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By the time he laid me down in his beautiful observatory, I’d already wanted him far longer than he could’ve possibly suspected. It wasn’t rational, my need for him. It felt like my body and mind were at odds with each other each time I found myself daydreaming about him, but I couldn’t stop either.
I’d be lying if I said being with him never crossed my mind. For years, I wondered what it’d be like if he didn’t hate me, didn’t provoke me. More than once, I wondered what it’d be like to have his undivided attention in an entirely different way — not as his rival, but as a girl hewanted.
My hand trembles as I reach for my phone, unsure of what to do. It’d be impolite not to thank him, right? I bite down on my lip, hesitating. If this is all a ploy, I’m not sure I’ll recover.
The phone only rings once before he picks up. “Celestial,” he says, his voice deep and pleased, like he’d been expecting my call.
I hesitate a beat and tighten my grip on the phone. “Thank you,” I murmur. “For the beautiful lilies and the shoes. It’s… Zane, it’s too much.”
He chuckles, and the sound cascades over me, driving the butterflies in my stomach wild. “It’s nothing, Celeste. I told you I’d buy you new shoes, didn’t I? I’m going to keep every promise I make you, every vow, until you realize you truly can trust me.”
I lean back in my seat, feeling conflicted. “Where did you get the shoes?” I ask, in an attempt to turn to a lighter topic. “They’re beautiful.”
I hear some shuffling on the other end of the phone, like he’s putting some work aside to speak to me. “One of my friends designed them for you. She’s an up-and-coming designer, and I just knew she’d be able to capture what I had in mind. I’m glad you like them. They’re worth a fortune based on the materials, but someday, when she makes it as big as I think she will, they’ll be a collector’s item for sure.”
He sounds so proud of this woman, and it does something unexpected to me — it fills me with hot, searing jealousy. “So you saw an opportunity to support her without being blatant about it and took it. That’s so nice of you,” I say, my tone sharper than intended.
Zane falls quiet for a moment, and then he laughs, the sound light and melodious. “You’re jealous,” he says, his tone filled with wonder. “Of a woman that genuinely is like a sister to me.”
I part my lips in outrage. “I most certainly amnot,” I snap, instantly agitated. I shouldn’t have called him, and really, I should just hang up, but instead, I find myself holding my phone a little tighter.
“Let me take you on a date next Sunday. That fresh start I mentioned? I’ve waited for it longer than you can imagine. Don’t make me wait even longer, Celestial. Please.”
I blink in surprise, my heart racing. “I can’t on Sunday,” I murmur, my tone filled with regret. “Truly. I promised my mom I’d spend the day with her. The week after, though… I’m free then.”
What am I doing? I should take his apology and consider it closure, but once again, I’m letting Zane pull me into something that can only be described astrouble.
“It’s a date,” he says, and I try my hardest to suppress a smile. I might very well have lost my mind.
ChapterThirteen
Celeste
“How much longer are you going to stay at Mom and Dad’s?” my brother asks over video chat, and Mom gasps as she snatches her tablet out of my hands to glare at Archer. It’s a silly move on his part, to ask that during our weekly cooking lesson with Mom. It’s a tradition we started when Archer left home and I moved to London for college, and it quickly made Saturday my favorite day of the week.
“Archer Harrison! Don’t you encourage your sister to move out,” Mom chastises.
I shake my head at him from behind her before mouthingsoon. I’ve been looking at houses, but none of them have been quite right. It won’t be much longer now, though. Every viewing makes it easier to determine what I want.
I grin at Archer as Mom lectures him, and he throws me a pained stare. This is what I love most about our cooking lessons — it kept us close despite being so far apart.
“Instead of telling your sister to leave home, you should be joining her here,” Mom yells at him. “Don’t make me drag you back, Archer. I will not spend another Thanksgiving without both of my kids with me.”
His expression falls, and I sigh. Since leaving, he’s come home twice — both times it was for Mom’s birthday. If there’s even a slight chance of Grandpa being here, he won’t come. Mom knows that as well as I do.
Grandpa refused to let Archer run his current company on the side while working for him, and it resulted in an ultimatum that didn’t pan out the way I think Grandpa expected. Archer chose his own company and followed his dreams, even if it meant being disowned, and it’s something I’ll always respect him for, despite the resulting rift in our family.
“What’s going on in here?” Dad asks as he leads Lily into the kitchen, both of their arms filled with fresh rhubarb for our pie. “We left for ten minutes to pick these, and you managed to upset your mother?”
Archer shoots me a helpless look, and I pretend not to see it. “Instead of always lecturing me, why aren’t you telling off Lily?” he says, tipping his head toward her. “I heard you joined the enemy, Blondie?”
I let my eyes fall closed for a moment, surprised at his stupidity. Surely by now he’s learned that deflecting Mom’s anger never works in his favor? Mom wraps her arm around Lily and narrows her eyes. “You’re one to talk. Lily still works in the industry, and she has every intention of joining Harrison Developments in a few years. Can you say the same?”
Lily stares at me wide-eyed, confused as to why she got caught up in our argument, and I merely shrug. In the last ten years, she’s pretty much become one of us. She’s been there for every cooking session while we were in London, but she still isn’t quite used to the way we argue and make up so quickly.
I can hardly blame her for it — her house is always quiet, and her dad is rarely home. She isn’t used to the constant shouting, and she never knows quite what to do with herself when things get as loud as they are right now.
“Howhasit been?” I ask quietly. I’ve barely spoken to her since she started work, but if I’m truly honest with myself, I’ve purposely kept myself from asking. I don’t know how to bring up Zane without spilling all of my secrets.
