Concern washed over her, and she gestured to Hamish that she needed another minute as she turned to face Sutton. “Is everything all right, darling?”
“I wasn’t going to say this. I’ve been activelytryingnot to say it for the last couple of weeks,” Sutton said, wrapping her arms around herself as she came to a stop inches from Charlotte.
Charlotte’s eyebrows furrowed as she reached out and gently rubbed her hands up and down Sutton’s arms, trying to give her some warmth. “What are you talking about? Do you want to go back inside?”
Sutton shook her head jerkily. “No, I—I mean, Ido.” She laughed, reaching up and running one of her hands through her hair. “I really do, if it meant you’d be coming in and closing the door behind you, too.”
“Sutton, are you ok?—”
“I love you, Charlotte.”
Everything stopped. She could no longer see Hamish’s headlights in her periphery. She no longer felt the chill in the air around them.
All she could see was Sutton’s face right in front of her; all she could feel was the strong, steady warmth of Sutton under her palms.
“You…” She trailed off, her heart starting to pound in her chest as she stared up at Sutton. Searching. Needing. Wanting to hear it again, needing to make sure she hadn’t heard something imaginary.
“I love you,” Sutton repeated, sounding even more certain of herself. “I do, Charlotte. I really do. I am in love with you, and that’s never changed. I loved Layla; truly, I did. I wouldn’t have married her otherwise. But it’s been over a decade, andnothinghas ever felt like this. Nothing—no one—has ever come close to making me feel the way I feel when I’m with you.” A crazy, wondrous laugh broke from her beautiful lips before she reached up and pressed her fingertips against them.
“For so long, I’d tried to chalk it up to a ‘first love’ sort of feeling, but it’s not.” Sutton shook her head, intently staring into Charlotte’s eyes. “It’s so muchmore. I don’t know what it is; I wish I did. I’ve wished—even when I’d moved on from you—to understand what this feeling is. This feeling of being drawn to you, wanting to be around you, to be with you. Because everything makes more sense with you. I don’t understand it, and I don’t think I ever will, but that’s exactly what the feeling is. You make things make sense, even when you make things more complicated.”
Charlotte knew precisely what Sutton was saying. So precisely, down to every last damn letter. She stood, frozen and rooted to the spot, feeling like every emotional dam was breaking open inside of her.
“And I’ve been trying to hold that feeling back as much as I possibly could for months. Trying to avoid falling right into you. I’ve beenreallytrying to hold it off for the last few weeks. Because… I don’t know.” Sutton lifted her hands into the air before unceremoniously dropping them down to her sides. Her eyes searched Charlotte’s as if she could provide an answer. As if shewasthe answer. “Because we’ve only beenback togetherfor a month? Because I have a daughter, and you’re still figuring out what you want to do, going forward. And I know you have to leave. I know this might not be the best time to tell you, but—I needed you to know. I want you to know that when you’re not here, I’m here, loving you.”
Sutton broke off then, taking in a deep, tremulous breath. But the smile that illuminated her face was anything but tremulous. It was bright and luminescent; it was all Charlotte could see.
“I love you, Charlotte Thompson. And I wanted to tell you, this time, without being in tears or accusing you of being afraid to love me back.”
Charlotte hadn’t realized she was crying until Sutton reached up to gently wipe her thumb over her cheek; it came away damp.
“You don’t have to say anything right now. You don’t?—”
“Are you kidding me?” Charlotte cut in, laughing emotionally, incredulously. “I love you, Sutton. I have loved you for so long, it’s a part of me now. I love you wherever I am, at any time.”
She’d never said those words to someone, and she thought it might be scary to do so. Even to Sutton.
But it didn’t.
It feltgood, and she found herself grinning, shaking her hair back. “There’s no way you don’t know that, right? I loved you back then, and I’ve never stopped. I’ve all but said it.”
Sutton blinked, her own tears falling down her cheeks before she reached up to wipe them away. “I knew,” she admitted, “even if the exact words hadn’t been said that way. But… it’s different to hear it like that. It’s better,” she whispered. “It’s so much better.”
They stood on Sutton’s front porch for… Charlotte didn’t even know how much longer. All she knew was that her heart felt so full and her future seemed sobright.
And as she got into her car to go to the airport to fulfill her career responsibilities, she’d never been less wanting to leave anywhere or anyone in the world.
Sutton Spencer still loved her.
It was the most glorious thing she’d ever heard.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Charlotte—7:02 p.m.
I can’t wait to see you tonight
Sutton’s stridefrom her en suite to her bedroom slowed to a stop as she stared down at the text Charlotte had sent her. With it, the uncontrollable fluttering of her heart returned.
