Charity Lawson headed home with her final four men, and faced her toughest decision yet.
She started out in Houston with Aaron and hoped to reinvigorate her early connect with the software salesman.
“I hope we can get back on track of where we were at the beginning of all this,” Charity, 27, said in an on-camera interview, explaining that she considered Aaron a frontrunner before other connections formed.
Aaron, 29, felt anxious about bringing Charity home to meet his parents since he hadn’t brought a woman home in 10 years.
“We haven’t talked about the L-word, love,” the software salesman said to Charity. “I wish we were at that point before meeting my parents, that we were talking about love, but I feel with the date that we had that we can take that leap.”
From there, Charity met Aaron’s parents, brothers and sister-in-law for a meal that included catfish, gumbo, green beans, frog legs and fried lobster. When Aaron spoke to his younger brother Erick, Erick told Aaron he had his “support 100 percent” when it came to moving forward with Charity.
Charity spoke to Aaron’s mom Ethel, who asked the Bachelorette whether she’d accept a proposal from Aaron today.
“Probably not,” Charity admitted. “But my answer would not be in reflection of who Aaron is or where I stand with him. I value what a proposal means, I value saying ‘yes’ and doing it only one time. And so for me, I want to be at a place where I say ‘yes’ to my person, I want to be 100 percent certain.”
Ethel understood that and found Charity “very compassionate, very purposeful and very warm.”
Charity won over Aaron’s dad, too. He called Charity “a keeper” to Aaron, which made Aaron feel good about how the day went.
“Charity fits in like a glove,” Aaron said in an on-camera interview. “Everything felt so right. This is such a special day.”
After leaving his house, Aaron took Charity to a football field and gave her a letterman jacket.
“I can’t deny how I feel,” Aaron said to Charity. “The leap was taken today, and I really feel like I’m falling in love with you.”
Charity hugged Aaron and called their hometown a “perfect day.”
They ended the night dancing on the field dancing to Lauren Alaina’s music, just like they did on their first date.
JOEY’S HOMETOWN
Next, Charity traveled to Collegeville, Pennsylvania to meet Joey and his family. They started the day on the tennis court with Joey, 27, giving Charity a tennis lesson.
When Joey’s Uncle Joe crashed the date, he told the pair they seemed to be “enjoying each others’ company,” but he also thought something might be off with his tennis pro nephew.
“I like Charity,” Joe told the cameras. “She seems fantastic, but something didn’t feel 100 percent with Joey.”
Uncle Joe raised that point with Joey later when they went to his family’s house with Charity. “Are you portraying yourself, or are you portraying somebody that she wants?” Uncle Joe asked Joey.
Joey felt “very confident” that he had been himself throughout the journey.
Still, Uncle Joe reiterated the concern to Charity when they spoke privately. “He oftentimes is trying to be somebody I want him to be,” Uncle Joe said, adding that he “got a vibe” like that on the tennis court earlier in the day.
Uncle Joe then asked Charity how confident she felt that she had the “genuine Joey.”
“I feel pretty … very confident in that,” Charity said.
But she didn’t leave the date feeling very confident.
“I came in here obviously wanting everything to go super great, but it didn’t go bad. It went good,” Charity said in an on-camera interview.
Charity got in the car in tears, which left Joey wondering to the cameras, “Could this be the end for us?”
XAVIER’S HOMETOWN
Charity continued making the rounds in Cleveland to meet Xavier’s family.
Xavier, 27, started the day by taking Charity to a knitting class because he liked to knit when he felt stressed out.
“I’m seeing a wholesome side to Xavier today and that makes my heart explode,” Charity said in an on-camera interview.
Then Xavier introduced Charity to his parents and his sister Chelsea. When Chelsea and Charity chatted one-on-one, Chelsea asked where Charity stood with her brother.
“I feel like I’m like, in between in like and falling in love,” Charity said. “I haven’t verbalized the falling in love part yet and neither has he.”
Xavier’s mom Tracey assured Charity that Xavier wants to be a dad, but had some fears because of “the short amount of time and how quick it is.”
Xavier’s dad asked his son if he felt ready for those next steps. “I feel like I can get there,” Xavier said.
The biomedical scientist reiterated as much to his mom. “I’m ready for that in my life,” he said.
Xavier left with his family’s support. “I definitely see you guys being potential partners and meshing well,” Chelsea told Xavier.
After Charity and Xavier departed his parents’ house, Xavier told her, “I’m falling in love.”
“To hear those words is so like, reassuring for me,” Charity said in an on-camera interview.
Charity hugged and kissed Xavier goodbye and told him, “I don’t want today to end.”
DOTUN’S HOMETOWN
At the top of Dotun’s hometown date in Fresno, California, he warned Charity that she wouldn’t be meeting his parents because they’d been on their annual trip to Nigeria. But when they sat down to eat Grandma Temitayo’s authentic Nigerian cooking with his siblings, thanks to the magic of reality TV, Dotun’s parents surprised him by stopping in.
Dotun’s mom liked Charity but worried about the “other guys involved.”
“I’m concerned of her hurting you at the end of this process,” she said to Dotun.
Charity talked to Dotun’s sister, who assured Dotun was ready to propose. Dotun’s brother spoke to the integrative medicine specialist’s positive qualities, too. He said Dotun prefers being in long-term relationships — “he’s not the kind of guy that dates around” — and had always been faithful.
Charity teared up telling Dotun’s mom about her connection with Dotun, and she responded by warmly welcoming Charity to the family.
“I adopted you already,” she said to Charity.
Following the family lunch, Dotun and Charity headed to a drive-in movie. Charity took it as a sign because her parents used to go to the drive-in when they started dating. The screen stared playing a slideshow of Dotun and Charity growing up, which brought her to tears once more.
“I’m ready for this movie to have a happy ending,” Dotun told the cameras.
ROSE CEREMONY
Back in Los Angeles, Charity recapped her four hometown dates with host Jesse Palmer. Charity confirmed to Jesse, 44, that she was falling in love with four people at once.
“I’m still trying to make sense of it because two people are going to be heartbroken tonight and I’m one of those people,” Charity said.
Charity deeply struggled to decide which man to send home.
“This has been the hardest day of my life because I know that there’s only three roses up here — that means I’m saying goodbye to one of you all. It absolutely destroys me,” Charity told her four remaining men at the start of the rose ceremony. “I have been going back and forth all day on what to do, but it’s necessary to get to what I want and what we all want, which is to find our forever person. God help me.”
Charity proceeded to give roses to Dotun, Xavier and Joey, which meant Aaron went home.
“I probably do feel that if I had more time, then I would’ve probably gotten there with Aaron,” Charity told the cameras.
Charity and Aaron touched base before he left. “I hate that it wasn’t me ’cause I really thought … I can truly say that I felt feelings that I never felt before,” Aaron said to Charity.
Hearing Charity say “how difficult of a decision this was” for her didn’t make Aaron feel better.
“I wanted to make her my wife,” Aaron told the cameras. “I was ready to get down on one knee. I just don’t know what I did wrong.”
Charity wrestled over whether she made the wrong choice as Aaron drove off.
“I’m trying to make sense of what the hell I just did,” she said in an on-camera interview. “I’m falling in love with someone, yet I sent them home. The more I think about it, it’s actually like, the most absurd s — — I’ve ever done. What if I just made the absolute worst decision?”
The Bachelorette airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
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