Seeking Happily Ever After (Ever After #8) - Elena Aitken Page 0,24
I shouldn’t have done what I did and I’m really sorry.” Tears pricked at her eyes as for the very first time, Charlotte realized just how reckless and damaging her behavior might have been.
She’d been selfish and stupid, and if she’d done anything to put Nick’s custody arrangement in jeopardy, she’d never forgive herself. She wouldn’t blame him if he was angry. No. Pissed off. Furious.
Char blinked hard and looked down at her feet, unable to make eye contact with him.
“Are you finished?” he said after a moment, a trace of humor in his question.
She nodded without looking up.
“Good,” he said. “Please sit, Char. We have a lot to talk about, and I need to thank you properly.”
Her head shot up. “Thank me?”
Nick nodded. “Of course. I mean, you could have given me some warning, sure. But I needed a fiancée, and you stepped up without even a second thought. That’s a pretty freaking big deal. Thank you.”
It was a big deal. Bigger than she’d originally thought, but…
“But honestly, I thought you were kidding about needing a wife. The other day…when I ran into you…”
He shrugged. “I wasn’t really kidding.”
“I guess not.” But it still didn’t make sense. Nick didn’t seem like the type of guy to go into such an important meeting without a plan. She turned and paced toward the window. When she spun around again, he was standing directly behind her, and she almost smacked right into him. “What were you going to do? I mean, before I butted in?”
“I wish I could say I had some great plan, but there was nothing I could do. I filed as a single man, and I was hoping my sparkling personality would win her over.”
“So, I—”
“Saved me?” He grinned and shook his head all at the same time. “Are you saying my personality isn’t sparkling?”
He laughed and she smiled.
Nick said she’d saved him, but maybe she screwed it all up? The thought hit her hard, and Charlotte had to force herself to take a breath. She inhaled hard and almost instantly regretted it as her senses filled with the scent of him. A combination of coffee, fresh soap, and just the tiniest trace of…baby powder. It hit her in the gut and made her stomach flip in a way that was completely inappropriate for the moment.
“I messed everything up, didn’t I?”
Nick put his hands on her shoulders and squeezed gently. “Why don’t we sit down and start figuring out what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it.” He led her to the couch and somehow Charlotte managed to nod as they sat down together. “Because no matter how we came to this place, we’re here. Together.”
She looked into his eyes then, and to her surprise didn’t see any anger there. Only worry and concern. And was it her imagination, or was there humor there, too?
She couldn’t see anything funny about the situation they were in and very quickly she was starting to regret her decision to go to Sweetie Pies early for her meeting. But maybe a little sense of humor was exactly what they needed to get them through.
It certainly couldn’t hurt.
Nick had explained everything to Charlotte—well, almost everything. He didn’t tell her about his concerns that Jessica might want her baby back, or the very minor but very important detail that he was 99.9% sure that Amelia wasn’t even his child. Those details, although important, weren’t pertinent to the immediate situation.
Besides, now that Charlotte was involved, he needed her to be fully and completely committed. If she knew that Amelia wasn’t even his, well…he didn’t know how she’d react. It was just easier not to say anything. Yet. He would tell her. Just not right away.
When they were done talking, Charlotte dropped her head for a moment and took in a deep breath. When she looked up, her face was set in a resolute line. “So I guess I’ll be moving in.”
Her matter-of-factness took him off guard, and judging by her reaction, he hadn’t done a very good job of hiding it.
“Am I wrong?” She struggled to hide her smile. “Because it sounded to me like—”
“No.” He stopped her. “I think that’s exactly what you need to do and…soon.”
“Now?”
He grinned. He did like how willing she was to accept the situation. “Now seems like a good time.”
“Do you think she’d pop in right away?” Charlotte’s smile fell away. “I mean, what if she was going to come right now? We’d be—”