Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 72897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
“Allow yourself to get comfortable. The prince should arrive shortly,” the young man told me in a calm voice.
“How could I ever get comfortable in here?” I murmured.
He looked at me with wide eyes. “Is there something I can do for you? Water, a cocktail, a shower, a warm washcloth?”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the last item on his list. He looked at me expectantly.
“No, I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m very comfortable just waiting by the fire. I just meant… the castle. It’s so strange, isn’t it?”
“It’s a beautiful castle,” he said.
“Right. Of course it is,” I said. “What’s your name?”
“My name is Rudy, sir.”
“Rudy,” I said, holding out my hand, “I’m Henry. Very nice to meet you.”
He shook my hand, but still looked at me like I was crazy. The young woman appeared again, placing a tray with water, mixed nuts, and a small folded towel down on the table by the fireplace.
“Guess I’m getting that warm towel after all,” I said.
“Anything else, sir?”
“I’ll be just fine. Thank you both very much.”
The two of them returned all the way down the long hall toward the entryway, until I could barely see them anymore.
I gawked at the room as I waited. There were all the things I would have expected, sure. A grandiose, wood-burning fireplace, calmly crackling at the center of one wall. Multi-paned, giant windows and doors that led out onto a sweeping balcony. An incredible canopied bed that looked like a cloud.
But what I hadn’t expected to see were pictures of us.
Three framed photos, in a neat row, hanging on the wall at the right side of his bed. I remembered the day Sebastian’s aunt had taken the pictures, shortly before we’d been ripped apart forever. Sebastian and I had been outside, helping his aunt dig up weeds in the lawn. We were dusty and dirty. I was wearing ridiculous corduroy overalls and he was wearing one of my beat-up hoodies. His aunt had come out and taken a few black-and-white pictures of us.
One with both of us laughing at each other. One where we were talking. And one where we were looking out at the camera and I had my arm slung around his shoulder.
I couldn’t believe he had these. I hadn’t been able to look at pictures of him in eleven years, and yet these photos had been hanging in Sebastian’s bedroom the whole time.
“You made it here in one piece,” I heard his voice from behind me as he walked in, turning to quietly shut the huge double doors behind him.
“Felt like a mile-long hike just to get to your bedroom,” I said. “But yes.”
He stepped toward me. He was wearing a collared shirt but had the top few buttons undone. His sleeves were cuffed, and he looked exactly like royalty off-duty should look.
I could have devoured him. Up here, in the glow of the fireplace, he looked more like a fallen angel than a dark, cold prince. The fire highlighted his cheekbones, and as he looked at me, I could tell he was so happy to see me.
I shouldn’t have liked that. I didn’t want him to be happy to see me. It was only going to make this all worse.
I was still here to tell him I’d never see him again.
“This castle is ridiculous,” he said. “But I do like my rooms.”
I let out a long breath. “I like them, too. I can see you living here, Sebastian. Never thought I’d be able to say that.”
He was quiet as he looked around at the room, as if he was seeing it through new eyes for the first time. The fireplace popped and cracked gently. I was very aware that Sebastian and I were alone for the first time in a long time.
Alone together, with no threat of anyone coming to separate us. It was what I’d been craving for years and years of my life, and now that I had it, I was frozen in place.
I had to tell him.
I had come here for one purpose, and one purpose only, and I wasn’t going to let myself get sidetracked by being quasi-arrested and then whisked up into this lap of luxury.
“I came here to tell you that I’m leaving Berrydale,” I said, swallowing hard. It was difficult to get the words out.
His eyes widened slightly, the excitement draining from his expression completely. “Oh,” he said softly. “Right.” He nodded finally. “That makes sense.”
He looked so crestfallen. I wondered when he’d last gotten a hug. He needed one, badly.
“I’m sorry to, uh, spring that on you,” I said. “I just—I’m not sure if I can do it.”
He watched me. “The renovations, you mean?”
“The renovations,” I said, scratching the back of my neck. “And the… living in the same hundred-mile radius as you.”