Free Let Me Call You Sweetheart: Come Rain or Come Shine by Gwen Hayes Page A

was that they were well out of city limits.
    She’d left Port Grable.  
    The closer he got to the porch, the more he wanted to get there. Charlie looked nervous, but brave. She’d done it.  
    “It’s probably not what you had in mind when you said leave town, but it’s a different county and a start,” she said. “I wanted you to see I could do it.”
    He was so damn proud and in awe of her. And. He was an ass.
    “I’m sorry,” he admitted when he reached the step below her.
    She arched those eyebrows at him the way she always did. “I know I’m going to regret asking, but what are you sorry for?” Then she added wryly, “This time.”
    “You’re amazing.”
    “You’re sorry that I’m amazing?”
    “No.” He set the pastry box on the porch railing. “I’m sorry that I gave you ultimatums and trials to prove your affections. I’m sorry that I treated a simple misunderstanding like some kind of mortal transgression of my honor. I probably would have thrown a car through a window if I’d seen a picture of you in the newspaper kissing another man.”
    She took a long minute before answering. “I’m sorry that I seem to be two-steps-forward-one-step-back girl. I don’t blame you for giving up on me.”
    Jeeves shook his head. “I wouldn’t say I’ve given up.”
    A light flickered in her eyes, something he hadn’t seen in them before. Not in all the months he’d known her. Hope.
    “We have a lot to talk about.” She pushed off the post and went to the door.
    Inside the cabin was just as peaceful as the outside. It wasn’t frilly, but it wasn’t exactly masculine either. It looked like a place a man and woman could both be comfortable. Since the kitchen area was twice the size of the sitting room, he figured it belonged to Myrtle and Sam. Their lovers’ hideaway maybe. What would it be like to love the same person for twenty years? As he watched Charlie curl her legs under her on the couch, his dog settling into her hip easily, Jeeves realized he’d really like to find out.  
     
    “It’s the first day of spring,” she said.  
    “Yes,” he answered.  
    Wow, this really wasn’t like the fantasy she’d been imagining. It was awkward and fraught with…awkwardness.
    “We met on the first day of autumn,” she said. Because trivia would surely save this moment.
    Jeeves smiled. “That was quite a day. I knew then you’d be more than a little trouble.”
    “Oh please, you were too enamored with Myrtle to notice me that day.”
    “You wore the red dress with white dots.” She must have looked surprised, so he kept going. “I remember the way the sun lit your hair from the window and the way your freckles reminded me of chocolate jimmies.”
    She felt as if the sun were hitting her face right now, the way the warmth grew and spread across her cheeks and into her hairline. “We’ve been through a lot in six months.”
    “I put you through a lot, you mean.”
    Charlie knit her brows together in confusion. “Where is this sudden attack of conscience coming from? I’m the one that screwed up.”
    “I don’t think that is true.”
    She was suddenly very, very tired. “I pushed you away over and over, expecting you to just Weeble right back.”
    Jeeves sat next to her. They weren’t physically touching—or even looking at each other. Like they needed the distance. “When a man falls in love, it feels a little like storming a castle. I just wanted past your defenses so bad, I didn’t give enough thought to the vulnerable part you were protecting with all your crazy moats and concrete turrets. I came through like a wrecker ball.”
    “You’re mixing a lot of metaphors there.”
    “I really do suck at writing my own material.”
    Charlie laughed but then got serious. “I don’t want to have a weak and vulnerable part.” Her voice sounded meek to her own ears.
    “Then give it to me. I’ll take care of it. I promise.” He threaded one curl around his finger. “Give me your