AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Each image seemed more extraordinary than the last. It was a travelogue of Technicolor flowers, cerulean waters, sweeping skies, and joy-filled people…
Except for one.
The one not in any pictures because he’d left Arcadia the same day I did. Cast me a stare the texture of stone as our paths had crossed on the new Sancti tarmac—his leading to a waiting troop helicopter, me to the twelve-passenger plane which would at last fly me to Athens.
Then he’d disappeared…into my dreams.
And every other thought I possessed. And every other breath in my lungs.
And every damn pang in my heart.
I darkened the screen. Swiped two more drops off my cheeks, making the boo-hoo bankers rejoice. Damn glad someone was.
This would get better, dammit.
It had to.
In the meantime, I was content to suck back the boba…and wallow.
“Yes, I may have hurt you,” I whisper-sung. “But I did not desert y—”
I stopped, half-puzzled and half-alarmed, as a shadow fell over the bench. The shade from a really big man, judging from the size 14’s filling out the lime green flip-flops stepping into my view. My stare climbed tree trunk legs attached to those feet, clad in green and pink board shorts. Then a massive torso on top of that, covered in a white wife beater. Prominent lips in the man’s bold Roman face released a distinct baritone.
“Any more seats left at this weep-fest?”
“Oh, my God.” I leapt up so fast, tackle hugging and boba drowning him in one elated surge. “Samsyn. Holy shit, how did you—why are you—what are you doing here?”
“Wearing your drink, apparently,” the prince grumbled while sitting down. Good thing the bench was bolted to the ground, since his weight creaked and shook the boards of the little wooden structure.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry.” I yanked a packet of tissues from my purse and shoved them at him.
Samsyn shrugged. “It smells nice, at least.”
“By the Creator, I’m just so excited to—” My own gasp cut it short. I pressed fingertips to my lips, stunned as if I’d invented a fun new profanity. Samsyn, even covered from hip to ankle in salted caramel boba, join me in the laugh.
“Excited little dinné,” he rumbled good-naturedly. “Check that box.”
As rapidly as my elation had hit, it drained away. I gaped at him, literally shivering in the warm morning. “Wait a second. Should I be excited?” My gaze narrowed. “Why are you here?” I gulped hard. “Shit. Is it…Shiraz? What happened?”
“Okay, chill the hissy, little wahine.”
“Huh?”
“Your broheim Ezra gave me the skinny on finding you here. Says you like checking out the scene. He says it is off the Richter.”
“Huh?”
He jerked his head at the parking lot that paralleled the water. “Was just hanging with some surfers and picked up the vibe. Ripping cool, eh, beach bunny?”
I pretended there was something on my nose. “Yeah.” I hid my grin behind my hand. “That’s—ummm—special, Syn.”
I didn’t have the heart to break the news that surfer slang and a giant Arcadian in a wife beater weren’t a “ripping cool” mix. Later, I promised the universe. Right now, I needed him focused on the only subject that mattered here. Shiraz. At least if Samsyn was cutting loose with the “hang ten”s and “let’s shred”s, I took heart that his little brother wasn’t lying in a ditch somewhere, mortally wounded.
“So…Shiraz is okay, then,” I finally prompted—only to endure another shiver as Samsyn’s features crunched into a guarded frown.
After pulling in a long breath, he murmured. “Define ‘okay’.”
I kept my ass perched on the edge of the seat. Coiled my hands in my lap, working them nervously into each other. “Define ‘not okay’.”
