Cole talked and Charlotte listened, knowing without having to ask that Cole didn’t share this story with many people. How lucky was she that he trusted her enough to share it with her? It didn’t surprise her that he’d married Gemma when she turned up pregnant. It did surprise her to learn the baby wasn’t his.
“The baby was Max’s,” he said now. “That’s the bomb Max dropped at the wedding. He stormed in and started an argument with her that turned into a fight. Of course, I got in the middle of it—punched him, in fact—and Max . . .”
His voice trailed off, as if his pain had silenced him.
She reached over and put a hand on his arm, hoping it gave him the courage to continue.
“He was sitting there on the floor, holding his nose, and he looked up at Gemma and said, ‘When are you going to tell him the truth about the baby?’”
She wanted to hug him. She may have never been in love, but it wasn’t hard to imagine what that revelation had done to him. Was it wrong she wanted to hold him until that sadness drifted away?
“What’s really awful is, when he heard about the miscarriage, Max came back,” Cole said. “And they picked up right where they left off.”
“That’s why,” she said.
“Why what?”
“Why you’re so closed off.”
“Because it just feels like everyone lies,” he said. “And I hate lying more than anything.”
Charlotte’s heart twisted. There were things about her he didn’t know. Old, childish, stupid mistakes—but they mattered. Hearing him talk like this, she knew they mattered. She should come clean, and she knew it, but she couldn’t find the words. And while she knew that the closer she got to Cole the harder it would be to tell him the truth, she couldn’t ruin this moment.
“I’m really sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he said. “I think I finally got a clear picture of all of this last night. I realized that Gemma has spent all these years trying to make Max love her. For whatever reason, she thinks she can earn that love when really, she should be with someone who accepts her for who she is. That’s what love is, right?”
Charlotte looked away. “I don’t know. Is it?”
He stilled. “Yeah, it is.”
She let herself meet his eyes—a mistake, probably, because she was fighting back tears. “I don’t really know much about love.”
A smile played at the corner of his mouth. “Me neither, but I do know it doesn’t have to be earned,” he said. “Not the real kind anyway—that kind is given. No strings. No conditions.”
She scoffed. “I definitely don’t know anything about that.”
He took her hand. “You do now.”
She stared at their intertwined fingers, and her pulse quickened as he hitched the thumb of his free hand under her chin and turned her face toward him. Charlotte’s heart raced as he leaned in closer, closing the gap between them.
He’s going to kiss me. Her mind repeated it over and over, and she shifted back.
“Sorry, I—” Cole looked away.
“No,” she said, “I’m sorry. I’m just nervous.”
He locked eyes with her. “About what?”
She didn’t dare look away. “What if I’m terrible at this?”
“Not a chance.”
“I might be,” she said, feeling like a teenager.
His face lit into a bright smile, and he shook his head. “Then we’ll keep practicing.”
Charlotte had spent years imagining what it would feel like to kiss someone, but in all of her daydreaming, she couldn’t have taken into account the deep emotions that would accompany this moment. Because it wasn’t about the kiss.
It was about Cole. And about her. And about the way he made her feel, the words he’d just said.
If love was really unconditional, if it didn’t need to be earned, she could stop striving so hard. She could simply be herself.
His hand wound up into her hair as he pulled her toward him. A shiver raced down her spine and straight back up again, anticipation bubbling through her body.
She knew it was customary to close your eyes when kissing, but she didn’t. And neither did he. Instead, he watched her with such a fierce intensity it nearly melted her into a puddle of lava on the ground.
He took his free hand and slid her even closer, then placed a kiss so soft, so sweet on her lips that it stunned her. She closed her eyes and let his kiss fill her up, pressing her hand against his chest and imagining for a moment that the rest of the world had disappeared.
She was overcome by the very idea of him. How had he won her heart so completely in such a short period of time?
He took her face in his hands and kissed her so fully it took her breath away. Every one of her daydreams paled in comparison to the way his kiss made her feel, like maybe she’d finally found the something more she’d been searching for.
41
Kissing Charlotte could quite possibly rival football as his favorite pastime.
She was beautiful, of course, but that’s not what he fell asleep thinking about. She had this way about her. Strong, yet elegant. And he adored the heck out of her. She was talented and hard-working, and she was going to make this recital happen for Julianna, her way of honoring his sister. The way she worked with Amelia only solidified what he knew—Charlotte loved his people.
He loved that about her.
If he didn’t already know how much happier he was, Bilby and the guys on his team would’ve made sure to point it out. There had been more than one wisecrack at practice about “that goofy smile” on Cole’s face.
What was he supposed to do—deny it? He was happy.
Cautiously, deliriously happy.
A few days after their first kiss, Cole called Charlotte in the morning and asked if she wanted to go out that night on a proper date.
“My first date,” she said. “Where will we go?”
“It’s a surprise,” he said.
“Okay.” He could practically hear her smile through the phone.
That night, he arrived to pick her up, and Lucy opened the door before he could knock. “You know this is her first date,” she said.
“I know.”
“Like, ever.”
“Yeah, we talked about it,” he said.
“So, where are you taking her? You’re going to make it special, right?”
“I got it, Lucy,” he said.
Charlotte appeared at the top of the stairs, and he felt like a teenager all over again, watching in awe as the light revealed her beauty. She reached the bottom of the stairs, and Lucy gave him a shove.
“You’re in a trance, teddy bear,” she said.
He couldn’t take his eyes off of Charlotte, this gorgeous, unexpected, adorably sweet woman who, he feared, had stolen his heart so completely, it wasn’t likely he’d ever get it back.
“You look beautiful,” he said.
And she did. Her hair fell in long waves past her shoulders, and her lips shimmered with a glossy pink shine. Her eyes were so wide and stunning he knew it would be a matter of seconds before he was completely lost in them.
“So do you,” she said. “Handsome, I mean.” She glanced at Lucy, then back at Cole.