by Jen Gilroy
Charlie’s mouth fell open. She’d been blind. Not only in fooling herself about how much she loved and needed Sean, but about how she felt about going back into the field for her job. She was about to sign the cottage away too, because she’d never let herself imagine there might be another answer. A simple answer. She grinned and stuck out her hand. “I’m Charlie. Not many people call me that either.”
“Nice to meet you, Charlie.” Joanie patted her hand.
Charlie scooped her backpack from the floor and slung it over one shoulder. The flight was already delayed by two hours. Maybe it wouldn’t go tonight, but even if it did, she wouldn’t be on it. “Enjoy those castles and don’t worry about the flight.”
“You’re leaving?” Joanie raised her eyebrows. Her expression was wise, far seeing.
“No. This time I’m staying.”
She got to her feet and held her purse by its strap. She’d spent most of her life wanting something more. New places, new people, always on the move. She’d lost sight of what she really wanted.
Someone to visit those new places with. Someone who’d always called her Charlie. And with that someone, a place she could truly belong.
She scanned the boarding lounge. Max would bluster but, underneath, her editor was a softie. If he cared about her like she thought he did, he’d want her to be happy. And he’d want her to heal. Besides, being around Mia this summer had taught Charlie a few things about sweet-talking.
She waved good-bye to Joanie and broke into a jog, dodging people and luggage to zigzag her way back toward security.
She was done running away. Done telling other people’s stories instead of finding and living her own.
This time she was running toward someone. Someone with broad shoulders just right to lean on. A good man who was also a forever kind of man.
Sean hadn’t counted on the traffic at the Canadian border and on the way to Montreal. Or the time it had taken to find his passport and throw a few clothes into an overnight bag. Charlie’s flight would be long gone.
The airport doors whooshed open and let out stale air and elevator music. He brushed raindrops off his sleeve as he walked through the deserted terminal, following signs for the ticket counter. Although he could have asked Trevor to stay with him, this was something he needed to do by himself.
He’d book the next available flight and find a hotel near the airport. Then he’d text Charlie. Who, by the time he got to London, might already be off somewhere else. If he had to, he’d follow her there too. His phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket, squinted at the screen.
“Charlie?” His heart hammered.
“Hey.” Her voice, not Charlotte’s but Charlie’s. Warm, loving, and so close she might have been in the same room.
“Where are you?” Sean’s fingers tightened around the phone.
“Behind you.”
He spun around. Charlie walked toward him across the terminal, her backpack hanging from a shoulder, her purse tucked under her arm. She wore jeans and a green hoodie and looked scared and so beautiful he caught his breath, unable to believe it was really her.
He broke into a run and she did too. They met beside an abandoned luggage cart.
“You didn’t leave.” Sean’s hand shook as he stuck his phone back in his pocket.
“No.” She dipped her head and tucked her phone into her purse. “You came after me even though…” Her voice cracked. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
He dropped his bag, grabbed her, and held on tight. This time he wouldn’t let her go. “I’m sorry too. So, so sorry.” He buried his face in her hair, the scent of peaches strong and part of her fragrance. “I was an idiot eighteen years ago and an even bigger one a few days ago.”
“I was an idiot too.” She sniffed, wiped a hand across her face, and stumbled against him.
“Your leg. You should sit.” He grabbed his bag but kept his other hand in hers to guide her to a row of empty seats and sit beside her.
“Sean, I—”
“Me first.” Fate had given him yet another chance, and this time he had to get it right. “I love you so much. I was a pigheaded fool, but I want to be with you. Everything else is details.”
She squeezed his hand so hard her nails dug in. “I love you too. And I want to be with you, but…”
“Forget about everything—the loan, the cottage. None of it matters. I thought Carmichael’s fulfilled me, but without you, it’s nothing. This is only about you and me, and if you trust me enough to give me another chance, I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.” This woman had brought him to his knees, and he’d stay there as long as it took to keep her in his life.
Charlie stilled. “I broke up with you because my dad told me I had to choose.”
“And you were right. We wanted different things back then, and I never thought about compromising or that I’d have to change. I did the same thing last week when I said I couldn’t go to that hotel in New Hampshire you picked out, couldn’t come see you in London.” Sean traced the sweet curve of her jaw. “Both times you took the only way out you knew.”
Charlie’s mouth got tight, and she turned away from his touch. “For us to be together, there can’t be any more secrets between us.” Her skin was ashen under the harsh fluorescent light. “I know I lied to you and I’ll always regret it, but I couldn’t tell you the truth then. Apart from taking away my college money, my dad also said if I didn’t break up with you and if I told you about the baby, he’d take back the loan.”
Sean struggled for breath as the realization of what she’d done for him and for his family hit him. “You…” He blinked, and the words stuck in his throat. “For me, my dad, you…” He pulled her into his arms.
Charlie, who never cried, had fat tears rolling down her cheeks. “No. It was for me. I convinced myself I’d protect you by saving Carmichael’s. But by not telling you, by not giving you a choice, I protected me too. I was scared you’d choose the business instead of me, and then I really would have had nothing.”
Sean stroked her hair, and heat suffused his body. “I’d never have chosen Carmichael’s ahead of our baby, but I was also stubborn, blinded by pride, and stupid. And we were kids headed along different paths. What matters is what I choose now. That’s you, Charlie, if you’ll have me.”
He brushed the tears off her beloved face. The face he wanted to see first thing every morning and last thing every night for the rest of his life.
“If I have to move to London to be with you, I will, at least once Ty finishes high school. I’ve got some customers in Europe who might be able to help me find a job. In the meantime, we’ll work things out, travel back and forth and talk every day.”
Emotions flitted across her face. Love, fear, acceptance, and then, finally, a glimmer of trust. Fragile, precious, and a gift he’d never again take for granted.
Charlie nestled into his shoulder. “Give up Carmichael’s for me? You couldn’t.”
“I could if I had to. A business can’t grow old with me, can’t love me. All this time I thought Firefly Lake was home. But the home that really matters is with you, wherever you are.” His tongue was thick in his mouth. “You complete me, when you don’t scare me.”
“Me scare you?” The sweetness of Charlie’s smile warmed the dark places inside him. It chased away any doubts he might have had, and any last fears about whether he could trust her, whether he could let her into his life and Ty’s for keeps.
“All the time.” How much he loved her, the life he wanted to build for them together.
“You scare me too. This scares me. I’m not good at relationships or thinking about someone else, whereas you…” She bit her bottom lip. “I convinced myself I didn’t belong anywhere except at work because it hurt too much to lose people and places I cared about. My family, you, and Firefly Lake. Even at work, I’ve never stayed in one place too long.”
“Aw, Charlie.” His heart thudded so loud she must hear it. “We’ll h
elp each other. That’s what this is about.”
“Compromise,” she whispered, “changing together.”
“Exactly.”
She took a deep breath and then another. “Carmichael’s is part of you like being a journalist is part of me, but you’re not the only one who needs to make changes in their life.” She hesitated and her mouth worked. “I have PTSD. I tried to tell myself I didn’t, that the doctors were wrong, but they weren’t. I need more help so I can really get better. And I don’t want to go back into the field like I did. The accident made me lose a part of myself, and I can’t be the journalist I was before.” She gulped. “I don’t want to be either.”
“Sunshine.” Sean got light-headed. He’d suspected she had PTSD, but now that she’d admitted it, the pieces of a puzzle slotted into place. “I’ll help you get that help. Whatever you need, I’ll be there for you. But you’re a great journalist. What…? How…?”
“I’ll ask to be reassigned to the Boston or New York bureau, and work remotely from Vermont as much as possible.” She sounded as determined as ever, but there was a vulnerability in her voice that was new. “I want to cover different stories and hang up my flak jacket for good.”
“I never wanted you to give up your job, but knowing you were going back into war zones…” Sean brushed a hand across his face. “The thought tears me apart. All I want is to keep you safe, and on those assignments, I can’t.”
“Being in a war zone’s an adrenaline high. I got hooked on it. Max once told me you know when your luck’s running out. The accident was a sign, even though I didn’t want to admit it at first.” She sniffled, but a ghost of a smile played about her mouth. “I don’t want to tell those stories anymore. They’re not me, but there are lots of other stories to tell that are me. I don’t want my job to be my life either.”
Sean kissed her mouth and lingered to taste before he pulled away. “Maybe building boats isn’t me. Not like it is for Trevor, anyway. I’d already thought about hiring someone to help him so I could focus more on growing the business. It’s what I like best, and I could do that almost anywhere. Or I could do something else.”
“We’ll work it out.” Charlie laced her fingers with his. “As for the cottage, Mia and I still need the money, but I don’t want to let it go. I’ll sell my place in London. Property prices have skyrocketed since I bought it. I should be able to pay off my mortgage, buy Mia out, and still have some money left over.”
Sean traced the kissable outline of her lips with a gentle finger. “Whether you protected yourself or me, I still owe you. My family owes you. If anybody buys Mia out, it should be Carmichael’s.” He took her hand, pulled her to her feet, and kissed her again, sweet but all too brief.
“No.” She looked at him through those thick lashes, his Charlie, still feisty but with a gentleness and a light in her eyes that told him how much she loved him. “No more owing each other. We’ll buy her out together. So we start off right, a team.”
He liked the sound of that. “No more all or nothing?”
“Not unless it’s you and me together.”
Sean liked the sound of that too, but he needed to be sure. “And Ty, when he’s not with Sarah and Matt?”
“Of course Ty.” Like there’d never been any doubt he and his son were a package deal. “Shadow too.”
“As if you’d let me forget her.” Sean laughed.
Charlie’s lips curved into a teasing grin. “Living with two guys, I‘ll need another girl around.” She pointed to an overhead monitor. “See there? My flight’s delayed until morning.” She tucked a hand into his. “I get a hotel room. You interested, Carmichael?”
“What do you think, Gibbs?” He grinned back.
Then he wrapped his arms around her and dipped his head for a long, slow kiss, showing her what was in his heart. Now and forever.
Epilogue
February, almost six months later
Sean waved, and a smile almost split his face in two. He stood a head taller than everyone else in the international arrivals area at Boston’s Logan Airport, and his arms were outstretched, waiting for her. Charlie’s anchor, no matter where she was in the world. “Hey, Sunshine.” He drew close.
“Hey, you.” She slid into his embrace and wrapped her arms around his back. She’d been gone only a week, but it seemed like forever.
“I missed you.” He returned her hug. It was the kind of hug that meant she was home, right where she was meant to be.
“I sure missed you too.” She fingered her engagement and wedding rings. It was three months since the gold wedding band had joined Sean’s grandmother’s engagement ring, an emerald flanked by diamonds in a vintage setting. A ring Charlie had cherished from the moment he’d asked if she’d do him the honor of wearing it. The happiest three months she’d ever known.
Sean kept one arm around her and took her suitcase and laptop bag. “How was Brussels?”
“Fine.” Although she loved her new job, she’d had something more important on her mind so she’d hardly noticed Brussels or the environmental summit she was there to report on. “I brought Ty some Belgian chocolates.”
“He’ll love those.” Sean kissed the top of her head. “He missed you.”
Warmth crept around Charlie’s heart. “You and Sarah have the tough job. I get to be more of a friend.”
“You all set for the ski trip?” He tugged on his tie and undid the top button of the white dress shirt beneath his suit jacket, the clothes he wore to make the deals that kept Trevor and Crystal so busy they’d hired extra staff to help over the winter.
Charlie swallowed. The ski trip to Lake Placid, New York. Ty, Sean, and her on vacation together for the first time. “Are you sure you can take time off work?”
“Of course.” Sean looked at her in astonishment. “We’re busy, but the new guys are doing fine, and Crystal works after school and on Saturdays.”
“That’s good, then.” Charlie swallowed again.
“Ty’s really excited about this trip.” Sean grinned. “Since he’s never snowboarded, he wants you to give him some tips and make him look like a pro.”
“Snowboarding tips, huh.” Charlie twirled her rings.
“You should have heard him telling Naomi last week. He had his tablet in the kitchen so I couldn’t help overhearing.”
Charlie raised an eyebrow. “Despite all those calls, Mia still says Naomi and Ty are friends.”
“That’s what Ty says too, but if they want to be more than friends, we’ll have to accept it.” Sean dug in his pocket for the parking stub. “We can stay here tonight and pick Ty up at Sarah and Matt’s tomorrow. I left Shadow at the condo. Even though you talked to her every day, that dog moped the whole time you were gone.”
“She couldn’t figure out where I was.” Charlie smothered a yawn. They’d bought a condo in Boston, where Sean stayed with her when she couldn’t work from Firefly Lake or only had a few days between assignments. Except those assignments had changed. No more front-line conflict. Not as many long trips either. Instead, she told stories about people fighting for peaceful causes. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
“Mia called earlier.” Sean shepherded Charlie through the throng of arriving passengers and toward the parking pay station. “She wants to talk to you about your mom’s foundation.”
“My sister has a lot of executive ability. Nick’s helping, but I never imagined the foundation would get off the ground so quickly.” She yawned again. “She’s got a purpose. For the first time in her life, she’s making her way in the world and she likes it.”
“The Beatrice McKellar Gibbs Foundation has given my mom a purpose too. You’ll always be Charlotte Gibbs for work, but in Firefly Lake you’re a Carmichael, and Mom stands behind family.” Sean’s voice was amused.
“Since it’s for my mom, your mom’s got all of Firefly Lake behind our first project. The summer camp will be amazing. All those kids who’ve never seen a lake before, never gone out in
a canoe or sat around a campfire. It’s a perfect use for the cottage property.”
He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a plastic container. “My mom sent your favorite cookies for the drive home.” He pried off the lid. “She says you don’t eat right in what she calls those ‘foreign’ places.”
Charlie began to laugh, but the floor seemed to shift beneath her feet, and her vision blurred. She swayed and reached for Sean.
He grabbed her elbow. “I don’t like to admit it, but Mom might be right. You get so caught up in work you forget to eat. Here, have a cookie.” He pushed the container toward her.
She waved him away and covered her nose and mouth. Her stomach heaved at the smell of peanut butter and chocolate.
“What is it?” Concern shadowed his eyes. “You don’t look good. Didn’t you sleep on the plane?”
“I slept.” All she wanted to do was sleep.
“Then what…? Charlie?” Sean caught her as she tilted toward him. “What’s wrong?” His voice was sharp, urgent. He propelled her to a seat, eased her into it, and pulled her coat off her shoulders.
“I’m okay.” She looked at her black pants, which all of a sudden were tight at the waist. “I’ll tell you when we get home.” She didn’t want all the big moments in her life to happen in airports.
“No. Tell me now.” Sean sat beside her and patted her arm. “I know something’s up.”
Charlie hugged herself, unsure. What if he was upset? He’d put a good face on it, but she’d know if he wasn’t as happy as she was, as excited as she was. As scared as she was too. She crossed her fingers. “I’m pregnant. I know we didn’t plan it, but—”
“You’re what?” Sean’s face went white. “Pregnant? For real?”
“It’s real all right.” She touched the gold heart necklace her mom had given her, blinking back hot tears. Sean already had a child, an almost-adult child. Maybe he didn’t want to start over again with the sleepless nights, diapers, and teething.
