Page 40 of Will You (Not) Marry Me

“Remind me why you ever wanted to stay in New York?” Abbie said under her breath, having enough presence of mind to keep quiet.

“Because I love you, and also, I’m too stubborn for my own good.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right.”

Eva opted out of the conversation and turned her attention to her phone, trying to type up a message as fast as possible to ask Finn to come meet her in the courtyard. She may be a royal herself, but breaking into a private residence of any sort was still illegal. And she doubted any security that came across them would be patient enough to wait for her to pull out her ID.

I’m in the courtyard behind your palace, the one with the hole in the fence. Not a stalker, I promise. Not crazy, I promise. But please can you come out? I need to tell you something important.

She hit send on the message before she could change her mind. It still made her sound like a stalker. And she definitely sounded nuts. Maybe she was, but she was kind of okay with that. At least she was doing something brave, somethingright.

“Okay, sent,” she told Abbie. “Hopefully he doesn’t hate me enough to call security on me.”

“I don’t think him calling off the engagement and taking on the blame when he didn’t have to is something done in hate,” Abbie said, sounding wise.

“Maybe—”

“What do you think you are doing?”

Eva shoved a fist in her mouth to stop a scream while Abbie nearly fell over backward from fright.

A tall, bird-like man was striding towards them, face furious behind his glasses, fists clenched at his sides. Abbie took a small step behind Eva as if that was the safest place in the world to be. Eva would have rolled her eyes, but she was just as anxious. The guy stopped in front of them, immovable as a brick wall.

“Hi,” said Eva, summoning her best winning smile and smoothest press conference voice, holding out a hand to shake. “I’m—”

“I know who you are,” the man snapped, and Eva pulled her hand back to her side. “Eva? Yes?”

“Yes?” answered Eva, sounding unsure of her own identity. But it was the fact that he hadn’t saidPrincess Eva.Just Eva. It was too informal for a first introduction, and it had thrown her right off. Had she met him before? Where had she met him? Oh God, now the panic was really starting to hit her.

“Uhh,” she mumbled, scrambling through her brain for any hint of recognition.

He saw her struggling and smirked as if he was rather relishing her discomfort.

“I’m Tobias. I’m a friend of Finn’s.”

“Oh,” said Eva with an awkward smile. “Yeah, um, he told me about you. The one who has lots of books. Nice to meet you.”

“Have you lost your mind?” he said, not even bothering to hide his disdain for her, his fury on behalf of his friend. It cut Eva like a knife. She knew that had their positions been switched, she’d be acting just the same way. But still… was Finn this angry at her? This hurt?

“I need to talk to Finn about something,” she said. “I thought it would be better to see him in person, face-to-face.”

She had dropped any attempt at trying to be stoic or collected. Her feet were starting to shuffle back and forth without her permission.

“Why? So he can’t just read your messages, ignore you if he wants and get on with his life? Do you really think he’s the sort of person to run away from a hard conversation?”

“No,” said Eva, forcing her voice to be steady. “I thinkI’mthe sort of person to run away. I’ve proven that already, haven’t I? So the least I can do is talk to him in person.”

Tobias’s shoulders seemed to loosen just a fraction at her honesty. But that fierce scowl was still firmly on his face.

“Listen,” said Abbie, looking utterly ridiculous in her flag cape, a leaf still stuck in her hair. “I know Eva better than anyone. And I can tell you without a doubt that she’s the biggest coward I’ve ever met and that right now, she’s pretty much dying inside and would rather be anywhere than here,but…” She held up a finger right in Tobias’s face, forcing him to tilt his head back. “She is here, isn’t she? When a coward shows up to something scary, that’s when you know it’s important, right?”

Eva raised her eyebrows at Abbie’s courage, but everything she’d said had been a hundred percent true, even if it hurt to hear it. Tobias seemed to believe her as well, his scowl melting away with a sigh as he reached out his hand to gently push Abbie’s finger away.

“What did you need to tell Finn that’s so important for you to fly halfway across the world and break into his home?”

“That’s kind of between me and him, isn’t it?” Eva said. She couldn’t tell Tobias before Finn. She just couldn’t. The only reason Abbie knew was because she’d seen her sick and bent over the toilet for the last week and a half.

Tobias opened his mouth to start arguing again when Abbie thrust her finger back up to his lips to silence him. He looked at the finger cross-eyed but dutifully closed his mouth.

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