Page 45 of The Hidden Daughter (The Lost Daughters #7)

Charlotte lay in bed with Harrison, her leg thrown over his and the sheets strewn between them. When he’d gone, she’d told herself she was fine and that she didn’t need him or any other man in her life. But now that he’d returned, she wondered how she’d ever thought she could live without him.

‘I’m sorry it took me so long to come back,’ he said, strumming his fingers gently up and down her arm. ‘I knew the moment I walked away that I was doing the wrong thing, but I just couldn’t bring myself to turn around.’

‘Maybe we needed the space to appreciate what was growing between us,’ she said, turning on her side so that she was facing him. ‘The last few months have been tough, but it forced me to make a life for myself here and to push outside of my comfort zone.’

‘It was more than just needing space for me,’ Harrison said, trailing his fingers up her arm and across her shoulder.

‘I needed time to accept that I was moving on, that my life was changing in ways that I never expected. When Elly was unwell, she made me promise to be open to love again, that she would understand, that she didn’t want me to spend the rest of my life alone.

It was me who vowed to never be with another woman again, because at the time I couldn’t imagine being with anyone other than her. ’

Charlotte blinked back at him. She didn’t have words—what could she even say to a man who’d lost his wife?

She had no comprehension of what it meant to lose the person you loved most in the world.

Her mother had ripped her heart out, but it was different to losing a spouse—no one could ever take the place of her mother, so she’d never had to worry about that happening and how to cope with it.

‘For the longest time, I’d refused to do anything with her ashes, even though she’d tried to make it easy for me and left specific instructions for what to do after her death,’ he said.

‘So, when I went home, I did all the things I’d been avoiding.

After Elly passed, I barely spent any time at our apartment, it was easier not to face everything, but Louisa helped me to see that it was time.

’ He took an audibly shaky breath. ‘I cleared out her wardrobe and looked over the things she’d kept, memories and photos, all the things that were special to us as a couple.

Those things I mostly decided to keep, but there was something therapeutic about addressing everything I’d been putting off for so long. ’

‘You have great friends,’ Charlotte said. ‘I knew when I met them how special they were.’

‘They are the best,’ he agreed. ‘There are times I’ve tried so hard to push them away, but no matter what I do, they don’t budge. They’ve continued to love me at my absolute worst.’

‘Did they tell you to come here?’ Charlotte asked.

Harrison’s cheeks reddened. ‘Well, Louisa may have forced me to buy a one-way ticket from London to Oslo, but booking the chef’s table was all my idea.’

She leaned forwards and kissed him, slowly. They were in no hurry; they had the hotel room for the next few days, and as far as Charlotte was concerned, she was staying in the room until she needed to head down to the kitchen to oversee service that night.

‘You know, I think the guy who designed this place did a great job,’ she said, giggling as he pushed against her and pinned her hands above her head. ‘There’s something about this room that makes me not want to leave.’

‘Really? Why’s that?’

‘I have no idea, but I think it must be something to do with the design.’

She laughed all the more when he nuzzled her neck, fighting against his hold but not standing a chance. Not that she wanted to—Charlotte would be content spending the entire day confined in his embrace.

‘I’m not sure that’s what he had in mind when he designed the place, but I think that’s a very, very good result. I just hope they do a good room service breakfast. You never know with chefs these days, how good the food might be.’

They rolled around, tangling the sheets farther around them as they became even more entwined in each other’s arms. But when Harrison stilled, she cupped both hands to his face and stared into his eyes, committing him to memory all over again.

‘I don’t ever remember being this happy,’ she whispered. ‘Being here, with you, like this…’

‘I know,’ he whispered back, his lips grazing hers again in the sweetest, slowest kiss. ‘I think that’s what scared me the most, how easy it was to be with you. And then how much I missed you.’

Charlotte wrapped her arms around him, her mouth to his shoulder, closing her eyes and soaking in the feel of him against her.

Never in a million years had she imagined that they might be together again, not like this.

But it was so natural with him, even though they’d fought against it the first time.

She’d never been with anyone in the way she was with Harrison.

‘Harrison?’ she murmured against his skin.

He pressed up and looked down at her, resting on his elbows.

‘I’d like you to meet my family, properly this time,’ she said. ‘If we’re going to do this, if we’re going to give this a real go, then I want to do it right.’

‘As your…’

‘Hmm, as my love interest,’ she said, which made them both laugh.

‘Charlotte, I’d be honoured,’ he said. ‘As your love interest.’

She laughed and managed to flip him so that she was pinning him down this time. ‘We’ll work on the terminology, because that sounded much better in my head than it did out loud.’

‘Later,’ he said, kissing her again. ‘We’ve got far more important things to do right now than worry about what you’re going to call me.’

‘Is it strange that I’m nervous?’ Harrison asked. ‘I feel like a teenage boy meeting his girlfriend’s parents for the first time.’

‘Well, you’re the first boy I’ve brought home to meet my father, so you should feel nervous.

’ Charlotte laughed at the expression on his face.

‘But honestly, it’s my brother who’d give you a hard time, and you don’t have to meet him until the next time we’re in London.

Erik is far harder on potential suitors, or at least I’ve always imagined he would be if I was ever brave enough to introduce someone to him. ’

‘You’re not serious? I’m your first?’ Harrison shook his head. ‘I’m starting to think this was a very bad idea.’

‘Oh, I’m deadly serious. I wasn’t allowed to date when I was a teenager, and I moved out at eighteen, so you’re definitely the first,’ she said. ‘But my grandmother already loves you, and that’s the most important thing. It’s her opinion I value above all others.’

‘We never did work on a better term than love interest,’ he said. ‘Perhaps we should just stick with boyfriend. Actually, come to think of it, I’m very happy to just be your friend for the sake of your family.’

She had to keep from laughing. ‘I think they’ll figure out fairly quickly that we’re more than just friends.

’ Not to mention that she’d already told her grandmother all about him.

‘Also, how is it that you weren’t daunted by the design project for the most incredible new hotel in the country, yet you’re scared of meeting my family?

And you’ve already met them before anyway, at the opening. ’

‘Yes, but that was as the building’s architect, not as the love interest.’

The look he gave her made her think that he was genuinely nervous, but she didn’t get a chance to reply and tease him before the front door swung open.

‘Charlotte! Harrison!’ Her father beamed at them, and this time when he hugged her, it wasn’t awkward, it was just a dad throwing his arms around his daughter. ‘It’s so nice to have you here.’

‘Thanks, Dad, it’s nice to be here.’ And she meant it. Rekindling her relationship with her father had been one of the benefits of coming home, and now she was slowly starting to realise that she no longer wanted a life without him in it.

Harrison and her father shook hands, and she took off her scarf and coat in the hallway and watched them walk away, immediately falling into conversation.

It made her heart happy that after so many years, she could walk into her childhood home and not feel on edge, and Harrison had a lot to do with that.

All these years she’d tried to run away from her loss and her feelings, but being with him had taught her that there wasn’t anything wrong with her, that her response had been perfectly normal for a young woman grieving her mother and rebelling against her dad.

What hadn’t been normal was how long she’d gone without seeing her father, but as far as she was concerned, they’d made amends, and she’d already moved a long way towards forgiving him for the past.

‘Hi, Grandma.’ Charlotte walked up behind her grandma and gave her a hug. ‘Something smells delicious.’

‘Well, it’s only because I ordered something wonderful and decided to heat it up and put it on fancy plates,’ she said with a wink. ‘That’s the best thing an old lady can do when she has a chef coming to dinner.’

‘At least now we know where my culinary skills come from. I was starting to think that I might have been the one who was adopted for a while there.’

They both laughed, heads bent together as they shared their little joke. It had been particularly incredible for Charlotte to hear Amalie’s story, feeling a kinship with her long-lost Oskar and the way he’d yearned to follow his own path.

‘I miss her, Lotte,’ her grandmother said. ‘I knew she didn’t have much longer, but now I feel like we missed out on talking about the past. She could have told me all this years ago, and instead…’

‘I know,’ Charlotte said with a sigh. ‘But at least you know what you know. If we’d been given the box a week, even a month later…’ She couldn’t even imagine what it would have been like, staring at that little wooden box and trying to make sense of the clues that had been left behind.