Page 147 of Scarred Crown

“I noticed.” There’s a hint of a smile in his voice.

“I only took one bag. How could you notice its return?” I glance up at him.

“Your glasses are on the bedside table.”

“Why do you have such an aversion to my glasses?” I huff out.

He’s silent for a beat and then his shoulders raise slightly. “Always felt like a symbol for a person I never got to know—Jules and Julia.”

A truth I hadn’t seen before clicks into place. “You did stop calling me Jules. Julia. Jensen. Secretary Jensen. Never Jules.” Of course, I also referred to him as Prince Nicholas in my head once we stopped speaking. Nick was gone.

“I’m sorry for how I treated you.” He runs his palm along my bare arm. “God, if I could go back. I made so many assumptions. Ruined my friendship with you. Put an additional strain on my relationship with Alex…”

We walked a terrible path to find each other again, but it gave me a lot of time and space to grow on my own. I would have followed Nick to the ends of the Earth, and I learned a lot about strength and determination from the breakdown of our friendship. Now we’ve repaired our rift, and maybe he can fix the one with his brother too. “I’m glad you talked to him.” I stretch up and kiss his bristly jaw.

“Me too,” he says. “I’m not sure we’ll ever be close, but talking to him has eased a lot of my… insecurities.”

“What time do we need to be wherever we need to be?” I glance at the clock on the bedside table.

“Two hours,” Nick says, and then he rolls us so he’s pinned me beneath him. “What could we possibly do to pass the time?”

“I need at least an hour to make myself beautiful.” I grin.

“More beautiful than this?” He cocks an eyebrow. “Impossible.”

“You trying to sweet-talk me out of my pants?”

“And your panties.” He gets a wicked glint in his eyes. “And then your shirt and your bra, and eventually, at some point, your birth control.”

“Sounds like a slippery slope.” I search his face, and I can’t believe he’s mine. That he’s going to be mine forever. Goosebumps rise across my body, and a tingling spreads throughout my core.

“So many dirty thoughts,” Nick whispers before he buries his face in my neck. “God, I love you.”

“I love you too.” I dig my hands into his hair. “Now show me some of those dirty thoughts.”

He chuckles and then draws my shirt over my head. “With pleasure.”

###

Nick has my hand locked in his. After he refused to give me too many details, I settled on a dress that straddles the line between formal and casual. It’s a deep purple that flatters my skin tone, and the flare of approval in Nick’s eyes when I exited the bathroom told me I chose correctly. He’s in a dress shirt with a jacket, but no tie. It’s one of my favorite looks—formal but casual.

“Where are we going?” I ask as we exit the side door of the palace. There’s no car waiting, but there are fairy lights strung up leading to the barn.

“You’ll see.” He glances at me over his shoulder as he leads us across the path and down the little hill to the barn entrance.

He opens the door, and inside are lanterns like the ones we used to use as kids. There’s a two-person table set in the middle with a candle. My heart squeezes. I haven’t been in here in years. We had so many good memories, and one awful one.

As though he can read my mind, he says, “I wanted to reclaim this place for us. Our friendship has defined my life up to this point, and our marriage is going to define the rest of it. I don’t want a single piece of this property to bring either of us anything but joy.”

It’s a tall order, but I appreciate the sentiment. I squeeze his hand. “We’re eating in here?” I ask.

“Eventually.” He gives me a half-smile. “Up to our not-so-secret hideout first.”

I climb the ladder to the upper level and the wide balcony where Nick and I spent so many nights in our formative years. There are blankets laid out on the ground and a bottle of white wine, two glasses, and some soda water.

White wine spritzer, some blankets, the stars, and Nick.

“Is this where I admit I haven’t had a chance to get your name written in the stars?” I try to suppress my smile.