Harlequin Romance March 2021 Box Set Cara Colter (the mitten read aloud TXT) 📖

martyr here, but I thought we both know what went wrong. I wasn’t around, physically or emotionally. I expected you to accommodate me and didn’t stop to think about what you wanted. There’s a list of my unreasonable behaviour in those divorce papers. Very chastening. I told my lawyer to work with yours to make it as speedy and as easy as possible so you could get the divorce straight away but I didn’t expect it to be such hard reading.’

Charlie winced, drawing her knees into her chest and wrapping her arms protectively around them. ‘It’s a horrid process. I’ll be honest; that list was cathartic. I genuinely felt that you didn’t compromise at all and I compromised too much. But it’s not that simple, is it? We both had a role to play in what went wrong and I need to acknowledge my part in that. And we both know that the truth is we didn’t really know each other when we got married. If we had been sensible, if we’d waited then either we would have ironed out those problems earlier or we would have separated long before we got to that point. Which would still be hard, but not as hard as a divorce. And that’s on me.’

* * *

Matteo stilled. He had thought that nothing would be as hard as returning home to realise Charlie had gone and he’d not lifted a finger to stop her, that nothing could be as hard as reading the list of behaviours deemed unacceptable and realising he couldn’t argue with any single one. But seeing Charlie curled up, her expression unusually serious, eyes clouded and voice full of heartbreak was possibly the hardest thing he’d ever had to do.

‘Hey,’ he said, deliberately keeping his voice light. ‘What do you mean? I proposed to you, remember? If anyone was to blame for the speed of our marriage it was me.’

But she shook her head vehemently, dark blonde, honey, copper and bronze tendrils trembling as she did so. ‘Come on, Matteo. We both know that I pretty much goaded you into it,’ she said, and although her voice was still serious and her eyes darkened to navy her mouth trembled with the beginning of a smile.

‘You most certainly did not.’ His outrage wasn’t entirely feigned.

She uncurled then, turning to look at him, and he couldn’t stop himself reaching out to run a finger down the curve of her cheek. She leaned into his touch, eyes half closed.

‘I was completely in control of every moment of that proposal,’ he told her and she regarded him provocatively from under heavy lids.

‘We had gone to the beach and I was telling you about a friend of mine who had just been blindsided by a ridiculous proposal.’

‘Not everyone would think that someone organising a flash mob outside her favourite café was ridiculous,’ he interjected and she raised an eyebrow.

‘Anyone with any sense would. You said to me that you thought flash mobs and big events would be completely up my street and I said that actually I thought nothing was worse than a public proposal. I told you how much I hated planned proposals full stop and the worst way to propose to me would be with a carefully chosen ring already bought and hidden and waiting for the perfect moment in a perfect restaurant in a perfect city. I told you…’

‘You told me,’ he said softly, ‘that your perfect proposal would come out of nowhere. The moment would just be so perfect that one of you would just know that this was it, that you were meant to be, that they would just ask. Right there, right then with no ring and no pre-planned words. Just in the moment. And we walked a little longer and then we paddled and you fell in and as I pulled you up I asked you to spend the rest of your life with me. Because I knew.’ He could never have forgotten, no matter what happened, that moment of perfect clarity.

‘Yes, but you wouldn’t have if we hadn’t just had that conversation. I put the thought there. Oh, not on purpose, but I did all the same. You wouldn’t have even dreamt of it otherwise.’

‘Maybe not that exact moment,’ he admitted. ‘But Charlie, I would have proposed to you sooner, much sooner rather than later. Only I would have offended you by booking an expensive restaurant and buying a ring I thought you’d like and waiting for the perfect moment.’ He smiled wryly. ‘I might have even committed the cardinal sin of hiding it in your dessert or in a glass of champagne. And then you would have said, No way, and then where would I have been? Much better that it was then and I wasn’t left humiliated in a restaurant.’

She laughed at that. ‘I have total faith that you’d have done better than that. But let’s not forget that I was the one who said, Why wait? If it hadn’t been for having to wait three weeks for the banns to be read I’d have married you the next day. I suggested Vegas, remember?’

‘I had no doubts, no hesitation. I didn’t need a project plan or a Gantt chart or a SWOT analysis to figure out if it was the right move. I was just as keen to rush it through with you. None of the blame for that is yours alone, Charlie. I was right there with you.’

‘You were with me because I was already there. Because I’m the person who everyone knows will do something crazy and then they’ll just say, Oh, that’s so Charlie. None of my friends or family were even slightly surprised when we announced our engagement and wedding date, whereas yours were appalled, even those that tried to hide it.’

‘But that’s what I loved about that time, not knowing where we were going next. You were such a breath of fresh air. I had no idea how dull and stale