“Will your prince not be joining us then?” Ashley asked, brows furrowing.
“Oh, he will. He has some business holding him up and I refused to wait a second longer! So, tell me everything that happened in my absence.”
And they did, bursting into laughter at the various degrees of shock on Sera’s face. When it came to Maddie’s latest little adventure, her nerves all knotted in her stomach.
“So let me get this straight,” Charlene said, kicking her boots up onto the bench across from Maddie. “He kissed you—youkissedhim—and now you’re hiding in a brewery with us. Wait, is this the reason why you ushered us all here so urgently?”
Maddie groaned. “I think I’m panicking.” But not exactlyhidingas her friend suggested.
Charlene patted her hand sympathetically. “Darling, I once panicked so hard I agreed to marry a duke. It happens.”
Ashley snorted. “Are you calling love panic now?”
Sera chuckled. “I somehow completely understand. I’m just cross I couldn’t arrive any sooner. Heh.”
Charlene laughed. “I once panicked and broke a vase on a man’s face.”
The other three women blinked.
“He wasfine,” Charlene assured them with a smile that was almost sly. “Just a scratch.”
Maddie lifted her head slowly. “Why are all of you somuch?”
“Because you are surrounded by women of future legends,” Ashley said, raising her tankard. “Now drink. Then tell us what happened.”
Maddie took a generous sip of the honeyed ale and inhaled sharply. “It was… perfect. Not the kiss, well,yes, the kiss, but more the moment before. During. And after. Everything.”
“And was the kiss?” Sera asked, intrigued.
Heat flushed her skin. “Well, of course.”
Charlene leaned in. “Tongue?”
“Char!” Maddie squeaked.
Ashley smirked. “I take that as a yes.”
“Does it even matter?”
“Of course it does,” Sera said. “The one is chaste, the other is not.”
“A kiss from a man by its very nature isn’t chaste.”
Sera shrugged. “Thatmight very well be true.”
“Well, ours wasnice,” Maddie muttered. “Too nice. Now I don’t know what to do.”
“You do what any self-respecting woman would do after kissing a man she’s clearly halfway in love with,” Ashley said. “You panic, drink ale, and demand answers from your friends.”
Maddie fearedhalfwayin love was an understatement.
“I don’t recall you ever doing it!”
“We all manage our panic differently.”
Charlene took a sip of ale. “All right, be honest. Do you want to wed him?”
Maddie hesitated.
