Who: Charlie Pace, Hugo Reyes, Verity When: Mid-March Where: Verity and River’s place (Now Verity, River and Charlie’s place!) What: Moving some of Charlie’s things into the house Rating/Warning: Low/None Status: Complete
Verity was absolutely thrilled. She was trying not to show, but she was bouncing around the house. She even put on some music and danced around with Christina a bit before the girl’s nurse and nap. At four and a half months, Christina was quite a bit more “with it” than she’d been before, more alert. She was holding her head up, nearly sitting up on her own, and Verity was chomping at the bit to start her on solid foods. She heard that would help the baby sleep through the night. Wouldn’t that be lovely?
In any case, she had the baby down for her nap, and was in the kitchen making herself a quick sandwich when she heard Charlie and his friend coming up the front walkway. At least, she assumed it was Charlie and his friend. She went to answer it.
Charlie had borrowed a bright sparkly purple truck from Obi-Wan one of his friends who had otherwise not volunteered to be part of the moving effort. Oh well. The guy was ridiculously busy 99% of the time. The truck was much appreciated, though; and besides, it gave him the opportunity to spend some one-on-one time with Hurley, who had been kind enough to volunteer his services. The two of them hadn’t been able to spend a whole lot of time together, which was a shame as clearly they were super close on The Island. Charlie didn’t want to force the guy into being his new best friend, although he kinda wanted to.
Hurley was more than thrilled to help Charlie move into Verity’s house, although he wasn’t too crazy about the truck choice. It was like a Fast and the Furious car had made a baby car with a Ford commercial. If his Hummer wasn’t so cramped for space because, well, it was a Hummer, he would have offered his car for the move.
Hurley made his way up the path with Charlie, his usual carefree self. The nerves of hanging out with the former rock star had fled long ago when he’d first hung out with him, and then later when he’d started dreaming and the Brit had showed up in them. Charlie had confirmed they’d known each other on the island, which Hurley found fascinating. The island had no name that they knew of, and Hurley had only basic knowledge of their fellow survivors so far. He was hoping that he and Charlie were friends there and that hopefully here could mimick that.
As they made their way up the path, Hurley checked out the new digs. “Looks like a nice place, dude. Got a lawn, a nice spacious house, and...stuff.” He then smirked to himself. “You know what this place could use? A lawn gnome. I totally had a dream of like, stealing all these lawn gnomes from people’s lawns, and like rearranging them all on my boss’s lawn. My boss from the dreams, not, y’know here.” He had told Charlie on the way that he’d dreamt about working for a Fried Chicken place, and apparently after winning the lottery, had quit. His boss had been a pretty big ‘d-bag’, as Hurley put it, preferring not to use the entire word. “You know what it spelled? ‘Cluck you.’” And he laughed.
Verity smiled as she pulled the door open. Her smile brightened when she saw Charlie there. “Hi! I mean, hi,” she added, lowering her voice a little. She reached forward to steal a quick hug from her friend. “I’m Verity. You must be Hurley?” She added, then stole a hug from him, too. She was just too happy today. “Are you hungry? I was just making a sandwich. I can make more.”
Charlie was mid-laugh when the door opened. An army of lawn gnomes was a pretty hilarious image. “Cluck you. That’s a brilliant quitting story.” He turned to Verity and smiled. He’d been crashing at her place (which felt different than actually living there) long enough that it felt weird for her to offer food. If anything, he ought to be to appointed sandwich-maker, although now he’d be chipping in with rent money. “Hurley? You want anything?”
"Hi! Uh okay..." Hurley froze as he was caught off guard by the sudden hug. With an uneasy laugh the big guy hugged Verity back. He was far more used to people keeping their distance and stealing glances at what he presumed they were calling inside their heads the "fat guy". He had gotten so used to it that to be hugged by a pretty woman he hardly knew was shocking.
"I'm Hugo....er, Hurley. Everybody calls me Hurley. Which you just did. Which is cool. Cuz you know. Uh, nice lawn. Ever think of getting a lawn gnome? I'm... gonna shut up now." Hurley always rambled when he was nervous or caught off guard.
When Charlie offered food Hurley pounced on the change in subject. "Yes! Sandwiches would be awesome. "
With every word that came out of Hurley’s mouth, Verity’s smile grew more bright. Did he have any idea how endearing his babbling was? She could tell why Charlie liked him already. He was absolutely adorable. “Sandwiches it is, then!” She said, then gave Charlie one more grin and lingering glance before padding off to the kitchen in her socked feet. She was wearing yoga pants (because nothing else fit anymore) and a nursing pajama top. “Roast Beef? Ham? Turkey?”
And Charlie thought she looked damn good in those yoga pants. In fact, he forced himself to look up at the ceiling the entire time they were walking to the kitchen. He did not want to start the day off by staring at Verity’s bum. It couldn’t lead to any good.
Hurley on the other hand was looking all around him at the house, and at Charlie who seemed occupied with the ceiling.
"Uh, Ham's cool, thanks." He said to Verity, distracted. Glancing up at the ceiling then back at the smaller man his brow furrowed a little. "Uh...what are you looking at?" he whispered to Charlie.
Verity gave a little nod back to the boys, smiling, then turned her attention to the fridge. Where Charlie’s eyes were pointed was completely lost on her. “Can’t have ham without mustard,” she mumbled to herself as she put the sandwiches together.
“What?” Charlie whispered back to Hurley, blinking quite a lot because the angle of his neck had put strain on his eyes. “Uh… nothing. Just taking in the house.” Nevermind that he’d already been staying there for a few weeks now. Why was making it official changing everything? Charlie’s stomach was suddenly in knots.
"Thanks Verity, appreciate it." Hurley said, trying not to eye Charlie funny. The guy suddenly looked a little nervous. He shrugged to himself and stood near the doorway to the kitchen, not wanting to crowd the place. Suddenly his stomach growled. "Whoa. Guess it's good timing."
“It’s no problem. Really. I’m a mom now, mothering is sort of my thing.” She smiled. “I figured you two would be carrying heavy things and would work up an appetite.” Verity wasn’t sure how much stuff they had to move, though Charlie had said he was borrowing a pick-up truck, so. Couldn’t be that much, could it?
She finished the plates with some potato chips and baby carrots, then held one out to Hurley and the other out to Charlie. There was a third on the counter for herself. “Here you go.”
Charlie picked up one the carrots and chomped it. “Well… we’ve got the rest of my musical instruments. And clothes. And that’s about it. But it’s a lot of it.” It had taken a while to load all those guitars and keyboards onto the truck, even if none of it was especially heavy. Some of it was very delicate.
Hurley took the plate gratefully and with one big hand dug right into the sandwhich. He was starving! He'd had a bowl of cereal that morning but realized he'd be running late if he didn't hustle over to Charlie's, so the usual bacon and eggs his mother made had to be missed (which she said he was better off without anyway). Helping Charlie pack the truck really had worked up his appetite.
"Yeah," Hurley said, his mouth half full, "He has enough gear to bring back Driveshaft and then some." He was well meaning when he said it and his smiling eyes meant it. He swallowed and started munching on the chips. "Actually you know, I was thinking of taking up guitar. But like the Hawaiian Slack Key kind? Been listening to that stuff on Pandora, it's pretty good. Think you could teach me some basic guitar stuff?"
“I think you might have to get in line,” Verity teased, breaking into an almost shy grin as she spoke. “He’s already threatened to teach Christina how to play the drums.” She moved over to her own plate and started eating like a frantic woman, right there at the kitchen counter. The past few months had taught her that at any moment she could be pulled away from her plate by the sound of a baby’s cry, so she’d learned to eat quickly.
Charlie was still looking, acting, and feeling a little dazed. “Hm?” he sounded, still working on his carrot. His mind quickly backtracked over the last few sentences, like a tape on rewind. Teach the baby drums… Hurley wants to learn slack-key… “Uh, yeah. Some basic stuff. Slack-key is it’s own thing. Gotta work up to that. But if you stick with it, it’s possible.”
Hurley was impressed Verity could down her food so quickly. She’d probably be great at some sort of speed eating contest. When Charlie finally rejoined them, Hurley raised an eyebrow but figured he could talk about it later when they were unloading the car. Something was up, and he was determined to get to the bottom of it.
“Cool, so you’ll teach me? I mean, after the baby learns the drums.” He chuckled, looking back over at Verity. They continued to munch along, Hurley and Verity finishing their plates long ahead of Charlie, who looked like a dazed rabbit with his carrot.
“That might take a while,” Verity grinned, still playfully. She hadn’t noticed that Charlie was acting funny--probably because she was so excited about this whole deal. After finishing her sandwich and chowing on a couple chips, she grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and motioned to the guys to do the same if they wanted to. “Please, grab whatever.” And the dryer buzzed to announce that it’d finished its cycle. She jumped a little, and rushed to the garage door. “I’ll be folding! Don’t want that buzz to wake the baby,” she said, and slipped out of sight. The door slowly closed behind her.
“Yeah, I’ll teach you.” Charlie was speaking to Hurley, but his eyes were following Verity (and her yoga pants) of their own accord, as if they were determined to get in one look before she disappeared. Even his voice sounded distracted.
Hurley was grinning knowingly. He snickered. "Dude. Could you be any more obvious?" He ambled over to the fridge and set his plate in the sink, grabbing himself a bottle of water. He looked at Charlie as he unscrewed the cap and just laughed a little,good naturedly.
Charlie’s face turned bright red. And since he hated being embarrassed, he scowled at Hurley. “What?” Like a little kid, he was going to deny everything, even if he had been caught red-handed.
Hurley remembered that look from his dreams. He'd had more of them and had been dying to talk about them. But not in front of Verity, he was sure she'd think they were nuts. But it was funny to see Charlie scowl in person for some reason.
"Dude. You like her. I get it. I don't blame you. She's pretty." He shrugged. Not Hurley's type, but then again Hurley wasn't sure what type of woman he liked anyway. The one from the record store in his dreams had been cute. "But you're like staring off into space or up at the ceiling like there's a spider there or something. She's gonna notice eventually. Just ask her out."
“I can’t do that!” Charlie whisper-snapped back. He didn’t want Verity to hear them. “I’m moving in. We’re just friends. There’s too much potential for messing things up.” Plenty of excuses and reasons not to upset things. He took an aggressive bite of his sandwich and chewed. “I dunno… this is potentially a huge mistake.”
Hurley nursed the bottle of water he had, wishing it were a diet Dr. Pepper instead. But he’d been brought up to accept whatever the host offered him.
“Nah, man. You can’t get cold feet now. She’s all super giddy you’re here. Or, you’da seen it if you weren’t so busy looking for invisible cobwebs.” He had a feeling these two would make a cute couple if they got together. Knowing that the conversation seemed to be stressing the other man out, Hurley opted for a change in topic. “Anyhow, you wanna start bringing stuff in? You know where it’s all supposed to go?”
“You think she’s giddy?” asked Charlie. His eyes brightened, although he was immediately embarrassed for giving himself away. Not that there was much left to hide. Meanwhile he could hear Verity getting closer to the door. He hopped up and stuffed one of the sandwich halves into his mouth.
Verity came to the door with a laundry basket under her arm. She stepped into the kitchen, smiling shyly. "Good sandwiches?" She asked. "You haven't heard the baby, have you?"
"Nah it's been all quiet. The sandwiches were great thanks, Verity. Hit the spot." He glanced over at Charlie with his mouth stuffed. "Right Charlie?" Hurley had his most amused expression on, as he was ready to burst into laughter and was doing his best not to for his friend's sake.
“Mefs,” replied Charlie, his mouth still full of sandwich as he nodded. He focused most of his energy on not spitting it everywhere. When he swallowed, it hurt. “Yes. Delicious. Now we...have all kinds of energy...for moving things. Let’s get to it.” He jogged out of the kitchen and waved for Hurley to follow.
Verity gave them both smiles and nods, then turned to head into her bedroom with her laundry. As they were leaving, the baby started to cry. Verity dropped her laundry basket on her bed quickly, then went into Christina’s room and gathered her up, then headed into the living room for some tummy time and playing. She kept an eye on the door, though, and sat in a spot where she could watch them coming and going. Not because she was worried something strange might happen, but because she liked watching Charlie. She could still hardly believe she was going to get to see him every day. It was like a dream come true.
Hurley hustled after Charlie, his big frame making the movements of jogging an amusing sort of display. Out at the car, he brushed back some curly locks of hair that got in his face. He stood panting a little. "So what first?"
Charlie was standing behind the truck, cracking his knuckles. As a musician, he really shouldn’t be cracking his knuckles, but it was a nervous habit. “Er, grab a guitar?” There were a lot of cases in the truck bed, acoustic and electric, along with two bases.
Verity and Christina parked in the living room, watching the two fellas carry musical instruments, boxes, suitcases, whatever else it was that Charlie had in the back of the truck. She put the baby on her back under a dangling toy, and laid down beside her on the floor. In a few minutes, Verity was unexpectedly dozing off.
As they worked, Hurley took the oportunity when they were outside to tell Charlie of the latest dreams he'd been having. It was more Island stuff than anything before the crash of Flight 815, and since Charlie had gaps in his dream timeline Hurley thought his might help.
"So uh, I had another one of those dreams? Well a bunch actually, most of 'em about the Island." He started, then grabbing another box and adjusting it in his arms. "Dude what do you have in here, rocks?"
He decided to walk slower back to the house so he could continue the story. "Anyhow, seems that Kate chick is an ex con. The guy with the shrapnel, the marshal, told Jack and showed him her wanted poster. So that's fun to know." Hurley decided to skip over the part where when Jack had been trying to save the marshal, Hurley had fainted at the flirst sight of blood. Totally helpful to the doctor. "Then Jack said the guy wasn't going to make it so Sawyer tried to kinda put the Marshal out of his misery with a gun and totally screwed up. Jack had to go into the tent but it looks like the guy died quick anyway." Thank God. Hurley was going to say more as they entered the house, but fell silent noticing mom and baby asleep on the floor. "Aww,"
Charlie soaked in Hurley’s tales from the Island. It had been a while since he’d had any dreams and he was grateful for it. Some of his dreams weren’t nightmares, but a lot of them were. He’d seen and lived through things he wouldn’t wish on anyone.
“I think I knew about that,” he replied as they re-entered the house. “About Kate, I mean. Like, I don’t know if anyone told me, but I found out somehow…” His voice trailed off as he spotted Verity. Poor girl was constantly exhausted. But it was adorable. He smiled quietly.
Hurley tiptoed around the the two and carefully set down the box best he could without being noisy. He crept back out with Charlie and on the way to the van to get some of the last of the things continued his relaying of his dreams.
“Yeah? That’s cool. There’s stuff I kinda just sorta knew too. Like Claire suddenly having had Aaron. Dunno when that happened but in my dream about Shannon and Ana Lucia suddenly I just kinda knew the little guy was around.” Grabbing the last of what was in the back of the truck, suddenly Hurley’s face lit up with excitement, “I dunno what you dreamed about, but we’re totally not alone on the Island! I mean besides the crazy monster thing in the jungle. And the boar. There's like this crazy French chick who totally captured Sayid with these booby traps and stuff. He got away but when everyone wanted to build an emergency beacon for the raft we realized she was the only one with batteries for it. Sayid totally didn't want to go back to her little jungle lair cuz she'd tortured him and stuff. But I knew I had to. Her map that he took when he escaped, they had these numbers...the same ones that I used to win the lottery! But they're totally bad luck, dude. I guess I wanted to see what the deal was with her and the numbers. You were with me too, after I ran off to go find her.”
“Jeez, Hurley, Shhhh! And slow down.” said Charlie in a harsh whisper. But he was also smiling a little, so it was clear he wasn’t totally serious. Still, Verity was trying to get in some much-needed shut eye. “We ran off to find who?”
“The French chick,” Hurley whispered back, leaning in conspiratorily towards Charlie as if somehow that would make him quieter. “I ran off to find her. Then you, Jack and Sayid caught up with me and we all went. But then we crossed this bridge, this old rope and wood bridge like something out of Indiana Jones, and I went over it fine but then when you did it fell apart and you got over just in time! Then we got seperated and I ran into the French chick alone and we talked about the numbers. They brought her bad luck too.” Hurley frowned then. “I feel like maybe the plane crashing was my fault. But later on when I told you that, you got mad at me and said you’d…” Hurley stopped mid-sentence, glanced at Verity, and grabbed Charlie and dragged him out of the house and out of earshot. “You said you were doing drugs in the bathroom of the plane when it went down and said that wasn’t my fault. Then I guess cuz we were sharing and stuff, I told you I won the lottery and you didn’t believe me.” It was a weird sort of friendship so far, judging by the dreams. Charlie always seemed to be annoyed or frustrated. Except for when he wanted in on the golf game Hurley’d set up for everyone. Oh, the golf! He’d forgotten to mention that!
Charlie blinked at Hurley, remembering exactly why they were such good friends in the dreams and also why he was sometimes annoyed with the guy. He was hard to keep up with. Or maybe it was more like it was too hard to be in a bad mood whenever Hurley was around, and sometimes Charlie really wanted to be in a bad mood. He was weird like that.
Like right now, he didn’t like thinking about the druggie days, dreams or otherwise. “Can you not bring up drugs within earshot of the girl I’m living with? Even if she is asleep...” He rolled his shoulder to take back his arm from Hurley’s grasp. “But yeah, I remember all of that. I remember not believing you, but I did eventually.” Hurley glanced back at the house. “I think we’re far enough away. Besides, you’re you, not dream you so she’s got nothing to worry about.” He smiled and shrugged.
“So we’ve been having some of the same dreams then? Cool! Did you dream about the golf course I made too? Cuz seems like the clubs and bag from that dream totally showed up in my room when I woke up today. We should totally go play some golf. Later.”
Charlie nervously scratched the back of his neck. Because non-dream him had done some pretty stupid shit. The kind of stuff mums don’t want their kids around. But he seemed as if Verity hadn’t heard.
“Seriously? The clubs?” he asked, his face finally brightening.
Finally, Christina couldn’t take it anymore. This whole laying on her back thing, staring up at these stupid bright colors that she couldn’t make her hands reach up and grab was torture. She began to fuss, scrunching her face up and balling her little fists. She didn’t like this. Not one bit! Besides, there was a mess in her diaper, making her cold and wet, too. Where was her mother??
Verity stirred and lifted her head, reaching for the pacifier that was always within six inches of the baby. She tried to put it into Christina’s mouth. For a moment, the baby seemed… well… pacified.
Outside, Hurley was grinning. “Yeah, man! The clubs. Whaddya say we find a golf place to play them at when we’re all done here?” He thought he heard the baby start to fuss; Hurley had grown up with tons of cousins coming in and out of the house, so he was used to the sound of babies. “Ooh I think they’re awake.”
Charlie had to admit, the idea was really appealing. Hitting some golf balls would probably release at least some of the anxiety that was building up inside him. He tilted his head, chuckling as he recalled a funny dance he and Hurley had done in celebration of their newfound pasttime. “Okay… yeah! Let’s do that.” A little time to catch his breath before officially sharing a house with Verity.
Speaking of Verity. The pacifier was not living up to its name, and did not do much to pacify the baby. Christina was in Get me off of this floor right now! mode. Verity sat up, groggily, and lifted the baby from under her toy dangly thing, then put the little one into a swing-like chair with other toys. Christina didn’t seem too interested in that, either. She started wailing once she was out of her mother’s arms, and Verity had no choice but to pick her up. Apparently, all Christina wanted was to be held.
"Sweet!" Hurley was saying to Charlie's acceptance at the offer of some tee time as they walked back into the house. They came back to a tear stained Christina and bleary eyed Verity. "Uh, we’re done bringing in stuff." He felt bad suddenly like they were interrupting naptime. "Do you need help with anything?" Granted they still needed to move a bunch of Charlie's things to the appropriate rooms.
Without waiting for a cue from Verity, Charlie swooped in to help with Christina. It wasn’t the first time he’d played daddyolder brothermale support unit offered a hand, since crashing on the couch. “Hey, munchkin. Oh… someone needs a new nappy.” For all his earlier anxiety, he was quite at ease with the baby.
Verity couldn’t even put into words how thankful she was that Charlie was so good with Christina. She flopped onto the sofa after letting him take the baby from her, and sighed deeply. Happily. “Charlie’s got it covered. Come on over, Hurley. Take a load off.” She said, batting a tired hand against the sofa beside her. “Tell me how you know Charlie.”
Hurley ambled over to the couch with an unsure "Okay," and sat down gingerly. He didn't want to sit too close and have Charlie come back and get the wrong impression. Hurley also wasn't that great at talking to women considering the fairer sex more often than not had ignored him most of his life.
"Uh...how do I know Charlie?" He pushed his mop of curly brown hair out of his face as he thought of what to say. He'd been busy all afternoon chatting about their alternate Island lives it took Hurley a long moment to realize she meant this life. "Um, well we met on that message board thingie and kinda hit if off. I was a big fan of Driveshaft. Charlie's totally cool, low key, down to earth and all that. Especially for a rock star." He stopped there and fell silent, unsure if he had the right to tell Verity about their dream selves and how he and Charlie were best friends there. "So uh...yeah." He shrugged. "How do you know Charlie?"
Verity broke into a shy smile--the kind of smile that a woman puts on when remembering something she holds very dear--and took a moment to carefully consider her words. “Last summer I was in the supermarket and I was trying to reach something on the top shelf. He came and got it for me.” She said, and the shy smile shone a bit more brilliantly. “And then… randomly… I bumped into him in the park. He was playing music, and we chatted. Found each other on Valarnet, and he came to the shop where I work. Or, worked. That was before Christina was born.”
Verity cleared her throat. “We went out a couple of times.” She added, quietly. God, talking to Hurley was so easy. He was so non-threatening. It didn’t even occur to her to watch what she was saying because she just had a feeling that she could trust him. “I was sort of… going on dates with someone else, and then I went on a few with Charlie, and… it turns out the other guy? It was Charlie’s roommate. God, it was complicated. And I honestly thought I’d lost him. But then he came back.”
Hurley had expected this conversation to be far less informative than it had suddenly become. He started to shift a little, uneasy with hearing stuff that Charlie clearly had avoided telling him. Of course it was also confusing. If he'd gone out with her before, what was he so worried about messing up now?
"Uh, wow. Um had no idea you two were kinda...dating." He made a face and glanced where his friend had disappeared to just in case. He then lowered his voice and leaned in a little between them. "So like, if the other dude is gone, how come you're not dating now?"
“Oh… no. We were,” Verity corrected him. “Not even really… I mean, we went on a couple of dates, but… I honestly thought there might be something more there. I was looking forward to finding out. But I ruined it all.” She smiled, sadly. “We’re not dating now because he doesn’t want me. Not that way. I was with his roommate when something terrible happened. Charlie didn’t know I’d been with Roland, and he didn’t like it. I’m just thankful he wants to be back in my life again. I want his friendship now more than ever.” Of course, she wouldn’t say no to more. She was absolutely crazy about Charlie.
For Charlie, being small had its advantages, like being quiet as a mouse padding about the house. He had come to a full stop just around the bend, holding Christina tightly so she wouldn’t squirm while he eavesdropped. She was happy to have a clean diaper, so the tears had stopped. Charlie held his breath, stunned that anyone had so much to say about him--call it less handsome younger brother syndrome.
He and Verity had never really talked about what happened and he’d done his fair share of shutting her out. More than his fair share. If there might have been something more for them in the future, Charlie had completely given up on it, certain he’d never live up to Roland. The cowboy. But was his embarrassment the only thing keeping them apart now? What did Verity mean?
Hurley suddenly felt like one of those midday talk show hosts his mom loved DVRing. He wasn't a relationship expert by any stretch of the imagination. But he could see here that his friend and his friend's friend both were on eggshells about dating one another.
"Well I'm no Doctor Phil but Charlie looks totally psyched to be moving in with you guys. And I think he totally digs you." He grinned. "Don't tell him I said so, we're gonna play some golf later with some clubs that showed up from my dreams and I don't wanna get whacked by a five iron or whatever."
Verity gave Hurley a sad smile. “I’m psyched he’s moving in here, too, but I’m not getting my hopes up for anything more.” She didn’t want to get her hopes up for something she was sure was never going to happen, even though she wanted it to happen dearly. At this point Verity was absolutely convinced it was an unrequited crush, nothing more. “I’m sure you guys are going to have tons of fun playing golf, though.”
There was so much adrenaline pumping through Charlie that his arms were physically shaking. Time to put Christina down. He wasn't sure how much more of this kind of talk he could take, anyway.
Charlie popped out from around the corner, baby in hand. “Well, she’s all shiney and new,” he joked, acting as if he hadn’t heard a word. There was a risidual tremble in his voice, though. He gulped against it.
"Oh heyyy," Hurley shot up from the couch as if he'd been caught at something. He fidgeted with his hands. "We were just uh, hangin' out, y'know, just chatting and stuff." He looked at the baby who looked infinitely happier. "Hey there um...baby." He'd forgotten the little infant girl's name already as he let her little hand grab his big fingers.
Verity was more than happy to let the boys play with the baby for a few minutes while she still say on the sofa. She couldn't keep her eyes off of Charlie, though. How good he was with Christina warmed her from the inside out. "Thanks, Charlie," she said. Mostly for the diaper change, but for a lot of other things as well.
"No problem," replied Charlie, though he couldn't quite bring himself to look back at her. There was an intense flush of red burning the back of his neck. He and Hurley had to scamper off, before he embarrassed himself one way or another. "Ready to go swing some clubs?"
Hurley was oblivious to Charlie’s embarrassment as he played with the baby, going into babysitting mode for a moment. “Huh? Oh! Yeah sure.” He didn’t realize they’d be going so soon, but was totally fine with it. “Um, thanks for everything, Verity. It was cool. Chatting. And stuff.” Awkwardness returned and so Hurley stood, waved a little and then headed towards the door.
Verity was oblivious to Charlie’s red neck, too. She didn’t really want them to leave, but she understood that they had a date with a set of golf clubs. Yay male bonding. “Of course. It was really great to meet you, Hurley.” With a smile, Verity stood from the sofa and took Christina from Charlie so he could go. “I’ll see you later.” It was time to feed the baby, anyway.
Charlie did his best to smile and nod without looking too stiff or antsy. Since he sucked at hiding his emotions, it was time to hightail it out of there. Hopefully, hitting golf balls would clear his head before returning home. This was his home now. And there was a baby involved, even if it wasn’t his. Keep things stable had taken on a whole new meaning and importance.
Especially if there was some chance, any chance at all, that he and Verity might end up as more than just housemates.