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It was, because I could see it. In the few photos where I was looking at him and he was looking away, even the blurry ones one of his great-aunts had tried to take, I looked at him like he was the most magical being in the universe.
I rested my cheek against the sofa.
He wanted more than friendship, and I already knew I could never be his friend. But did I want more? He wasn’t a regular guy. He was going to inherit an old dukedom and a castle, for crying out loud.
Did I want that life for me? The same one that had broken my mother’s heart? That, indeed, caused issues in his own family?
That was the question.
The front door opened, swiftly followed by an, “It’s me!” from Amber. It closed quickly and she walked into the living room. “It smells—oh. What’s wrong with you?”
I looked over at her, meeting her gaze for a second, before I looked away again.
My best friend shrugged off her coat and tossed it over an armchair, kicked off her shoes, and joined me on the sofa. She picked up my phone, nodded, and put it on the coffee table. “My God. That man has broken you, hasn’t he?”
I held up one hand, pinching my finger and thumb together to say, “little bit.”
Amber sat next to me and placed her hand on my knee. “Grace.”
“I don’t know what to do,” I admitted out loud for the first time. “I just… I’m so confused.”
“Follow your heart.”
“That’s the most cliché thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“I know, but you know.” She shrugged and leant back on the sofa, rolling her head so her face was right by mine. “What else can you do? I came home expecting an evening of laughing and joking about how ridiculous your week has been, yet here you are, curled up on the sofa, looking like I’ve kicked your puppy.”
“It feels like someone has kicked my puppy,” I admitted.
She squeezed my knee. “He must be special to have you feeling like this.” She grabbed my phone from the table and flipped through the pictures. “Yep. I get it. I’d be feeling like this, too. Look at him. Damn, son.”
I tried not to laugh at her and reached for it, taking it from her. The picture she’d landed on was, like most others, from the wedding, where Freya had done a drive-by cake bombing of his face. William was laughing with her in the background almost crying with laughter, and his face was covered in buttercream frosting and sprinkles.
I smiled, remembering how he’d joked about me licking it off him, and I’d thrown a napkin at him.
“Okay. That’s enough,” Amber said, taking my phone. “Because you look like you’re about to cry, and you’re supposed to be happy to see me.”
“I’m always happy to see you,” I told her. “I just don’t think I can think about him anymore tonight.”
“Right, then allow me to regale you with tales of my dating life.”
“Is there anymore accidental anal in those tales?”
“Thankfully, no.”
I sighed. “Then I don’t see how they can possibly cheer me up.”
“What if I tell you the first one again?”
“Deal.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR – GRACE
It’s Not Always What You Think
WILLIAM: Is it weird if I tell you I missed your snoring last night?
I frowned at my phone.
