“Jesus,” April said, clutching at her chest and whirling around to see Daphne sitting on the love seat.
“Nope,” Daphne said with a soft smile. “Just me.”
April managed to smile back as Daphne stood up, but her heart didn’t slow its pace. Daphne was beautiful. Hair long and lavender, the curls glossy in the light. She wore a white dress, not unlike the one in her paintings, with spaghetti straps and a sweetheart bodice, and bright yellow heeled sandals on her feet.
She came closer, her eyes never leaving April’s, and April felt the sudden need to run. Fuck the Devon, fuck London, fuck herfuture. She wasn’t going to survive whatever Daphne Love had to say.
“Where’s Elena?” April asked. She didn’t really want to know the answer, but the question slipped out, the price of keeping her feet planted on the floor, a simple trade.
But Daphne shrugged, her slender shoulders glowing and lovely. “She left after we talked the other night.”
April frowned, trying to process this information. “I don’t understand. Sheleft? Two days ago? Then why—”
“She asked me to marry her.”
Those six words echoed through the room, loud and soft all at once, a declaration with thorns and explosives and barbed wire attached.
“She…” April stared but couldn’t get anything out of her mouth. Her eyes flew to Daphne’s left hand, but she had it tucked away, her arms folded over her chest as though she was cold.
Daphne looked down at the ground, shook her head. “I almost said yes.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I was so close. The ring was on my finger.”
April blinked. “Almost?” she said. Because it didn’t seem real. None of it. The fact that Elena proposed, or the fact that Daphne said no—didshe say no?—or the fact that April hadn’t heard from her at all since this cataclysmic event.
“Almost,” Daphne said again, then lifted her head to meet April’s gaze. Her eyes were shiny, but no tears spilled over. She looked gorgeous—strong and sad all at once. “I couldn’t do it.”
April exhaled so heavily, a laugh mingled with her breath, relief overpowering every other emotion. She looped her hands behind Daphne’s neck and pulled her closer, kissed her mouth once before holding her in a tight hug. Daphne held her too, arms around April’s waist, and they stayed like that for a few seconds.
April could’ve lived there forever.
And she wanted to, she realized. Her relief was tangled with Daphne’s rejection of Elena, she knew that. But underneath it all, the foundation, was the fact that she loved Daphne Love.
Shelovedher.
“Why didn’t you call me?” April said, pulling back and kissing Daphne one more time. She kissed her cheeks then, one after the other, as she waited for Daphne to answer. She wasn’t mad. Not anymore. There was too much of every other emotion to be mad about Daphne’s silence, and she didn’t care. She didn’t fucking care about anything as long as it meant that Elena was gone and Daphne was here.
Here, and very much not engaged.
“I wanted to,” Daphne said.
“I wanted to call you too,” April said, her hands still roaming over Daphne’s face, her mouth still pressing kisses anywhere she could get them.
“I was overwhelmed,” Daphne said. “I needed some time to think, and when you didn’t text or come back, I just—”
“I’m sorry,” April said, holding Daphne’s face between her hands, their foreheads pressed together. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know what to do, and Ramona’s shower was happening, and I think I freaked out a little.”
“I get it,” Daphne said. “I freaked out too.”
“And that’s okay,” April said, thumbs swiping at Daphne’s cheeks. “That’s okay. What matters is right now. What matters isus.”
She went in for another kiss, but Daphne circled her hands around April’s wrists, pulling her back a little. She looked down again, teeth working at her lower lip.
“Daphne?” April asked. An alarm started deep in her belly, faint at first, hardly noticeable, but growing louder by the second.
Daphne lifted her eyes, her expression sorrowful.
Regretful.
“April, I—”
