Legal Heirs - Box Set Edition: Books 5-8 (Surrendering Charlotte Chronicles) by Kimball Lee Read Free Book Online Page A

she imagined that Finn and Bly would be if they were combined. It would have to be enough that in the world there was a child that Charlotte and Bly had created with their bodies, and that she and Finn had shaped with their love.
    “I’m exhausted,” she said, “I want to sleep, my body is still healing, I guess.”
    “Can I stay here with you, Charlotte? Nothing will happen, believe me. I needed to see that you were alright, I nearly lost my mind when I heard you’d been in an accident. I’ll gladly suffer as long as I know you’re safe and sound, but I can’t live in a world without my Charlotte.”
    *
    When she woke in the morning he was already having coffee on the deck and he had an IPod playing in a dock that sat on a low table. She poured a cup of coffee and sat beside him and he smiled and said, “I brought you some new music, I know how you love your songs.”
    “Thank you! Did you pick all the songs yourself? You couldn’t have, when would you have time for that?” she asked, and felt the heat rising in her cheeks. She scrolled through the playlist and played an old Goo Goo Dolls song that she loved.
    “I have plenty of time when my mind is swamped with thoughts of you, which is pretty much all the time” he said quietly, as the song began.
    “Could you whisper in my ear, the things you wanna hear, I’ll give you anything, to keep it comin’, do you wake up on your own, and wonder where you are, you live with all your faults… I wanna wake up where you are….”
    “Get dressed,” he said, “I hear there’s a good place for lunch with a ‘once in a lifetime’ view.”
    They drove to Nepenthe Restaurant and Bly was so right, it was a view you had to see to believe. The Santa Lucia Mountains formed a glorious backdrop for the restaurant that sat eight hundred feet above the Pacific. The ocean stretched into forever, it seemed, and Bly and Charlotte sat outside in the crisp autumn air that felt like heaven.
    Charlotte drank a cold, delicious glass of sauvignon blanc, and Bly had a beer. They ordered lunch, Charlotte had the Dungeness Crab Louie and Bly had the Ambrosia burger. They talked and laughed and fed each other bites from their plates. The chef came to their table and said he was so glad to welcome Alexander Bly and his lovely wife. Bly didn’t correct him and it frightened Charlotte, but also made her wonder, what if….
    “You must have the four layer chocolate cake with homemade vanilla bean ice cream,” the chef said, “truly a desert for lovers.”
    Charlotte turned her gaze to the blue horizon, and Bly said it sounded wonderful.
    “I know, I should have corrected him, but it was like an unexpected gift,” Bly said.
    “Bly, Finn is not happy knowing how you feel about me, please don’t push it,” she said, looking into his eyes.
    The cake was set in front of them and he fed her a bite, “I know you love chocolate, and I know you love me. How does Finn feel about that?”
    “I need to go home now,” she said, and gathered her purse and walked to the car.
    “Alright,” he said, “but I want to stop at an art gallery in Carmel, it’s only a few miles away.”
    He parked on the picturesque street and took her by the hand and led her into the Neal Prather Gallery.
    “May I help you find something?” a grey haired man asked as they entered.
    “I’d like to buy a Gauguin,” Bly said, and Charlotte stopped in her tracks.
    “Well, wouldn’t we all? I’m Neal Prather, by the way, are you interested in prints or lithographs?”
    “I’m interested in an original, one of his canvases from his Tahitian period,” Bly said.
    “Bly, why are you doing this?” Charlotte asked.
    “Alexander Bly?” Neal Prather asked. “Well now, I do have a client who only collects works of the Post-Impressionists. He lives in San Francisco, and he does have a fine painting from Gauguin’s second Tahitian period. If you like I could make a call and inquire as to whether he could be