A la Carte

Chapter 25

Unedited

"Charlotte, wake up, we're here." 

Charlotte groaned, and opened her eyes to find Dimitri's gorgeous face very close to her own. She smiled. 

"Hey, sleepy head," he said and gave her a kiss. 

"Hey," she said with chuckle. He helped her up after unbuckling her seatbelt and they grabbed their luggage. A sleek black Mercedes Benz car was parked and waiting for them outside and when they appeared the door opened to reveal her brother Benjamin. He had a huge smile on his face and waved at them cheerfully. 

"Hey Ben, thanks for picking us up, it really wasn't necessary," Charlotte said as she gave her older brother a massive hug. 

"No worries, I can't send a driver to pick up my little sister."  He looked up and saw Dimitri and smiled, "Hey man, how's it going?" 

Dimitri laughed and shook Benjamin's extended hand, "No hard feelings?" He asked. Ben laughed and just nodded his head. 

"Come on lovebirds, let's get you guys to the house." Benjamin said and opened the door for Charlotte to get in after taking her luggage from her. 

The drive to the Lockehart estate was jovial, Benjamin couldn't stop talking and Charlotte knew from experience that it wasn't going to be a quiet weekend as long as her brother was around. She realised that she had missed this, Ben hadn't really been like this with her parents and she missed how close they were, all the movie nights and wrestling games and pranking one another. 

"You are awfully quiet Char," Ben said as he caught her eyes in the rearview mirror. 

"Just thinking," She said with a smile. 

"This weekend is going to be great, you'll see, Mom even made Dad promise to be on his best behavior, you should have seen it." He said with a chuckle. Charlotte only smiled, even though Ben was trying his best to reassure her, she still felt nervous at the prospect of spending a few days in a house with her father. 

"Well here we are," Ben said as he turned into the driveway of the estate and waited for the gates to open. The house was still the same, majestic and much to large for a family that really didn't use it that much. But it was still a home that she remembered. 

"There we go, welcome home Charlotte," Ben said as he stopped the car in front of the house. Charlotte could already see her mom making her way down the front steps as if she had been waiting for the car to arrive, which she probably had been. 

"Welcome home!" Her mom said as she drew her daughter into a hug, "It's really missed you!" 

"Thanks Mom, " Charlotte said with a sad smile. 

"And who is the handsome gentlemen?" My mom said loud enough for Dimitri to hear. 

"Dimitri, Charlotte's boyfriend." He said and extended his hand to . Charlotte stared at him, gobsmacked, they'd never really thought or even talked about titles, but she liked it and gave him a dazzling smile. 

"It's very nice to meet you Dimitri, welcome to our home." and she pulled Dimitri into a warm hug. 

"Well, now that we have said our hellos, perhaps we should go inside, I asked Cynthia to keep the supper warm for us before she retired for the evening." 

Frank Lockehart was nowhere to be seen and Charlotte didn't bother asking where he was because quite frankly she could do without the drama and tension for the evening. 

After supper, everyone helped clear up and the kettle was put on for whoever wanted tea or coffee. 

"Thanks Mom, for everything," Charlotte said when she was alone with her mother in the kitchen, her mom just smiled.

"I'm just glad that you are finally home, the house has been too quiet without you." Her mom said. It reminded Charlotte of why it was so hard to have left in the first place.

"You guys knew where I was didn't you?" She asked quietly. Her mom stilled and sighed. 

'Yes," she admitted, " we knew, it was your father who actually hired the P.I, I honestly didn't think about taking it to such lengths, but he insisted that we know your everyone move, I just wanted to know if you were okay." 

"I understand, so you know everything then?"

"Yes, all the jobs you had, the places you stayed, quite frankly that one apartment was so terrible that I wanted to come down there and just tell you to come home, but I knew better. I knew you needed your freedom. Your father has always been tough on you, but Charlotte you have to remember that he still loves you and I know that doesn't make right what he did wrong and believe me he knows he is wrong, but he's trying to change and I hope that you two will at least talk to one another, you're not expected to forgive him." 

"I know,"  Charlotte said, " thanks for always checking up on me, even though I left and thank you for not interfering." She said and gave her mom a hug. 

"I love you Char, you're still my stubborn and free-spirited little girl." Her mom said and when Charlotte pulled away she saw her mom was crying. 

"Love you too, mom." 

"Well, we better go join those two young men," her mom said cheerfully, wiping under her eyes and smiling. 

"Yeah let's go, "  Charlotte said, grabbing the tea and coffee and following her mom out of the kitchen. 

The evening was filled with pleasant chatter and laughter and eventually none of them could keep their eyes open, Charlotte's mom was the first to excuse herself, bidding goodnight and sweet dreams. Charlotte, Dimitri and Benjamin, stayed downstairs chatting for a while longer, but Charlotte eventually also had to say goodnight. 

"You too Dimitri, I can see you're starting to drift off there in that chair," Benjamin said with a laugh. 

"In my defense the chair is really comfortable," Dimitri chuckled, " But I suppose a bed will be better, goodnight Ben, thanks for everything." 

"Sleep well Ben," Charlotte called. 

"Night!" 

Dimitri and Charlotte made there way up to their rooms. Both were practically sleepwalking at this point. 

"Feels good to be home doesn't it?" Dimitri said. Charlotte only hummed a response, she really was too tired to formulate much of a response.

"Well goodnight then my beautiful girlfriend," Dimitri said giving her kiss that made her toes curl. He was just about to turn and go into his room when Charlotte said , " Thank you for everything Dimitri, I don't think you know how much it all means to me." 

"It's a pleasure Char, when it comes to you I'd do anything, just not illegal," he said with a wink, she laughed, he had said that to her before. 

"Well sweet dreams, boyfriend." She said and gave him another kiss which had them both breathless. 

" Tease." She heard Dimitri mutter under his breath as she turned and entered her room, she only laughed.