Chapter 15

FIFTEEN

The sky was a brilliant blue when Charlotte and Noah emerged from Meemaw's the following morning. Stopping on the breezeway connecting the two houses, Charlotte inhaled a deep breath of the mountain air, tinged with the crisp scent of autumn.

"It's so beautiful," she said.

Noah wrapped his arms around her from behind, burying his lips into her hair. "Mmm. You are."

She swatted at his hands that were roaming shamelessly over her belly. "I meant this place. Your home. I'm so glad you invited me."

"We could go back inside where you can thank me for my generous hospitality."

The idea was appealing, but if he "thanked" her anymore today, she doubted she'd be able to walk.

"We're late for breakfast," she argued half-heartedly. "Haven't you worked up an appetite yet?"

He spun her around in his arms. The roguish smile he wore was still new to her. And precious. She enjoyed knowing the part of Noah he reserved for only a few. It made her feel special.

And loved.

He hadn't come out and said it yet. At least not in words. But every time he touched her, she experienced it. And it felt glorious.

Her fingers found the buttons on his Henley. "Well, I guess since we're already late." She batted her eyelashes.

Noah's pupils dilated. A moment later, he dropped his arms from around her.

"Too late," he teased as he spun her around and patted her on the butt. "Now I'm thinking about bacon."

Charlotte sputtered in protest. Noah laughed as he propelled her into the empty kitchen.

"There better be bacon left," Noah called out.

"In here," Chris answered.

They found everyone in the family room solemnly staring at the screen of the television mounted on the wall above the fireplace. A fission of unease raced up Charlotte's spine when video of her and Noah at Friday's football game flashed onto the screen.

"And there you have it, irrevocable proof that these two are still a couple. It's always nice to prove you wrong, Bucky," the chirpy blonde who co-anchored the sports network's Sunday pre-game show announced.

The woman's tone had Charlotte wondering if she may have been cornered by Bucky at one point. Bile rose in her throat when the camera cut to Bucky Kincaid's smug grin. Had he always looked so threatening?

"Dude," Chris said. "Did the people in make-up think he was shooting a horror flick?"

Now that she looked closely, Charlotte noticed one of Bucky's bloodshot eyes had a nervous twitch to it this morning.

"Oh, Hannah," Bucky drawled. "I know how much you love to get the better of me." The bastard winked at the camera. "And I know when to admit I am wrong. It looks like the Blaze QB has, in fact, landed himself a princess."

"Damn straight," Chris yelled at the television.

"Yeah!" Maisy stood and threw a stuffed animal at the screen.

Alex pulled her daughter onto her lap before glaring at her husband over the child's head.

"So, here's my mea culpe, folks," Bucky continued. "Congratulations, bruh. She's all yours."

"What the heck is this guy talking about?" Noah's dad demanded. "What kind of apology is that?"

Bucky wasn't finished. "Just between you and me, though, a word of advice."

"He doesn't need any advice from you," Meemaw barked.

Charlotte had the sudden, eerie feeling she was watching a train wreck. One she was powerless to stop. As much as she wanted to walk away, she couldn't make herself do it.

The camera zoomed in further, accentuating Bucky's manic demeanor. "Keep in mind, Dudson, our princess is fickle."

Noah's hand on her back balled up into a fist at Bucky's use of the word "our."

"Sure, she may choose you now." Bucky's eyes grew more menacing. "But who is to say she won't dump you the way she's dumping her beloved Truly Yours?"

All the heads in the room swiveled to stare at Charlotte. Noah's arm cinched around her waist, pulling her against him protectively.

"The Trulies are all boo-hooing right now." Bucky mimed rubbing his eyes. "That's right, your princess is selling you out for a quarterback. She's anointing a new CEO and taking her—" Bucky made air quotes with his fingers "—Honest company public."

Charlotte swayed so hard that she might have fallen had she not been leaning against Noah. "That's not true. And he's not supposed to know that."

"Beware, Dudson, or you might find yourself tossed over, too." Bucky held up a photo for the camera. "I'm sure this kid's father didn't enjoy it when it happened to him."

The camera zoomed in on the photo of a very pregnant Charlotte sunbathing at Jay's vineyard in California before the screen went dark.

"You have a baby, Aunt Charlie?" Maisy squeaked.

Alex covered her daughter's mouth with her hand. "It's shameful what they do with AI nowadays."

A painful roaring began in Charlotte's ears. She couldn't seem to get enough air into her lungs. Everyone's perplexed stares made her skin hot and prickly. She pulled away from Noah and bolted out the kitchen door.

Gulping in several deep breaths of fresh air, she racewalked as far away from the house as possible. A wooden swing swayed with the gentle breeze in the distance. It called to her like a beacon in the sea. A picnic table sat beside it. She headed that way, resting her back against the giant oak tree once she reached it. Slamming her eyes shut, she waited for her heart to stop knocking against her chest.

The sound of footsteps on the grass had her lifting her lids. Through the fringe of her lashes, she watched Noah approach. Just like he had that night in London, he wordlessly placed a bottle of water on the picnic table for her. He sat on top of the table, propping his feet on the bench, elbows resting on his knees, the picture of calm as he waited her out.

That was so Noah. He wasn't going to solve this caveman style. He was going to let her have her say. It was one of the things she loved most about him. Her throat constricted painfully, hoping against hope that Bucky hadn't blown it for her.

"That photo isn't fake," she began.

He remained quiet. The only tell that he heard her was the slight clenching of his fingers.

"I was pregnant. It was almost six years ago."

His eyes narrowed for a moment before he made a sound deep in his chest. "The twins. You were their surrogate."

She nodded, too delighted and relieved to form words. God, she loved this brilliant, patient man.

"Come here," he commanded.

Noah lowered himself down onto the bench. She walked over to stand between his knees. Gripping her waist, he pulled her in so that he could press his lips to her stomach. She stroked her fingers through his hair.

"You do know there's no shame in that, right?" he said against the flannel of her shirt.

"I'm not embarrassed. I'm angry. He had no right to tell that story before the twins were old enough to hear it from their parents." She tugged on his hair. "And how dare he make it sound so tawdry."

Noah carefully untangled her fingers from his scalp, moving her hands to his shoulders before he maneuvered his thighs between hers and repositioned her so that she was straddling him on the bench. He brushed a strand of hair from her face. "It's a precious gift you gave them."

Charlotte nodded. "They are precious. I can't imagine my life without them."

He kissed her nose. "They are a part of you."

"I like to think they get their sense of wonder from me." She sketched a finger along his jawline. "They definitely got their dislike of broccoli from me."

The chuckle rumbling through his chest went a long way toward calming her. Yet, there was still a rather large elephant in the yard with them. Especially since Bucky's words echoed everything Noah feared might happen to their relationship down the road. That she would get bored with him and move on.

"That BS he said about me being flighty. Or fickle. He's wrong, Noah. I meant what I said the other night. You are enough. You'll always be enough."

She kissed him, trying to convey to his senses the words she'd just spoken. Noah had no trouble interpreting her moves. He responded with a delicious kiss of his own.

"The media will not leave us alone," she murmured against his neck. "They will always want to invade our privacy."

He fingered the buttons of her shirt open. "You're worth it." He cupped her breast. "I can't say I like the idea of you walking away from Truly, though. I thought you were going to bring in someone to help. Not sell it."

"I wasn't. I'm not." She huffed. "I'm bringing in a CEO. We're announcing it next week. That's proprietary information, though. Only a handful of people know. I have no idea how Bucky found out." She leaned her forehead on his shoulder. "But maybe I should let it go. It will make things easier. For us."

Noah gave her shoulders a shake. "You are Truly. And Truly is you. I'm not coming between either."

She wasn't sure how to interpret his words.

"You don't have to choose, Charlotte. We're both living extremely privileged lives. We'll make it work. Together."

Tears burned the back of her eyes. "I love you, Noah Hudson. So very much."

He closed his eyes and released a relieved sounding breath. "Good. Because I've been in love with you since that first night in London."

"You have?" she said, not caring about the squeak in her voice.

"I let you win at backgammon, didn't I?"

Her brother sent his jet to ferry them back to Baltimore. Noah was grateful for the privacy. Charlotte was putting up a good front, but tension still bracketed her mouth. She had a lot more practice maneuvering through a media gauntlet than he did, but that didn't mean he wanted to subject her to one today. Thankfully, her security detail was on the same page, meeting them on the tarmac in an SUV.

"Is there a back entrance?" Noah asked the driver when he spied the throng of reporters camped outside the building housing the McManus penthouse.

"Already on it," the driver responded.

Charlotte squeezed his hand. "Still think I'm worth it?"

He answered her with a kiss, letting it linger despite their audience. She sighed into his mouth, only pulling back when the car came to a halt. They hurried inside and up to the penthouse.

The elevator doors opened to a spacious living room featuring a wall of windows overlooking the Inner Harbor. An animated movie was playing on the big screen television. Four little heads turned at the sound of the elevator.

"Aunt Charlie!" Two of the kids scrambled to their feet and ran into Charlotte's outstretched arms.

Noah watched as she sank into a nearby chair and pulled the twins into her lap.

"Oh, honey." Bridgette McManus wrapped her arms around Charlotte and her children.

Her husband stepped up behind the big chair, pulling the entire group into a giant hug. He kissed his sister on the head before his daughter demanded the same treatment. A hand landed on Noah's shoulder. He turned to find Brody Janik behind him. Brody's wife, Shay, was busy rounding up the other two kids.

"You good?" the tight end asked.

Noah nodded.

"Who wants to go swimming?" Brody's wife asked.

All four kids shouted out a resounding "yes." The twins scrambled from Charlotte's lap, their excitement over seeing her forgotten in favor of a pool party with their cousins.

"Let's go get our suits on." Shay herded them to the other side of the penthouse.

"The network lawyers called while you were en route," McManus announced once the noise died down. "Kincaid was dismissed for cause before they came out of the commercial break. They are prepared to issue a written apology in all the major newspapers and social media sites tomorrow. I've asked them to run it through Bridgett beforehand."

"You have grounds for a major lawsuit, Charlie," Bridgett explained. "I don't want to let anyone off the hook that easily."

"I want to know how he found out," Charlotte said.

Bridgett sighed. "It seems the CEO we selected gets a little chatty after a few glasses of wine. Probably why her current company didn't match our offer to her. I hope I didn't overstep, but I withdrew our offer an hour ago."

Charlotte shook her head. "Of course I don't object."

McManus wrapped his arm around his sister. "You'll find the right person. In the meantime, I'm going to cancel Bucky Kincaid so that he can't even get a job as a janitor in a professional sports locker room."

Noah cleared his throat. "If it's all the same to you, sir, I'll be looking after Charlotte's well-being from here on out. Kincaid is mine to deal with."

The air in the room stilled. Bridgett arched an eyebrow at him while her husband leveled a lethal look his way. Brody snickered. A muscle twitched in McManus' cheek. He shifted his eyes from Noah to his sister. Charlotte's smile was radiant as she gave him a half shrug.

McManus made an ugly sound before resettling his focus on Noah. "In that case, maybe we can dispense with you calling me ‘sir.'"

"I've got a list of things I like to call him," Brody offered with a smirk.

"Brody!" The tight end's wife yelled from somewhere deep in the apartment. "You're supposed to be helping me with the kids!"

"I'm helping my teammate," Brody griped.

Bridgett rolled her eyes at her younger brother.

He sighed. "Tomorrow after film study." He gestured between himself and Noah. "I'll show you that list."

McManus made his way over to Noah and extended his hand. There was a twinkle in his eye Noah had never noticed before. "I put up with Brody because I love my wife. I suspect you'll be easier to tolerate."

Noah shook the other man's hand. Charlotte came up behind her brother, pulling both men in for an awkward hug. Noah was relieved when the elevator doors opened again, and McManus' personal assistant strolled out of it.

"Linc. Did you find anything?" Bridgett asked.

Linc's expression was glum. "It wasn't the pap we paid off who leaked the photo. That guy's studio, including his photo storage, was incinerated in the wildfire that swept through Santa Rosa several years ago." He turned to Charlotte. "I'm sorry, Charlie. This one is on me."

Noah shifted closer to Charlotte.

"What are you talking about?" she demanded.

Linc pressed his fingers to his forehead. "Remember that law student I mentioned I was dating?"

Charlotte wiggled her eyebrows and smiled at Linc. "The one with all the moves?"

"Yeah." Linc groaned. "I found out last week she's actually a private investigator." Linc looked sheepish as he turned to his boss. "She was hired to conduct corporate espionage against McManus Industries."

The air in the room all but crackled.

"What are you saying?" McManus' tone was ominous.

His wife placed a calming hand on his chest. "Have you spoken to the company's security team?"

"Yes." Linc nodded. "They are the ones who caught her. Our firewall is impenetrable, so there's good news there. She didn't get anything. I already had a full briefing about this on your calendar for tomorrow."

"She somehow got the picture, though," Charlotte whispered.

Linc hung his head. "Yeah. It isn't kept in the company files for obvious reasons. I had it stored on a flash drive among a bunch of random ones locked in my desk. It was the only one that was labeled." He sighed. "It had your name on it, Charlie. I swear I only left her in my office for five minutes." He shook his head. "It was like leaving candy for a baby. Sorry doesn't even come close to how I feel right now."

A strained silence settled over the room. Linc pulled a white envelope from his back pocket and held it out to McManus.

"I'll save you the trouble of firing me." He waved the envelope. "My letter of resignation."

"No!" Charlotte cried.

McManus avoided taking the envelope. "We'll discuss this tomorrow."

To everyone's surprise, Bridgett swooped in and plucked the envelope from Linc's fingers. "Resignation accepted."

Her husband and sister-in-law both donned stunned expressions.

"What do you think you're doing?" McManus asked.

Bridgett's smile bordered on diabolical. "I think I'm creating a win-win situation. Well, win-win for Linc and Charlotte. You, not so much." She turned to Charlotte. "You need a CEO. Someone, say, with an MBA from Wharton and tons of experience handling multiple companies." She pivoted to face a wide-eyed Linc. "And do you really want to be Jay's fixer forever?"

Linc's eyes darted between McManus and his wife. "Uh . . ."

"Hey, you can't steal him away from me like that," McManus argued.

"I've been trying to figure out a way to do this for weeks now," his wife replied. "It's the perfect solution. The investors all know him already. I may have already floated the idea to a few of them. They assured me they'll back off about taking Truly public if Linc comes on board. What do you say, Linc? Charlie?"

A slow grin spread over Charlotte's face. The tension that had gripped her mouth most of the day evaporated. "I can't think of anyone else I would rather work with."

Everyone looked at Linc. His conflicted expression relaxed into a slow grin. "I have so many ideas."

"Yay!" Charlotte threw her arms around Linc's shoulders. "And you won't make me feel like an idiot about any of it."

Linc laughed. "Girl, stop doubting yourself. You're brilliant. We are going to rock this."

Noah let out a relieved breath, thankful that Linc saw Charlotte for who and what she really was.

"Oh, don't pout," Bridgett cooed to her husband, who was indeed pouting.

"You're ruthless, you know," McManus grumbled.

She stretched up on her toes to kiss him. "You knew that when you married me." She patted his chest. "I'll make it up to you later. Now go take the twins to the pool. You don't want Brody teaching our children to swim. The man can barely float." She linked her arm through Charlotte's. "I found a children's book about surrogacy. Come see it before we all sit down with the kids tonight."

Bridgett led Charlotte over to the sofa.

McManus clapped Linc on the back. "Do I at least get two weeks' notice?"

Linc nodded. "I'm not really going anywhere." He gestured at Noah. "I have a feeling the incentive you were searching for to get Charlie to relocate is standing right here."

Charlotte's brother actually smiled. "Nothing could make me happier. Stay for dinner, both of you?"

Noah looked over at Charlotte, happier and more relaxed than he'd ever seen her. "Sure," he replied.

McManus nodded before heading off in the direction of the children's laughter.

"I've got a couple of TVs in my office downstairs," Linc said. "Wanna go check the scores?"

Noah nodded. "There's something I want to talk to you about while we're down there, as well."

One week later . . .

"They're ready for you, Noah." Asia stood at the entrance to the players only part of the locker room waiting to walk him into the press room.

"Don't forget to tell ‘em how you put too much spin on that second touchdown pass, but I caught it anyway," Brody called out.

"Yeah, yeah," Noah replied.

Asia fell into step beside Noah as they walked down the narrow hall.

"I did give them all a not-so-gentle reminder to keep the presser from getting personal," she said. "You'd think that with another convincing win and three touchdown passes, that's what they'd want to talk to you about."

Jay McManus was leaning against the wall outside the media room when they rounded the corner.

"But no," Asia continued. "Once again, Bucky Kincaid inserts himself into the narrative." She shook her head. "The narcissist gets arrested for sexual misconduct and now women are coming forward, two a day, to tell their stories about him. Can you believe it?"

McManus locked eyes with Noah. "Kincaid's bad news," was all he said.

"For sure. I'll go in and remind them of the rules one more time." Asia slipped by them and into the room.

"Well done," McManus said.

"Thanks. It was a real team effort today."

"It was. But I was talking about Kincaid. That was very well played. I thought my wife was fiendish, but even she's impressed. How did you do it, by the way?"

Noah shrugged. "Months after he started piling on me, people kept shooting me DM's, commiserating about him. Most were women. I was leery at first because I figured they might just want to get my attention." His jaw grew tight. "Too many of the stories were similar to the night I intercepted him with Charlotte. I kept a file with names and emails. I was waiting until I had enough evidence that Charlotte wouldn't have to stand up as one of the accusers. I wanted to keep her name out of it."

"Even when you weren't involved with my sister?"

Noah nodded.

McManus appeared to wrestle with his next words. "I was the first one to hold her when she was born. Her father was . . . somewhere else. He had been hoping for a son. She was sunshine and joy and for most of her life, I seemed to be the only one who noticed that about her." He met Noah's gaze. "Until you. At the risk of repeating myself, she's lucky to have you."

He opened the door and ushered Noah up to the podium. As usual, the room was a riot of noise, everyone with their hands in the air, jockeying for the first question. Noah called on the sideline reporter from Kincaid's former network.

"Bucky Kincaid had been badmouthing you for over a year now. Given recent events, is there anything you'd like to say to him today?" the guy asked.

Noah looked at the cameras lined up in the back of the room. The crowd squirmed in their seats, positioning their cellphones for the best shot.

"Yeah. Thanks for fixing me up with the woman I'm going to spend the rest of my life with."