Her fingers trembled, where they braced against the door, and her entire body was already bracing, not for a physical impact, but for something much, much more powerful, and?—
The alarm bells went off in her head.
“Do you want to come over for Thanksgiving?” The words shot out of her, and she resisted the urge to groan. They were the first thing that had popped into her head. Anything to lead them into a different, potentially safer topic.
Charlotte blinked heavily several times before she breathed a long, deep exhale. The warmth of it washed over Sutton, and she felt slow relief as Charlotte pulled back just a bit, just out of her personal orbit.
“Thanksgiving?” she repeated, as if she wasn’t sure she’d really heard what Sutton had asked.
And… yeah, she understood that feeling, right now.
Swallowing hard, she nodded. Even with the extra inches between them, she didn’t breathe exactlyeasily; her body was still pulled taut with tension. “Since”—she had to pause and clear her throat—“since you don’t have any plans.”
Charlotte took in a visible deep breath before pulling back even more and rolling her shoulders. A few moments beat by before she quietly affirmed, “I’d love to join you.”
“Great. Good. That’s good.”
Dark eyes searched hers before Charlotte’s lips curled into a small smirk, one that justfeltprivate, meant just for Sutton, which then also felt ridiculous to think. “Good,” she echoed.
Headlights flashed at them from the curb, and Sutton could have melted in relief as Charlotte looked over her shoulder. “It’s my driver.”
Sutton nodded again. “Good timing,” she whispered.
Charlotte’s eyes held hers, but she didn’t echo the sentiment this time. “Good night, darling.”
“’Night,” she breathed out, still holding herself against the door, muscles pulled tight.
She stayed that way until Charlotte got into the car, and only then did shebreathe.
God, she had to get better at that. Had to get better at catching any of these potentialmoments, had to?—
The door opened behind her, and she barely managed to catch herself on the doorframe before falling right on her ass.
She whipped around to face Regan’s knowing smile.
“Don’t,” Sutton warned.
“I didn’t say a word.”
CHAPTER NINE
Charlotte sat in her car,idling just up Sutton’s street, on Thanksgiving.
Sutton had told her to arrive “any time after noon” and that they’d be eating by two. So, naturally, Charlotte had arrived at twelve fifteen and had sat outside for the last fifty minutes.
She wasn’t crazy; she’d brought work to do to keep her occupied while she’d waited.
It had been easy to accept the invitation. Very easy.
Because Sutton had invited her. Truthfully, when everything boiled down, that was it. Sutton had given her an invitation, and Charlotte was not going to turn her down.
Of course, if she cared to, there were other factors she could add in. Like how shecravedmore time with Sutton in any form, especially when they weren’t in the office. This was insanity for Charlotte, of course, given that Sutton’s book should have been a huge focal point for her in terms of her career.
But the truth that Charlotte could admit to herself was that if Sutton told her tomorrow, “I’d like to spend just as much time with you but never have to review notes for the biography,” Charlotte would nix the biography in a second. Just to spend more time withher.
Not just her; Lucy, too. She’d actually kind of… enjoyed? Was that the right word? Yes, she’d enjoyed spending more time with Lucy in the last few weeks. Odd, given that she was a child and Charlotte didn’t have a longstanding track record with those.
It was Thanksgiving; not that it meant anything to Charlotte on a holiday kind of level, historically, but knowing that everyone else she knew would be in good company with good food while she’d planned on working and having Autumn order her in dinner, preemptively, much as she had last year? Well, this was a far better arrangement, objectively speaking.
