Seeking Happily Ever After (Ever After #8) - Elena Aitken Page 0,25

by putting a hand on her thigh. It felt both innocent and everything but. Her head whipped around, and she stared at him, open-mouthed, until he pulled his hand away. Instantly wishing he hadn’t. He liked touching her. It felt…nice.

Under any other circumstances, Nick would have laughed at his benign choice of words for what was anything but an innocent touch. At least, it certainly didn’t feel innocent. Not the way his heart was pounding. He jumped up from the couch, needing space before he reached out and touched her again. “We need to calm down.” In more ways than one. “First things first. Let’s get you moved in.” He looked around the space. It was small. It had been small for just him and Amelia. For him, Amelia, and Charlotte, it was going to be downright tiny. Especially if just a simple touch from his fiancée sparked feelings in him that were anything but innocent.

“Right.” Charlotte stood. “I’ll go home and get a few things. I guess, I’ll…”

“Do you need help? I can ask Katie to watch Amelia.”

She seemed to consider his offer for a moment, but finally, she shook her head. “You know, I think it might be easier if I do it on my own.” She turned to leave, but before she did, spun around again. “One thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Are we…well, I know it’s a fake engagement and all, but…my parents are going to ask questions, and I don’t think I can explain this one considering the last few months. I mean…”

Shit.

Of course. Only a few months ago, Charlotte was in a controlling relationship on the other side of the country and now she was engaged to be married—without even so much as a first date. Certainly her parents would have questions. Katie and Damon had kept their secret from everyone. But their situation was different. It was believable. That was a huge difference.

“Maybe we should just tell people the truth. I mean, only our close friends and family, not everyone. I think they’d understand, don’t you?”

Her shrug didn’t inspire much confidence, but he didn’t have any other options.

“We’ll just have to hope they do, won’t we.”

As if she sensed the stress in the air and the fact that her very future was balanced upon whether Nick and Charlotte could pull off the ultimate lie, Amelia chose that moment to wake. She let out a squawk that Nick knew would only grow louder and more insistent if he didn’t respond right away. He looked from the baby back to Charlotte, and his heart swelled with a mixture of emotions he couldn’t quite pin down.

Love. Hope. Fear. Gratitude. Desire.

He took a shaky breath, willing his emotions to stay under control. He couldn’t lose his grip now. He squeezed his eyes shut for a second, giving himself a moment to pull it together before going to the baby. If he was worked up, she’d feel it. And the last thing he needed on top of everything else was for Amelia to get worked up, too.

His eyes flew open a moment later when Charlotte wrapped her arms around him and squeezed. He jumped a little, but she held him tighter.

A hug.

The physical touch almost broke the thin thread he had on his control. But the longer she held him, the better he started to feel, until he unwound his arms and returned the embrace.

She smelled of lemons and vanilla.

“We’ve got this, Nick,” she murmured into his ear. “It’ll be okay.”

Simple words. But, somehow, coming from Charlotte with her arms around him, he believed them.

Chapter Seven

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