It was a terrifyingly happy feeling.
“I thought you’d never get up,” he joked.
“Quit lying,” she said, “it’s early still.”
Boone laughed.
“Stew again?” she asked him.
“You seemed to like it toward the end.”
“I did. It’s a good pick’em up for early in the morning.”
“That’s the reason my parents always fed it to us too. We were boys and they weren’t about to raise no sorry men.”
“But I thought your mother said something about a daughter,” Charly said.
Boone looked at her as he plated the stew. “Oh, they mentioned them,” Boone said.
“Them?” Charly asked.
“My stepsiblings. My father’s love children from a woman who was not his wife.”
Charly was surprised. “Oh, I see.” Then she remembered what they were talking about when that conversation came up. “Are they African-American?” she asked.
Boone nodded. “They are. Their mother is a doctor over in Lexington. I was a teenager when it happened.”
“And your mother stayed with him?”
“Oh, yeah. That wasn’t his only indiscretion then and to this day. It was the only indiscretion that produced children.”
Charly shook her head. “Men,” she said.
“Don’t put me in that category,” said Boone.
“You? Oh, those two women were just a figment of my imagination?”
Boone looked at her. And for the first time, Charly realized what it all meant. She’d just slept with a man who could very easily break her heart. She’d just slept with a man who all but told her he didn’t know what being faithful to one woman meant. What had she done???
The alarm in her eyes startled Boone. And he knew exactly why she was suddenly so fearful. He had to reassure her! “I’ll never do that to you, Charly,” he said to her.
Charly looked at him. He stared at her. What man didn’t say that to her, and then turned around and cheated on her as if it was what she deserved. Why should he be any different?
She stood up. “I think I’m going to get to the office,” she said. “My car is still at your parent’s home.” Boone had brought it there after they took care of Tabloski and company. “Can you drop me over there?”
“I can, but I want you to drive my car.”
“Your car? Why? I have a car.”
“You’re with me now. You aren’t driving that.”
Charly stared at him. “Boone, what are we doing? I can’t take another heartbreak.”
“I’m not going to break your heart,” said Boone.
But Charly still wasn’t convinced. She’d heard that too many times before as well. “What are we doing?” she asked him again.
“We’re trying each other on for size,” he said. “We’re seeing if it can work.”
“I have serious trust issues,” Charly said.
“As do I,” said Boone.
“I’d be crazy to fall for somebody else when it nearly killed me the last time.”
Boone frowned as he thought about his little girl and how she died. “Me too,” he said.
But Charly was still unsatisfied. “What are we doing, Boone?” she asked him yet again.
He put down the stew pot and made his way to her side. “We’re trying, Charly,” he said. “We’re giving it a shot. We’re trying to see if we can beat the odds and get a second chance at love.”
Tears appeared in Charly’s eyes. Boone pulled her into his arms. “Don’t cry, darling. Please don’t cry. It’ll work out. I believe it’ll work out.”
“But how can you be so sure?”
Boone stopped hugging her and looked her in her eyes. “Because I’m usually the problem,” he said. “I’m not going to be the problem.”
Charly smiled. It was a sweet thing for him to say. And then she gave him a peck on his lips. But he wasn’t into pecks when it came to Charly. He pulled her back into his arms and gave her another long, passionate kiss. So long, and so passionate that Charly knew that they would end up right back in bed again if they weren’t careful. So she had to be. She had the most to lose.
She pushed back from him. “We can’t,” she said. “I’ll be late for work.”
Boone let out a hard exhale. He wanted to be with her again, there was no doubt about that. His erection proved that. But he knew she was right. “Tonight,” he whispered in her ears.
She smiled. “Trying to get me dick-whipped?” she asked him.
“Oh, I already got you there,” Boone said with a grin. “You were dick-whipped from the moment I put that whipping on you.”
“Boone!” Charly laughed, hitting him playfully. Talk about brutally honest!
“What I want to get you,” said Boone with a serious look on his face, “is Boone-whipped. Because,” he added, “I’m already Charly-whipped.”
Charly stared at him. Was he really? Was this man for real for the long haul, or for right now?
She didn’t know, and she knew falling for a man like Boone Ryan was quite the risk. But she knew she had to take it.
She smiled. He smiled. And he pulled her into his arms once again.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Boone walked Charly to his Ferrari. “The Ferrari?” she asked. “I thought for sure you was going to let me drive the Mercedes.”
But Boone was already shaking his head. “Nope,” he said. “Some people in this town knows I drive that Mercedes. They all know I drive this Ferrari. They know this is my car. I want them to know that you’re my woman now. I want no ands, ifs, or buts about it. You belong to me. You’re driving the Ferrari.”
Charly felt as if she was some kind of queen the way he said that. “You want the people of this town to know that I’m your woman,” she asked, “or do you want the women of this town to know that I’m your woman?”
“The women, yes,” he admitted, “and any man who has any designs on you. Especially the men.”
“You needn’t worry about that,” Charly said, getting in the car.
“You needn’t worry about those women,” he said, helping her get in.
After she was behind the wheel, he showed her what was what. “You can drive a stick, right?”
“No, Boone,” she said sarcastically. “I’m just going to figure it out as I go along.” He laughed. “Of course I can drive a stick or I wouldn’t have gotten in this car, boy!”
“Okay, okay,” he said, still smiling, “don’t take my head off.”
Then they looked at each other. “Be careful,” he said, and kissed her. It lingered, but only just. He knew they had jobs to get to.
But then he pulled out a small pistol and handed it to her.
“What’s this?”
“Ever shot a gun before?” he asked her.
She nodded. “Yeah. After I testified at Tabloski’s trial, a cop on the force used to take me to the range and he taught me how to use one. In case the mob or somebody came after me. I used to carry one with me everywhere I went.”