It happened again, she dimly thought. The din of sound around them faded into background noise as thirteen years vanished from memory.
It had been thirteen years, but Sutton Spencer, up close and personal, still made Charlotte’s stomach flip.
Sutton Spencer, and everything that came along with her.
The way her perfume still smelled absolutely incredible. How blue those eyes were. Sometimes, on nights after they’d parted ways, when Charlotte was lying in bed, she would think about Sutton’s sapphire eyes. She didn’t really have those nights anymore—notreally—but she’d had them for, well, for far too long after their end.
But she’d convinced herself that she was imagining just how blue they had been.
She hadn’t. They were just as blue as she’d remembered, and they were currently incredibly wide as Sutton stared at her.
Ah. So Sutton was just as surprised to see her as Charlotte was to seeher. That was not just a little bit pleasing.
It pleased her even more to learn that Sutton still wore her emotions all over her face.
Being face to face with the shocked look written all over Sutton’s features filled Charlotte with the most unexpected warmth. The smile that she felt slide over her lips was entire genuine.
Sutton was thirty-eight and fucking gorgeous, even as she gaped at Charlotte.
“Sutton,” Zeke’s voice cut in between them. Charlotte would be lying if she said she remembered he was there. “Sutton Spencer, as you surely heard, spearheaded the academic side of the programs; she’s been a complete godsend. And Sutton, this is?—”
“Charlotte,” Sutton breathed, and Charlotte hummed under her breath as shefeltthe utterance of her name, all the way down her spine.
“Do you… oh! Sometimes I completely forget your own family background, Sutton.” Zeke chuckled congenially.
“Yes,” Charlotte confirmed in a murmur, not breaking eye contact with Sutton. She couldn’t. “We met in a café quite some time ago, getting coffee with her father.”
“Right,” Sutton confirmed, dimly. There was the lightest blush on her cheeks at the memory, and yes, Sutton still blushed. She still did that.
Charlotte delighted in the fact.
“Ah. Friends, then?”
We were never friends. Sutton’s own words echoed in her mind, but Charlotte didn’t care. To her, they had been. To her, they were. To her, losing Sutton had felt like a far bigger loss than just sexual intimacy. It was closeness, and…
“For a time, before life got in the way,” she confirmed.
“Yeah.” Sutton’s voice was so soft. Her eyebrows crinkled, and she brought her hand up, rubbing at her forehead roughly. It was then that Charlotte broke eye contact to take note?—
No ring.
No wedding ring.
That knowledge thundered through her, even though she didn’t quite have a place to file it.
Sutton had gotten married eight years ago, in April. Charlotte remembered it clearly. No, she hadn’t been there; they hadn’t been on speaking terms for four years at that point. It had been a busy year for Charlotte, as she’d been running for and won the governor’s seat for New York.
But she remembered seeing Sutton’s wedding photos to another woman on social media.
That night, she’d drunk a bit too much, and it had been the last time she’d ever looked at Sutton’s social media. She’d set a hard and fast rule for herself, forbidding herself from looking at it ever again. Four years waslong enoughto be holding on to anything personal, especially something that hadn’t even been a real relationship, regardless of how shaken she’d felt, right to her core. She’d set that rule and had followed it to this day.
Not looking at Sutton’s social media had done her well. She’d truly let go of her. Of those feelings. Of what they’d had.
But the fact that Sutton wasn’t wearing a ring… Charlotte would be lying if she said it didn’t ping her interest. Sutton Spencer was the kind of woman who would never take that ring off if she was still married.
Zeke looked between them for a long moment before he nodded. “Well, just another good thing that we’re doing here! Bringing old friends together again.”
Charlotte only spared him a look now because Sutton cleared her throat and looked away. “It appears the event is wearing several hats.”
