8. Chapter 8
Lorenz
“I’m glad you changed your mind about having dinner together.”
Charlie smiled faintly. “This place is nice.”
She nudged at her grilled salmon with the edge of her fork, flaking it without quite committing to a bite.
“Is there something wrong with the fish?” Lorenz asked before he could stop himself.
She’d always loved fish. It had been a joke between them—Charlie loved fish, seaweed, anything pulled from the sea.
When they’d lived together, he’d started cataloging restaurants in his mind by what she liked to eat there.
For him, food had always been fuel. Charlie had made it something else entirely.
And he’d always loved watching her eat. Her focus.
The quiet pleasure she took in those small things.
But that was six years ago.
People change.
The thought came suddenly, that for all he knew she might be a vegetarian now. He hadn’t asked. He’d assumed.
Charlie shook her head. “No. It’s lovely.”
This time, the fork made it to her mouth.
Lorenz tried not to focus on her lips, but it was hard. Charlie’s lips had always been expressive—quick to smile, quick to press together when she was holding something back. Expressive and downright beautiful.
She chewed, swallowed. “You chose well.”
Relief settled somewhere behind his ribs.
“I remembered,” he said, then wished he hadn’t said the words.
Charlie’s gaze lifted, her expression curious, but she let it go.
“How was your day?” she asked.
“Uneventful,” he said. Technically true if you defined uneventful as nobody dying.
She raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
He shrugged. “There was an icefall release and two climbers were injured, but they’re both going to be fine. Other than that, it was just a lot of twisted ankles.”
That earned him a small smile.
“And yours?” he asked.
Charlie hesitated for an instant. When she spoke, her words came faster, as if she could make up for the moment of silence. “Busy. The usual.”
Teacher busy. Twenty plus children. Thousands of worries, every single day.
“Is the boy okay?”
“Théo? I haven’t spoken to his mother yet. She delayed our meeting. But I know something’s bothering him. I know it.” She frowned slightly, eyes unfocused now. “I hope he’ll share it with me, eventually.”
“I’m sure he will.”
Charlie picked up her fork again, but didn’t eat.
“You’re hurt,” she said quietly.
“It’s nothing.” Trust her to notice the slight discoloration around his temple. The helmet had caught the brunt of the ice block, but his head had been right behind it.
“That’s what you always used to say.”
You’re so beautiful.
That was something else he used to say, but he didn’t have the right to say it now.
“I’m glad you came,” he said quietly.
Charlie seemed to undress him with her eyes for a moment. She set her fork down.
“We’re not very good at half-way things, are we?”
He shrugged his agreement.
It was warm. Much too warm in this restaurant. But then, Charlie had always made him feel this way. Hot. Too hot.
Charlie finished her salmon, and he did the same with the risotto he’d barely tasted.
He waited for her to ask him what it was he wanted to talk about. That would be his chance to apologize, to explain the inexplicable. But she surprised him once again.
Her gaze didn’t waver.
“You called me out here to talk. But what if I don’t want to talk tonight, Lorenz?”
He felt the room tilt. Heat rushed through him, sharp and disoriented.
“I … what do you want, Charlie?”
The answer took a long instant to come.
“I want to remember,” she said quietly. “I want to remember what it feels like when we’re not careful.”
Lorenz’s pulse beat erratically against his chest. He wanted to reach over the table and grasp her hands—feel the beat on the inside of her wrist. But he didn’t know if he’d be able to release her, once he touched her. More than anything, he wanted to erase the pain in her voice.
“You’re going to have to be a lot more direct, Charlie.” He had to know he wasn’t misinterpreting her meaning. If this was a mistake, it had to be one they fell into together.
Her napkin hit the table with surprising force. “Come home with me tonight, Lorenz.”
The way his cock tightened against the front of his jeans at her words didn’t surprise Lorenz. What surprised him was the way his entire body—his mind, his very soul—responded to her words.