me?”
“I don’t recall you asking me if you could spend the night onboard,” he retorted. Again the look on Nathan’s face reminded Charlie that he needed to be careful what he said. He didn’t want the fourteen year old to see him in a shouting match with his ex-wife.
“It’s obvious there’s been some miscommunication,” he said in a calmer voice, raking a hand across the back of his neck. “You thought I was out of town and I thought you were still in Iowa.”
That piqued Nathan’s curiosity. He got up from the sofa and went to stand beside Beth. “I’ve never met anybody from Iowa before. What do you do there?”
“She works,” Charlie answered for her, trying to preempt Nathan’s interest, then addressed Beth. “So we both had plans for the boat for the weekend. Now what?”
“Obviously one of us will have to find another place to sleep tonight.”
“Since Nathan and I want to go fishing, I’m willing to buy out your interest for tonight,” he proposed.
“Meaning what?”
“I’ll give you the money for a motel.”
He could see she wasn’t happy with his suggestion. Nor was Nathan, who said, “I don’t care if we don’t go fishing.”
“But I do,” Charlie told him, annoyed that the teen was willing to let Beth have the boat. Nathan was gazing at her as if she was an ally, not an intruder. Charlie looked Beth squarely in the eyes and said, “Since you’re only looking for a place to sleep and we want to use the boat for recreation, wouldn’t it make more sense for you to go to a motel?”
One thing Charlie knew about Beth was that she wasn’t obstinate. Some women might have refused to find another place to sleep out of sheer stubbornness. Not Beth. Decisions were made after careful consideration—a trait he’d admired in her.
That was why he wasn’t surprised when she said, “You can have the boat for the rest of the weekend, but I don’t want your money. I’ll find another place to stay without your help. Now, if you’ll take me back to Riverbend, I’ll get off this boat and you two can have it all to yourselves.”
Charlie had won, but there was no thrill in the victory. “I appreciate that,” he said. “We’ll leave right away.”
“Thank you.”
Unfortunately her gratitude was premature. When Charlie sat behind the controls and turned the key in the ignition, the engine wouldn’t start.
“What’s wrong?” Beth asked, hearing his unsuccessful attempts to get the boat running.
“I’m not sure, but I’m going to find out.” With that he got up out of his chair and headed outside. Beth and Nathan followed him, watching as he lifted a hatch in the deck.
“Well?” she asked when he didn’t volunteer any information.
“I need my tools.” He retrieved a gray metal box from the storage closet and again bent over the hatch. It only took him a few minutes to find the problem.
“Do you know what’s wrong?” she asked when he straightened.
“We’re out of gas,” he announced.
She didn’t believe him. “You’re joking, right?”
“Nope.”
“How could we run out of gas?” she demanded.
Charlie said nothing, just let the hatch door slam shut.
“You didn’t answer my question. How could we run out of gas? Didn’t you check the gauge before you left Riverbend?” She was drilling him as if he was her employee, not the co-owner of the boat.
“The fuel gauge says we have a full tank,” he informed her.
She frowned. “So what are you saying? That the gauge isn’t registering?”
“Bingo,” he retorted, wiping his hands on a cloth rag. “There’s probably a short in the wiring.”
“Does that mean we’re stuck here?” Nathan wanted to know.
Beth answered before Charlie could. “We’re not stuck anywhere. I have my cell phone in my purse. I’ll call for help.”
“And who are you going to call?” Charlie wanted to know. “Ed?”
“He must know someone who could bring us gas.”
“I’m sure he does, but it’s not necessary,” Charlie told her. “This is a public waterway and it’s Saturday morning. I’m sure a boat will come by sooner or later.”
“That may be, but I’d rather not wait to find out,” she said, then disappeared inside.
As she walked away, there was only one thought going through Charlie’s mind. Time had been damn good to Beth’s body.
BETH FELT WEAK and her hands were shaking by the time she reached the narrow confines of the lower cabin. She collapsed on the bed and took several deep breaths, hoping her stomach would quit acting as if it were moving independently of the rest of her body.
Yet how could it when Charlie was here on her boat? Correction. On their boat. She was stranded in the middle of the Sycamore River with her ex-husband.
No wonder her stomach felt so unsettled. It had been a shock to see him again—a shock that was intensified by the discovery that he had a son.
When Ed had told her Charlie had never remarried, she’d assumed that meant he had no children. Why should she think any differently? Charlie had always been a man of principle. After all, when he’d found out their one night together had resulted in an unplanned pregnancy, he had married her, saying he would always do the right thing when it came to kids.
But they hadn’t had a child. The thought sent a sharp pain through her chest. She bit down on her lower lip, forcing the memory from her mind.
“No. I will not think about what happened between us, Charlie Callahan,” she said aloud. “I won’t go there.”
She couldn’t go there because she knew if she did, it would be like opening the lid of a jack-in-the-box and the pain she’d managed to bury for so long would pop right up in her face. She pulled off her pajamas and tossed them aside, hoping she could discard the memories with them.
Living in Iowa had made it easy to forget that she’d been married and divorced. No one there knew Charlie, and she had little contact with anyone in Riverbend. Leaving for college had given her the opportunity for a fresh start, a chance to forget the painful past and begin a new life.
Now she was back and her new life felt threatened. Would she be able to pretend Charlie Callahan didn’t exist? That they hadn’t been married?
Thanks to Abraham Steele, it wasn’t going to be easy, but she’d figure out a way to do just that. It would help if she felt nothing for him. She’d hoped that when the day finally came that she did see him
