Waking Charley Vaughan by Elle Botz Page A

anything before.
    “No,” she said, answering my unfinished question. “I explained everything. She thinks Brennan’s my angel,” she said, smiling. “Her exact words were, ‘Baby girl, God sent you an angel with that one right there.’”
    Charley gave Brennan a sweet smile. I knew Charley, and I knew that smile was her way of saying everything she wanted to say to the kind stranger who had tried to help her.
    Brennan blushed. As tall and strong as he was, when he was embarrassed he had an “aww shucks” look about him. He was smiling back at her. Charley didn’t notice, and maybe he didn’t either, but I saw something in that look. It wasn’t love—but it was a look that love could be built from. He cared about her, and he barely knew her.
    Seeing Brennan, a total stranger, look at Charley that way made me angry. I wasn’t angry at him—I was angry at Matt. Matt was the one who was supposed to be looking at Charley that way. Matt was the one who was supposed to love her. Instead, he wasn’t even here. Instead, he had a stand in and didn’t even know it.
    The two of them must have noticed me staring at them because when I finally tuned back into the conversation, they were both looking at me.
    “You okay?” Brennan asked hesitantly.
    “Yeah, I’m fine,” I tried to regain a normal expression, having no idea what my face had looked like a moment before. Then, I realized that Charley had been distracted from the bakery issue. I waited, hoping it would last.
    "Okay,"  Brennan said after a few minutes, "But, I still don't understand your problem, Charley."
    So much for that, I thought.
    "My grandmother was an amazing baker," she started. "She left me some of our family recipes in her will—like trade secret, copyrighted, no-one-knows-but-her-and-her-mother recipes; but when she died, I was too young to do anything with them, so my mom kept them."
    “Okay,” Brennan said encouragingly.
    “Grandma Lylah also left me an inheritance. Enough to open my bakery, and cover most of the expenses for the first three years. She thought if I had enough to make it through those years, it would increase my chances of success,” she explained.
    “That’s awesome,” Brennan said.
    “But, then she added other stipulations,” Charley explained. “She said I couldn’t have the money or the recipes until I went to business school. So I did. I double majored in Business Management and in Marketing. Then, the rules changed again, and I couldn’t have them until I got married. Finally, when Matt proposed, she relented, and let me have everything early, finally allowing me to get things started. Once she gets here, and realizes it’s over between Matt and I, it’s over for me and the bakery, too.” She sounded so sad. So let down.
    I felt horrible. Charley had been dreaming of this the whole time we were in college. She had only become a marketing major because she wanted to market her bakery. Every paper she wrote, every project she did--it had all come back to baking. A few weeks ago, she'd even driven me passed the shop she wanted to buy.
    "The day after Christmas!" she'd exclaimed, "I'm going to buy it!" I hadn't ever seen her that happy--not even after Matt proposed.
    I couldn't believe that I was the reason she wasn't going to get her dream. Her mom had called a few weeks back to cancel her visit. She told Charley that since it was her fault for canceling, she'd just ship Charley the check and the recipes. Now--she was going to be here, and she was going to see there was no more Fiance--and no more bakery.
    "Dammit!" Charley said again.
    "Couldn't you just tell your mom the wedding is still on? She doesn't have to know  the wedding is off yet," Brennan suggested.
    I was starting to feel sick as Charley's expression turned hopeful. She saw my face and hers fell to match mine.
    "Dammit, Sara!" She spat
    "I'm SORRY," I yelled
    "What didn't you tell her?"
    "I'm so so so so sorry, Charley! I was upset. I was just