“Thirteen years ago, to the day, I was crying my eyes out over you,” she whispered, staring into Charlotte’s eyes. They were so luminous in the soft lamplight that washed over them.
God, she could see it so vividly in her mind.
How she’d tried to enjoy her birthday with her friends, how Regan and Emma had both tried their hardest to take her mind off of her Charlotte-induced heartbreak. How it had felt like a Band-Aid over a bullet hole.
Charlotte’s playful, gorgeous grin fell away into a much more remorseful expression. She leaned back, putting inches between them, clearly surprised by what Sutton had said. Sutton couldn’t blame her.
“Sutton, I?—”
Sutton hurriedly shook her head as a stab of guilt edged in, and she tightened her hands on Charlotte’s hips. She didn’t want Charlotte to move away from her. If anything, these memories just made her want to pull Charlotte closer.
“No, no, I didn’t mean to make you feel badly.” She searched Charlotte’s eyes with her own, hoping she could see that Sutton meant what she said. She needed Charlotte to know how she felt. “Even before what you’d said tonight, I didn’t haveanynegative feelings about the past, Charlotte. I couldn’t be doing this with you—wanting to build a life with you—if I did. I was just…”
She rolled her lips, searching for the right words to describe the fullness of the feelings inside of her. “I’m marveling, to be honest.”
“Marveling?” Charlotte echoed, tentative amusement etched into her expression. She stopped angling herself away from Sutton, though, and resumed the soft stroking of her thumbs against Sutton’s face from where her hands cupped her jaw. “You weremarvelingover the fact that on your twenty-sixth birthday, you were unable to celebrate because I’d broken your heart?”
Sutton slowly nodded. Yes, and hearing Charlotte repeat it back to her, even in that tone, didn’t change anything.
She slid her hands down Charlotte’s arms, tugging her hold away from her face, and she laced her fingers through Charlotte’s. She wanted to feel that connection that existed between them like a living, breathing thing.
“Yes. I mean, at twenty-six, I loved you with everything I had. And, had things gone differently, our lives might look very different now. Maybe they wouldn’t.” She shrugged, shaking her head because the what-ifs just didn’t matter.
“But I’m marveling because, even now, thirteen years later, here we are. No matter what it took to get here—the lost time, the politics, the other relationships in between—we’re here. Together.”
They were in a different state, with different job titles, in different places in their lives, and they’dstillfound one another.
That fact settled inside of Sutton, filling every heartbreak she’d ever experienced.
She took a deep breath, the feelings nearly overwhelming her. “I guess it really is true, then.”
Charlotte tilted her head in silent, beseeching question, so Sutton explained.
“Good things really do come to those who wait.”
EPILOGUE
Sutton Spencer-Thompson was on a mission.
The first step of that mission was to find her wife, upon returning home from dropping Lucy off to be a counselor at her summer camp.
This mission was something that had been on her mind for months now, and she was finally ready to talk about it with Charlotte. Finally ready to share it. The excitement and anticipation that buzzed through her pushed her to walk a little more quickly through the first floor of their home.
Charlotte had moved in to live with Sutton and Lucy six months after Sutton had given her that key, all those years ago. At the time, Lucy had beenthrilled, and Charlotte’s big move-in had seemed like more of a formality than anything.
After all, by the time Charlotte officially “moved in,” she’d been spending at least four or five nights with Sutton and Lucy every week already. Sutton had painstakingly cleared out half of her closet for Charlotte to hang her belongings and had purchased another dresser.
It had become abundantly clear within a few months, though, that Sutton, Charlotte, and Lucy all living together in Sutton’s townhouse wasn’t going to be an ideal fit. Though Charlotte had maintained ownership of her own larger home, moving into it hadn’t felt quiterighteither.
So they’d decided the best decision was to sell their houses and buy this one together, one that had enough space for both of them to have a home office as well as a guest suite for Dean and Caleb and for Sutton’s family to stay in when they visited.
And while Sutton loved this house they’d lived in for about eight years now, it was still large enough that she didn’t always know exactly where to find Charlotte. Or Lucy, if she was looking for Lucy. There was a lot of guesswork involved.
Honestly, it reminded Sutton a lot of the house she’d grown up in, and she loved that. Granted, her family had been so large that when you went searching for someone you would probably stumble upon another person who could point you in the right direction.
She paused, hearing a murmur that was distinctively Charlotte’s voice, and her heart skipped a beat as she headed in the direction of the kitchen.
And… there she was.