Deadly Inheritance (completed)

Chapter 13

"Don't fuck up." I hold out my hand and shake his. It's not just friendship we have, but a brotherhood. I have to trust him. Picking up my shovel we go back to work. After loading up the last of the old fence, I slam the bed door closed and lock it. Without turning I tell him. "I'm in love with Charlie."

Baxter sucks down his water and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. "Tell me something I don't know." He gets into the cab with me and sit for a moment. "Have you told her?"

"No, she's not ready to hear it yet." I say sadly. As much as I want to tell Charlie, I know she's not ready. "She's been through so much shit because of her father and Steven, I need to make sure she knows I'm not going anywhere. That I'm here for her and she's it for me. She's not comfortable with us being us yet. You know, I'm just now getting her to kiss me without me initiating it. She's not ready."

"That's just physical, man. She's needs you emotionally too. She's not gonna put herself out there until you do. She's following you. She doesn't know how to have a healthy relationship, you're teaching her. You have to teach her this too." Baxter says. He understands Charlie, he sees more and hears the little things she doesn't say better than I do.

"Baby steps, man. For both of us. This is new for me too. I'm not exactly good with my own feelings, ya know." He laughs at me, but I knows he gets it.

"Yeah, you're the lean mean sex machine!" We both crack up laughing at the nickname we gave ourselves back in high school when we were out on the hunt for girls. It's not exactly true anymore, but we like to believe we are. "Let's go get our girls, man. We've got dates for a festival waiting."

The girls are dressed and ready by the time we get back to the house and grab quick showers and change. We take separate trucks, only because I want some private time with my girl and I don't want to take Baxter home later. With the pies in a box loaded in the backseat, we head out for the festival. I can tell something is up though. Charlie is quiet and acting nervous about something.

"What happened, sweetheart? You're acting like you're upset." I'm not going let her just go on alone if she's upset.

"I'm just nervous I guess. So much is riding on me winning." Charlie says, but there's more I can tell.

Taking her hand, I kiss her knuckles and her palm. "I'm here for you, baby. No matter what. You're gonna win. Even if you don't, you're gonna get this business going. I trust you."

I don't know what else to say. I want to tell her I love her and will no matter what, but I'm afraid she'll run. Anyone who was supposed to love her hurt her, in so many ways. I have to make sure she knows she can trust me and that I'm not like that before I even think of going there. I don't want to scare her off and screw this up.

Charlie and Nat goes straight to the pie station to drop off the pies, while Baxter and I head over to the party to wait for them. We order drinks for us and get a table to sit down. Just as I'm sitting down Sarah comes over. She's drunk and disorderly and really in no shape to be there.

"Well well.. the two sex machines on the town alone tonight?" Sarah giggles and sways. Shit, she's really in bad shape.

"Sarah, I think you've had enough tonight. Maybe you should call it a night." I tell her gently. She stumbles a bit and I reach out to help her keep her balance.

"Pff! I'm fine!" She waves my comment off. "I just wanna dance. Come dance with me, Ryan." She pulls on my hand and drags me out to the floor.

I look over at Baxter who's shaking his head. I can see he's not in favor of this, but it's just Sarah and she's drunk. I need to talk her down and get her to go home. It's not that hard to do. Her arms wrap around my neck and her head falls to rest on my shoulder. Yeah, she's won't be long. She's really pretty far gone, I've seen her like this plenty of times, most of which we ended up having sex at her place.

"Sarah you need to go home and sleep. You're way too drunk to be here." I tell her softly.

"Take me home with you, Ryan. I want to be with you. I miss you." Sarah whispers and suddenly kisses me. One of her long deep hard kisses that I can't get out of. I push she doesn't budge, I pull she keeps going. Oh shit! Not what I expected!

I push her back hard and tell her harshly "Sarah, this isn't gonna happen. I'm with Charlie, I love Charlie . I'm sorry Sarah. Go home." I push her hand off me and walk back to the table. As I sit down I look at Baxter's face, it says everything. "What? Why are you pissed?"

"Charlie just came in, Ryan. She saw Sarah kissing you. What the fuck were you thinking? You know how Sarah is and you danced with her anyway. You let her kiss you! You fucking idiot! She played you, just like she always has and you fell for it again. You just fucked up big time, Ryan. You hurt Charlie, man." Baxter shook his head at me as I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration. Shit! What did I do!?

"Where is she? Where'd she go?" I ask getting back to my feet.

"No idea. Nat went after her." Baxter took a long drink of his beer. "You certainly fucked tonight up for both of us, dude. Thanks for the cock block."

"I'm sorry. I was trying to get her to go home. I told her I love Charlie. I wasn't planning to ....I don't know what to do." I tell him.

Baxter sets down his drink and gets up. "Let's go find them. Nat was right behind her and had my keys. I'm betting she's driving her home." We take off to my truck. I really hope l can fix this.

Sarah

Well that didn't go as planned. Every time I've ever been drunk Ryan has been predictable, he thinks he can calm me down and get me to do exactly what he wants. He has never realized that I always get him to do what I want, until now. Well partially, it worked to a point. He tried to rescue me as usual, but he didn't want to take me home because of her. But she saw me kiss him. The look of hurt, of betrayal on her face was perfect and she ran without Ryan even knowing she was there. Oh I'm sure his pesky little friend will tell him what happened, but by then she'll be gone and Ryan will be chasing her. It still works to my advantage.

I walk over to where all the pies are set out for the tasting. No one is paying attention. They're all too busy and no one thinks anyone would ever cheat. I smile and walk over to the table. Slipping the paper out of my pocket I find her pies. She thinks she's so perfect. I'll show her. I take her name from the the deep dish apple and pecan pies and replace the name cards with my own. Then I pull out the small white packets from my pocket and rip them open dumping the contents on top of the other two pies with her name on them. I will win and she will lose a little bit at a time until there's nothing left. I smile to myself and walk away. This one is mine.