38. ALEX
38
ALEX
“ S omeone is here to see you, sir,” Marina said over my intercom system. “A Miss Charlotte Reynolds.”
“You can send her in.” My stomach twisted. What was she doing here? She’d made it so clear she wanted nothing to do with me, but I’d meant to reach out to her after what Gabe had told me.
I just hadn’t decided how I wanted to do it. I’d wanted to prepare a speech about how much I cared for her, how much she meant to me, but I’d so much to take care of with business that I hadn’t gotten to that point.
When she walked in, my heart skipped a beat.
Charlotte had always taken my breath away.
Her blonde hair hung in waves over her shoulders, but her hazel eyes were guarded. She didn’t wear any makeup, her natural beauty shining through, and the freckles on her nose stood out even more than usual.
“Charlotte,” I breathed when I saw her.
“Did you mean it?” she demanded right away.
“What?” I asked, confused.
“The press release. The yacht line that you’re releasing. The direction with the company that you told me you weren’t going to take.” She stared at me, her eyes filled with questions, her face stern. It was as if everything for her depended on the answer I gave her. She bit her lower lip, and fuck, she was so beautiful when she did that.
I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to hold her and show her how much I really loved her.
Because losing her had shown me exactly that—I was madly, head-over-heels in love with her.
“I did,” I said.
“I don’t understand. What about the people you’re supposed to pay and the money you’re going to lose with this?”
“The investors who threatened to leave left anyway. I had to figure out a way to make it work, find different funding, different investors… and when I started looking for new people, I realized that this business isn’t about jumping through hoops to line up with the investors. It’s about finding investors who are on board with our vision.”
Charlotte stared at me, so I kept talking.
“I’ve been trying to please people for a long time. I always thought that being in charge, being the leader of a company like this with so many people underneath me, was about doing what they expected of me. I didn’t realize that what they expected of me was to lead them, not to follow them.”
I shook my head. It was coming out all wrong.
“I don’t know how else to—”
“No, I think I get it,” Charlotte said. “Can I sit down?”
I nodded, and she walked to the armchair and sank into it as if it was hard work to stand. She sat back and let out a shuddering breath.
“Are you okay?”
“It’s just a lot,” she said. “It feels like everything is upside down lately. Everything I thought I knew and understood isn’t the way it seemed, and I feel… lost.”
I sat down next to her and hesitated before I carefully reached for her hand. I moved slowly, almost like I didn’t want to scare a cornered animal. When she didn’t pull her hand away, I squeezed it.
“It’s going to be okay, you know. We can figure it out together.”
She glanced at me, her brows knitted together in a frown.
I took a deep breath.
“I was wrong,” I said. “About a lot of things. The biggest mistake I made wasn’t with the business and the direction I was going to take us. The biggest mistake I made was letting you go.”
“Alex…”
“No, hear me out. Please.”
She pursed her lips together, her eyes wide.
I covered her hand in mine with my other hand.
“I’ve been trying to fight what I feel for you. I’ve been trying to tell myself that this thing that’s happened between us wasn’t real, that it didn’t mean anything. But I was a fool, and I sacrificed the thing I realize now I wanted most in this world.”
“What’s that?” she asked in a whisper.
“You,” I said without a hitch. “I want to be with you. I love the person you allow me to be, and I love the person you are. I love you. More than I ever thought I could love anyone, and I want you in my life.”
Charlotte’s eyes welled with tears, and she shook her head.
“We can’t do this,” she said. “It won’t work.”
“Of course, it will. We just have to take things slow, day by day. I’m willing to do that with you. We’ll take one step together and then another.”
“I can’t be with you, Alex,” Charlotte said, but her voice wasn’t angry or determined. Instead, it cracked, and the tears rolled over her cheeks.
“I know about the baby.”
Charlotte’s eyes widened and she paled. “What?”
“Gabe told me.”
She looked shocked and then angry, but her anger was quickly replaced with something that looked a lot more like fear.
“I didn’t want to do this to you,” she said quickly. “I didn’t want to catch you or tie you down or demand any money from you. I can do this alone. We don’t have to do anything together—”
“I want to do it together, Charlotte.”
She pulled her hand away and covered her face.
“You don’t want this,” she said through her fingers. “You don’t want to be a father, have a baby. You told me so yourself.”
“Hey.” I wrapped my fingers carefully around her wrists, gently lowering her hands so I could look into her eyes. Her face was streaked with tears. “I didn’t know what I was saying when I told you that. It came from a place of fear, a place of self-loathing that I don’t feel anymore. That was all hypothetical, but now that it’s real… I want nothing more than to be with you, to raise our baby together. To be a family.”
I reached for her cheek and brushed her tears away.
“Do you really want this?”
I nodded. “More than anything. We’re good together, Charlotte. You and me. If we’re together, it doesn’t matter what the world throws at us. We can do it.”
“Do you really want to do the eco-friendly yachts?” she asked. “Or did you do it so that I would come back?”
“I did it because it was the right thing to do,” I said truthfully. “It’s because of you opening my eyes, but this wasn’t just for you. If I’m going to be a father, then I need to focus on the important things, and a part of that is doing what I can to make this world a better place for our children to grow up in.”
Charlotte’s face crumpled again, but this time, she was smiling, and it shifted the constellation of freckles on her cheeks and nose.
“This feels too good to be true.”
“That’s how I felt since the moment I met you,” I said. “But, my sweetheart, something this good has to be real.” I cupped her cheek and leaned forward, looking deep into her eyes. “I love you, and I want forever with you. With you and our baby.”
“I love you, too,” Charlotte whispered.
I closed the distance between us and pressed my lips against hers.
Something coursed through my body, but it wasn’t electric and filled with lust the way it had been before. It was soft and warm and filled with love.
Charlotte wrapped her arms around my neck, and I pulled her closer. She lifted herself off the armchair and climbed onto my lap, and I wrapped my arms around her body, holding her. We kissed, and then she buried her face in my neck. More tears rolled over her cheeks—I felt them against my neck, soaking into my collar.
I didn’t care. I would hold her like this and protect her against the world for the rest of my days. She was my everything, and this… this was the happy ending I realized now I deserved.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“For what?”
“Being amazing.”
“And thank you,” I said.
“For what?”
She pulled back so that I could look at her.
“For fighting for me, too.”
She leaned in and kissed me again, and there wasn’t a happier man in the world than me.