AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Don’t you dare enjoy this, Remington.”
“I’d never.”
With a huff and a final glare of warning, she headed inside.
“Think she’ll be okay?” Jessa asked.
“I know she will be. Just maybe not until the wedding is through.”
Jessa and I looked at each other from across the sidewalk. She nibbled her lip for a moment until I realized she was biting back a smile. When it broke free, it was followed by a string of laughter. She grabbed my hand, looking up at me with eyes I’d likely drown in.
“Well, what do we do now?”
And I smiled. Because I had just the thing.
22
out to dry
JESSA
It had been the weirdest twenty-four hours.
Somehow, I doubted the weird would be over at the end of the wooded trail behind the cottage that he’d taken me down. His hand was warm, so big it swallowed mine. So strange that a simple gesture could make me feel safe, but here I was, following him into the woods without a second thought.
I never knew what was going to happen next when I was with him, tonight included. He’d even kissed me at the bar just to make Henry jealous, which was the absolute last thing I expected. Although, I had my doubts as to how much it had to do with Henry outside of an excuse to kiss me like that.
He kissed me like I was air and he was fire. In the end, all that was left between us was ash.
The sting of seeing Henry with Annie still smarted, but truly it’d been more shock and affront than jealousy. I was angry with him for not telling me she was coming. I was angry with him for a lot, in fact.
But then Remy kissed me. And that was the end of that.
There was a magic in the woods tonight. Flickering glowworms hung in the air around us, appearing and disappearing in the mist that had begun to gather along the forest floor. The musty smell of damp wood and fresh earth was a heady perfume, the sounds of the frogs and crickets a symphony.
The man in front of me was his own strange magic, and I was spellbound.
“Well, tonight could have gone better,” he said.
Startled, I jumped a little and laughed. “Yes, it might have. You nearly took one on the chin from Henry.”
“Trust me, Henry nearly took one himself. Was he unbearable at dinner like he usually is?”
“I wouldn’t know—I sat by your mother. And I must say, I think I love her.”
“Hey, me too. What’d y’all talk about?”
“You, obviously.”
He gave me a look over his shoulder. “Obviously. How bad was it?”
“It wasn’t bad at all, in fact. I was singing your praises and complimented her recipes. She couldn’t believe the house was still clean.”
“I’ll deny it. Otherwise, I’m really gonna hear it when she comes by if it’s not up to snuff.”
“Deny it all you want. It’s appreciated by me, and does anything else matter, really?”
“Not a goddamn thing, Duchess.”
