Sutton’s nerves spiked even harder as she flattened her hands over the small gift on her lap. It was adorned with the same cartoon animals playing in the snow that she’d wrapped Lucy’s in, and in the moment, she felt a little embarrassed by that.
She gripped her fingers around the edges of the rectangle, breathing out a small, uneasy laugh as she cleared her throat and pressed her gift toward Charlotte. Better to just do it.
“It’s—it’s nothing much,” she managed to say, even as her nerves grew stronger.
Charlotte aimed an incredulous look at her, her fingers wrapping around Sutton’s gift as she tugged it from Sutton’s grasp. “Iwill be the judge of that, thank you very much.”
Sutton nodded, tangling her own fingers together to give herself something to do as she nodded at the wrapping paper. “And the wrapping, well, I didn’t really have anything sourced for adults.”
The look Charlotte gave her was sheer amusement, pure warmth, as she slid her fingernail under the tape. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” She paused then, the amusement fading from her expression as she admitted quietly, “I’ve never…” She cleared her throat. “I don’t recall the last time I opened gifts in pajamas, next to a Christmas tree. This is—it’s already very special to me.”
The sincerity in her voice pulled Sutton right in; it made that place inside of Sutton, the one that Charlotte had cracked into last night, spill out.
It pushed her right out of her own insecurities as she gestured for Charlotte to open the gift. “Well… okay, then. I hope you like it.”
The cute, small smile that tugged up Charlotte’s lips as she focused on slowly opening the gift made Sutton uncontrollably smile as well. She was socute. So ridiculously sweet and open and adorable and pulling Sutton in, and…
Charlotte’s mouth dropped open as she pulled out the printed pages Sutton had wrapped, genuine surprise splashing over her face as she scanned the title page Sutton had created.
Sutton’s own nerves didn’t stop their increasingly fast fluttering, not even when Charlotte flicked her gaze to Sutton’s, her excitement clear.
“Is this what I think it is?” she asked, her perfect hand splaying over the title page.
Sutton swallowed hard as she nodded. She found herself grinning, feeling unbearably shy, as she softly explained, “Yes, it’s… it’s my manuscript. The one we talked about, a few weeks ago. For my romance novel.”
It was something she’d worked on, played around with, and ultimately shelved a while back. She had so many other things going on—with Lucy and work and the work to get the Zones set up as well as doubt around her own writing—that it had been easy to put it aside.
Charlotte’s eyes were wide and so deep, and the look she gave Sutton was sosweet, that Sutton couldn’t help the words that were falling out of her mouth. “I—I know it’s not—I just… I finished it,” she said, pressing her palms into her thighs as her knees sat flush against Charlotte’s. “I finished it after we talked about it.”
After Charlotte had looked at her so seriously, as she’d told Sutton that she would have loved to read it. That she thought Sutton should write, for herself. That she’d been surprised when she’d seen that Sutton hadn’t written any fictional novels, after looking her up.
“So I thought you might want to read it,” she finished quietly as she gestured to the manuscript. It was terrifying, to give her work to someone. “And I know you prefer to read in actual printed pages, so.”
Even when she sent her mom her work, she felt a kernel of nerves.Thisfelt so much bigger than that. Charlotte’s opinion mattered to her—scarily so. In a big, demanding way, that Sutton tried not to think about.
Charlotte reached out and slid her hand over Sutton’s. “Iloveit.”
There was no doubting her emphatic tone. None.
It settled Sutton, her nerves fading as she melted into an easier smile.
“I also love that you could fuck me on this couch the way you did last night and still be so self-conscious this morning,” Charlotte whispered, arching an eyebrow at Sutton as the hand holding hers squeezed it.
Sutton felt herself blush even as she rolled her eyes. “Shut up. It’s… different,” she settled on, squeezing Charlotte’s hand back.
And it was.
But the feelings from last night and now from this morning were starting to meld together; that much was undeniable.
Charlotte leaned in and pressed a light, lingering kiss to the corner of Sutton’s lips. It was enough for her to feel the softness of her mouth before she drew back and reached down for the box she’d pulled from her bag.
Sutton swore she could see her recently forgotten nerves flash across Charlotte’s face.
She handed Sutton the gift before placing her own hands back over Sutton’s manuscript, clearly feeling her own sense of anticipation.
Which Sutton felt well up inside of her, too, intrigued as she was.
She opened the lid on the box, removing the tissue paper, which revealed—another box.
