Page 105 of Just Like Home

“Yeah, my buddy Josh and his wife, Carly, have been hanging out with her today—they’re going to drop her off.”

“And Connor? Did you talk to him about doing this dance with her?”

Cole shook his head. “I think we can count him out.”

Charlotte didn’t press him for details about Julianna’s husband. “We should get to work. Amelia will be easy to plug in. We have a lot to do if we’re going to turn you into a dancer.”

He groaned. “I can tell you right now you’re not going to turn me into a dancer. The most we can hope for here is that I don’t make a complete fool of myself.”

She gave him a once-over, then smiled. “I’m not making any promises.”

31

Charlotte smelled amazing. Not flowery or fruity, almost like fresh-baked cookies or a cake or something equally as delicious. Which was funny since she didn’t even eat those things. He tried to stop thinking about it, but she’d ordered him to take her in his arms, and she was so close it was impossible not to notice.

She explained that partner dancing was different in ballet, so this was a bit of a learning curve for her too, but she’d done some research and had taken some classes over the years—plus, she wasCharlotte Page, which more research had told him was a pretty big deal. To say she was far ahead of where he was, which was somewhere between “an epic disaster” and “a laughingstock in the making,” was possibly the understatement of the century.

He willed Amelia to get there already, take some of the focus off of him.

He’d stopped by Forget-Me-Noton the way over, partly because of what he’d read in that letter and partly because he really did owe it to Charlotte to stop being a jerk. She’d been kind to him, and how had he repaid her?

By treating her like she’d been the one who injured him, not Gemma.

It wasn’t fair and he knew it. As he pulled up in front of the dance studio, he considered telling Charlotte everything, the whole truth about Gemma. Maybe then she’d be more inclined to forgive him.

But then he saw her in a pile on the floor, and he couldn’t bring himself to talk about it. She seemed to have her own demons to slay.

When he’d walked in to the studio, he heard the music filtering down the hallway, and as he reached the back room, he spotted her through the windows. He watched her dance for a solid five minutes, unable to move. She mesmerized him.

And he didn’t even like ballet.

But with Charlotte, it was so much more than that. She was fierce.

And then she was crying. And that nearly wrecked him. That made him want to protect her, to go to battle with whatever or whoever had caused her this much pain.

Charlotte had more than proven she could take care of herself, but he couldn’t deny his primal need to be the protector.

Or his primal attraction to Charlotte.

She was accomplished and beautiful, and completely out of his league. She was strong and independent and yet still had this sort of naïve, adorable quality about her.

How could all those things exist in the same person?

How could he be deluded enough to think that he—the person who couldn’t even keep Gemma happy—could ever have a single thing to offer someone like Charlotte Page?

Standing there, with one hand at the small of her back and the other wrapped around hers and stretched out to the side, the only thing that needed protecting was his ego.

“You’re really tense.” She stepped out of his embrace.

He shook his hands at his sides. “I know. I’m sorry. I’m way out of my comfort zone here.”

His phone dinged in his pocket. He pulled it out and found a text from Josh:

Dude! Totally forgot we were supposed to drop Amelia off for dance. We took the kids for ice cream and swimming and lost track of time. She’s still in the pool—want me to get her out?

Cole sighed.

“What is it?”

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