Charlotte
Charlotte wasn’t naive enough to think that her parents wouldn’t have something to say about it when she told them she’d be moving in with Nick Newton, Glacier Fall’s newest billionaire resident. Which was why she’d decided to go with the truth when it came to trying to explain what she was doing. Her mom and dad had been her rock for far too long to lead with a lie now.
And fortunately for Charlotte, their capacity to be understanding was even greater than she’d expected.
“You’re a grown woman,” Darlene said. “We’re not going to tell you what to do.” She sat on Char’s bed and picked up a T-shirt, folding it neatly into thirds before picking another out of the pile Charlotte had dumped there. “But I really do hope you know what you’re doing.”
“I’m helping Nick, Mom.” Char picked her favorite pairs of jeans out of the drawer and put them in the suitcase. She was trying to decide how much to take. Enough to make it look like she actually lived there, but not too much that there was nowhere to put any of it. She hadn’t inspected the bedroom when she’d been there earlier, but she wasn’t confident that there was much space. “If you were to see him with his daughter, you’d understand why I had to do it.”
“And he didn’t ask you…”
Char knew that would be the hardest part for her mom to understand. How Charlotte had just recklessly jumped into the situation without so much as a discussion about it beforehand.
“I know it sounds crazy, Mom. But in that moment, there was no other choice. I knew he needed help and if it meant him losing Amelia to…” She realized she didn’t fully understand what the consequence of Nick not having a fiancée would be. Would custody go to Amelia’s mother? Was there someone else interested in custody? What if she hadn’t stepped in?
There was a lot she didn’t know. So many questions she still needed answers to.
But it looked as though she’d have the opportunity to figure it out if they were going to be spending so much time together.
“And how long are you going to be there? A week, you said?”
“I didn’t say.” She raised an eyebrow in her mother’s direction. “Look, Mom, I know you’re worried, but honestly, I’m doing fine. Nick is just a friend.” But the word didn’t sound right. Not really. Sure, he was a friend, but was he more? Or maybe the better question was, could he be more? She shook her head and forced herself to focus. “You always taught me to look after my friends.”
“I did, but this is—”
“Not different,” she interrupted. “Not at all. I know you’ll understand when you meet Nick and Amelia. How about we set up a dinner or something once everything is settled a bit? Would that make you feel better?”
Her mother nodded.
“I’m not sure when, but I’ll arrange it.” She smiled at the idea of her mom meeting Amelia. Char just knew she’d melt at the little girl’s giggle, just the way she had. Amelia was absolutely impossible not to fall head over heels for. As for her father… She blushed at the thought of falling for him. Or maybe she already was.
“Char?”
“Sorry.” She blinked as she realized she’d totally missed whatever her mother had just said. “What were you saying?”
Her mother gave her a strange look. “I was just wondering if this meant you might want to come into the office now instead of working from home? You know, that way we can see you a bit more.”
The office?
Oh.
Guilt filled her as she realized that with everything that had happened, she’d forgotten to tell her mother that the meeting with Stephanie Starz had gone well. Really well, in fact. On an ordinary day, she would have run right home to tell her mother all about it and celebrate with her. But…the day had been anything but ordinary.
“I totally forgot. I had that meeting with Stephanie Starz and—”
“You forgot?” Her mother’s mouth fell open and Char couldn’t help but laugh. “This Nick must really be something else if he made you forget about the biggest meeting you’ve ever had in what could be the biggest move in your career.”
He was.
But she didn’t say that. Instead, Charlotte smiled and filled her mom in on how well the meeting had gone, including how Stephanie had loved all of Char’s ideas and even had a few of her own to add before offering her the contract: all of the cabins at Lynx Creek, including a purchasing budget that Charlotte could only ever have dreamed of working with before. The money she made from the project would not only be enough to move out on her own, but it should be enough for a down payment on a small house in town.
Darlene, as Char knew she would be, was stunned and thrilled for her daughter. “I’m sad you won’t be working for us anymore,” she said when she’d finished letting out whoops of joy. “I know it’s not what you want to do, but I have to admit I’ve kind of liked having you around so much again, and I’m going to miss you.”
A tear formed in her mother’s eye, and Char immediately pulled her into a hug.
“Don’t cry! I’m not going anywhere, Mom. It’s not like I’m moving far or getting married or anything. I’m literally going to be ten minutes away and I was thinking…”
Her mom wiped her eyes.
“I wasn’t sure you’d go for this or not,” Char started. “And I’m going to be pretty busy with Lynx Creek, but…well, I was thinking maybe I could offer you some staging services to your real estate clients.” She continued before her mother could object. “I know it’s not usually done here, but in the bigger markets, they use stagers to make the house look as good as possible before the photos are taken. After seeing some of your clients’ places, I think maybe it’s a service that is necessary. Especially with the market getting more and more competitive.”
Char bit her bottom lip while she let her mother process what she’d just said. She really hoped she wouldn’t take it as an insult, and only as a constructive suggestion.
To her surprise, Darlene nodded and laughed. “You know what, I think that’s a very good idea. Especially if you’re a consultant. Then it’s not like I’m telling my clients to clean up after themselves—you can do it.”
“Something like that.” Char laughed and shook her head. “We can talk about it. But for now I should probably get going back to ElkView for dinner.”
Her mom and dad helped her out to the car with her few bags and a box full of framed photos her mother had grabbed from various surfaces around the house to “Make it look like you live there.”
And she was on her way.
In less than twenty-four hours, her career had taken a huge leap forward and she’d gained a fiancé.
It had been quite a day. Charlotte was exhausted but also, she’d never felt quite so energized.
Nick
“You guys can totally pull this off.” Katie set a wooden bowl full of salad on the table and put a teething biscuit in front of Amelia in her high chair before sitting down with the rest of them.
When Damon had popped over to invite Nick for dinner, and found Charlotte awkwardly unpacking her things, he’d quickly amended his invitation to include Nick’s new fiancée as well. Nick knew they were putting off the inevitable discussions they were most certainly going to have in length, but he didn’t see the harm in a little social intervention first. Particularly because Katie and Damon were the experts in fake relationships.
“I hope you’re right.” Nick reached for a piece of pizza that Damon had just brought from the outdoor pizza oven. It was a warm spring night, so they’d decided to eat on the patio while Damon tended to the pizzas in his custom-made outdoor oven, his latest addition. “I mean, I can’t even think about—”
“So don’t,” Charlotte cut him off. “Don’t think about what could happen,” she amended. “Because Katie’s right. We can totally pull this off. There’s no reason why we can’t.”
Nick could think of a few, not the least of which was that they weren’t really a couple. But his negativity wasn’t going to do any of them any good. He pushed it aside and focused solely on the positive outcome: Amelia legally being his daughter. That was the only outcome he could envision. Laser focus.
He smiled at his baby, who sucked and gnawed on the biscuit Katie had given her.
“But there are a few things you’ll have to sort out first,” Katie said.
“Oh yeah,” Damon added as he took his seat across from Nick. “Like how you’re going to manage…” He waved his finger between Nick and Char.
“What is…” Nick mimicked his action.
Damon’s laugh was cocky. He leaned back in his chair and put his arm around his wife. “This attraction the two of you have.”
“What?” Char almost choked on her pizza.
Nick quickly poured her a glass of water and handed it to her, before turning to glare at his best friend.
Damon simply shrugged, but Katie pushed his arm off her shoulders.
“Seriously,” Katie said. “You are not subtle.”
“I never said anything about subtle.” He picked up a piece of pizza and took a big bite. “But you see it, too,” Damon said through a full mouth. “You know I’m right.”
Attraction?
Nick couldn’t even pretend that he wasn’t attracted to Charlotte. Of course he was. He was a man, and she was a gorgeous woman. She was also sweet, and funny, and smart, and…shit. Yes. There was definitely an attraction. And that kiss…such a sweet, innocent kiss that had been so much more. He glanced in her direction. She’d recovered from the near choking, but her face was flushed pink.
Was she attracted to him, too?
Was it more than a friendship?
And if it was…what did that mean?
“I mean, you are going to be sharing a bed,” Damon continued, either completely unaware that he was stirring a pot that was already simmering, or fully aware and loving it. “It’s a small place and if they said they’re going to—”
“Damon!” Katie smacked his arm lightly and shot him a look, but her husband seemed unaffected.
“What? I’m not wrong.”
He wasn’t and Nick said as much.
“It’s actually a good point,” Nick said, adding quickly, “Even if your approach is screwed up.”
Damon grinned as if it were a compliment.
“But it is a small place and the new house won’t be ready for a little while yet. We’re going to have to figure out how to—”
“We’ll have to share the bed.”
Nick was thankful he was seated at the table because his body reacted immediately and unexpectedly at her comment. He looked at Char, who was no longer blushing and instead looked matter-of-fact.
“It’s the only real solution,” she commented. “I mean, Susan did say the visits were unscheduled to make sure they caught us in our natural environment, right? It wouldn’t look good if she caught me sleeping on the couch or—”
“I’d be sleeping on the couch,” Nick corrected her. “I’d never let you sleep on the couch.”
Her smile was sweet. “The point is, neither of us should be sleeping on the couch.”
True.
Nick’s head was a mess. The conversation naturally drifted into other subjects as Katie started asking Charlotte questions about the Lynx Creek cabins and advice for the redecorating she was hoping to do herself. Nick was grateful for her distraction because he needed to calm down whatever was going on inside him. From the moment he’d met Charlotte, he’d been attracted to her, sure. But this was different. The feelings suddenly shooting through him, and sparking a flame of desire that he hadn’t felt since Amelia had been brought into his life, were unexpected. Well, not entirely unexpected. But he was completely unprepared for them.
But now that they’d been sparked, there was no way to put out the flame. Every time she spoke, or looked at him, it flared up again.
He needed to get control over that, and quickly, because there was only one goal here, and it didn’t involve any other female besides the one who was currently smashing her now soggy biscuit into her chair and squealing with glee at the mess she was making.
Yes, Amelia was his focus. There was no room for distractions of any kind.
But…
Charlotte
“What side of the bed do you sleep on?” Charlotte stood at the bottom of the bed and assessed the situation that they’d tried to avoid for the last few hours.
After dinner with Katie and Damon, which had been both fun and stressful for entirely different reasons, they’d returned to the guest house, put Amelia down for the night, and tried to kill as much time as possible in the living room talking over some of the details of their relationship and subsequent engagement before finally Charlotte couldn’t stop yawning and there was no more putting it off.
They needed to go to bed.
Together.
“A side?” Nick appeared fresh from the bathroom, smelling like peppermint toothpaste, at her side.
“Yes. A side.” She looked at him and her heart did a strange skipping thing in her chest. It was late, and rough stubble covered his chin. His thick hair was tousled and he’d left his glasses in the bathroom. He looked…sexy as hell. She tried to ignore the fact that he only wore pajama bottoms, that hung a little lower on his hips than would be considered appropriate for any other situation besides sleeping. Never mind his bare chest that showed the long, lean muscles he kept hidden under his clothing.
Charlotte swallowed hard and looked away. “Everyone has a side they sleep on. What’s yours?”
“I don’t believe in sides,” he said. “You pick.”
She shook her head. Everyone had a side. “I sleep on the left.”
“Works for me.” Nick moved to the corner of the room where the crib was set up and Amelia was fast asleep. He tucked a blanket around her and bent to kiss her on the forehead. Charlotte’s heart fluttered in her chest, watching the sweet interaction, but she forced herself to look away and climb into the bed. On the left side.
She laid on her side and stared at the wall, forcing herself to relax enough so she could sleep, although she had no idea how she was going to manage that. She felt the mattress dip as Nick, too, climbed into bed. Damon’s accusation at dinner, that they were attracted to each other, kept replaying in her head on repeat. Neither of them had denied it. She didn’t know about Nick, but she’d be straight-up lying if she said she wasn’t attracted to him. It had been a slow build, but it was definitely growing in intensity with every second that went by. And the fact that he was only inches away, half naked, in the same bed, wasn’t helping.
Maybe it would be best to just address it. Get it out of the way so they could just stop dancing around it and move on?
It couldn’t hurt.
Well, at least it couldn’t make things any more awkward than they already were.
Char took a breath, rolled over to her other side, and almost smacked directly into Nick’s face.
Why was he so close?
“Oh, you’re right here.”
“Am I too far over?”
She couldn’t help it, Charlotte burst out laughing and immediately clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle the sound when she remembered the baby was sleeping only a few feet away.
“Oops.”
“She can sleep through anything.” Nick was grinning too, and he’d made no move to give her space.
Did he want to be close to her, too?
If she’d wanted to, all she had to do was lean in an inch or so and her lips would be on his.
If she wanted to.
And did she want to?
Easy answer.
Yes.
Her entire body thrummed with his nearness and the fact that they were lying in a bed together. And of course there was the small detail that he was half naked.
Oh yes. She wanted to.
The desire surprised her. Not because she wasn’t attracted to Nick; she was. But because there’d been a time not all that long ago when she couldn’t have possibly considered that she’d ever be attracted to another man again. Not in a serious way. And definitely not in a way that she’d actually want to do something about. Billy had destroyed her self-esteem and turned her into a person she didn’t recognize, and frankly, one she didn’t like all that much.
But she’d worked through a lot. Lauren was an amazing therapist, and Char wasn’t the same woman who’d returned to Glacier Falls with her tail tucked between her legs. Not even close. In fact, she wasn’t even the same woman she was before she’d moved to be with Billy.
She was stronger. She was smarter and, most importantly, she was becoming the type of woman who was true to herself and was finally giving herself permission to live the life she deserved.
Which was exactly why she was currently in Nick Newton’s bed, only inches away from him, staring very directly into his sexy, dark eyes.
“Can you even see without your glasses?”
His lips twitched up in a smile. “I can see you perfectly. I’m nearsighted.” The hand he’d had tucked under the pillow came out and one finger touched her nose lightly. “See? That’s your nose.”
She laughed. “You could see my nose a mile away. It’s huge.”
“It’s perfect.”
Her breath caught in her throat.
Nick watched her closely, his finger still touching her nose.
She swallowed hard.
Her thoughts bounced all over, unable to focus on just one thing. Not that she could blame herself. It had been a crazy few hours. Since waking up that morning, she now had herself a sexy billionaire for a fiancé, had moved into his house, and as if it couldn’t get any more complicated, had learned through one super innocent kiss that she was insanely sexually attracted to her fiancé. And now she was lying only inches from him in his bed.
Yup. There were a few things going on in her brain.
But even with all the craziness going on, the number-one thought she couldn’t seem to shut off was just how much she wanted to kiss him again.
“Char?”
She nodded and swallowed hard.
“Can I tell you the truth?”
“Of course.”
“I actually think you’re gorgeous.”
Her mouth opened and shut, with no words coming out.
So much for strong and smart.
“I know this is complicated,” he continued.
“That’s an understatement.”
He smiled and trailed his finger down to her cheek. “And I know you’ve gone through a lot lately and with Amelia…well, I need you to know that she’s my focus.”
“Of course she is,” she said, without addressing what she’d gone through. “That’s why I’m here.”
“This isn’t coming out right.” He inhaled slowly before releasing his breath. His finger trailed down her face and traced the outline of her lips. “When you kissed me earlier…well…I know this is going to sound stupid.”
Char’s breath caught in her throat. “I don’t think it will.”
His smile was sweet, but there was heat behind it, too, when he said, “It was the most incredible kiss I’ve ever had.”
“That doesn’t sound stupid at all.”
“It doesn’t?”
She shook her head. “It was the best kiss I’ve ever had, too.”
“Really?” He shifted closer to her, and she nodded.
It was hard to breathe with him touching her. With him so close. With him saying the things he was saying.
“And I want you to know that what Damon said earlier…he wasn’t wrong.”
Damon wasn’t wrong.
“No,” she said so softly, she almost couldn’t hear herself. “He wasn’t wrong.”
He moved even closer so she could feel his breath on her lips. “So what do we do?”
For Char, there was one clear answer, but it wasn’t that easy and she knew it. Still… “I’d like to kiss you again.”
His lips curved up in a smile. “I like the sound of that.”
She did too. So much. She shut her eyes as he closed the tiny distance between them, but before his lips touched hers, he stopped.
“Char?”
Her eyes popped open.
“I can’t promise you anything right now.”
“I know.”
“Amelia is—”
“I know.” She stopped him. “Like I said, that’s why I’m here.”
But it wasn’t the only reason she was there. And that became crystal-clear to her when, a moment later, Nick cupped her cheek with his hand and pressed his lips to hers in a kiss that erased any lingering hesitations either of them might’ve had.
And that meant she was in trouble. Because whether she planned it or not, things had just become a whole lot more complicated.