Page 54 of Stuck With the Billionaire Grump

The song melds smoothly into a more upbeat tempo, and I know it’s pointless to force Theo to stay on the dance floor. I let him guide me away from the center, back toward the marble column he was leaning against earlier. Along the way, though, I spot Miss Maisie. She floats past us, a serene smile on her face. Her shoulder brushes lightly against Theo’s and then she winks at me before disappearing.

Uh-oh.

When we reach the relative calm on the borders of the dancing crowd, Theo turns to face me. He has a frown on his face, though, and is reaching into the pocket of his suit trousers. When he pulls out his hand, his brow is furrowed as he stares down at three stones in his palm: a pearl, gray and oval like it was just plucked from an oyster moments ago; a deep red, almost black, stone that I recognize as a raw shard of garnet; and lastly, a polished pink hunk of rose quartz.

I glance back over my shoulder for any sign of Miss Maisie, but she has already disappeared into thin air.

“That’s weird,” Theo mutters. “Are these supposed to be part of the decor? They must’ve fallen into my pocket somehow. I guess.”

I shake my head. An odd feeling is twisting my gut. I know exactly what’s going on, but I never thought thatIwould be the victim of such divine intervention.

Pearl is my birthstone. And rose quartz represents love and compassion. Romance. A healing of the heart.

“When is your birthday?” I ask Theo.

“What? Why?”

“Just tell me.”

“January ninth.”

I sigh heavily. “Right. Garnet. Your birthstone.”

“Is that what this red one is?”

Once more, I look around for Miss Maisie, if only so I can wag my finger at her in disapproval. If she’s going to play matchmaker, she has two hundred other wedding guests to mess with. Shouldn’t she know that me and Theo are an impossible ending? That there’s no point in trying, even with all her mystical powers?

“That tricky old wise woman,” I mutter.

Theo is still staring at the stones in confusion. “Pardon?”

Chapter Eighteen: Theo

“We got Miss Maisie-ed,” Lucy says.

“We… what?”

I know she explained who Miss Maisie was earlier, but I don’t quite understand how the silver-haired woman’s name has been turned into a verb.

“Don’t worry about it. It doesn’t matter.”

“But—”

“Listen, Theo, I should probably go check to make sure Josie and Elijah’s getaway car is ready to go.”

The night isn’t even close to over yet, though. She’s just making an excuse to step away. Or maybe it’s not merely an excuse, but it clearly shows that Lucy has about a thousand other things she needs to be doing right now. Things that are far more important than talking to me.

But after everything she told me about what happened with Eric after we left Camp Hannefort, I need to tell her exactly how I feel.

I need to tell her that, if I could go back in time and do everything all over again, I wouldn’t have been such a sourpussabout her sunshine-y attitude. I wouldn’t have spent the entire summer glaring at her from afar because I was annoyed about how pretty and charming she was. I wouldn’t have spent all my energy either arguing with her at every chance or avoiding her at all costs.

I would have done everything differently. I might have talked to her. I might have told her that I liked her eyes, her smile, her laugh.

I definitely would have kissed her during that silly game. Maybe I would have even gotten the courage to kiss her before that, if things were different. Maybe I would have asked for her number at the end of the summer so we could text each other from opposite coasts.

Maybe there’s a version of reality where everything worked out between us twelve years ago.

I want to tell her that I wish I could have that reality. That, even though I know it’s impossible, I’d like to at least try to emulate it now that we’re older. I want to tell her that I’m seriously considering Stacy’s proposal, and that I might be living just an hour or so away from her soon enough. If there really is nothing between her and Eric, maybe that means there could be something between me and her.

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