Blinky forced a laugh. “The wild child and the buttoned-up CPA. Who’d have guessed?”
“If you didn’t love me, Thomas, why did you propose?” She glared at Blinky. Why didn’t she excuse herself so she and Thomas could talk?
“I thought it was time. I adored you, and we got on so well, but now I think we’re actually too much alike.”
The first tear always burned the hottest. Daffy caught the drop with the back of her gloved hand. But somewhere inside of her, a loud, resounding clang sounded.
“This is the right thing.”
“I’m sorry you found out this way, Daff.” Thomas started to reach for Blink’s hand then stopped and stepped toward Daffy. “This is actually our first official date. We talked about everything tonight. What was happening between us. What this meant for you.”
“Looks like you were up to something more than talking.” Daffy pointed to Blinky’s hair.
“We might have, um, gotten, um, carried…” Blinky cleared her throat as she patted down her messy locks. “Daffy, you’re one of my best friends. I’d never intentionally hurt you.”
“Then there’s nothing more to say.” Daffy removed her glove, slipped Thomas’s ring from her finger, and set it on the nearest end table. “When you propose to Blinky,Tom, buy her a new ring. Give this one away. Or make it into a necklace.”
Thomas intercepted her as she made for the door. “I am truly sorry, love. Please believe me.”
Daffy reached up and brushed his hair aside and straightened his unbuttoned collar. “I know.” Why did tears insist on falling? “I should go.”
Thomas drew her into a hug and kissed her forehead. “Maybe, in time, we can be friends.”
“Maybe.” She reached for the doorknob.
“Daffy?” Blinky, this time. “You might consider that you’re in love with the prince. The way you defended him at the lodge…”
Daffy remained facing the door. “I didn’t want Leslie Ann to get to him.”
“You jumped over a large couch and tackled her. And I saw how you looked at him.”
“Let’s not try to change the focus ofthisconversation, all right?”
Daffy left without another word or backward glance. She’d just crossed the lobby when Blinky called her name and marched toward her like a familiar friend, not the woman cheating with her fiancé.
“I’m going to say this, whether you want to hear it or not. The prince has to get over Coral and Lady Robbi sooner or later. Why not you?”
“I’m afraid he’s planning on later. Much later. And there are a lot of reasons, royal reasons, whynotme.”
“What reasons? They’re rubbish.” Blinky squeezed Daffy’s hands. “As for later, Daffy, darling, make him change his mind.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Gus
“Hello, love—what are you doing here?” Gus stopped working on a chair leg when a slight shadow fell in the workshop Saturday afternoon.Daffy.He blew a breath to shift his wild bangs from his eyes. “Lucy said you went home for the weekend.”
The news had affected his mood, like clouds moving in to block the sunshine. Daffy had said nothing of going home during dinner Thursday. But she didn’t owe him any explanations. Spending the afternoon with Emmanuel in the workshop was a blessed distraction.
The two of them had swapped stories, sharing the crazy antics of their friends. Gus thought he’d topped the older man when he recounted the time Sorrels jumped from their third floor bedroom window to hide from the headmaster, using a sheet as a parachute.
“Broke his leg in two places.”
Then the carpenter regaled him with a story of a mate who attempted to walk on water.
“Are you serious? Was he drunk?”
“Very serious and very sober. I thought he had the faith for it. I told him to give it a go. But in the end…”Emmanuel shook his head.“I suppose I shouldn’t laugh. It wasn’t so funny at the time. But looking back…”
