There were a lot of things the two of them needed to talk about, but they could wait until she got back from her weekend in Iowa. Hopefully, she would come back refreshed and ready to get on with the rest of their lives. The wedding was coming up faster than he’d even realized, and things were just taking the two of them over in a whirlwind. The last thing he wanted to do was to lose them both in the process.
Chapter 7
Charlotte hadn't even gotten a chance to see Preston before her flight left, but if she’d waited until he got out of the office, she wouldn’t have been able to leave for Iowa until late on Saturday evening. If she wanted any kind of time at home at all before having to leave on Monday, she was going to have to go now while she could. She couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt when she reached the penthouse to pack a weekend bag without her fiancé, but she needed this time to clear her head. She needed her mother.
It had been a long time since she’d been home on her own and had a chance to have one of their old talks. Back when she’d been in high school, the two of them had been best friends. Even when she’d gone away to college, she still drove home on weekends to have a chance to catch up on everything that was going on at home. Since she’d moved to Denver, none of that had been possible. Charlotte hadn’t even been able to make it home last Christmas even though she had only been gone from Iowa for a month. It also hurt to have to celebrate her birthday alone with only a chance to talk to her parents on the phone instead of the usual birthday dinner she’d grown accustomed to.
She kept telling herself that was part of growing up, that things were supposed to be that way when you finally moved out of the house, but her family had always been a huge part of her life. To cut them out almost completely as she had was a shock for her, even at her age, and even though she’d been telling herself that it was a necessary evil for weeks before she left the front door for the last time.
Now, here she was on a flight back to the place she’d grown up, the place where her parents were waiting. She hadn’t even bothered to call. Charlotte planned to catch a taxi from the airport to the house and just cross her fingers that someone was home when she got there. Her parents would be surprised, but there was no way they weren’t going to welcome her back when she arrived on their front door step. She wasn’t going to be able to stop them from asking questions. She expected that, but she needed her mother’s advice, anyway.
The two of them were due to fly into the city in a few weeks to come to the wedding, but she needed them both now, especially Margaret Spencer Fairweather, the woman who’d given birth to her.
The flight landed before she’d even fully realized it was well and truly in the air. The flight was short enough, and she was completely distracted by the things that were running through her head. What Riley had told her back at the bakery was starting to sink in, and for the first time through all of this wedding process, she’d come to the realization that she could call all of this off with a single word. There was a lot of power in that. It wasn’t as though she hadn’t ended things with Preston twice before now. She knew she could walk away from him completely if she really wanted to, but that wasn’t what she wanted. What she really wanted was to put the brakes on what was going on all around her and give herself a chance to catch up.
She was learning a lot more about herself than she’d ever thought possible in the last few weeks. Charlotte wasn’t the same girl who’d walked into Preston’s office that night. She wasn’t even the same girl who had said yes to his proposal in her aunt and uncle’s kitchen a few weeks ago. She couldn’t remember a single moment in her life when she’d realized that she’d matured this much in such a short amount of time. The process was bound to come with some growing pains, and now she just needed the reassurance she could only get from her mother to make sure she was on the right path.
Getting off the plane and finding a taxi was all a blur, and she stayed lost in thought through the entire drive out to the farm where she’d grown up. It wasn’t until she was standing on the steps of the front porch that she stopped to catch her breath. She wasn’t sure what was coming up next, but she knew that one way or another it was just going to be another change.
Charlotte exhaled and walked up to knock on the front door. The sharp sound echoed around the front porch and hit her ears. She could hear footsteps behind the closed wooden doors. She’d known they were home the moment the taxi had arrived in the front yard. Her father’s truck was parked in the spot it had always been in almost as if it had never moved and she had never left. She barely remembered the last time she’d been here, even though it had only been a few weeks ago. She and Preston had been in such a hurry to share the news about their engagement, she hadn’t even taken the time to notice the little things that had changed since she’d left home or all the things that never had.
There was something comforting about it, knowing that whatever decision she made, whatever happened, she was going to have something that remained the same. Her family wasn’t going anywhere whether she decided to get married or not. When her mother’s surprised face appeared on the other side of the glass windows that were mounted in the front door she breathed a sigh of relief.
The older woman looked remarkably like the younger one waiting on the outside of the door though the years had changed her once strawberry blonde hair to silver. They had the same soft green eyes and the same gentle features that told anyone who took long enough to notice them that they were very similar in temperament as well. The main difference at the moment was the surprise written all over Margaret’s face and the relief that was plastered on Charlotte’s.
“Charlotte?” Margaret opened the door without a second thought, reaching out to pull her daughter into her arms, and Charlotte fell apart as soon as she was wrapped in the warm hug she hadn’t even realized how much she needed until she was finally there.
❖
A few hours later, Charlotte and her mother were curled up on the bed in Charlotte’s childhood bedroom with Charlotte wearing only a pair of fuzzy pajamas she’d left behind here in high school. Not much had changed about the room. Even the clothes she’d left behind were still in the drawers she’d placed them in before moving. The real difference was herself. She’d been through so much since she was the little girl who lived in this room, but it was nice to let go of all the responsibilities she had piled on herself, even if it was just for a couple of days.
Sitting here with her mom, working on two cups of tea, finally gave her the room to breathe that she’d been craving. Now she just had to bring up the real reason she’d shown up on their front doorstep.
“Mom?” She glanced up from the cup perched carefully in her lap, catching Margaret’s eye as she worked up the courage to finally talk to her about what was going on. He parents had been so happy to see her that they hadn’t asked a single question about what she was doing here when she explained she was going to stay for the weekend. Her father had just carried her bags upstairs to her room while her mother fussed over her, making sure that she’d had enough to eat and wasn’t too tired from her flight. She only fussed a time or two about why Charlotte hadn’t called to tell them she was on her way home.
“Hmm?” Margaret put her cup of tea down on the side table and stopped to pay attention to what Charlotte was going to say to her. It was now or never. If Charlotte didn’t bring up her real reason for being here, then she was never going to be brave enough to do it.
“How would you feel if I decided to postpone the wedding?” Margaret froze in place as she knit her eyebrows together. Charlotte could see that she had pulled her lower lip between her teeth and was biting down gently on it.
She could remember that expression from the million times she’d seen it throughout her childhood. It was the way that her mother always looked when she was thinking about something important. Charlotte just had no way of knowing what was going to come out of her mouth when she finally did speak. She was terrified that her mother was going to tell her it was a te
rrible idea or tell her she was being selfish. When Margaret finally spoke, Charlotte could feel her heartbeat thundering in her ears.
“Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about why you want to postpone the wedding?”
Charlotte could almost feel her nerves start to get the best of her, but she was willing to try to explain what was going on to her mother, if she could wrap her head around it herself.
“You can ask me anything.”
“Is everything alright between you and Preston? There’s nothing going on there that I need to know about, right?” Charlotte could see the concern written across her mother’s face. It made sense that this was her first question. Why else would Charlotte want to postpone a wedding if she and her fiancé were perfectly happy? Charlotte had been asking herself that since she’d left the bakery earlier today, and she hadn’t even been able to give herself a satisfactory answer before now.
“Everything is fine there. I love him. He loves me. I want to be his wife. I have absolutely nothing to complain about there. He’s been good to me, Mom. I mean it. I’d tell you if anything was wrong there.”
She was being honest. Preston was great. Their relationship was great. They were learning new things about each other, and it was something she really and truly loved doing. It just seemed like one thing after another was coming so quickly that she had no time to adjust before the next thing happened.
“And everything is going well at the bakery?” She raised an eyebrow as she reached out to toy with the edge of Charlotte’s pajama pants.
“Never been better.” Charlotte tried to bring up a smile. Of course, money and the business would be the next big concern. “Things there are busy, but I’ve got help, and they’re good enough that I was able to take off a couple of days to come see you. Everything is going fine there.”
“Then why do you want to postpone the wedding?”
There was the question she’d been waiting for. Charlotte wasn’t a hundred percent certain that she even knew how to put the answer to that question in words. It was the thing she’d been struggling with since this even became a possibility, but she was going to give it a shot.
“Because I don’t know how I’m going to do it all. I don’t know how I’m supposed to plan this huge event, run a business, move into Preston’s penthouse, keep all the balls up in the air that I’ve had going all while I try to figure out exactly who I am and what I’m doing without losing my mind.” Charlotte took a breath. It felt like she’d been babbling on and on without taking a breath.
Margaret took a moment to process everything her daughter was trying to tell her before she gave an answer. The short time was probably only a minute or two, but to Charlotte it felt like an eternity. She kept thinking of all the things her mother might say to her, all the ways she might be being unreasonable, and how all of this was going to break someone’s heart.
“Charlotte, darling…”
Charlotte could almost hear the disappointment in her mother’s voice, and she took in a deep breath to begin a reply just before her mother placed a single finger across her lips.
“Don’t interrupt me before I have a chance to say what I’m thinking, young lady. I know you’re expecting me to start fussing at you but let me have my turn before you come up with the next thing. When I married your father, we’d been together for the better part of three years before we ever thought about getting married. I thought I knew myself then, but I had no idea. Things changed. I know how overwhelming planning a wedding can be, and I know how much a new relationship can change your life. Doing both at once is probably the most intimidating thing I can think of. You’re far braver than I ever was taking on all of that while you’re running a brand-new business and moving in with your fiancée, sweetheart.”
She continued on as she reached out and placed a hand over Charlotte’s, “Charlotte you’ve always been a smart girl but you also tend to want everything to stay the same but that doesn’t happen. You’re growing up, you are your own woman now. You’re responsible and taking on the world. You need to embrace that and not still try to be that little girl from Iowa. Your father and I are proud of you, just know that, and if you decide that you need to take more time to get this wedding off the ground, then take it. Just promise me one thing?”
Charlotte listened to everything her mother was telling her with a slightly shocked expression. This hadn’t been what she was expecting to hear at all even if it was exactly what she needed to hear. Her mother had her back that meant she only had one more thing to tackle to make sure that she was going to get the time she needed to get this wedding done right.
“What’s that, Mother?” She could promise her mother something, knowing that the older woman always had her best interests at heart.
“Tell Preston now. Don’t leave him hanging and wondering what’s going on until the last minute. That’s not fair to either one of you.”
Her mother had a point. She needed to explain this all to Preston. Charlotte just wasn’t sure how to do it without hurting him more than necessary.
“I know. I know. I just don’t want to hurt him. He doesn’t deserve that. He hasn’t done anything wrong here. I was the one who pushed for a quicker wedding. I was the one who thought I could do it all without any help in only a few weeks, and now I’m going to have to tell him I don’t want to marry him in a few weeks. That I want to wait, and I don’t even know how long.”
“I just think you underestimate how much that man loves you, Charlotte. Just be honest with him, like you were honest with me, and I think everything is going to work out.”
She had a point, and even though Charlotte was terrified, she knew that being honest with Preston was going to be the best idea right now. She just didn’t know how she was going to explain all of this to him.
“Alright, Mama. I’ll call him tonight and see if he will talk to me, and then when I get back to Denver, we can talk everything out. I promise.”
Margaret reached out and ran a hand across the crown of Charlotte’s head, ruffling the hair there with a soft smile before she stood up to move toward the bedroom door. She paused in the doorway, turning to meet her daughter’s gaze.
“Alright then, Charlotte Darling. It’s late, and your father is probably already in bed waiting for me. I’ll see you in the morning?”
Her question was clear to Charlotte. She wanted to know if she was still going to be there in the morning now that all of this was out in the open. Charlotte had come for the weekend, and she intended to stay until Monday as long as her mother and father would have her.
“Can I have pancakes for breakfast?”
The grin that spread across her mother’s face was brilliant. Pancakes had always been Charlotte’s favorite breakfast as a child and asking for them now was her way of making sure that her mother knew she wasn’t going anywhere.
“Of course, you can. Good night, Darling.”
“Goodnight, Mom.”
Margaret shut the door behind her, leaving Charlotte on her own in her childhood bedroom to try to figure out a way to tell her fiancé that she wanted to postpone their wedding without breaking him to pieces.
Chapter 8
Three days. Charlotte had only been gone for three days, but it felt like an eternity. It was the longest the two of them had gone without seeing one another since Preston had proposed. She was due back tonight on a flight that landed at six. It meant that his driver was going to have just enough time to pick her up and bring her home to meet Preston in the penthouse for dinner. Normally he would have picked her up himself, but he was planning something special.
He’d been planning tonight for the last two days. Something was on Charlotte’s mind and he wanted to prove to her that he was ready to listen and hear her out. It hadn’t helped that she’d called him on her first night back in Iowa to tell him that she had something important she needed to discuss with him when she got home. It had been weighing on his thoughts ever since.
Preston ha
d asked her what she needed to discuss with him though the only thing she would say was that it was something they needed to talk about in person and not over the phone. All the possibilities had been weighing on him ever since, running through his brain a mile a minute. His thoughts often spiraled out of control… Was she planning to break up with him again? Had he pushed her too far? Was she planning to move back to Iowa and leave him behind? He didn’t think he could live with any of that, but he was scared he’d gone too far the last time they’d been together. It had only been a few days since their scene here in his office apartment that she’d suddenly decided she needed her parents. What else could it be?
He replayed the scenario in his head, realizing just how out of control he had been with her. With a more experienced woman it might not have been such a shock, but with Charlotte… pure, sweet, innocent Charlotte! He moaned as he buried his head in his hands realizing how terrified she must have been that night. The way he used and abused her body, the forcefulness he used with her.
Charlotte must have been having second doubts about being his wife and he couldn’t blame her! That was all there could have been to it, and she was trying to find a way to let him down gently. He just didn’t think he was going to be able to live with that if she did.
Preston had arranged for dinner to be delivered for the penthouse around six, and he was leaving the office early this afternoon to get everything arranged back at home before she ever set foot off the plane. He had no idea how he was going to convince her not to leave him, but whatever it took was going to be exactly what she got. He just knew that there was no way he was ever going to be able to live without her.
The time for him to leave work was growing near. Charlotte’s plane was already in the air, and there wasn't much he could do now besides wait to see what was going to come. He leaned down to press the button on his phone to signal for Sophie out in the office beyond the double doors.
Indulgence: A Billionaire Virgin Romance Page 6