Sutton, for her partial openness in talking about her parents, had been relatively reticent on how they were doing currently. She mentioned them in passing often enough that Charlotte was aware she still had a good relationship with them, but she’d never, for example, brought up what Katherine knew about the book.
It was difficult to win someone over when you didn’t have an end goal. It was difficult to form a workable goal when you didn’t know exactly what someone else’s goal was. And unlike in a political arena, Charlotte couldn’t research and prepare on the subject of Katherine Spencer.
They approached the front door, coming up the walkway that Charlotte and Sutton had run up less than a week ago, Sutton’s hand in hers, her laughter in her ears over the din of the rain, and Charlotte’s heart stuttered in her chest.
It gave her another reason to subtly roll her shoulders back.
“I didn’t see your driver?” Katherine observed as they climbed the steps.
Charlotte gave her the most charming smile she had, though she wasn’t sure it would win her any particular favors here. “Well, it is Thanksgiving; I don’t generally have my staff working on holidays. As you said, most people don’t.”
Katherine inclined her head, in some sort of relatively positive form of recognition. At least, that’s what Charlotte thought it was as she opened the door.
“Charlotte!” Lucy squealing her name cut through their tension immediately before Charlotte fully crossed the threshold into the house.
She’d never been so grateful to hear a shout in her life. She found herself truly smiling as she turned to face the pounding of little footsteps running down the hall.
Lucy’s hair was done in two pigtail braids, now mussed from what Charlotte was sure was a day of excitement with her family here, and she wore a white shirt under her dark purple overalls. She slid to a stop in front of Charlotte and her grandmother, having run in socks down the hardwood floor, and smiled up at them, proudly revealing her missing teeth.
She was so ridiculously cute, Charlotte thought, and that alone was so strange, for her. But it was true, and shefeltit, this sweet adoration for the little human in front of her. So, so strange.
Since the night she’d babysat, she would say Lucy’s feelings for her felt akin to a baby duck that had imprinted on a capybara; she seemed to love Charlotte.
She’d stopped by and had lunch with Sutton and Lucy, during which time Lucy had gravitated right next to Charlotte’s chair, so close she’d almost been climbing in her lap. Even when Sutton had lightly chastised her daughter about personal space, Charlotte had genuinely not minded.
She’d felt endeared. Especially when Lucy had looked up at her with big, blue eyes and said, “’msorry,” slurred with her missing teeth.
Lucy had showed her the skills she’d picked up at karate class and had asked Sutton to FaceTime her to show Charlotte her missing teeth last week. Granted, Charlotte hadn’t known much of what to say to her, but on the other hand, she hadn’t been irritated at the call that disrupted her day either.
It wasn’t anything she was used to, she could admit that.
And she honestly didn’t know if this affection she felt for Lucy had begun purely from the knowledge that this little human was Sutton’s little human. That the bright, happy blue eyes and adorable, sweet smile that clearly were inherited from her mother had nothing to do with how Charlotte instinctively cared for her.
But she knew that it was a different kind of feeling than she’d ever felt before, what she was starting to feel whenever Lucy was happy to see her and wanted to talk to her. It was something she’d never felt, in a very soft way that she was still deciding how to grapple with.
“Lucy!” She bent down to examine the missing teeth with the same intensity she used to look over legal documents. “Would you look at that. I certainly hope the tooth fairy came to visit.”
Lucy nodded vigorously,veryseriously informing her, “Oh, she did,” before throwing her arms around her waist.
Charlotte, at first, had not quite known how to take this greeting, but she now reached down and softly patted at Lucy’s shoulders.
“Happy Thanksgiving!” Lucy exclaimed as she pulled back. “This is my grandma!” She pointed at Katherine. “Grandma, this is Charlotte; she’s Mama’s friend.”
The unimpressed, almost harsh expression Katherine had worn with her outside simply melted away. There was sheer warmth in her blue eyes—the same shade as Sutton’sandLucy’s—and a tone of voice so warm and so at odds with how she’d been in their conversation that it nearly gave Charlotte whiplash. “You did such a good job introducing us, honey. Guess what I got from the car?”
Katherine held the bag out, clearly capturing Lucy’s rapt attention as excitement lit up her tiny features. “What?!”
“It may be an early Christmas gift…” Katherine wiggled her eyebrows playfully.
It was interesting, Charlotte thought, to watch a grandmother and granddaughter interact. It had been the most important familial bond she’d had growing up; she didn’t think her own relationship had had the same tone as this one, though.
Then again, her grandmother had been one of a kind, very different, foundationally, from Katherine Spencer in many ways.
“Can I see, Grandma? Please, can I see?” Lucy’s voice jumped an octave as she bounced on her toes.
“I’ve already asked your mom.” Katherine winked. “Let’s open it in the living room.”
Lucy cheered and gestured at them both to follow her down the hall and into the fray. It was in the look she exchanged with Katherine, and the gut instinct that settled heavily in her stomach, that told Charlotte that, adorable six-year-olds aside, their conversation was not done for the day.
