her as you get up.”
It wasn’t the most elegant maneuver as she tried to keep her robe closed, but they managed to make it happen with only a few “harumphs” from Franky and several almost side-eyes. Franky was so tired, though, she couldn’t even open her eyes enough to give them afullside-eye. Harper made sure she was still as tightly wrapped in her beach towel as she could be before she bundled Charlie into the bathroom with the other robe to change.
While Charlie was in there, Harper rearranged the goodies onto the table again and tried to process all the revelations she and Charlie had both just shared. It was a lot. They both had a lot of baggage, but weren’t they both trying to move forward? For the first time since she’d lost Kelly, she felt like maybe she was ready to.
Chapter Twenty
Charlie leaned her back against the door when she closed it and let out a massive breath. She felt so raw and open. She couldn’t believe how much Harper had shared. Hell, she couldn’t believe how much she’d just shared, and Harper hadn’t run for the hills. Not that there were any hills in the Keys, but Harper was always so skittish. Yet, that rawness and openness didn’t feel bad. Charlie couldn’t imagine sharing her full story with anyone else, but Harper made her feelsafe. For maybe the first time since childhood.
But trying to get out from under Franky while Harper replaced her with the dog bed? Charlie’s palms were still sweaty but not from the physical effort. Rather with the effort of keeping herself from staring down the gaping front of Harper’s robe.
Her skin had looked so creamy, and Charlie had desperately wanted to touch it. Kiss it.
Five shaky breaths later, she was still leaning against the bathroom door and hadn’t moved a muscle toward getting undressed. She needed to do something, or she was going to make it weird. “Hey, I’m going to jump into the shower to warm up,” she called through the closed door. “After having been in those wet clothes for so long, I feel like my bones are cold.”
“No problem,” Harper’s voices answered from the other side of the door. “Do you want to throw your clothes out here, and while you’re in the shower I’ll go toss them in the laundry?”
“Sounds good,” Charlie said as she turned on the water to get it warming and then opened the door a sliver to toss her clothesout. She hadn’t realized she was cold until she’d said something. Her skin had still been hot from the accidental glimpses she’d had down Harper’s robe, but as soon as she mentioned cold, the chill in her bones nearly overtook her.
She heard Harper say, “I’ll be right back,” right before the door to the room closed.
Charlie stepped into the shower and relished the hot water raining on her body, warming her from the outside in. It washed away all the lingering stress from seeing her parents and having confessed so much to Harper. Though not everything. There were things she was still too disgusted about to share. Things she hoped she could forget.
She soaped her body, wishing those thoughts would get washed away with the lather. But now that her mind had gone there, the shower wasn’t as relaxing, so she finished up, toweled off, and put on the surprisingly soft, fluffy robe. It was much plusher than the towel had been.
When she opened the door, Harper was sitting at the table shuffling cards.
“You’re lucky you didn’t set off the smoke alarm with all that steam.” Harper laughed.
Charlie looked around her and realized that she’d fogged up the mirror outside the bathroom with the steam cloud that was following her. She shrugged. “Sorry, not sorry. I’m warm now.” Which she was. And seeing Harper sitting at their small table, casually shuffling cards, warmed her even more.
“Good,” Harper said. Watching her fingers as they expertly riffled the deck and put it back together with the bridge was surprisingly sexy. Or maybe it was more her lazy grin in a robe that was still gaping at the top. Whatever it was, Charlie’s stomach felt weightless and her legs unsteady as she sat in the chair opposite. “Did you really wear that robe down to the laundry room?”
“Yeah, what other choice did I have? But with this weather, no one is leaving their rooms.”
Charlie looked around. “This is quite the spread you came back with. Did you get all this at the office before?”
“Yeah, I figured we might have to hunker down all night, and I didn’t want us to starve or ask some poor DoorDash driver to bring us dinner. Now we’ve got little cheese platters.” Charlie chuckled at the generous term for the small, Styrofoam plates of cheese. “And snacks. And beverages.”
Charlie picked up the plastic cup shaped like a goblet with suspicion. “Have you…had this before?”
Harper chuckled. “No, but it was the best option in the smallest hotel sundry shop ever. We also have dessert.” She held up the M&Ms. “And breakfast. Or a snack later.” She pointed at the granola bars. “So we are set to hunker down for some time. And I got us cards to help pass the time.” She picked them up and started shuffling again. “Can I interest you in a game? Gin rummy? Crazy Eights? Or perhaps Kings in the Corner?”
“How about gin rummy? We already have enough of a wannabe king in the White House, don’t we?”
Harper belly laughed. “Fair. Though in the game’s defense, the kings go in the corner in a time out. But I love gin rummy. It takes me back to my childhood playing with my grandmother at her kitchen table. Then again, any of these games would.”
When Charlie had her ten cards, she picked them up and started sorting them into sets and runs. She had a pretty good hand so far. Hoping to keep the mood lighter than earlier, she said, “Tell me your favorite memory from growing up.”
But it was like a switch flipped in Harper from playful to business as the game was starting. Her expression serious, she pursed her lips as she ordered and then reordered her cards. She squinted one eye at them, and without looking at Charlie, said, “Are you going to draw?”
She’d been so distracted watching Harper she’d forgotten she went first. “Have you been hiding a competitive streak from me?” Charlie mused aloud.
Harper bit her lip as she flicked her eyes up. A hint of a smile flickered at the corner of her lips. “Maybe. Just a little. I’m an attorney by trade. We don’t like to lose. Sorry. I’ll be better. And why don’t we open our first round of these?” Her smile spread across her whole face as she peeled back the foil on the top of the first plastic wine goblet and handed it to Charlie. “What did you ask me again?”
It was odd how she could go from playful to cutthroat card player and back to playful in a matter of seconds, but Charlie wasn’t going to complain. Even Harper’s competitive streak was pretty cute. “I asked what your favorite childhood memory was,” Charlie said as she drew, contemplated, and discarded the same card.