‘Have you eaten tonight?’ he murmured.
‘Well, to start with, I was too busy cooking for a guest at the chef’s table to think about myself, and then there was the otherpart where this gorgeous man kept staring at me all night and made me forget about almost everything else.’
‘Can we still order cake as room service?’
She nodded.
‘Then come with me to my room and we can lie in bed and eat it.’
When Harrison stood and held out his hand to her, he didn’t have to ask twice.
By the time Charlotte had showered and wrapped herself in the fluffy hotel robe, Harrison was sitting on the bed, waiting with the room service he’d ordered.
‘Sit and let me feed you,’ he ordered.
Charlotte obeyed, laughing when Harrison held out a forkful of cake. She opened her mouth and willingly took it, swallowing and then opening her mouth for another until every last piece was gone. She couldn’t remember anyone caring enough about her to actually feed her, and she certainly wasn’t complaining—it was nice to be pampered.
‘You have a little piece of cream just there,’ he said, reaching towards the corner of her mouth.
She flicked her tongue out and felt nothing. ‘Liar,’ she whispered, but as she did so she slipped an arm around his neck to keep him from moving away.
Harrison deftly moved the cake box out of the way as she drew him down on top of her, smiling against his lips as he gently kissed her. His mouth was warm, and his hands were soft as he rolled slightly to the side, so they were staring at each other.
‘I’ve missed you so much,’ she whispered, as he stroked his thumb across her cheek with so much tenderness it made her want to cry.I thought I was never going to see you again.
‘I’ve missed you too,’ he murmured back. ‘More than I could ever tell you.’
They stared at each other a long moment, until Charlotte wrapped her arms around him, holding him close, needing his body against hers; to listen to his heartbeat, to breathe in the scent of him, still barely able to believe that he’d come back.
Part of her wanted to go slow, to remind herself how much it had hurt the first time he’d left, but another part of her wanted to trust in his promise and surrender to whatever this turned out to be. If Harrison said she could trust him, then she was inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt; she was just hoping he didn’t want to go too slow.
‘Stay here with me tonight?’ he asked.
She smiled against his lips, her arms looped around his neck. ‘There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.’
33
Charlotte lay in bed with Harrison, her leg thrown over his and the sheets strewn between them. When he’d gone, she’d told herself she was fine and that she didn’t need him or any other man in her life. But now that he’d returned, she wondered how she’d ever thought she could live without him.
‘I’m sorry it took me so long to come back,’ he said, strumming his fingers gently up and down her arm. ‘I knew the moment I walked away that I was doing the wrong thing, but I just couldn’t bring myself to turn around.’
‘Maybe we needed the space to appreciate what was growing between us,’ she said, turning on her side so that she was facing him. ‘The last few months have been tough, but it forced me to make a life for myself here and to push outside of my comfort zone.’
‘It was more than just needing space for me,’ Harrison said, trailing his fingers up her arm and across her shoulder. ‘I needed time to accept that I was moving on, that my life was changing in ways that I never expected. When Elly was unwell, she made me promise to be open to love again, that she would understand, that she didn’t want me to spend the rest of my life alone. It wasme who vowed to never be with another woman again, because at the time I couldn’t imagine being with anyone other than her.’
Charlotte blinked back at him. She didn’t have words—what could she even say to a man who’d lost his wife? She had no comprehension of what it meant to lose the person you loved most in the world. Her mother had ripped her heart out, but it was different to losing a spouse—no one could ever take the place of her mother, so she’d never had to worry about that happening and how to cope with it.
‘For the longest time, I’d refused to do anything with her ashes, even though she’d tried to make it easy for me and left specific instructions for what to do after her death,’ he said. ‘So, when I went home, I did all the things I’d been avoiding. After Elly passed, I barely spent any time at our apartment, it was easier not to face everything, but Louisa helped me to see that it was time.’ He took an audibly shaky breath. ‘I cleared out her wardrobe and looked over the things she’d kept, memories and photos, all the things that were special to us as a couple. Those things I mostly decided to keep, but there was something therapeutic about addressing everything I’d been putting off for so long.’
‘You have great friends,’ Charlotte said. ‘I knew when I met them how special they were.’
‘They are the best,’ he agreed. ‘There are times I’ve tried so hard to push them away, but no matter what I do, they don’t budge. They’ve continued to love me at my absolute worst.’
‘Did they tell you to come here?’ Charlotte asked.
Harrison’s cheeks reddened. ‘Well, Louisa may have forced me to buy a one-way ticket from London to Oslo, but booking the chef’s table was all my idea.’
She leaned forwards and kissed him, slowly. They were in no hurry; they had the hotel room for the next few days, and as far as Charlotte was concerned, she was staying in the room untilshe needed to head down to the kitchen to oversee service that night.
