“I hear you,” he whispered.“I won’t say it again.”
“That’s right.We’re not allowed to give up,” she said.“Not when you just came back.”
“To be fair, I think you’re the one who came back to me,” he said.
She frowned at him.“That’s how you want to play it?”
“I think you came to me,” he told her, “because I wouldn’t have given up.”
“I think you were on your way back to me,” she said.
“On my way, possibly.But I didn’t want to rush you, and I think I would still be waiting,” he said, kissing her forehead.“You always did like to take your time.”
Thea scowled at him.“And you like to do everything impulsively.”
“I’m not trying to fight,” he said with a laugh.Leaning over, he wrapped his arms around her and squeezed as tightly as he could until she grunted—and then he let go.
“I’m just saying how glad I am that you came back to me,” he said, with an impish grin.
Thea muttered something under her breath that he couldn’t quite make out, so he simply grinned at her.
“I love you,” he said.
“I’m sure you do,” she said with a sigh.“Go talk to Eugenia.”
“Can’t wait to be rid of me?”he asked.
She only muttered something else, which he took as a yes, and decided it would be best for him to disappear before she got crankier.
She watched him leave.
He noticed—even if she was grumbling.
Nathaniel made his way to the library and walked in just as there was a thud from the back.
Had Aunt Genie fallen?
Nathaniel raced forward, not sure what he was going to find—but then he found Eugenia and Tom wrapped around each other in the back of the library.
“Aunt Genie!”he exclaimed.
Eugenia pulled away from Tom, a flush on her cheeks.
“Hello, Nathaniel,” she said as properly as she could for someone who had just been caught kissing a man in the back of the library.“I was not expecting you, dear.”
“I noticed,” Nathaniel said, eyes wide.
Eugenia turned even more pink.
“Well,” she said, “it’s been a long time since my husband died, you know.”
Nathaniel laughed.“Aunt Genie, I’m in no place to lecture you about who you spend your time with.”
“That is true,” she said, nodding.“I happen to recall hearing rumors about you.”
Nat sighed.“This small town and their rumors...”
It was one of the things he missed most about Riyel.In the capital, you were anonymous—for better or worse—and he could have kissed Thea to his heart’s content with hardly anyone noticing.But here?If he so much as walked her through town, everyone talked about it.
