After another weekin Ben’s house, it was starting to feel like Charlie’s home, too.
Charlie stood in front of the bathroom mirror, wrestling with the clasp on her beautiful silver necklace. Behind her, she could hear Ben moving around in the bedroom, the now-familiar sound of him getting dressed. She'd moved more of her things in three days ago. In addition to everything in the bathroom, her art supplies had taken over the spare bedroom. Her Moleskine collection lined a gorgeous wooden bookshelf Ben had made years ago as if he’d known what would someday fill it. Her favoriteBattleLorecoffee mug sat next to his on the kitchen shelf above the coffee pot.
He’d made room for her. And now, their lives were fitting together.
Ben appeared in the bathroom doorway. “You ready?”
Charlie turned and forgot what she was doing entirely.
He was wearing the kilt.
Solid dark green, falling to just below his knee. A white linen shirt, open at the throat. He'd left his hair loose, which he almost never did. He looked like someone had pulled him directly out of aBattleLoreillustration—massive and devastating.
“Yeah,” she managed to croak out of her suddenly dry mouth. “I'm ready.”
Ben's lips curved into a wicked smile. “You asked me to wear it.”
“I know I did.” Charlie turned back to the mirror, her cheeks warm. “I stand by that decision.”
She felt him move up behind her, close enough that she could feel warmth radiating from his chest. He gently took her necklace and fastened the clasp.
“There,” he said. His hands rested on her shoulders for a moment. In the mirror, they looked right together. Her and this enormous, gentle man who pulled out her chair and remembered her coffee order, who wrote her a song, made her a necklace, and had given her a studio with the best natural light in the house.
No princess could ever be happier.
“Thank you.” She turned and straightened his collar just to have an excuse to brush her fingers across the top of his chest. “You look incredible.”
He dropped his gaze, this gorgeous man who still amazingly had no idea. “You always say that.”
Charlie tilted his chin up. “And I'm always right.”
He kissed her. Softly and slowly, knowing exactly what she liked as if he’d been doing it for years.
“Come on,” Ben said, grabbing his keys from the hook by the door. “We're going to be late.”
Arden'sVictorian ranch house looked welcoming when they pulled up. Charlie could hear voices and laughter through heropen window from the driveway. She sat for a moment after Ben cut the engine, looking up at the house.
“You okay?” Ben asked.
“Yeah.” She was. Completely. That was the strange part. “I've been to parties here before. But this feels different.”
“Different how?”
Charlie turned to look at him. “Last time I came to one of Arden's parties, I was unsure that I belonged. That, even though everyone had shown me nothing but kindness, I was still an outsider.”
Ben waited.
“Tonight I'm coming in with you.” She held out her hand. “That's all.”
He took her hand, lifted it, and brushed his lips across her knuckles. “That’s not all, Charlie. It’s not just because of me. It’s that you’re ready to let them in.”
Charlie gave him a wondering smile. How could anyone know her so well?
He squeezed her hand. “So let's go in and celebrate with our family.”
They got out of the truck and Ben opened the back door. Flo bounded out, tail wagging, already sniffing the air for familiar friends.
The sound of barking came from behind the house—Camo's deep woof, Pete's enthusiastic yipping, and at least three other dogs whose barks Charlie recognized from Watchdog.
