Page 26 of Gilded Princess

I don’t know why she won’t just tell me she’s been hanging out with someone. I’m happy that she’s dating. She deserves happiness and love and all those gooey feelings that go along with it.

I want her to be happy—I always have. She’s been so busy making herself different from me that she doesn’t realize the distance it puts between us.

I sigh, shoving the twinge of sadness down deep and apply another coat of mascara to my dark lashes. I guess I’ll just leave Mary a note since that’s what we’ve been reduced to lately. Six words on a Post-It note. I can’t wait for Lainey to get back home. She’s always been the glue that holds us together.

Satisfied with my lashes, I grab my phone to check the time and send a quick text to Mary. I’m not sure when she’s coming home, and this way, she’ll at least know where I’ll be tonight in case she doesn’t see the note on the counter. Who knows, maybe the news that I have a date will open her up a little.

I expel a breath.

Thirty minutes until I have to leave. My thumb hovers over Lainey’s name in my text messages. I don’t want to bug her, but I already miss her. It hasn’t even been that long since I’ve seen her, and we just video chatted the other day.

With a shrug of my shoulder, I press on her smiling face and listen as ringing fills the air in my room. On the fifth ring, she picks up.

My cousin’s beautiful face fills the screen. “Maddie!”

A smile spreads across my face as happiness simmers underneath my skin. I let my gaze trail her face just like I’ve done every time I’ve seen or spoken to her. She looks good for a girl who was just kidnapped and held in a random cabin in the woods. “Hey, Lainey. How are you? Still doing okay?”

She cocks her head to the side, a smile teasing the corner of her mouth. “You mean since yesterday when you called me?”

“I worry about you.” My voice is quiet, but she hears the worry just fine.

Her face softens to a more serious expression. “I’m fine, Maddie—well. I will be. Promise.”

I nod a couple times, the movement slow. It’s the same thing she told me the other day and the time before that, but I can’t stop the churning in my gut. It’s a poisonous combination of guilt and worry—I should’ve been looking out for her. It’s my role in our family to look out for everyone.

She brings the phone closer to her face, the screen filling with her dark-brown eyes. “Hey. I mean it. I’m okay. They’re taking good care of me, and I even sweet-talked them into teaching me a few things.”

I raise a brow. “Yeah? And just how good of care are they taking?” Her cheeks flush, and my grin grows. “That good, huh?”

She glances to the side before looking back at me with a shrug and a small smile. “You know I don’t kiss and tell.”

“Ah-ha! So there was some kissing. Thank god. Because honestly, I love you, girl, but if you weren’t taking advantage of your situation at least a little bit, I was going to have to smack some sense into you.”

She waves her hand in the air as if to shoo my words away. “Enough about me. Where are you headed? You’re awfully fancy for dinner with your sister.”

I play demure with a hand to my chest and flutter my eyelashes at her. “Oh, this ol’ thing?”

We both know it’s not old at all. It’s one of the few things I picked up when my mom skirted Mary and me to Europe a few weeks ago with her newest boyfriend. A cream-colored minidress that hits about mid-thigh, it’s form-fitting from the waist down, but the top is flowy. The neckline is a loose-laying deep vee with soft, big ruffles cascading from my shoulders to my belly button, creating a short-sleeve effect.

It’s a bold-cut softened by the ruffles and the cream color, and with my bright-red hair in soft waves, it’s an eye-stopping look.

Perfect for a date. And I know by the sparkle in Lainey’s eye, she’s thinking the same thing.

“I’ll let you know if it goes anywhere, okay? But I’ll text you my location in an hour or so, okay? Because you know—”

“Serial killers,” we say at the same time before we both pause and then giggle.

“Oh! Before I forget, I’ll be back in town soon. Wanna grab lunch at Blue Lotus? I’m dying for their lunch special.”

“Of course! I miss you! I feel like I won’t be able to stop worrying about you until I see you in person, ya know?”

“I know,” she says with a nod. “I’ll be there Friday. Tell Mary for me?”

The notification alert I set up to let me know what time I have to leave for my date goes off. I don’t know why I even put it in my calendar like I’d forget or something, but something about the action just soothed my nerves. “Hey, I gotta go, babe. But I’ll tell her. And I’ll see you on Friday!”

“Yeah, me too! Have fun!”

I waggle my eyebrows at her. “You too. Talk soon!”

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