Where The Ice Gives Way (Charlotte and Blake) novel Chapter 222

Chapter 222 Just Charlie

Charlie

“I’m sorry, Charlie,” Charlotte says, stroking her thumb over my hand. “I guess it’s harder than I thought to let you in

I look down at our joined hands for a second, then back at her. “Dad might have screwed us up in a lot of ways, Lotty, but he’s hot

here anymore. We’re not those two little kids, we’re not hurt and hungry, fighting for survival in a house that never felt safe.”

Her eyes shine again, and I squeeze her fingers before she can look away.

“I want you to tell me when you’re scared,” I say. “Or when things are hard. I want to be there for you. Even if you do have your

very own Alpha bodyguard now.”

I add the last part right as Blake’s big head appears casually around the doorframe.

He freezes when he realises we have both seen him. Then he disappears again, like he was never there.

Charlotte giggles, and I know from the way her face softens that she knew exactly where he was the entire time.

“I’ll try, okay?” she says.

“That’s all I ask, sis.”

I ruffle her hair, and she shoves my arm away with a scowl that does absolutely nothing to hide the tiny smile pulling at her mout

“Okay,” she says, leaning back into the couch. “So tell me, how

made you get all big brother on me?”

Vere things here? What deeply traumatic shit happened to you tha

I groan and drop my head back against the couch beside her. “It was boring.”

Her eyebrow lifts as she waits for me to give her more.

“Mostly boring,” I correct.

Because it was… Mostly.

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Chapter 222 Just Charlie

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For most of my life, everything has been Charlotte and me, even when we were fighting, when we were hungry. Even when

pretending she was fine, and I was pretending I believed her.”

Then she left for Munroe, and suddenly it was just me.

Me in Blake’s house. Me at the rink. Me sitting at breakfast with people who were kind to me because they wanted to be, not

because they had to be.

It should have felt easy, but instead, it felt like standing in a room after the music cuts out and realising you do not know wh

do with your hands.

“Oh?” Charlotte says, her eyes narrowing. “Do tell me more.”

“I have absolutely no intention of doing that.”

“Charlie.”

“Nope.”

Then my phone buzzes, and I pull it from my pocket on autopilot.

“Charlie!” Charlotte gasps as she leans over.

I look down to where Jessica’s name glows on the screen, and Charlotte points at my phone with her mouth hanging wide open. “Is

that my Jessica?”

I lock the screen and tuck it against my chest. “Okay, look. I know what you’re going to say.”

“Do you?” she asks with a smirk that is pure evil.

Yeah, I think I do. Because I’ve thought about every possible way this conversation could go since I went on a date with her friend

and then texted her every day after that.

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Chapter 222 Just Charlie

That is… not the reaction I expected.

I look down at my phone again, even though I cannot see the message now. “It’s not a big thing.”

“Sure,” she says, clearly not believing me.

“It’s not.”

“Right,” Charlotte says playfully, but then she shifts sideways to face me properly. “Just don’t hurt her.”

“I won’t.”

$

“I mean it. I’ll keep being her friend, and it will be awkward as hell when I have to be team girl and dip your toothbrush in the

toilet or something.”

I stare at her. “That is disgusting.”

“That is sisterhood.” She pats my leg.

I shake my head, but I can’t stop smiling at the fact that she’s actually okay with this. “You’d really pick her side?”

“If you were an idiot? Absolutely.” She nudges my knee with hers. “Charlie.” Her voice softens. “I’m serious. You deserve something

good too.”

I want to shrug it off. Make a joke. Tell her it is nothing. But it’s not nothing.

Since we came to Wellington, there is finally something in my life that doesn’t belong to abuse or survival. Jessica talks to me like

I’m just Charlie, not the poor kid with the drunk father, or Charlotte’s twin, or the guy everyone feels a little sorry for. With her, I’m

just Charlie, and I like that more than I know what to do with.

My phone buzzes again, and Charlotte grins as I pull it out. “If you read over my shoulder again, I’m throwing you out the window.”

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