Page 128 of Reckless King

He stops what he’s doing to scrutinize me, his hazel eyes bouncing between mine. Then he smiles. “I’m glad to see you happy again. He’d just better do right by you this time.”

“Turns out, he never did wrong,” I say.

He arches a brow, curiosity simmering in his gaze. But all he says is “Glad to hear it.”

The rest of the day doesn’t pass quickly enough. I’m desperate to leave work to see Tate, so when I finally lock up, I rush over to where Jeremy is standing next to the car. “Can you take me to him?”

His smile drops. “I can’t, Miss Sinclair. He had to fly to LA for business.”

My heart sinks at the news. “How long will he be gone for?”

“Until Friday.”

“Oh.” I swallow down my disappointment. “Okay. Thank you.”

He opens the car door for me, and I climb in, finding the note I knew would be waiting. I hold it between my fingers for the span of a few heartbeats. If he’s not in New York, then he must have written these before he left with instructions for Jeremy to place them in the car. I touch the violet I’ve tucked into my hair. Did he stockpile these as well?

After taking a deep breath, I unfold the paper and read.

Violet,

The moment I slipped the ring onto your finger, I knew I wouldn’t want you to take it off. I already loved that you didn’t care who I was or what Ihad. As soon as you were wearing my ring, I knew I’d never put one on anyone else. I just needed to make sure you felt the same. I’d like to think you do. I’d like to think that, soon, you’ll come back to me.

I’ll be forever grateful you said yes to being my fake fiancée.

One day, I hope you’ll say yes to me again.

Forever yours,

Tate

It’s hard to believe I have any tears left at this stage. And yet I’m still forced to wipe away the strays that trickle over.

Anticipation floods through me in a rush. I just have to get through the rest of the week without losing my mind, and then I’ll ask Jeremy to take me to Tate. Because what I need to say to him has to be said in person.

I sit back in my seat and close my eyes as I imagine being back in his arms, where I should have stayed, and finally, finally telling him how I feel.

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

VIOLET

My alarm goes off what feels like only a couple of hours after I fell asleep. I blink awake to the hazy gray of early morning.

Too early.

I push my hair out of my face and reach for my alarm, wondering why it’s gone off, when I realize it wasn’t my alarm that woke me up. It was my ringtone.

Rubbing my eyes, I fumble for my phone, my pulse racing when I see Tate’s name flashing on the screen.

I stab the answer button. “Hello?”

“Butterfly, you need to let me in.”

My stomach free-falls at the sound of his deep, husky tone. “You’re here?” I ask, even as I’m pushing my covers off and climbing out of bed.

“I didn’t want to bang on the door and wake all your neighbors up.”

I want to ask him what he’s doing here when Jeremy told me he was in California, but I need to see him even more, so I rush to the front door and unlock it.

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