Part 12

A knock on the door alerted her that morning after. She called in sick to her office as she can't take any chances of seeing the guy again

Thursday means there's a school still so she sent Candy to take Charlie as she waits for her brother to arrive

A tall shadow was seen on her tinted glass door then she sighed. Here comes her saviour, she thought

"Carl!", she announced as she launched herself to hug the gentle giant that is her brother. He's standing 6'-6" but never been intimidating, anywhere but the kitchen

The guy flinched. "Gentle little miss, I know you missed me but isn't that too much?", he said smiling

Carl got a black curly hair not like hers. She thought then that Charlie had his black hair from the two important men in her life, her brother and her dad but the resemblances from Charlie's father has been showing up as time goes by. Then Carl got green eyes and tanned skin from his mother's Italian heritage, very far from her son

They walked towards her living room and she frowned on Carl's movement. He's circulating his left shoulder and massaging it gently

"Am I that heavy?", asked Tin. She crossed her arms frowning still

"You're not. It's just that…. Playing too much with knives I guess", Carl reasoned

"You're right handed!"

The guy smiled down at her. "You're not heavy little miss, I'm just tired. Can you offer something to ease the agony of your favorite brother?", he pleaded, slumping on the couch

"Got a wine on the fridge but it's almost noon"

"That's alright"

"And I have no choice, you're the only brother I got", she said smiling back

She make her way to the kitchen to take two glasses and a wine. Tin has been formulating in her thoughts on how she will drop that bomb to her brother

"So, what's the problem?" Carl asked when she emerged from the kitchen, "I'm worried since last night. You called at 10 but scheduled the meeting at this early? What is going on?"

"I'm sorry, I was disoriented last night", she said then easing herself in the couch. "Carl…."

"What is it? You're killing me!"

She leaned her back on the couch with her arms crossed. She exhaled, "Luke, he's back."

Carl muscular jaw dropped

"And he saw Charlie.", she tugged her hair. "What am I gonna do?!"

"Pray that Luke doesn't want anything to do with Charlie?", Carl offered

"Carl you're not helping, you know Luke's not like that"

"Oh yeah, I forgot. He's just a scandalous cheating motherfucker."

"Carl!", she yelled. Her brother was out of the country that awful day at Robert's home but he knew the story. He planned on hunting Luke the moment his plane landed but their father stopped that. It won't change anything that happened anyways

"You can't stop it. Charlie will be asking about his father soon enough. Question is, how are you going to answer that? Are you going to introduce Luke?"

"Do you think Luke will try to get Charlie from me?", Tin asked instead

He thought of it and replied, "Luke will try to have Charlie that's for sure. You left him in the middle of the scandal. Chances are, he will try to get back on you. He will use Charlie."

Tin winced at her brother's statement

"But", Carl uttered

"But?"

"But he will not succeed. You're the mother and you have the means for Charlie to live a comfortable life"

Christine faced her brother at the couch, "What if he pulled some strings legally to get Charlie." A mother always has the upperhand on that matter legally but the Roberts were richer than them. They can bend rules!

"Are you out of your mind?", he laughed. "Dad will always supports you. I'll support you. Anyways, dad has a lot of strings too. You're offending him"

She smiled at last, "What strings are you gonna pull for me?"

"I only have strings of vegetables to give you", he laughed. He turned to a serious face, "Tin if he did something wrong, don't hesitate to tell me. I'll fucking kill him if he hurt even those little strings of your hair"

Charlie came to the apartment at noon and squealed when he saw Carl. He fired up a lot of stories of his childhood to his uncle and Carl was all ears

"Good thing you're here Carl, at least there's some guy here that can help", Candy said as she helped Carl in changing their lights at their kitchen

"No problem Ms. Candy", he turned to Christine. "You should have called me the moment your light got busted instead of suffering from blurred cooking at night"

"Ok, I'm sorry", Tin said smiling at his brother. She looked at his right formed muscles and good looks. That clean face and muscled jaw dropped a lot of women's panties eversince his teen years. Tin was curious why Frida and him never explored the idea of dating. He was calm, funny…. a keeper. Frida on the otherhand will add some spice to his brother being another crazy one. Though they would be opposite on style as Frida is a jet setter while Carl is always on jeans and polo or chef uniform. But then again, his ex girlfriend is always looking like a doll outside kitchen

"I don't like how you look at me , Christine Thomas", her brother said while washing his hands

"Are you and Susan really have broken up?", she asked

Carl winced at that question. "It's nothing. We already ended things", he said while towelling his hands dry

"But she's back", she insisted

"We're friends and that's it"

Charlie appeared at the kitchen with his toy toothless on his hand. A dragon from a certain movie. Both of them look at him

"Why are you not dating then? It's been two years"

"I'm busy and…"

"And?"

"Nothing"

She smiled, "You know Frida's single and available. The two of you seems promising"

He resembled his eyes to a slit, "No Tin. I'm not interested with your crazy friends." He lifted Charlie, "Nice dragon. What is that?"

"Toothless", Charlie replied

"He seemed to have a group of teeth there", Carl said while he cuddled Charlie. Her heart surge at Carl's love for her Son.

"He doesn't have the first movie, the second one he has. Aunty J and I have the same dragon", Charlie looked up to Carl smiling

"Who's Jay?" Carl asked her and he mouthed 'dating again?' on her so that Charlie's curious ears won't hear it

She waved, "My engineer in the office."

Carl frowned on her, "They said engineers are flirts, be careful"

She almost laughed at that but Charlie looked up at her brother, "What's flirt Uncle Carl?"

Uh oh

Carl covered his own mouth instantly by his big hands then said, "Ahm, it's something only big human do and talked about." Carl looked at her with sorry face but she rolled her eyes in response

She bended towards her son, "Little boy, forget about it for now, huh? That's a bad word actually"

"But why Uncle Carl can talked about that?", Charlie asked

She smiled nervously, "I'll tell grandpa about what he said so grandpa can spanked him, okay? Now go and play there"

"Ouch!", that was Carl because she pinched Carl's cheeks when Charlie turn to run towards the living room

"I told you to guard everything that goes out of your mouth when Charlie's around!"

"Sorry, I'm just concern", Carl explained as he stopped her hands for another pinched

"J's a friend!"

"Most of them are flirts, womanizers and playful, remember that!", Carl hushed

"J's a she! That flirt thing in engineering in general is just urban legend! And there's flirt in architects too!"

Jb's far from being a flirt actually. Maybe playful, but her friend always got that deadpanned looked. It would be funny flirting on that face

"So another crazy friend? Like Frida? Because damn, that girl is already a handful one", Carl said. He never met Jb, but that's common with some of her friends since Carl rarely visit now that he has a restaurant. Then he's been in and out of the country for almost three years to learn a thing or two about cooking.

"Well, she tolerated Frida's craziness but most of the time they were arguing about nothing. You know Frida, she's very competitive on every topic at the face of the planet", she chuckled

"Where are you getting those kinds of friends!", Carl exclaimed