She grinned at him and he actually felt his heart catch…which honestly, sort of hurt, but it was worth it to know that he was the one who brought that joy to her face. She clinked her bottle against his.

“I know exactly what you mean,” Charlotte said.

In that moment, Leonard decided he wanted Charlotte McBee, badly, and the thought of even trying to woo her made him very nervous. And he was in a lot of trouble.

5

Charlotte

Charlotte enjoyed a rare weekend morning off, cleaning the Silver Stork and doing her grocery shopping, securing a PO Box from the very subtly nosy Mrs. De Los Santos, and other adulting chores. She felt very productive when she sat down for her weekly video call with her parents. Now that she’d established herself as an adult with a lot of space between her household (mobile as it was) and her parents, their relationship was a lot better. She found herself looking forward to their weekend calls. It had been freeing to talk to Leonard the night before, and for him to understand how she felt about her family.

While Will had been none-too-subtle in introducing Charlotte to his perfectly nice and “extremely single” brother, Jon, Charlotte had spent most of the prior evening talking to Leonard. She thought maybe that was Sonja’s aim because the more time she spent with Leonard, the happier Sonja became–but Will got glummer and glummer. When the evening wound to a close and Leonard offered to drive her back to her trailer, Sonja’s smirk was almost indecent.

Leonard had driven like a grandma on the winding, twisting roads back to the town. But she didn’t have the heart to tease him about it. She sensed that he didn’t want to make some random mistake while driving and hurt her. He was trying to protect her from the consequences of his curse. It was sweet, really, like most things about Leonard.

She couldn’t help but watch his elegant hands moving carefully on the steering wheel and remember the way he’d darted across Main Street. His long legs carried him with purpose and confidence and the memory of it had her squirming in her seat. A lot of aspects of Leonard were pretty attractive, but seeing him move like a man on a mission? Even if that mission was retrieving forsaken pie, well, she was just happy to be on the receiving end of it.

Charlotte wondered if he used that sort of care and determination…everywhere.