Ugh!
After the kiss, we just went back inside his parents’ mansion and said our goodbyes after another hour of conversation.
On the plane, he got out his laptop and started working, barely looking up for the brief flight.
Meanwhile, I was stranded in my own mind. Alone and distraught while he behaved like The Kiss never happened.
Or maybe he quietly wished it never happened the whole way back.
Which makes me feel bonkers for having weak knees.
Is this a preview of what’s next?
I’ve offended him so bad with my rotten kissing technique that he never wants to see me again, and now we won’t meet until our wedding day.
That shouldnotmake me feel like I’ve swallowed a geode.
“Hattie,” Margot says, tying her hair into a messy bun on top of her head. She’s dressed in a baggy shirt and leggings, yet still looks effortlessly chic somehow.
Me? I’m in a white tee and jeans and covered in all the dust from the bookstore’s back room. Margot has some weird natural immunity to dust, magically repelling it.
“Margot,” I say, wiping my forehead.
Technically, the bookstore is closed until we figure out what happens next. Margot, bless her heart, volunteered to sift through all the inventory I’ve inherited.
Turns out, Mr. Sneed had a mountain of it in storage, years of acquisitions I didn’t even know about. Finding the gems worth selling is like searching one haystack after the next.
“You’re not listening.” She pouts at me.
There’s no point lying to her—and I’m a terrible liar anyway. “Sorry. I was just thinking…”
“About?”
I sigh.
“Meeting my parents?” she guesses.
“Yeah, that. I guess.”
“How was it? Ethan keeps freezing me out—typical annoying older brother stuff—but I’d like to know what happened. Don’t tell me you’ve taken a vow of silence too?”
I fight to keep the blush off my face.
“Nothing, Margot. Pretty boring day.”
For a long second, she stares at me. Then her eyebrows slowly lift.
“Come on, what was it? It’s myparents. What did they do?” She flicks her fingers dismissively. “At least you were dressed up. Did you mess up your hair? Oh God, did Mom say something?”
I wish.
My hair stayed perfectuntil Ethan kissed me.
I try not to shudder, remembering his fingers threading my hair, the way he brushed my skin, claiming and strong and delirious.
Holding me against him while he kissed me like I was his for one brief, reckless, totally awful fit of bad decisions.
That’s not something I can ever tell Margot.
