Page 57 of What He Always Knew

But I wasn’t sorry, and I refused to back off to give him the comfort and time he wanted. Just like he wasn’t going down without a fight, neither was I.

“How are the birds?” I asked after a while.

Charlie put her eReader away, sitting up to face me. “They’re so sweet. I love them. They remind me a lot of Jane and Edward, but they have their own personalities.” She chuckled. “I’ll say this — Scarlett is even more feisty than Jane was, and she’s definitely the leader. Wherever she goes, Rhett follows.”

I smiled, though it hurt. She was happy — those birds made her happy — but I hadn’t given them to her. They’d been a gift from Cameron, along with an entire aviary.

I couldn’t do things like that for her.

Not yet.

But, one day, I vowed that I would. I’d build her the house of her dreams, and fill it with whatever she wanted — books, birds, baby grand pianos. Hell, if she wanted a moat, I’d dig it myself — just to make her feel like the queen she was in my eyes.

“Are you ready to eat?”

She nodded. “I’m starved.”

Smiling, I dug through the bag, pulling out the sandwiches I’d made us. I passed one over to Charlie, and she laughed as soon as she unwrapped it.

“Stop it! Is this a Fluffernutter?”

“What else do you have at a picnic?” I asked incredulously.

Her eyes were wide as she unwrapped the rest of it, giggling as the white marshmallow goo dripped onto her fingers. “Oh, my God. I’m so excited. I haven’t had one of these since I was a kid.”

“Well, what are you waiting for?”

I unwrapped mine as she took her first bite, and as soon as she did, her eyes rolled back until she closed them completely, a sated moan leaving her lips.

“Ohmahgawd,” she said around the mouthful. “Thish ish heaven.”

It was my turn to laugh.

I took my own first bite just as she smacked her lips together. “It’s stickier than I remember.”

Digging into the bag, I pulled out another old favorite — a little plastic bottle of red Kool-Aid.

Her eyes lit up again, and she snatched it out of my hands eagerly.

“I feel ten again!”

“But with bigger boobs.”

She laughed, almost spitting out her first sip. When she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, a grin was left behind it.

“Best picnic ever.”

“I’m glad I could make you smile. I just wish I could see you more.”

Her eyes softened then, and that very smile I was thankful for slipped away.

She took another bite, an easy silence falling between us. And I knew in that moment, she was thinking about him.

It was killing her, being torn between the two of us, and I hated that I couldn’t take that pain away. He’d asked her for more time, and she was giving it to him. All I could do was hold her hand through it, and remind her that — if she chose me — happiness was less than a month away.

So, I reached over for her eReader, pulling back up the book she’d been reading, and with a mouth full of Fluffernutter, I picked up with the top line.

Charlie laughed, swatting at my leg, but then she leaned into me, her head resting on my shoulder as I continued reading in a more serious tone.