Page 21 of Samhain

If he’d been a puppy, his ears would have perked up and his tail would have started wagging. Excitement swelled in his gaze, his tongue almost hanging out of his mouth. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” I nodded.

“Fuck yeah.” He jumped out of his seat. “Let me go get my jacket.”

I narrowed my eyes. Jacket?

Whatever. I grabbed a silk scarf to wrap around my head so my hair didn’t get tangled in the wind, and I headed to the key box in the garage, searching for the right one among the rows of options. I found it just as he came in, and I had to take a moment to steel myself against his appearance.

He wore the white shirt and jeans he’d been wearing earlier, but now he’d added aviators and a brown bomber jacket, giving him a James Dean vibe. My lower stomach clenched, and my heart almost skipped a beat, a sizzle of lust sparking between my legs. I ignored it. Carter being gorgeous was hardly a new concept.

I tossed the keys out to him. “You’re driving.”

“Wait…what?” He looked so damn adorable when he was confused.

I put my hands on my hips. “Well, you certainly don’t expect me to chauffeur myself around, do you?”

His mouth fell open. “Miri…if I break it…”

I rolled my eyes and yanked open the passenger door, shoving my body inside it. “Get in. If you break it, I’ll buy it.”

Still, he stood there, swallowing and looking at the car like touching her might cause her to explode into a thousand pieces.

“Carter Scott,” I finally snapped, getting his attention. “I demand you drive me around in this ridiculously expensive relic. Will you deny me?”

He twisted his lips into the biggest grin I’d ever seen, and his eyes shined like they used to, back when we were home, back when we were with them. He practically skipped around to the driver’s seat and got inside, giving me a huge kiss on the cheek once he did.

“Don’t call her ridiculous.” He ran his hands seductively down the steering wheel. “She’s a masterpiece.”

I laughed while he started the ignition.

“Tonight, we wallow,” he said. “Tonight, we do the sunset walk on the beach, eat pints of Ben & Jerry’s, and watch the sappy rom-coms. Tomorrow, we move on, yeah?”

I sighed. “What if I can’t?”

He grabbed my hand and squeezed before driving us outside. “Pretend.”

Pretend.

Yeah. So easy. Never mind my breaking heart. Never mind my lost soul. I wished I had Carter’s drive for anything. But I didn’t. Whenever I thought about my future, I’d always envisioned doing my part for my family — being the dutiful princess, attending the events, and rebranding the royal name. But that didn’t spark the same excitement in me that performing did in Carter.

Being in my garden did. Being around my spouses did. I couldn’t turn that into a royal charity.

I traced my thumb over our vows while Carter drove, the setting sun on the ocean even more beautiful because I had him next to me. Vibrant tangerines faded into blush rosy pinks, and I thanked my lucky stars again that we were together, that I wasn’t going through this public grief alone.

Patsy Cline played on the radio, the cool ocean wind mixing with the warmth of the dying light on my cheeks, the whole thing making me nostalgic. Like this, we could have gone back in time to the golden age of Hollywood and he really was a James Dean heartthrob and I was his Grace Kelly princess. Together, we were the perfect power couple that no one could tear apart.

Eventually, Carter parked the car on an overlook, perfectly situated for us to enjoy the rumbling sounds of the waves below us. He grabbed my hand and flashed me one of those classic Carter smiles.

“In case I forget to say it, thank you for this.”

I shrugged and waved him off. “It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing,” Carter said. “Nothing you’ve ever done for anyone has been nothing.”

That got my attention, and I whipped my focus back to him, clearing my throat to swallow a sob. I’d spent my whole life shoving my emotions down, not letting them show, pretending to put on a big smile. These last few weeks, they’d felt so close to the surface, like I was only one spilled cup of milk away from having an utter mental breakdown.

I hated my family and my entire life and this separation and their engagement. Everything. I hated it all, and it made me so tired because being hateful was exhausting. It was much easier to be apathetic. But I cared too much, especially about them.

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