Author's Note: Charlotte's here! I really liked her growing up and she's easily one of my favorite clients (I could relate to her) so this was fun. Some light use of OC's coming up likely some more family fics coming up. Also this has been replaced since I realized that I wasn't going to do all the Pike kids and wanted to put a little more emphasis on Charlotte's and Byron's relationship since I wouldn't have anymore of them coming.
Please review and let me know what you think!
The late summer autumn like feel started to settle in Stoneybrook. There was a certain crispness in the air, but the leaves didn't change nor did sweater weather start. However, she did have a cinnamon stick in her hot chocolate that afternoon. Charlotte Theresa Pike glanced out the library windows. It was t minus fifteen minutes and counting until she was off work. Not that she didn't love her job as head of the children's department, but she was ready to be off.
"Alright I found the stuff for the back to school display," said Scott Hsu, the head of the YA department. The two of them often worked together since the sections were adjacent to each other.
"Perfect, if you want you can start on it," she said glancing at her phone. "I think we have just enough time to make sure we don't need to replace much of it."
With that she found a clean piece of paper off her legal pad and a pen to keep track. Scott pulled out info about homeschooling and other paperwork. They worked diligently on it before clocking out for the day. Charlotte had to leave with their assistant helping him finish since she wasn't closing the library.
When she got home, she could hear the squeals, shouts, and a loud woof barreling toward her. Twizzler their dog jumped on her leg. The twins Autumn and Amelia toddler toward her and Gavin running at her with a paper in his hand. Something smelled heavenly coming from the kitchen.
"I have my first field trip coming up," said Gavin showing her the paper. He had just gone and visited his teacher who had given them all kinds of paperwork to fill out before classes even started. "Can you be the room parent?"
"I might be able to sweetie, let me settle in first," said Charlotte laughing and kicked off her shoes.
Whatever that smell was made her stomach grumble as she headed into the kitchen. It was quite impressive according to her parents. Byron had invested a lot to get the perfect kitchen and it showed. An array of cooking supplies that make their house the best for parties. They had everything from an air fryer, two types of grills, a food processor and more. They never ate out apart from the time when they were dating.
He grinned at her and winked. His hands busy coating what looked like chicken with a mixture of spices. Charlotte grabbed herself a glass and started to set the table after settling the kids down in front of an episode of the Muppet Babies. Finally plopping down on a chair facing the kitchen.
"It's chicken parmesan tonight," said Byron.
"Oh good, it smells amazing."
Twizzler had settled down next to the counter to catch anything that he might have dropped. She laughed remembering that her dog she had growing up, Carrot, would do the same thing. Charlotte's eyes settled on a box that was sitting at the foot of the steps that she assumed would go upstairs. It wasn't there earlier.
"What's in that box?"
"My mom dropped it off, she's been doing a lot of cleaning I think it's some of my old stuff."
Curiosity got the better of her and went to open it. When she moved out of her parents' house, everything that she ever owned came with her. The only thing that stayed was old toys and whatever she didn't want. On the very top was old comic books and some Hardy Boy books. Below that copies of Stoneybrook High's newspapers. Byron used to run a march madness based on the high schools in the area for the school paper. Which was the opposite of her hatred of sports.
"Nothing fun," she said teasing him. "Although we could add the books to the family library."
"Hey there's an old soccer jersey from when I was little," he said peering over. "I'll put that next to the trophies. Anyway, there's an empty decorative box that we used to put some magazines in. Maybe the comics can go in there? By the way dinner is done."
Eagerly she headed toward the table and helped him dibby the food out. The vegetable was grilled asparagus. Their fruit (and desert!) was the apple cobbler that she could smell wafting from inside the oven.
"What's in the box?" asked Gavin who had taken his seat. She was settling Amelia and Autumn into their high chairs, thankfully without a struggle this time.
"Some stuff from when I was little,' said Byron. "Like my soccer and little league jerseries and books and other stuff."
"Do you have anything like that mommy?"
Gavin had turned to look at her and Charlotte shook her head.
"Everything I had from when I was little is here or at grandma's," she said. "I can show you some of my pictures after dinner."
"Neat," he said already chowing down on the chicken that she had cut up for him.
Dinner went quickly and uneventfully as she showed Gavin some of her pictures. None of them were really sports related like Byron's but she had some awards from school. The picture when she got her master's degree. There was a picture of her friends at middle school graduation. Part of her wondered what happened to Haley, they had stopped being friends around the middle of freshman year.
With the books from Byron's box of stuff she headed toward the den. Between the two of them they had a sizable collection of books throughout the years. Her most recent acquisition was a limited-edition copy of the first Nancy Drew book. Humming to herself, Charlotte stacked them on the den's shelf when her cell phone went off.
Glancing at the phone, she practically squealed seeing the name Stacey on the other end. Quietly she left the den and sat at the bottom of the steps keeping an eye on everything.
"Hi Stace," she said picking up the phone.
"Charlotte!" said the voice of the perky blond. "How are you? I'm calling from London England; my husband has a business associate that just got married. I wanna bring you guys something back since we're going to see each other next month. My family is making it a vacation before school starts. Anyway, I found something for everyone, and I wanted to make sure you didn't have this."
Stacey paused being dramatic and Charlotte just shook her head but grinned.
"Well what did you get?"
"You don't happen to have a full collection of Jane Austen books do you?"
"No, Stacey!"
She was giddy she had to admit while Stacey told her all about being in London. Charlotte could only tell her about her experiences in Rome when she was in Europe. It was nice to catch up with her almost sister. She told her about her trip and how the wedding went (fabulous) and then they'll be back in by the end of August. Charlotte telling her about how work was and that they were going to New York for one last vacation.
After their chat Charlotte sat back on the steps and peered over at the kids. They were enraptured in whatever Miss Piggy and her friends were doing.
"Alright guys it's time to head to bed," said Charlotte picking up Amelia from her spot.
The small girl wiggled nearly crying at the thought.
"Can you read me a story?" asked Gavin already sleepy.
"Of course, honey."
Byron held Autumn and headed up the steps changing them and getting them settled in for the night. Twizzler made himself comfortable at the foot of Gavin's bed Charlotte had changed into her own pajamas despite it being around seven already.
A copy of The Cricket in Time's Square propped up in front of them. Despite all of the books that she read over the years; this one was still her favorite. Her voice changing for each of the characters until her son was fast asleep next to her.
From the doorway Byron smiled listening to the story himself.
She kissed Gavin's head and then gently shut the door behind him. Thankfully it had been easy to put them down to sleep already.
"Hear that," said Byron. "Quiet."
"Exactly, maybe we could display that jersey that you wanted," she said absentmindedly thinking of the books next to her bed she could finish next.
"I think I have a better idea."
He had pulled her close and kissed her cheek and down her jaw line to her lips and held it there leaving her breathless. His hands pulled her waist close to him as she giggled.
"Okay we could do that," she said flushing.
With that they scurried off to their bedroom to have some more fun themselves. It had been a rather productive day, she thought, unable to stop kissing her husband.
