Phineas slipped a hand around her tiny waist, and she rested one hand on his shoulder and then set her other delicate hand in his as they swayed gently to the music.
He gazed down at her in his arms, and all these emotions raced through him. There was so much he wanted to say to her, but he just couldn’t get the words out and it was so frustrating. She was so soft and vulnerable in his arms. All he wanted to do was protect her.
Of course, it didn’t matter how much someone wanted to protect someone else. There were some things you couldn’t control, and he tried not to think about the angry mob and what happened to his parents.
He didn’t want that memory infiltrating tonight or this moment.
And it wasn’t just that he might not be able to protect her. He never wanted to hold her back. Pearl wanted to be a nurse so badly, and she needed to be in the city to attend college. There was no way he would keep her from her dreams. This is something she’d wanted since they were kids, but it was hard to let her go.
The song ended, but he stood there with his arms around her. Pearl was still gazing up at him.
Just tell her!
“Pearl, I?—”
“Everyone, it’s time for the bride to throw the bouquet,” Asher announced, and the lights came back up.
“Oh. I want to go to this.” Pearl stepped out of his arms and ran out into the lobby where he could see Margaid on the landing of the staircase, her back to the crowd below, getting ready to throw her bouquet.
Pearl was next to Mercedes and they were both laughing and excited, like all the other single females in the crowd.
Pearl deserved so much more than him.
More than he could offer.
When his parents had fled to Harmony Glen, they’d brought him, and that was it. All he had left of his parents was the swamp where he ran his peat moss business and the home his father built.
It was not enough to offer her. Not enough to keep her safe.
Especially when wanted to give her the world.
Chapter
Two
Nine Months Later
This is the summer.
Which was obvious to Pearl as she’d packed up her stuff from her dorm room and had arrived home in Harmony Glen last night. It was clearly summertime, and she’d just finished her first year of nursing school.
So, saying the statement over again in her head was a bit repetitive, but she also found that giving herself these pep talks in the mirror every morning helped with her resolve.
Especially in the past year, when some things about college seemed extra challenging. She’d state the obvious, stiffen her spine with courage and resolve, and overcome it.
When she wanted to shore up her courage to tell her mother and her brother Finn that she was off to college in the city, she’d done this. Now she was giving herself a pep talk because this was the summer she would finally tell Phineas how she felt about him.
How she’d always felt about him.
Pearl’s heart was racing a mile a minute, and she glanced down at the beautiful beach-glass bracelet he’d given her in August last year at the going-away party Sven and Magnus had thrown for her at Room with a Tomb.
Phineas had snuck off, but had left her this gift.
She knew that he’d picked all the beach glass himself and made the charm, and because of that, it was one of her most cherished gifts. She knew he felt bad about his homemade gifts because he didn’t have a lot, but that didn’t matter to her.
It never did, because it was the thought and care that went into it.
She really hoped that wasn’t what was holding him back from ever asking her out. Phineas had pride, she understood that, but she was also done waiting. There was one thing she’d always wanted.
