Then there was also this…
Sutton had invited her duringa moment. Charlotte might have reached forty without knowing much about true romance, but she knew amomentwhen it landed in her lap.
Or, more aptly, when it involved Sutton Spencer, fresh raindrops trailing over her face and giving her an unreal glow as she’d breathlessly laughed and Charlotte had leaned in toward her.
Charlotte had wanted her so acutely in that moment that she would have likely agreed to anything Sutton suggested.
And, in those ways, this agreement to join for Thanksgiving was just fine. She would get time with Sutton and Lucy and a meal homemade by Sutton, which guaranteed it would be delicious.
And then there were the other ways in which it was just fine…
She bit her lip and looked down at her phone as it started vibrating on the middle console, flicking her eyes to the front door of Sutton’s home before she reached down and swiped to answer.
“Bonasera, Caleb,” she greeted him.
“Andbuongiornoback to you, my dear sister! Happy Thanksgiving.” Her brother’s exuberant voice rang through her car’s Bluetooth.
That irritating feeling of nerves swam through Charlotte’s stomach. “Yes, Happy Thanksgiving to you, too. Shouldn’t you and Dean be up to sipping your fifth glass of wine of the day and ordering a homemade pasta?”
“Fifth glass of wine! What do you take me for? It’s the fourth, and since we aren’t grandparents, we aren’t out for dinner yet; we’re in Europe, and it’s not even seven.”
She hummed, drumming her fingers against the steering wheel.
“We’re at the hotel to get ready for a night out, but I wanted to do my brotherly duty and remind you to notworkon a holiday. You better not be at your office.” She could hear the wagging of his finger in his tone.
Charlotte’s gaze slid to Sutton’s front door again, and she felt great about not lying as she confirmed for him, “I am, indeed, not at my office.”
She would say nothing about the laptop and files she had sitting on the passenger seat.
There was a beat of quiet before he spoke again, sounding marginally more suspicious. “Where exactlyareyou? It sounds like I’m on speaker? Bluetooth?”
“I am… in the car,” she hedged, running her finger over the steering wheel.
“And are you being held at gunpoint? I’d like to be able to explain thistone…” He trailed off expectantly.
Fine. Charlotte was woman enough to face her own brother. Even though he couldn’t see her, she straightened her shoulders and set her jaw as she admitted, “I am having Thanksgiving with Sutton. If you must know.”
“Ah… and if I know Sutton?—”
“Which, for the record, you do not. Not well,” she remarked honestly. It wasn’t as though they’d spent much time together back in the day. It was her own doing, but still.
Caleb was undeterred. “Yes, but in meeting her a handful of times and hearing you talk about her, I know her better than I know Claire,” he said, laughingly referencing William’s wife.
She scowled.
“Anyway, the point is, Sutton is likely having the holiday with herfamily,” he announced precisely and in an annoyingly excited voice.
“Congratulations, Caleb, that was very, very difficult to deduce that someone would be with their family on a national holiday such as this.”
“Charlotte,” he said calmly after managing his laughter. “What are you doing sitting in your car? You’ve gone toe to toe with some of the shadiest, nastiest politicians in the game! You took on heads in the oil industry! Must I go on, listing the many comforting reasons you have to not be anxious to enter that house, or was that all right?”
Charlotte personally did not see the humor her brother found in all this.
And she did not mind saying so; she was working on beingopen.
Admittedly, it was much harder to hold such statements in when she had these nerves darting through her, settling angrily and unfamiliarly in her stomach.
“I suppose I don’t find it all at amusing as you do. If you recall, Katherine Spencer was not much of a fan of mine when we met.”
