favor

It was only a little while later that Edward reminded me of life outside our new home.

"Are you ready for mybirthday gift for you?" He smiled.

"That wasn't it?" I teased. But I sighed. "I suppose we should go make an appearance at least, right?"

He smiled, "Go get dressed, love."

"Okay," I probably looked like a cartoon, the way I sprung up, then looked back at him—his diamond body faintly glinting in the diffused light—then looked away to the west, where our family waited, then back at him again, then back toward the big house, my head whipping from side to side a half dozen times in a second. Edward laughed.

"It's all about balance, love. You're so good at all this, I don't imagine it will take too long for you to find that balance."

"And we have all night, right?"

He smiled wider. "Do you think I could bear to let you get dressed now if that weren't the case?"

That would have to be enough to get me through the daylight hours. I would balance this overwhelming, devastating desire with real life—as real as life could be given the circumstances.

I didn't even pause at the ornately carved double doors to catch my breath before finding out what Alice had done. I just burst through, intent on wearing the first things I touched. I should have known it wouldn't be that easy.

"Which ones are mine?" I hissed. As promised, the room was bigger than our bedroom. It might have been bigger than the rest of the house put together, but I'd have to pace it off to be positive. I had a brief mental flash of Alice trying to persuade Esme to ignore classic proportions and allow this monstrosity. I wondered how Alice had won that one.

Everything was wrapped in garment bags, pristine and white, row after row after row.

"To the best of my knowledge, everything but this rack here"—he touched a bar that stretched along the half-wall to the left of the door—"is yours."

"All of this?"

He shrugged.

"Alice," we said together then laughed.

"Alright," I muttered, and I pulled down the zipper on the closest bag. I sighed in exasperation when I saw the silk suit inside—baby blue, no less.

Finding something normal to wear could take all day.

"Let me help," Edward offered. He sniffed carefully at the air and then followed some scent to the back of the long room. There was a built-in dresser there. He sniffed again, then opened a drawer. With a triumphant grin, he held out a pair of artfully faded blue jeans.

I dashed to his side. "How did you do that?"

"Denim has its own scent just like anything else. Now... stretch cotton?"

He followed his nose to a half-rack, unearthing a long-sleeved white t-shirt. He tossed it to me.

"Thanks," I said fervently. I inhaled each fabric, memorizing the scent for future searches through this madhouse. I remembered silk and satin; I wouldn't much need those.

It only took him seconds to find his own clothes—if I hadn't seen him undressed, I would have sworn there was nothing more beautiful than Edward in his own jeans and white button up shirt—and then he took my hand. We darted through the hidden garden, leaped lightly over the stone wall, and hit the forest at a dead sprint. I pulled my hand free so that we could race back. He beat me this time.

Royal and Emmett were sitting at the table, talking quietly to each other. Alice, Jasper, Esme, and Carlisle were sitting on the couch, in a much deeper conversation.

"Good morning," I called as Edward and I walked into the room.

"Well, well, well," Emmett grinned. "Look who actually showed up."

"We weren't expecting you today," Royal said, sounding surprised. Then he bit his lip and looked away, trying not to laugh. I could see Emmett starting to shake with silent laughter, sending vibrations through the foundations of the house.

I kept my chin high, "Esme, thank you. So much. The house is absolutely perfect."

Esme beamed, "I'm glad you like it." She sighed, "I wish I had been able to figure out something to do with that extra room, though."

"About that," I grinned. "We were thinking maybe a kitchen?"

Esme's eyes lit up with excitement, but before she could respond, Emmett was laughing again—it wasn't silent this time.

"So the house is still standing?" he managed to get out between his snickers. "I would've thought you two had knocked it to rubble by now. What were you doing last night? Discussing the national debt?" He howled with laughter.

I glared at him but focused on keeping calm. I had better things to do than lose my temper at Emmett. Of course, Emmett wasn't as breakable as some of my friends.

Speaking of, "Where're the boys today?" I glanced out the window wall, but there had been no sign of Liam or Seth on the way in.

"Jacob took off this morning pretty early," Royal told me, a little frown creasing his forehead. "Seth followed him out."

"What was so urgent?" Edward asked. There must have been more in Royal's memory than I'd seen in his expression.

"I don't know," Royal shrugged. "He woke up this morning and seemed like he had a lot on his mind—just sitting there with his mouth hanging open like the moron he is, and then he just jumped to his feet without any kind of trigger—that I noticed, anyway—and rushed out. Iwas glad to be rid of him. The more time he spends here, the less chance there is that we'll ever get the smell out."

"Roy," Esme chided gently.

Royal ran a hand through his hair. "I suppose it doesn't matter. We won't be here that much longer."

"I still say we should go straight to New Hampshire and get things set up," Emmett said, obviously continuing an earlier conversation. "Beau's already registered at Dartmouth. Doesn't look like it will take him all that long to be able to handle school." He turned to look at me with a teasing grin. "I'm sure you'll ace your classes... apparently there's nothing interesting for you to do at night besides study."

Royal giggled.

Do not lose your temper, do not lose your temper, I chanted to myself. And then I was proud of myself for keeping my head.

So I was pretty surprised that Edward didn't.

He growled—an abrupt, shocking rasp of sound—and the blackest fury rolled across his expression like storm clouds.

Before any of us could respond, Alice was on her feet.

"What is he doing? What is that dog doing that has erased my schedule for the entire day? I can't see anything! No!" She shot me a tortured glance. "Look at you! You need me to show you how to use your closet."

For one second I was grateful for whatever Jacob was up to.

And then Edward's hands balled up into fists and he snarled, "He talked to Charlie. He thinks Charlie is following after him. Coming here. Today."

Alice said a word that sounded very odd in her trilling, ladylike voice, and then she blurred into motion, streaking out the back door.

"He told Charlie?" I gasped. "But—doesn't he understand? How could he do that?" Charlie couldn't know about me! About vampires! That would put him on a hit list that even the Cullens couldn't save him from. "No!"

Edward spoke through his teeth. "Jacob's on his way in now."

It must have started raining farther east. Jacob came through the door shaking his wet hair like a dog, flipping droplets on the carpet and the couch where they made little round gray spots on the white. His teeth glinted against his dark lips; his eyes were bright and excited. He walked with jerky movements, like he was all hyped-up about destroying my father's life.

"Hey, guys," he greeted us, grinning. It was perfectly silent.

Liam and Seth slipped in behind him, in their human forms—for now; both of their hands were trembling with the tension in the room.

"Edward," his name came through my clenched teeth. Wordlessly, Edward came up behind me and placed both hands on my shoulders; half-comfort and half keeping me in place in case I should lose my temper and decide to throw Jacob through the glass wall.

"Charlie'll be here soon," Jacob said to me casually. "Just a heads-up. I assume Alice is getting some bronzer or something for you?"

"You assume waytoo much," I hissed. "What. Have. You. Done?"

Jacob's smile wavered, but he was still too wound up to answer seriously. "Blondie and Emmett woke me up this morning going on and on about you all moving cross-country. Like I could let you leave. Charlie was the biggest issue here, right? Well, problem solved."

"Do you even realize what you've done? The danger you've put him in?"

He snorted. "I didn't put him in danger. Except from you. But you've got some kind of supernatural self-control, right? Not as good as mind reading, if you ask me. Much less exciting."

Edward moved then, darting in front of me to get in Jacob's face. Though he was half a head shorter than Jacob, Jacob leaned away from his staggering anger as if Edward towered over him.

"That's just a theory, mongrel," he snarled. "You think we should test it out on Charlie? Did you consider the physical pain you're putting Beau through, even if he can resist? Or the emotional pain if he doesn't? I suppose what happens to Beau no longer concerns you!" He spit the last word.

Edward's words finally cut through Jacob's strangely electric mood. His mouth dropped into a frown. "Beau will be in pain?"

"Like you've shoved a white-hot branding iron down his throat!"

I felt like he was layering things on a little heavy now. I remembered back to the hiker in the woods, the pain hadn't been thatbad.

"I didn't know that," Jacob whispered.

"Then perhaps you should have asked first," Edward growled back through his teeth.

"You would have stopped me."

"You should have been stopped—"

"This isn't about me," I interrupted. I stood very still, keeping my hold sanity. "This is about Charlie, Jacob. How could you put him in danger this way? Do you realize it's death or vampire life for him now, too?" My voice trembled and I was surprised that tears still formed in my eyes.

Jacob was still troubled by Edward's accusations, but mine didn't seem to bother him. "Relax, Beau. I didn't tell him anything you weren't planning to tell him."

"But he's coming here!"

"Yeah, that's the idea. Wasn't the whole 'let him make the wrong assumptions' thing your plan? I think I provided a very nice red herring, if I do say so myself."

My hands tensed at my side. "Say it straight, Jacob. I don't have the patience for this."

"I didn't tell him anything about you, Beau. Not really. I told him about me. Well, show is probably a better verb."

"He phased in front of Charlie," Edward hissed.

I whispered, "You what?"

"He's brave. Brave as you are. Didn't pass out or throw up or anything. I gotta say, I was impressed. You should've seen his face when I started taking my clothes off, though. Priceless," Jacob chortled.

"You absolute moron! You could have given him a heart attack!"

"Charlie's fine. He's tough. If you'd give this just a minute, you'll see that I did you a

favor here."

"You have half of that, Jacob." My voice was flat and steely. "You have thirty seconds to tell me every single word before I throw you through the wall."

"Jeez, babe. You didn't used to be so melodramatic. Is that the vampire side of you?"

"Twenty-six seconds."

Jacob sighed and shifted awkwardly. Seth and Liam seemed to move slightly with him; Liam's eyes were on me, his teeth slightly bared.

"So I knocked on Charlie's door this morning and asked him to come for a walk with me. He was confused, but when I told him it was about you and that you were back in town, he followed me out to the woods. I told him you weren't sick anymore, and that things were a little weird, but good. He was about to take off to see you, but I told him I had to show him something first. And then I phased." Jacob shrugged.

My teeth felt like a vise was pushing them together. "I want every word, Jacob."

"Well, you said I only had thirty seconds—okay, okay." My expression must have convinced him that I wasn't in the mood for teasing. "Lemme see... I phased back and got dressed, and then after he started breathing again, I said something like, 'Charlie, you don't live in the world you thought you lived in. The good news is, nothing has changed—except that now you know. Life'll go on the same way it always has. You can go right back to pretending that you don't believe any of this.'

"It took him a minute to get his head together, and then he wanted to know what was really going on with you, with the whole rare-disease thing. I told him that you had been sick, but you were fine now—it was just that you'd had to change a little bit in the process of getting better. He wanted to know what I meant by 'change,' and I told him that you looked a lot more like Carlisle now than you looked like him."

Edward hissed while I stared in horror; this was headed in a dangerous direction.

"After a few minutes, he asked, real quietly, if you turned into an animal, too. And I said, 'Beau wishes he was that cool!'" Jacob chuckled.

Royal made a noise of disgust.

"I started to tell him more about werewolves, but I didn't even get the whole word out —Charlie cut me off and said he'd 'rather not know the specifics.' Then he asked if you'd known what you were getting yourself into when you married Edward, and I said, 'Sure, Beau's known all about this for years, since he first came to Forks.' He didn't like that very much. I let him rant till he got it out of his system. After he got calmed down, he just wanted two things. He wanted to see you, and I said it would be better if he gave me a head start to explain."

I inhaled deeply. "What was the other thing he wanted?"

Jacob smiled. "You'll like this. His main request is that he be told as little as possible about all of this. If it's not absolutely essential for him to know something, then keep it to yourself. Need to know, only."

I felt relief for the first time since Jacob had walked in. "I can handle that part."

"Other than that, he'd just like to pretend things are normal." Jacob's smile turned smug; he must suspect that I would be starting to feel the first faint stirrings of gratitude about now.

I struggled to maintain my serious expression, fighting the reluctant appreciation. It was premature. There was still so much wrong with this situation. Even if Jacob's intervention had brought out a better reaction in Charlie than I'd ever hoped for...

Jacob seemed to sense I was still angry at him. He walked past Edward and right up to me, waving Liam and Seth off when they started to follow him. He looked at my eyes, his expression showing more repentance than before. "Beau," he began in a soft voice. "I guess it doesn't help much if I say this was supposed to be my birthday present to you?"

I couldn't help but let a slightly maniacal laugh escape my lips. "Birthday present? Really, Jacob?"

He sighed. "Everyone was talking about leaving, and I could tell you were really upset yesterday talking about Charlie—about not seeing him and missing him. I wanted to fix it for you, Beau."

He stared at me with half a smile, waiting.

"I'm not going to say thank you," I told him. "You're still putting Charlie at a huge risk."

"I amsorry about it hurting you. I didn't know it was like that. Beau, things are different with us now, but you'll always be my best friend, and I'll always love you."

From behind Jacob, I could see Liam tense in an odd way, I made a note of it in the back of my head to try and analyze it when I wasn't so occupied.

Jacob continued, "But I'll love you the right way now. As your friend." He smiled his very most Jacob-y smile. "If we're still friends?"

Try as hard as I could to resist, I had to smile back. Just a tiny smile.

He held out his hand: an offer.

I took a deep breath and put my left hand in his. "If I don't kill Charlie tonight, I'll consider forgiving you for this."

"Whenyou don't kill Charlie tonight, you'll owe me huge."

I rolled my eyes.

Alice raced back through the door then, her hands full and her expression promising violence.

"You, you, and you," she snapped, glaring at the werewolves. "If you must stay, get over in the corner and commit to being there for a while. I need to see. Beau, I need you over here with me."

Undiluted fear ripped through my stomach as the enormity of what I was about to do hit me. I was going to gamble on my iffy self-control with my pure human father as the guinea pig. Edward's earlier words crashed in my ears again.

Did you consider the physical pain you're putting Beau through, even if he can resist? Or the emotional pain if he doesn't?

I couldn't imagine the pain of failure. My breathing turned to gasps. "Coming," I gasped out.

Jacob frowned, concern wrinkling his forehead. He gestured to the others, and they all went to the far corner of the room. Seth and Jake slouched on the floor at once, but Liam shook his head and pursed his lips.

"Am I allowed to leave?" he griped. He looked uncomfortable in his human body, wearing the same dirty t-shirt and cotton shorts he'd worn to yell at me the other day, his short hair sticking up in irregular tufts. his hands were still shaking.

"Of course," Jake said.

"Stay east so you don't cross Charlie's path," Alice added.

Liam didn't look at Alice; he ducked out the back door and stomped into the bushes to phase.

Edward was back at my side, stroking my face. "You can do this. I know you can. I'll help you; we all will."

I met Edward's eyes with panic screaming from my face. Was he strong enough to stop me if I made a wrong move?

"If I didn't believe you could handle it, we'd disappear today. This very minute. But you can. And you'll be happier if you can have Charlie in your life."

I tried to slow my breathing.

Alice held up a round compact and a make up brush, "Thankfully your eyes aren't toomuch of a problem. I did have some contacts prepared just in case, though."

"When did you—"

"Before you left on the honeymoon. I was prepared for several possible futures. Now hold still and close your eyes."

I nodded, closing my eyes. I heard the pop of the compact opening, I could smell some sort of makeup product inside it. Alice was brushing it on my face in lightning quick motions.

"There," she said, "Open your eyes and tell me what you think."

When I opened my eyes, she was holding the compact open towards me. It was a lightly colored powder of some sort with a small round mirror in the top half of the compact. She had warmed up my pale skin with the makeup.

 "How do I look?" I asked Edward, the makeup felt strange on my skin. I had never worn makeup in my human life, but I imagined it didn't feel as strange on the skin as it did now.

Edward smiled. "You look gorgeous. Of course—"

"Yes, yes, he always looks gorgeous," Alice finished his thought impatiently. "You're not as pale as us, but you're still paler than you used to be. Be sure you don't wipe it off, I imagine you don't like the feel of it. If you do, excuse yourself to the downstairs bathroom for a touch up. Which might be a good idea anyway, because humans need bathroom breaks." She shook her head. "Esme, give him a few pointers on acting human while I put this in the powder room."

"How long do I have?"

"Charlie will be here in five minutes. Keep it simple."

Esme nodded once and came to take my hand. "The main thing is not to sit too still or move too fast," she told me.

"Sit down if he does," Emmett interjected. "Humans don't like to just stand there."

"Let your eyes wander every thirty seconds or so," Jasper added. "Humans don't stare at one thing for too long."

"Cross your legs for about five minutes, then switch to the other leg for the next five," Royal said.

I nodded once at each suggestion. I'd noticed them doing some of these things yesterday. I thought I could mimic their actions.

"And blink at least three times a minute," Emmett said. He frowned, then darted to where the television remote sat on the end table. He flipped the TV on to a college football game and nodded to himself.

"Move your hands, too. Brush your hair back or pretend to scratch something," Jasper said.

"I said Esme," Alice complained as she returned. "You'll overwhelm him."

"No, I think I got it all," I said. "Sit, look around, blink, fidget."

"Right," Esme approved. She hugged my shoulders.

Jasper frowned. "You'll be holding your breath as much as possible, but you need to move your shoulders a little to make it looklike you're breathing."

I inhaled once and then nodded again.

Edward hugged me on my free side. "You can do this," he repeated, murmuring the encouragement in my ear.

"Two minutes," Alice said. "Maybe you should start out already on the couch. You've been sick, after all. That way he won't have to see you move right at first."

Alice pulled me to the sofa. I tried to move slowly, to make my limbs more clumsy. She rolled her eyes, so I must not have been doing a good job.

"Do better." Alice commanded.

Edward took a seat beside me and put his arms around me. He leaned into me and kissed my neck gently. "You can do this."

"I can do this." I said, but it sounded wrong.

Jacob chuckled.

"Maybe you should leave, Jacob," Edward said coldly, glaring in his direction. Edward hadn't forgiven Jacob, because Edward only knew how bad the burning of thirst was from his perspective and as far as he knew I would be suffering terribly.

"I told Charlie I'd be here," Jacob said. "He needs moral support."

"Moral support," Edward scoffed. "As far as Charlie knows, you're the most repulsive monster of us all."

"Repulsive?" Jake protested, and then he laughed quietly to himself.

I heard the tires turn off the highway onto the quiet, damp earth of the Cullens' drive, and my breathing spiked again. My heart ought to have been hammering. It made me anxious that it continued it's slow, steady pace—an entirely wrong reaction.

Instead of fighting my new body's natural reactions, I tried to embrace it. I concentrated on the slow, steady thrumming of my heart to calm myself. It worked pretty quickly.

"Well done, Beau," Jasper whispered in approval.

Edward tightened his arm over my shoulders.

"You're sure?" I asked him.

"Positive. You can do anything." He smiled at kissed me.

It wasn't precisely a peck on the lips, and my new, wilder reactions took me off guard yet again. Edward's lips were like a shot of some addictive chemical straight into my nervous system. I was instantly craving more. It took all my concentration to remember the talk at hand.

Jasper felt my mood change. "Er, Edward, you might not want to distract him like that right now. He needs to be able to focus."

Edward pulled away. "Oops," he said.

I laughed. That had been my line from the very beginning, from the very first kiss.

"Later," I said, and anticipation curled my stomach into a ball.

"Focus, Beau," Jasper urged.

"Right." I pushed the trembly feelings away. Charlie, that was the main thing now. Keep Charlie safe today. We would have all night...

"Beau."

"Sorry, Jasper."

Emmett laughed.

I continued to focus on my heartbeat, the more I focused, the more relaxed I got. Then a thought came to the forefront of my mind and I couldn't help but turn to Jacob.

"Jake. You stripped in front of my dad?"

Jacob opened his mouth to speak, then his face darkened with a blush. "I didn't want to ruin my clothes…" he mumbled.

Despite my nervousness, I couldn't help but let out a disbelieving laugh.

The sound of Charlie's cruiser got closer and closer. The second of levity passed, and everyone was still. I crossed my legs and practiced my blinks.

The car pulled in front of the house and idled for a few seconds. I wondered if Charlie was as nervous as I was. Then the engine cut off, and a door slammed. Three steps across the grass, and then eight echoing thuds against the wooden stairs. Four more echoing footsteps across the porch. Then silence. Charlie took two deep breaths.

Knock, knock, knock.

I inhaled for what might be the last time.

Carlisle answered the door. His stressed expression changed to one of welcome, like switching the channel on the TV.

"Hello, Charlie," he said, looking appropriately abashed. After all, we were supposed to be in Atlanta at the Center for Disease Control. Charlie knew he'd been lied to.

"Carlisle," Charlie greeted him stiffly. "Where's Beau?"

"Right here, Dad."

Ugh! My voice was so wrong. Plus, I'd used up some of my air supply. I gulped in a quick refill, glad that Charlie's scent had not saturated the room yet.

Charlie's blank expression told me how off my voice was. His eyes zeroed in on me and widened.

I read the emotions as they scrolled across his face.

Shock. Disbelief. Pain. Loss. Fear. Anger. Suspicion. More pain.

I bit my lip. It felt funny. My new teeth were sharper against my skin than my human teeth had been against my soft human lips.

"Is that you, Beau?" he whispered.

"Yep." I winced at my bell-like voice. "Hi, Dad."

He took a deep breath to steady himself.

"Hey, Charlie," Jacob greeted him from the corner. "How're things?"

Charlie glowered at Jacob once, shuddered at a memory, and then stared at me again.

Slowly, Charlie walked across the room until he was a few feet away from me. He darted an accusing glare at Edward, and then his eyes flickered back to me. The warmth of his body heat beat against me with each pulse of his heart.

"Beau?" he asked again.

I spoke in a lower voice, trying to keep the ring out of it. "It's really me."

His jaw locked.

"I'm sorry, Dad," I said.

"Are you okay?" he demanded.

"Really and truly great," I promised. "Healthy as a horse."

"Jake told me this was… necessary. That you were dying." He said the words like he didn't believe them one bit.

I steeled myself, focused on my steady heart, leaned into Edward for support, and took a deep breath.

Charlie's scent was at first a fistful of flames, punching down my throat. My mind instantly went back to the scent of the anonymous hikers from before. Charlie's blood was just as tempting, and he was only a few feet away.

But it wasn't unbearable. Not as unbearable as I had prepared for.

This was a relief. Edward gave my shoulder a squeeze as he sensed my body relaxed, and Jacob shot a hopeful glance at me across the room.

I collected myself and ignored the pain of the thirst. Charlie was waiting for my answer.

"Jacob was telling you the truth."

"That makes one of you," Charlie growled.

I hoped Charlie could see past the changes in my new face to read the remorse there.

"Dad," I began, but I couldn't think of what to say that would justify how much I had lied to him.

His eyes met mine, and he stared deeply into them for a moment. As he examined my eyes, something in his expression wavered. Of course, my eyes were still mine but they had changed—I had noticed it immediately—they had a surreal luminous quality to them. His eyes wandered from mine to examine the rest of my face—Surely he could see the lack of imperfections.

Charlie started hyperventilating. His lips trembled. He was trying to understand something beyond understanding. Trying to force it to make sense when he didn't have all the information.

Jacob got up and came over to pat Charlie on the back. He leaned in to whisper something in Charlie's ear; only Charlie didn't know we could all hear.

"Need to know, Charlie. It's okay. I promise."

Charlie swallowed and nodded. And then his eyes blazed as he took a step closer to Edward with his fists tightly clenched.

"I don't want to know everything, but I'm done with the lies!"

"I'm sorry," Edward said calmly, "but you only need to know so much. It's to protect Beau, to protect all of us. No more lies, but can you go along with some necessary unknowns? For Beau's sake?"

The room was full of statues. I crossed my legs.

Charlie huffed once and then turned his glare on me. "You might've given me some warning, kid."

"Would it really have made this any easier?"

He frowned, and then he knelt on the floor in front of me. I could see the movement of the blood in his neck under his skin. I could feel the warm vibration of it.

Jacob reached out to pat Charlie's shoulder, subtly pulling Charlie back away from me in the process. "Need to know, Charlie."

Charlie cringed away from the contact.

"Oh, c'mon, Charlie," Jacob groaned. "I'm the same person I've always been. Just pretend this afternoon didn't happen."

The reminder make Charlie's lips go white, but he nodded once. "Just what isyour part in all this, Jake?" he asked. "How much does Billy know? Why are you here?" He narrowed his eyes at Jacob.

"Well, I could tell you all about it—Billy knows absolutely everything—but it involves a lot of stuff about werewo—"

"Ungh!" Charlie protested, covering his ears. "Never mind."

Jacob grinned. "Everything's going to be great, Charlie. Just try to not believe anything you see."

My dad mumbled something unintelligible.

"Woo!" Emmett suddenly boomed in his deep bass. "Go Gators!"

Jacob and Charlie jumped. The rest of us froze.

Charlie recovered, then looked at Emmett over his shoulder. "Florida winning?"

"Just scored the first touchdown," Emmett confirmed. He shot a look in my direction, wagging his eyebrows like a villain in vaudeville. "'Bout time somebody scored around here."

I fought back a growl. In front of Charlie? That was over the line.

But Charlie was beyond noticing innuendos. He took yet another deep breath, sucking the air in like he was trying to pull it down to his toes. I envied him. He lurched to his feet, stepped around Jacob, and half-fell into an open chair. "Well," he sighed, "I guess we should see if they can hold on to the lead."