With that resolve in mind, she blocked Sutton’s profile.
CHAPTER ONE
NINE YEARS LATER
Charlotte letout a deep breath and leaned her head back against the leather car seat as her driver shut the door behind her. She didn’t mind being busy—honestly, she preferred it—but when she had so many meetings she didn’t even have a half hour for lunch? That was a little too busy.
Thankfully, it wasn’t her everyday schedule.
“I’m starving. Autumn, can you order that salad for dinner? The one from?—”
“The bistro on Eleventh? I already took care of it.” Autumn, her personal assistant, promptly answered, but something was just a bitoffin her voice.
Charlotte lifted her head to give her a questioning look. “What is it? Are they out of that soup you like? I’ve told you a thousand times you don’t have to buy your dinner where you order mine from; you can still put it on my card.”
Her slightly joking tone wasn’t enough to make Autumn break her serious expression, and Charlotte’s stomach started to bottom out.
“Autumn, tell me what it is. I’ve had the longest day, and you know I’d just prefer to have the Band-Aid ripped off.”
“It’s not me you should be looking at, Senator Thompson,” Autumn deferred, tilting her head to the other person in the town car.
“Senator Thompson… well. Then I know my night is going down the drain, don’t I?” Charlotte remarked. She held back a sigh as she turned to face Maya, who was in charge of her schedule.
Since she’d won her senate seat, it had taken months to get Autumn and Maya comfortable with referring to her by her first name; after all, her history and reputation preceded her. Now, nearly two years into the role, she knew that if they weren’t referring to her as Charlotte, they had news she most definitely did not want to hear.
Maya cleared her throat and sat with her back up straight, but Charlotte could see the weariness in her eyes as they met her own. Maya was a straight shooter who never fidgeted; Charlotte liked that about her.
She lifted an eyebrow expectantly. She didn’t want to have to ask again.
Maya nodded. “There’s an event at Georgetown University tonight that you’ve RSVP’d to.”
“I most certainly did not.” Charlotte held Maya’s gaze, tilting her head. “I personally have not responded to any events at Georgetown, and I know for a fact that this was not on my schedule even just this morning.”
Maya grimaced, quickly flicking on her tablet as she explained, “Right, it wasn’t on your schedule, which was—well, I was only notified about it a few hours ago, personally.”
She blew out a breath and roughly rubbed a hand over her forehead before she deliberately sat up straight again and centered herself.
This was life, and it was usually a life Charlotte loved. “And what exactly am I supposed to be attending?”
“It’s a benefit in honor of the three youth centers currently being built across the city. You know, the ones that promote healthy recreation activities, with a focus on after-school professional-level academic assistance for underprivileged kids?”
Charlotte stared at Maya for a few long moments as she ran through her thoughts, but she was coming up empty. “I may have been in nonstop meetings for the last thirteen hours, but I have no recollection of this being something that’s crossed my desk.”
Maya nodded again. “Yes, that’s because it’s not technically congressional business. Lily Balducci sent me a reminder today about the event, as the youth centers are being sponsored by the Thompson Foundation. It was”—she cleared her throat—“one of the last programs your grandmother personally signed off on last year.”
It had been almost ten months since her grandmother had died, and Charlotte still felt the reminder like a sting right to her heart. Ninety-three and still sharp as a tack, her grandmother had worked at the charity organization she’d founded and nurtured until the day she’d died. Literally. Charlotte had personally chosen Lily as her replacement.
Those were the magic words, though. This had been her grandmother’s project, and she would have personally been there to oversee its opening if she could. Now that she couldn’t, Charlotte would.
Her stomach rumbled, but she pushed her hunger to the back of her mind as she shook out her shoulders. Her team—specifically Autumn and Maya, given that they spent almost the entire day with her—had seen her at her weak points. Not theweakest, Charlotte saved those for total solitude, but after a long, hard day when she just needed to sigh and let her shoulders slump, these two were there.
She tried to not let that happen often.
“All right,” she said. “When do I have to be there? Do we have time to get dinner?”
She could tell by Maya’s apologetic look that it was anoeven before she said, “We’re on the way now… and you are fashionably late as it is.”
“And is my business suit suitable?” She semi-joked, gesturing to the standard tailored pantsuit she’d been wearing all day.
