Page 126 of The Princess and the Fraud

Aaron leaned into the touch as if magnetized. “I told them they had to let me return to my one true love, lest I go mad andaccidentallypunch in the wrong numbers.”

“Ah, yes, threatening a charity. Classic.”

“Desperate times. I love the job, of course, but I needed to be somewhere else.” Aaron stepped back from me enough to gesture at the car. “What do we think?”

“It’s very nice,” I said with approval, eyeing the two of us in the black paint’s reflection. The seats inside were tan leather, though I could barely see them through the tinted windows. “Is this technically your first big purchase, then?”

The terms of Aaron’s grandmother’s will had been simple: marry by his twenty-sixth birthday, or forfeit the five million dollars that could change his life. In a shocking display of rebellion to the life he’d forced himself to stay stuck in, Aaron had refused to marry. I thought he’d regret it. Thought I’d see the guilt, the weight of what he’d given up, settle in his eyes. But as the deadline passed and the days slipped by, he seemedfreer. As if shedding the fortune had finally allowed him to breathe.

And then he’d gotten the call from his grandmother’s lawyer, in early May, that there was a hidden clause in her will. One that only revealed itself if he hadn’t married in time. If he stayed single past his birthday, the inheritance didn’t disappear.

It doubled.

Ten million dollars. For the man who jumped.

She’d left him a letter, if he remained unmarried. He’d read it privately, but told me, “She said she hoped I’d choose my own happiness, instead of the path she’d always pressured me on. And that if I did, this was my reward for standing on my own.” His eyes had been glassy.

“Choosing your own dreamsdoeshave its advantages,” I’d told him after he’d relayed the news.

He’d pulled me closer at that, pressing a kiss into my temple. “It definitely does.”

“It’s for you,” Aaron told me now, tapping the hood of the car. “To replace your old one. This one is an automatic, though. No more grinding the gears as you shift.”

I scrunched my nose at his little dig.

He winked. “But if you don’t want to drive, we’ll just say it’s your car, but I’ll drive you around everywhere.”

“You would look pretty cool in that car.”

Aaron raised an expectant eyebrow.

“Hot,” I amended. “You’d look pretty hot in that car.”

He laughed, a musical sound that rivaled the notes he could elicit from the piano. Aaron’s hands caught around the straps at my shoulders, easing my cello from my back. “How was practice, my dear?”

“Good. I’m done until next Tuesday. Our first performance is the first weekend of July, so we’re practicing three days a week now.” Aaron popped open the backseat of the car and gently slid my cello in. I glanced at the front, as if I expected to find someone in the passenger seat. “I’m surprised Annalise let you take over pickup duty.”

“She very nearly didn’t let me come. And then, very nearly didn’t let me comealone.” Aaron shut the backseat door, one hand resting on the car’s roof. “She’s going to be heartbroken when you move in with me.”

At his words, I looked away, a smirk tipping my lips while I rolled my eyes.

Aaron gave me a puppy-dog like grin. “Was that smooth?”

“Not in the slightest.” But my smile didn’t waver.

Aaron had gotten his grandmother’s house in his will, a respectable four-bedroom, three-bathroom house in Del Mar. When I initially came out from Addison, he’d offered one of the bedrooms up to me, but Annalise had promptly refused. “She can’t move in with you that fast,” she’d said. “She and I need to be roomies first.”

Aaron reached down and picked up my hand at my side, gently twining his fingers around mine. “Slow, slow,” he murmured, as if reminding himself. I had to bite down on my lower lip to keep my smile from stretching further. “Your toothbrush is enough for me.”

There was something intoxicating about his hopeful tone. Affirming. I never doubted Aaron’s feelings for me, but he never gave me the chance to. It was the way he called me almost every night before he went to bed, or waited until I called him, even though California was three hours behind Connecticut time. It was the little texts throughout the day of things that reminded him of me, and in return, I’d send him the songs I was listening to, and he’d listen to them, too.

And even now, asking me to move in with him to his grandmother’s house. Again. It didn’t feel pushy. It felt hopeful.I’m choosing you, every time. I sometimes wondered if it was because of his family, who withheld their affection, that made Aaron share it so freely. If there was anything I could be grateful to them toward, it might’ve been that.

But I also made sure to make it clear, in every one of my actions, in return—I’m choosing you. Every time.

I gave his hand a squeeze, leaning in closer. “Imightbe ready to upgrade to a drawer.”

“Don’t let me pressure you, love,” Aaron murmured. He reached around to pop open the passenger door, still holding my hand. “You, in any capacity, are perfect.”

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