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“Jay says you have a best friend,” I hedge, not really sure where I’m going but feeling like maybe he needs to talk about it.
Hayden pauses as he turns to me, his brows knitting together. “Yeah, Anna.” The way he says her name, like the thought of her steals his breath, is reverent, devout. Like it’s a one-word prayer.
I test out her name. “Anna.” Hmm. I nod. “And where is Anna this week? Will I meet her?”
Hayden grimaces, but he quickly wipes the expression from his face and lets out another deep sigh. “She’s with her fiancé. But yeah, I’m sure she’ll be around.”
The plot thickens.
“She’s royalty,” he says quietly, looking at Chloe and then back to me. “So is her fiancé.”
“Ah,” I mutter with more understanding.
“Yeah, ah,” he grumbles. “I’d tell you he’s a gigantic arse, but since I’m English and supposed to be better than that, and you’re American, I’ll tell you he’s a dickhead and Anna could do better.”
His British accent comes out thicker when he says arse, making me giggle.
Squeezing his hand, I give him a sad smile. “I happen to know the Hanson men can be quite persuasive. Just tell her how you feel.”
His blue eyes pierce me with their intensity. “Princesses can’t marry commoners.”
“Even billionaires?” I tease, trying to lighten the mood. But when he just blinks at me, I realize he’s serious.
“Wait, you aren’t joking? She’s really marrying him and not you because you’re not royalty?”
Hayden runs his hands through his long blond hair and slumps against the back of the couch. “Something like that.”
“Hayden,” I say softly, palming his thigh and squeezing.
Like an alarm is blaring, my husband’s eyes land on where my hand is.
All I can do is roll my eyes at him.
Hayden laughs. Even broken over his best friend, he still can smile. I hope Jay was like that when we were apart.
“Jay and I should never have been together. Our families hate each other. But look at us. We made it work.”
Hayden side eyes me and then looks back to my daughter. “Your families were against you, not an entire country.” And then he leans over, kisses my cheek, and mutters a good night.
* * *
Hours later,Jay and I lie in bed, our naked bodies melded together. Knees wrapped around one another, pelvises aligned, hearts beating to the same rhythm. Always in sync now. The apartment is quiet. Garreth and Hayden are gone, and Chloe fell asleep likely thinking about all the stupidly extravagant gifts her uncles bought her.
“A car,” I mutter into Jay’s chest.
He smiles down at me and brushes a lock of hair behind my ear, then presses a kiss to my forehead. “They mean well.”
I sigh. “They’re amazing, Jay.”
I’d give anything to see my brothers like this with Chloe. We’ll get there. I have to believe it. And because my husband has always had the ability to read me, he snuggles me impossibly closer. “Yours are too, wife. Years ago, watching you together made me extremely jealous. Not of you, but of that relationship. I’d always wanted what you all had.”
I laugh humorlessly. “My, how times have changed. Now I’d do anything to see my brothers with Chloe.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell them?” he asks quietly, running his fingers lightly up and down my arm.
I trace the tattoos on his chest. It’s become a ritual. Jay lifts my left finger up and kisses the spot where his name is branded on my skin and then sets it back down so I can return to my task.
“Things changed after you disappeared.”
