Page 16 of The Princess & the Prospect

Anna huffed out a breath of frustration as she made eye contact with her sister. “Y’all are working on the house. None of the extra rooms are fully done yet and it’s probably not good for me to be around all the construction stuff.”

“Shit!” Ever hissed. Once again, Anna proved she had truly thought about everyone else, and pretty much every alternative scenario they might come up with.

“You could go back home. Momma-Luce didn’t want you moving here anyway.”

“No,” Anna stated adamantly.

“But,” Ever started to argue when Deck finally interceded.

“Babe, why don’t we leave them to it? Anna has our numbers. She can call us any time. And Anna, I finished one of the rooms last week, just in case. It’s yours if you need it, or even if you simply want it.” He smiled over at her before he tacked on a final hit to me. “That goes for if it’s just a night, or if you need to move in for good or until you can get yourself sorted out with your own place, okay?”

“Thanks, Deck.” Anna moved from where she had been sitting cockeyed on the couch facing her sister to stand and go give the man, who used to be my best friend, a hug. I hated to admit it, and wouldn’t do so out loud, but I was jealous as fuck of my club brother in that moment. I hadn’t touched or been touched by Anna in any way since her secret came out. It also looked like it would probably never happen again and that was all my fault. She had even puckered up at the “you may kiss the bride” part of our nuptials and I’d callously declared, “it isn’t necessary,” before stepping away from her. I don’t know what kind of asshole monster took me over that day, but I’d have to spend the rest of my life making it up to Anna. Hell, I’d probably spend most of that time just praying she’d let me try to make it up to her.

I watched as Anna pulled back from Deck and moved to her sister, who had also stood from where she’d been perched on the couch. The two sisters hugged and as they broke the connection, Ever slid her hand into Anna’s and pulled her off down the hall so they could speak in private.

“How are you doing with all of this?” Deck asked, pulling my attention away from the two women.

“You mean when I’m not completely fucking it all up?” I asked.

He grinned at me. “At least you’re starting to see the error of your ways.”

“Yeah, but I think my dawning realization probably came too late. She’s only staying because it burdens other people the least.”

Deck continued to grin at me. “I know. We all know that. Anna operates that way. I’m thinking maybe you should be smart enough to take advantage of that situation, and use the time you have with her to build a friendship, trust, or whatever else you can manage before the baby comes along.”

Instead of filling me with the hope I was sure he meant to instill, I felt the dread of a deadline hanging over my head. What if I wasn’t able to earn her trust before then? Would she take the baby from me? Would they let her – or help her – to disappear? I didn’t think so considering what happened with Double-D and Lucy all those years ago that resulted in the possibility of Ever existing. I’m sure they didn’t regret having Ever in their lives now, but I imagine they all would have given just about anything – outside of their daughter – to have the time and memories that were stolen from them when Lucy’s family hid her away from Double-D while she was pregnant with Toby.

I was pretty sure that looking back on all he missed with the son that was no longer here on Earth with them was the reason Double-D had pushed so hard for the two of us to have to stick things out together for a while. He was hoping that another family wouldn’t have to go through what they did, especially since it was his own daughter and grandchild involved.

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