Chapter 17:

Sorry for the delay in update, hope this one's okay... Please review and let me know what you think!

CHARLIE'S P.O.V

After surprising Brax at Angelo's last night, we ended up in his office for at least an 2 hours. He decided to take me home, and continue on with the night there. I woke up in Brax's bed, I smiled thinking back to last night, before reaching my hand out to find Brax's body and move closer to his certain to be, warm body.

I sat up slightly, when my hand kept touching the freezing cold sheet and failing to find Brax. I sighed getting up and finding my clothes neatly at the end of the bed. Brax must have picked them up for me, when he got up. I noticed his shirt on the floor and reached for that instead.

"Ahh, she surfaces. Morning gorgeous" Brax smiled widely, as I matched his, walking towards him.

"You know I left your clothes on the bed for you.. Not that I'm complaining or anything." He grinned, placing a soft and gentle lingering kiss on my lips.

"mmm, this is more comfortable though." I replied, as he kissed me again. The kiss escalated, as he lifted me onto the bench and stood between my legs.

"You know I could get used to this" I mumbled to Brax, as he began kissing my neck and undoing the buttons on his grey checked shirt, I was wearing at pulling it off me and onto the floor.

He managed to undo all of the buttons and begin bringing it down my shoulders, as Heath opened the door and made his way through.

"OMG" I screamed, as I Brax quickly picked up his shirt and handed it to me, me fumbled to put the shirt back on and cover myself up. Brax then stood in front of me, helping to shield me from his view. "Heath, what the hell are you doing here?" He asked angrily.

"Umm, I live here. What do you think dumb arse?" He replied quickly, grinned widely.

"No shit Sherlock. I mean, you told me this morning, you were going to surf most of the morning, then going and see Bianca in the afternoon. What the hell?" Brax asked, his voice, reeking sarcasm, yelling slightly.

"Sorry, did I interrupt something? How are ya by the way Buckton?" He asked, moving his head to the side, to try and get a peek at me. I didn't reply, instead keeping my head bowed, as Brax thankfully continued to stand in front of me.

"Heath, just get out of here."

"I might go and see Bianca, then come back here and crash. I tell ya' mate, the girls got a set of lungs on her, kept me up, all friggin' night." He laughed, dumping his surfboard out the back, and walking back out the front door."

I looked at Brax, as he watched the front door intently for a few seconds, then slowly turned around and faced me. I could feel the rush of blood, get more intense on my face, as he looked at me.

He pulled my in and hugged me tightly. "I'm going to go home and get ready for my shift later." I mumbled, into his chest.

"Charlie, he's gone now, you don't have to go. Your shift doesn't start for like another two hours or something…"

"Heath's ruined the mood. It was so embarrassing, your brother caught me half naked."

"Don't worry about it, he doesn't care. Heath does that, he messes with people. That's his aim- to get to you, and like you said embarrass them. Don't let him succeed. I'm annoyed that he interrupted us yes, but I was kissing my beautiful girlfriend, that's what people that are in relationships do, it's totally normal."

"I suppose" I bit my lip trying not to smile as Brax looked at me, intently.

"You suppose, huh?" He grinned, leaning in and kissing me deeply, only pulling away, because he needed to breathe.

"Alright fine, it's still embarrassing though, but I get what your saying. I love you."

"I love you too. How about….. we take a shower then I drop you off at you place to get ready for work?"

"Sounds nice. I can't promise this shower is going to be completely innocent though"

"I wasn't expecting it to be." He grinned back. I raised my eyebrows, slapping his chest lightly.

"Owwww, that's going to bruise you know." He said, clutching his chest and putting on a mock hurt expression."

"Stop it, luckily your hot though." I added in, as he lifted me up and carried me towards the bathroom.

Brax dropped me home reluctantly, so I could get ready for work. I walked into the diner an hour later, but still I was early to get my usual coffee to help me focus before I head off to work.

"Ahh, Sergeant Buckton. What would you like?"

"Could I just grab a flat white please Colleen?" I asked, as she nodded her head and turned to the coffee machine to begin making it.

"Hey Casey, how you doing?" I asked smiling, as he walked through the diner.

"Not bad thanks Charlie. I'm actually meeting with friend just over there, so I'll leave you to it." I nodded, as he walked across the room.

I turned back to Colleen, as she had her eyes raised watching Casey. "I don't mind the younger one, but the older two, are trouble I think. I'd be able to sleep better, I think if I knew one of them wasn't involved with a leading police officer."

I rolled my eyes at her. "Thanks for your input Colleen. My relationship with Brax, has never affected my work, nor will I ever let it." I told her, taking my coffee and handing her a 5 dollar note. "Keep the change" I added, as I walked out running my hand over my face. "Ohh" I screamed lightly to look up to see a tall surfie looking guy in front of me, with my coffee all over his shirt.

"OMG, I'm so sorry."

He laughed slightly, before looking at me quizzically. "C….harlie" He asked, with confused looking eyes.

"Mitch..." I said shocked. "Not only have I spilt my coffee all over you, but on my new next door neighbour. God I'm sure I've made a great first impression."

"Trust me, it's okay.. Don't worry about it, you've made a great first expression." He told me, while staring into my eyes, smiling for a few seconds, before we both looked away, awkwardly.

"Let me buy you lunch or something please?" I asked hoping he would accept.

"Well I'm certainly not going to pass up an opportunity for lunch with you." He smiled as I turned back around and walked into the diner and found a table.

"So you surf, yeah?" I asked him curiously

"Yeah I love to get out there. I used to do it professionally but I had to retire because I broke my leg. It's getting better it's only in the last month I've gotten back out in the water. I got to tour the world and go to some pretty awesome places like Hawaii with my team partner Mick Fanning."

"Mick Fanning? You were team mates with Mick Fanning? I hear Brax talk about whoever that is all the time…"

"Who's Brax?"

"My boyfriend. He's a massive surfing fan. He and his brothers are constantly out there, whenever they have a spare minute."

"Ahh Sergeant Buckton, glad to see you are still here. You two are looking cosy, the special today is the chocolate cake. What say I get you two some of that with one spoon?" She asked with her notepad out.

We couldn't help but laugh. "We'll just get 2 chicken burgers please" She nodded before turning around and waddling off.

"She thinks were together Charlie" Mitch laughed, leaning in closely and whispering it in my ear as she cleaned the table beside us trying to listen to our conversation.

"She is the town gossiper. Seriously what you had for breakfast isn't even safe with her. I literally just had a conversation with her about Brax…" I told him giggling. I made the mistake of looking at her and she gave me a disapproving look.

"Here are your burgers." Colleen said, handing them to us.

"Thank you very much Mrs Smart" Mitch replied getting up. "I might go and eat this outside.

"I'll follow you." I told him needing to go to work and get out of the watchful eye of Colleen.

BRAX'S P.O.V

I looked up to see Roo walking into Angelo's. The place was pretty quiet, so I greeted each customer that came in. "Hey Roo, what can I get you?" I asked her.

"I've just come to pick up a couple of pizzas I ordered for dinner." she smiled as I grabbed them and walked to the register putting the payment through.

"Hey I'm sorry to hear about you and Charlie. You two seemed pretty happy together."

"Okay thanks I think…. I kind of have no idea what your talking about?" I asked her, laughing slightly.

"Colleen said she saw Charlie with another guy at lunch. I just assumed you guys weren't seeing each other any more.. and I'll leave you to it. Forget I said anything." She said awkwardly, turning and quickly exiting the restaurant with her pizzas, not saying any more.

I shook my head, trying to work out what she was talking about. I knew Charlie was at work, the diner was only 2 minutes walk away, so I went to go and find Colleen and find out what was going on.

"I like Charlie's new male friend a lot more than her previous choices." She said looking at me with narrow eyes. "She seems very close to him already, they were whispering and everything. Madge and I were talking about it earlier, he looks like quite a gentleman as well." I nodded silently. I didn't know what to think and didn't really want to talk to her any more about mine and Charlie's relationship.

Even though Charlie was at work, I wanted to get this sorted out. "Hey Charlie, can you meet me at the beach in 10? It won't take long I don't think."

Virtually as soon as I put my phone on the counter, it vibrated with her response.
"Sure, see you in a bit xx"

I headed straight from the diner and headed down to the beach. I waiter a couple of minutes before I noticed Charlie strolling towards me. "Hey what's up?" She asked kissing my cheek. I pulled away quickly and looked at her…

"Um, has something happened between us?"

"Last time I checked no I do remember having a very very good morning though… Anyway that's random, why do you ask?" She laughed quietly.

"You know Charlie, it wasn't too long ago, you were accusing me of cheating and telling me how wrong it is. You're an absolute hypocrite." I told her blankly.

"Brax, I don't know what you've seen or whatever but I can assure you I'm not cheating."

"And I'm just supposed to believe that am I?"

"Why wouldn't you? The only person I am remotely interested in is you. You're the one that I love. Where is all this coming from?"

"Save it Charlie, don't play dumb with me. I thought you and I had something pretty good. I muttered, walking away from her angrily. I heard her call out my name and run up to me. I just ignored her and kept walking.

CHARLIE'S P.O.V

By now I was extremely confused about whatever Brax had got into his head. I waited a restless hour, before walking into Angelo's, knowing exactly what he'd be doing. He wasn't in the main area of the restaurant. I walked towards his office and saw him sitting at his desk, from the gap between the blinds. "Brax" I whispered softly walking in.

"Save it Charlie. I don't have anything else to say." He responded in a blank and harsh tone.

"Sorry but that's not going to happen. Remember how frustrating it was for you, when you had to convince me you weren't seeing anyone else? Well that's exactly how I feel right now. Seriously I don't know what you've seen, but I can assure you it's not what you think."

"Well it's a bit hard to justify yourself, when two people agree. Colleen and one of her friends reckon you were on a date this morning" He said, pouring another drink into his cup in front of him.

I rolled my eyes and laughed a little, realising immediately what he was talking about. "Brax I was at the diner this morning with someone yes. My new next door neighbour Mitch."

"Oh great, the good old neighbour fling. Must make it easier to sneak around." He muttered quietly

"I'll ignore that comment. Seriously why would I want anyone else when I've got you? I love you and you are the one that makes me happy. I spilt coffee on him when I was walking out, so I brought him lunch as a sorry. He wanted to get to know me better, so I had a conversation with him, we had a few laughs. That was literally it"

"So how does Colleen get that idea then"

"I don't know. She looks for drama and something to talk about, that what she craves. We were laughing a lot maybe it looked more than that to someone that doesn't know me what so ever. "Brax, I couldn't do that to you. I love you.. You know the good times we have together."

"Oh trust me I know" He mumbled, before standing up and walking over to his filling cabinet. He bent down to the very bottom draw, and undid the lock with the key. I watched as he pulled out my blue lacy bra I was wearing the night before when we ended up in his office together.

I felt my face go red, as I looked up at his grin as he handed it back to me. "Well this is embarrassing. I was wondering where I left it, because I couldn't find it when I went to get dressed this morning."

I saw a small smile cover his face, as he came and hugged me tightly. "I'm sorry" He whispered into my shoulder. "I can't help but get jealous and angry when I hear those stories. Of course other guys are going to like you, your absolutely gorgeous."

"I feel exactly the same way when I see you with all these beautiful girls at the bar. We have to learn to trust each other."

"I promise I wouldn't even consider another girl when I've got you."

"Same. I've got you."

"Good"

"Good" He replied, leaning in and kissing me deeply.