If anything, Charlotte’s ability to remain outwardly unflappable made her all the more attractive, physically and emotionally, to Sutton.
Damn her.
“Um…” Sutton ran a listless hand through her hair, squeezing her eyes closed as her daughter’s expectant gaze landed squarely on her. “Honey, why don’t you take your picture into the other room to show us later and get ready for dinner? We’ll talk more then.”
There. Dinner was going to be ready in only fifteen minutes, but she’d at least bought herself a little bit of composure time.
“But!” Lucy disagreed, shaking her head. “Mama!”
“Luce, I promise you we will talk at dinner. Go and get ready.” Sutton sharpened her tone—at least, the sharpest she ever used with Lucy, but it was the stern tone that Lucy recognized.
She sighed, puffing out her cheeks with the breath. “Oooookaaaaaay.”
Lucy turned slowly before she started trudging back through the house, sliding her feet as she went.
Sutton closed her eyes again, taking another stabilizing breath as she turned to look at Charlotte, who was still staring at her, this time looking slightly… more flappable. Uncertain.
Much like she had minutes ago, when she was making her profession to Sutton.Let me choose you.
Hearing those words ping through her mind again, they summoned those butterflies. The ones that had driven her to kiss Charlotte in the first place.
Butterflies she hadn’t felt in a very, very long time.
“This is your chance,” she found herself saying and was proud of how steady and serious her voice was.
Charlotte’s eyebrows drew together in confusion. “My chance? For…?”
Sutton summoned all of her willpower, clenching her fists with it as she nodded at the door a few feet away. “This is your final chance to leave. If you have any doubts about us having a future, about being with me even though I can’t be with you if you’re running for president, about what you just said to me.Anydoubts or second guesses at all, then… take the chance,” she begged, unable to hide the desperation she felt at the idea. At how serious this felt to her. “Please. If you didn’t feel absolutely certain when saying everything you said when you arrived here, thenpleasetake the chance and leave.”
Charlotte didn’t.
Instead, she stood firm and shook her head, staring imploringly at Sutton. “Darling,whydo you keep trying to get me to walk away? Why are you fighting this?” She swallowed hard as she clearly gathered her own strength, then said, “Ifyoudon’t want this, then?—”
“It’s because I want this!” The words exploded from her. She was baffled at how Charlotte couldn’t see that. “It’s because the idea of what you’re saying, it all feels too good to be true. And I’m terrified to really believe in it, Charlotte,” she confessed.
“Darling—”
Sutton cut her off, shaking her head. “Please don’t,” she murmured, needing her heart to not skip a beat with that single word. Not right now. “Please. Only say that if you are so sure. If Lucy hadn’t walked in when she did…”
Sutton rolled her lips, still able to taste Charlotte’s deliciously familiar, subtly sweet lip balm.
“Then I can tell you, I absolutely would have said yes, right now. Yes, to trying to move forward. Clearly.” She licked her lips again, flicking her gaze to Charlotte’s, a self-deprecating, embarrassed grin quickly tugging at her mouth.
It slid away just as fast.
“And we would have moved forward, navigating this as tentatively as possible. But the reality is, Lucy saw that. And I’ve never dated anyone, not seriously, with Lucy in the picture. But you and Lucy are both in the picture together, and… not telling her about us for a little while, that would have been one thing. But if I go into the dining room and have dinner with hernow, I can’t simply not tell her about you and me. I don’t want to lie to my daughter, not about something that impacts her, too. So either I go into that dining room, and I tell Lucy that we are dating,” Sutton said, her voice low and measured, trying to tamp down on her nerves. “Or I go in there and I tell her that while she did see us kissing, it was just… friendly, and that she will likely not be seeing you very much anymore.”
Charlotte held Sutton’s gaze, her expression solemn, seeming to soak in every word Sutton said. Charlotte had that way about her; she’d always had that way. Like everything Sutton said was important. Everything Sutton said was something Charlotte would give serious consideration to.
“It’s not an ideal situation,” Sutton admitted the truth before she shrugged in acceptance, “but it is the reality. The reality that is having a daughter. Not everything can be on my timeline or at my convenience or done my preferential way. And if youstay—if you don’t take this chance to leave—then you’re admitting with full knowledge that you understand this is my life. I’m not just a me anymore. Lucy and I are a we, and it’s not always easy and convenient.”
It hadn’t been this difficult, when she and Charlotte had been sleeping together. Not even with the knowledge that Charlotte and Lucy had bonded. Because she’d never believedthiswas going to be an option.
“I’m not leaving, Sutton,” Charlotte stated with such assurance that Sutton knew that Charlotte hadn’t even contemplated it. “I don’t want the chance to walk out the door. If anything, I want you to lock the door behind me while I’m in here next to you.” Charlotte spoke so softly as she reached up to stroke a lock of Sutton’s hair behind her ear.
She shivered with the gentle touch, searching Charlotte’s eyes for any hint of doubt.
All she found was steady warmth.
