No, she didn’t feel like she was going to break down into sobs or like the weight of missing her grandmother was so heavy it would suffocate her.
More than anything, Charlotte felt inspired. It was time to get to work.
When she arrivedat Sutton’s nearly four hours later, Charlotte had an undeniable pep in her step.
The board meeting had lasted for over an hour, and they’d called in their head of legal for a consult. Though Charlotte didn’t use her law degree in her day-to-day career, she’d gone to a top law school in the country, and she had a very, very good memory.
Tobias Colson wasn’t the only person who knew how to work through loopholes in contracts, and like hell would Charlotte allow the Thompson Foundation to continue to work in partnership with Colson Corp going forward.
As of thirty-three minutes ago, their legal team had doubled down on their contract and were delivering a public severance of ties, all agreed on by the board.
It feltgood, making those decisions. It felt really good, and that lightness inside of her only got stronger when she shut and locked Sutton’s front door behind her.
She’d received a text from Sutton twenty minutes ago that she was going to be putting Lucy in the bath and that she’d leave the door unlocked so that Charlotte could feel free to let herself in.
She hummed under her breath—something she’d found herself doing of late—as she shed her jacket and hung it up on the hooks by the door.
As she went to take a step, a metallic glint on the entry table caught her eye. A key, with a note under it in Sutton’s elegant script that simply read:Charlotte
Her heart skipped a beat, and she quickly reached out to grab the key. She held it so firmly in her fist that the indentation bit against her skin, but she enjoyed it and what it meant.
She quickly walked toward the full bathroom, the one with a bathtub down the hall, where she could already hear the sounds of Lucy’s bathtime chatter, splashing, and giggling.
Driven forward by the key that burned in her hand, Charlotte came to a sudden stop in the doorway at the sight of Sutton.
Her hair was tied up in a hurried ponytail with some strands that had escaped, clearly having been tossed up to get it out of her face before bathtime. She was wearing joggers and a loose T-shirt, which was dotted with some water splashes. She couldn’t have looked more different than the night they’d gone to the benefit together less than two weeks ago, and still, she stole Charlotte’s breath away.
“Charlotte!” Lucy called, splashing an arm out of the bubble bath she was ensconced in to wave vigorously at her. “I’m in the bath!”
“I see that, little darling,” she returned, an indulgent smile playing on her mouth.
It would be impossible to hold it in; Lucy was covered in the bubbles in the water, having clearly pulled them all toward herself. She’d told Charlotte a handful of times how much she enjoyed a bubble bath, so it was unsurprising.
Sutton, who was sitting on the closed toilet lid next to the bath as she angled her laptop away from the water, snapped her gaze to Charlotte. The large, warm smile that played on her lips was just as wide the one that had been on her daughter’s face moments ago. “You’re here.”
“I am,” she confirmed. She couldn’t have possibly held herself back, the raw thrill pushing her forward as she extended her hand and opened her fist to reveal the now-warm metal of the key. “Is this for me? To keep?”
There was a breathless demand in her voice, but she couldn’t help it; she needed to know. She needed Sutton to tell her.
Sutton’s blue eyes dropped to the key before she bit her lip and the grin on her face froze. “Um. Well, yes. But only if you want it,” she added quickly, shaking her head. “I just think it makes sense. Er, you know. That it’s easier on nights like tonight, when I’m busy with Lucy or you’re working late. So you can come over whenever you’d like. If you want,” she repeated.
Sutton closed her laptop and stood, carefully placing the computer on the shelf of towels. Her gaze on Charlotte was tentative, searching. Waiting. Clearly nervous.
But Charlotte didn’t feel any sort of pressure; if anything, she felt the opposite. She clutched the key in her hand, feeling the metal bite into her once more; shewantedit to imprint on her. “I do want. Very much.”
God, she wanted it. She wanted to be able to come here when she left work, left an event. She wanted to come to this home with Sutton and Lucy, with laughter and home-cooked meals, every night. It was so much more appealing than her own quiet, lonely home now.
A pleased flush worked over Sutton’s face, matching her brilliant, blinding smile. “Good. I… I want it, too.”
Charlotte walked farther into the bathroom, feeling drawn to Sutton as if by a magnetic impulse.
She pressed her lips softly to Sutton’s, just enough to feel her, to taste her, to breathe her in and feel so settled.
Only to break away abruptly as she felt water hitting her, soaking immediately through the fabric of her shirt as Lucy giggled up at them and made kissing sounds.
“Charlotte, look!”
She blinked, still startled by the way her clothing was sticking uncomfortably to her, down at Lucy, who was holding up a doll with a shimmering mermaid tail. “This is Alexia; she’s a mermaid and, um, and her tail is blue when she’s dry but”—she wiggled the doll, whose tail splashed water out of the tub again—“when she’s swimming, it’s purple!”
