Don't Fall in Love in Witness Protection

Chapter 10: Pizza, Stolen DVD's and Eli

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'Sometimes when an older, more life experienced couple decide they like each other they...'

'Mum no!' Charlotte squealed in between laughter. 'Seriously I do not need the birds and the bees talk now!'

Grace frowned slightly, 'I was just trying to explain why -'

'Why Chuck was half naked in our kitchen the other night?' Charlotte smirked. She had stealthily avoided Grace for the last two days but unfortunately that Friday evening after school Grace had cornered her. 'It's fine, I totally picked this ages ago, I knew he liked you from day one. There was no other reason for him to stick with our case over the last eight months.'

Grace blushed slightly, 'It's a little more complicated then that honey. What we're doing is completely against the rules. Chuck could lose his job for doing this, and he worries all the time he's putting us in danger.'

Charlotte's face softened, 'We can't let him ruin our lives anymore Mum, you told me that. We need to start living again, and I know for a fact this is the most lively and happy I've seen you in months!'

'You're right, and I tell Chuck this all the time. He's just very...forceful,' her cheeks coloured and Charlotte raised an eyebrow. Was her mother blushing? Gross.

'Well I'm happy for you, it was just a shock finding out like that,' Charlotte found herself giggling at the memory. 'Just what I imagined he'd look like though.'

'What?' Grace gasped in amusement.

Charlotte shrugged, 'Just how I imagined Chuck would look without a shirt. Awesome.'

'Oh honey,' Grace burst out laughing. 'You are too much.'

Charlotte headed upstairs to her room genuinely happy for her mother, she deserved to have some fun after everything Charlotte had brought onto their little family. She flung open her bedroom door glancing down at her phone in her hand. She had a feeling this weekend was going to be pretty boring and uneventful again. Max, Tristan, Carter and Liam had left straight after school; they were heading to a small costal town for the weekend to enter a triathlon. They'd invited the girls to go with them but Polly and April had stuck up their noses at the idea and truthfully watching the boys run around all weekend didn't seem like so much fun to Charlotte either. She contemplated texting April to see what she was up to tonight but she'd only just seen her two hours ago and didn't want to come off too needy to her new friend.

So instead she plonked down on her bedroom floor, pulled her wedding ideas board over and started flicking through more of the magazines.

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A few hours later Charlotte realized she hadn't even had dinner. She had turned up her iPod speakers' loud and completely lost track of time as she hunted through websites for fonts, colours and fabrics she loved. No doubt Grace had done the same thing, so she hopped up stretching her legs deciding to do something about her stomach rumbling.

She was halfway to her door when she heard a noise from outside just over the speakers. It sounded like someone calling Max's name. She frowned and pulled back her curtains peering out on to the darkened front lawn. Sure enough in the light from the street lamps she could make out Eli standing to the side of Max's house throwing pebbles up to Max's window calling out his name.

Charlotte contemplated leaving him out there wondering why Max wasn't coming to his window. She chuckled slightly, how funny would that be. However the jittery way Eli kept peering over his shoulder, out onto the road and calling Max's name with more urgency prompted Charlotte to open her window and stick her head out.