Page 79 of The Accidental Beauty Queen
I swallow. How many times have I wished I’d had the courage to do the right thing in Orlando?Countlesstimes. I can’t go back, but I can do the courageous thing now. I have to. After all, isn’t that what Lizzie Bennet and Jo March would do?
I rise from the tiny chair and turn around. Sure enough, this isn’t a fantasy or some kind of alternate universe. He’s here... in my library, filling up the space as only a man of Darcyesque proportions could.
“Gray.” His name is only one syllable, but my voice breaks, turning it into two.
“Hermione,” he says, and his smile is bittersweet.
I’m tempted to smile back and let myself believe that his use of the familiar nickname, coupled with the fact that he’shere, means I’m forgiven. Or better yet, that he’s been thinking about me as much as I’ve been thinking about him. But I don’t, because I’m keenly aware that he might only be calling me by my wizard name because I’ve never told him my real one.
“It’s Charlotte, actually.” I bite down hard on my bottom lip, because there’s a sob rising up from somewhere deep inside me and I’m afraid if I let down my guard for even a second, it will come pouring out of me in a display of raw emotion that will send Gray running back to Boston before he’s had a chance to tell me why he’s here.
But then I give up the fight. I’ve been pretending for far too long.
“So I guess my Accio spell worked,” I say as tears stream down my face. “Here you are.”
It’s my lame attempt at a joke, but make no mistake—if I’d thought for a minute that a summoning spell would have gotten him here any sooner, I’d have given my wand a serious workout.
I hold my breath as he closes the distance between us. Then before I can process what’s happening, his arms are around me and my damp face is pressed against the smooth wool of his suit jacket.
He presses a tender kiss to the top of my head. “Don’t cry, love. Please don’t cry.”
Love.
As nicknames go, it’s my favorite. I like it even better than Hermione.
I lift my face and my gaze collides with his. My breath catches in my throat, just like it did when I stood before him in a pretty pink gown before he knew my name. Still, he saw me. Somehow those sapphire eyes always have.
“How did you know where to find me?” What stroke of fate brought him to my library? Because I definitely wasn’t forthcoming with my work address during any of our pageant interludes.
“Your twin. She wrote to me. Didn’t she tell you?”
I shake my head. I’m too moved to attempt speaking.
Ginny wrote Gray a letter?
He shrugs a single, muscular shoulder. “She said it was her fault that you lied, and if I didn’t get down here and sweep you off your feet as soon as possible, she was going to come up to Boston and drag me back to Texas with her.”
Wow.
Okay, then.
I’m now indebted to my sister. Big-time. Because at last I have a chance to apologize to Gray in person.
“I’m sorry. So very, very sorry.” I swallow. “About everything.”
He brushes a tear from my cheek with the pad of his thumb. “It’s okay. I knew something was... off. I just didn’t know what it was. I’ll admit I was surprised. Stunned might be a more accurate description. But then I got back to Boston, away from all the pageant hoopla, and I realized you’d tried to tell me. More than once, as I recall.”
He’s going easy on me, and I’m glad. I really am, but still. “I could have tried harder.”
He lets out a soft laugh that I feel deep in the center of my being. “We both could have done things differently. I assure you, I don’t make a habit out of falling in love with pageant contestants. I’m no angel, Hermione. I should have recused myself the minute you sat down at my table during the personal interviews.”
Did Gray Beckham just tell me he loves me?
He did.
But he’s not finished. He takes my chin between his thumb and forefinger and holds my face still so that I’m forced to look deep into his eyes. “I knew it wasn’t you, you know.”
I feel my brow crinkle. I’m not sure what he’s talking about. “What? When?”
