Page 68 of Coffee Break with the Billionaire

“You seem a bit stunned,” she says, tucking an arm around my waist.

“I was head-banging with the king,” I tell her numbly.

“Yes, but are you stunned because of King Magnus or Fenella?” Sophie asks.

I don’t feel the need to answer that.

Chapter twenty-five

Fenella

Me: We need to make honey mead a global sensation

Lavinia: that sounds medieval

Ashton: isn’t that what they drink in Laandia

Milo: did you go out without us? Bad girl

Me: You’ll see me soon! Party for my birthday! Here

Rupert: Here as in…??

Me: Laandia. Battle Harbour

Lavinia: In thecastle!

She sends a variety of emojis of castles and crowns and excited faces.

Me: Even better

Milo: What’s better than a castle and all those princes?

My club, I decide.

Coral: Send deets and I’ll get them there.

Coral will make sure everyone is there, and while of course I want my friends around to celebrate my birthday, I have to wonder what Silas will think of them.

And what they will think of Silas.

I think a lot about Silas—more than I should for someone who may not be thinking of me.

I like Silas. I like him as a person, and I like him more than a friend. I’m fairly certain he feels the same way.

If this were the old Fenella, even three-week-ago Fenella, I would take Silas’s lack of action in pursuing me and make him fall for me. I could do it to. I’ve done it before—make a man fall in love with me when he really didn’t want to.

I’m very fall-in-lovable. But long-term-lovable?

I haven’t managed to become that for anyone.

But do I want to be that for Silas? It’s clear he does not want anything more than what we have—spending time together at the shop. Spending time together outside work. Looking at thestars on dark nights, which has to be one of the most romantic things I’ve ever done with anyone, and I’m doing it with a man who only wants to be my friend.

Has Silasfriend-zonedme? Because I’m not staying in Battle Harbour for the unforeseeable future? There’s nothing I can do about that… except to stay.

I wouldn’t even follow my fiancé around the country while he was on tour. There’s no way I’m about to relocate for someone.

Not yet.

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