I offer one to her, but she shakes her head. “I’ve already had a few drinks this evening.” She pauses and lets out a long sigh. “How’s your nose?”
“It’s there.”
“So, that’s a plus, I suppose,” she says. “You still have something to hold up your sunglasses.”
I let out a half smile but can’t manage more than that.
“I need to apologize to you for losing it earlier,” Arabella says. “And ordering you to go with me to Scotland to get married. And forgetting to tell you how much the wedding is costing. And I need to apologize on behalf of my terrible family for treating your family like garbage.”
“It’s okay,” I tell her with a shrug. “Don’t worry about it.”
Her voice is so quiet, I can hardly hear her over the waves. “No, I have to worry about it. We’ve made a huge mess and I don’t know how to clean it up. Notweas in you and me, we as in my idiot family and me. The last thing I wanted was for things to go so far off the rails, but whoa, did they ever.”
“Yeah, it’s been rough.”
“I don’t know why they couldn’t just get along. Would that have been so hard? Seriously? Like, what is the problem? As if this wedding isn’t stressful enough…and I just feel so bad for you, having to spend every waking hour trying to learn all the stupid rules…”
“It hasn’t been that bad.”
“Yes, it has. I know you’ve barely slept in weeks. Reynard told Bellford how hard you’ve been working to prepare,” she says, her voice cracking a little. “I thought coming here would be a way to make it up to you and to your family, but now…it just couldn’t be worse, could it?”
I let out a frustrated chuckle. “Probably not.”
“You must be so upset.”
I turn to her. “I’m not going to lie to you. This is hard. The whole thing—the etiquette lessons, the dancing, and now this big public fight that is never going to go away, is it?”
She shakes her head. “Probably not.”
“It’s all just so stupid. Your people hate that you’re marrying me and mine hate that I’m getting married at all. The constant online chatter about us, the fact that our families can’t stand each other…it’s a lot worse than I thought it would be.”
“So much worse, right?”
“Yeah.” I nod. “But we can’t just call off the wedding.”
“Why not? I mean, if neither of us wants the enormous production, maybe we should just elope and be done with it.” She stares into my eyes. “I don’t want to force you into this life. I don’t even want it myself. Let’s just get out now so we can build the life we want.”
“Oh, Belle, that issotempting,” I tell her. “And for that reason, I need you not to bring it up again.”
“Why not? I’m serious, Will. After today, I definitely want out.”
Shaking my head, I say, “Todayyou do, but I know you’d come to regret it in the long run because it’ll tear your family apart. You watched the Oprah interview of Harry and Meghan. You saw how that turned out…”
“After how my family behaved, I’m not even sure I care.”
“They weren’tthatbad,” I tell her. “Okay, maybe Arthur…” I nudge her on the shoulder.
“He can be such a world-class wanker.”
“I know, but you love him anyway. He’s your big brother,” I say. “Besides, canceling the wedding means I’m stuck riding out my contract, and neither of us wants that. No matter how awful it’s going to be, it’s going to buy me over two years of my life back. Plus, we get to fulfill your greatest wish…”
“Being your wife?”
“Sticking it to Dylan.”
Arabella lets out a laugh, then says, “The truth is, I don’t even care about that anymore. All I care about is you, and us having a wonderful life together, which means getting it off to the perfect start—one that’s made for you and me. I mean, who wants to start their marriage with some big phony compromise?”
“Neither of us, but there’s just so much at stake.”
