“We did wait. We waited a whole day, and it was terrible.” She rested one hand on his chest, feeling his heartbeat against her palm. “And it feels right now to me. Does it to you?”
“I really can’t emphasize enough how right it feels,” Keith said. His regretful sigh seemed to come all the way up from his toes. “But I don’t want to have to rush things with you just so we can get to your sister’s on time.”
“No, me neither.”
He kissed her forehead. “So I’ll put the cake in the oven and silently resent your family, which—again, from what I’ve picked up from human TV and movies—is also pretty standard.”
“Deal.”
Keith slid the cake pan into the oven and set the timer.
“Are you thinking of bringing this with us?” he asked.
“No, they’re really not dessert people. I was thinking of how stricttheyare about it when I threw out my powdered sugar. Sometimes they’ll have cheese or fruit, but that’s it.”
“Not that I don’t like cheese and fruit, because I do, but they’re missing out.” He leaned back against the counter. “Just like your sister’s missing out on her pet fish Sunbeam. Do you think they’d ever want to leave Purity?”
Iris had thought about that so many times. She loved her parents, but when she thought of her family, Seraphina was who she thought of first. If Seraphina had been willing to come with her, Iris would have left a long time ago.
And then she might never have met Keith. As difficult as this road had been, maybe she was glad it was the one she’d taken.
“I think there are things about the outside world that Seraphina would find tempting,” she said. “But she loves this place, despite everything. She pours her heart into all the community organization stuff she does, like maintaining the public gardens. As much as being perfect weighs on her, and I know it does ... I don’t know if she would want to trade all that approval and purpose for something really uncertain. And Blakedefinitelywouldn’t go. He’s an Abbott.”
With someone who knew Purity, that was all you had to say. The Abbotts had been ensconced here for centuries. While most unicorn families eventually succumbed tosomedegree of stifled wanderlust and at least moved to a different settlement, the way Iris’s parents had done, the Abbotts had all stayed. Year after year, generation after generation, the Abbotts had been part of the bedrock of the village. They were a powerhouse.
Which was why Blake’s seat on the Council had been in the bag until Iris had jinxed it for him. It was kind of a miracle that he was still willing to spend time with her.
Keith scrubbed his face with his hand. “Yeah, it’s hard to imagine any Abbott walking away from Purity.”
“I’ll just have to visit sometimes,” Iris said.
It was hard to believe that she was already talking about a life that she was going to spendaway from here. Not even a chancy, scary, lonely life, either, but a warm and a wonderful one with Keith.
If Purity was just a place she had to go to a couple times a year, and the new Iris was just a mask she had to wear for a day or so at a time, she thought she could live with that.
She started cleaning up the mixing bowl and measuring cups, and he fell in easily at her side, helping out.
It occurred to her that in all his years away,Keithhad never come back to the village. Some tributes visited their families—but of course he didn’t have one here. He could have come back for the occasional holiday, to soak up what it was like to be back in his old stomping grounds, but he hadn’t.
Even though this was home, it hadn’t been a happy place for him.
He’d had to stifle himself here, just like she had, and he hadn’t even had anyone he loved around to make it easier on him. Would he like having her family as his family?
Not if he has to pretend,her unicorn said pointedly.You’re not giving him a family. You’re just giving him more people he has to impress.
Iris knew it was right, but she still couldn’t bring herself to be open with Seraphina and Blake about all this, not after everything she’d put them through and everything they’d done for her. They would be so relieved to have her married to a tribute. If they found out that beneath her polished surface, she was as unruly as ever, and that Keith didn’t fit the tribute mold anymore, they would just worry.
We’ll be gone soon,she promised her unicorn.And then it won’t matter. All we have to do is get through one dinner.
