Page 21 of Tides and Tidings

I turned and kissed his chest, “You’re not wrong. Let me go get cleaned up and we can head out.”

“I’ll get changed.” He grabbed his clothes on the bed. “Hey, Bee?” he called as I entered the bathroom.

“Yeah?”

“We have six hours now.” I could hear the smirk in his voice.

Charlie

Blythe is the most fuckin’ incredible woman on the planet.

Blythe

Charlie was never one for public displays of affection, but stepping outside the hotel, his hand reached for mine. His hands are much softer now than they were when we first met. He has since learned that hand lotion is not a myth and that you can buy it almost anywhere. Does he use it? Sparingly.

“Who is this boyfriend of mine?” I joked, my eyes meeting his.

He hesitated, “Vacation Charlie.”

“Was that Vacation Charlie earlier, too?”

A smirk spread across his face and he turned his gaze ahead. “Sure was.” He squeezed my hand, “Do you like him better than Home Charlie?”

I wrapped my free arm around his. “Nope.”

He looked surprised, “Really?”

“Yeah. This version of you is spontaneous, but I much prefer the one I sit on the couch with and watch TV.”

“That one is lame,” he shrugged.

I stopped in my tracks and pulled him over to the nearest bench. Was he feeling insecure? “That’s not true.”

“Yes, it is. Bee, we’ve been datin’ for over a year and already act like we’ve been married for a decade with a kid. We never got that honeymoon shit. We should be out getting drunk with friends on the weekends. We sit home and play Uno with our kid.”

My heart leaped when he said our kid.

“We’re spontaneous sometimes.” I offered up.

“Name one time.”

“There was that one time we dropped Wren off at your parent’s house for a sleepover.”

“Bee, that was planned.”

I shook my head, “No, it wasn’t.”

“It sure was.” Charlie paused, “Tell me what we did after we dropped her off.”

“We went home, ordered some pizza, had some snacks, and watched a movie.”

“That’s not spur of the moment. That’s lame. We’re in our early thirties, and we should be doing fun things—outside of the house.”

“We do. We go on the boat, go out for dinner, go to the movies…”

“But we have Wren with us—all of those times.”

I wasn’t sure how to broach this because he had a point, but I don’t think he comprehended how much I love spending quality time with both of them. Now that our Little Bird is in school, we only get the afternoons and a little bit of the evening with her.