Page 46 of Will You (Not) Marry Me

Eva knew that Finn was up to something. He thought that he was being cool, calm and collected, but for the last couple of days, he’d been bouncing his leg up and down as he sat in the way he only did when he was incredibly nervous, or excited. Or both. She let him think that he was getting away with his nonchalant act, but she still expected some sort of surprise or announcement to come about soon. Poor Finn, she’d just gotten to know him too well, and it was a tough ask to slip anything past Eva without her noticing something.

But all thoughts of what mischief Finn might be planning were soon pushed to the back of her mind when their car rounded the last corner and came to a halt in front of the countryside cabin they’d stayed in so long ago. The weather was the same, a crisp layer of snow blanketing everything and a sky so clear and blue that it stretched on for forever.

Finn pulled their suitcases out of the trunk while Eva bent over the back seat of the car, unclipping Sofia from her baby seat. The infant was sound asleep, snug in her winter clothes and lulled into peaceful slumber from all the twists and turns of the drive there. The kid slept like a rock, a miracle that had been entirely unexpected, and she didn’t even fuss a little as Eva cradled her into her arms, shutting the car door with her hip.

“Well,” said Finn, unlocking the front door of the cabin and letting Eva and their daughter enter first. “This is strange.” He looked around the place as if he were having an out-of-body experience.

Eva laughed. “What? Being back?”

“Being back with a baby when the first time we came here was to just get you to like me. Even a little bit.”

“I like you,” said Eva, shifting Sofia’s weight into a more comfortable position. “Most days, at least.”

“Good to hear. I mean, I’d been hoping that was the case, but it’s always good to have confirmation.”

They continued their well-practiced banter, not even needing to think much about what they were saying, just happy to chatter nonsense to one another like a pair of birds. Eva laid Sofia down in the middle of the master bed to continue her nap, limbs spread out like a chubby starfish.

Finn had been half joking when he’d said it was weird to be back here, especially under such different circumstances. But when he went back out to the car to get his phone and Eva was left alone in the quiet, sitting next to their sleeping baby on the bed, the enormity of the last year came crashing over her in waves.

Telling their parents had been… an experience. It was the messiness of it all, the back and forth as they had slowly figured things out, that was entirely unacceptable in a royal family. Even if it was how life just worked sometimes. Finn had stood his ground, refusing to be browbeaten and telling his parents that he would be with Eva regardless of public opinion about their on-again, off-again start. No, they would not be getting married, not immediately anyway, and by the way, she was pregnant, which he was thrilled about. They’d pinched their lips and frowned something fierce, but instead of exploding, the king and queen had simply refrained from talking to their son for a few weeks until they realized that he had been perfectly serious and nothing was going to be changing.

Eva’s parents, though, had been quite the opposite. It was a short flight to Skärov from Eschenberg, and Finn had convinced her to be brave and tell them to their faces.

Her father, always a quiet man in private, his energy and words taken up in public, had looked disappointed in her, which hurt more. Her mother had erupted like a volcano, hot and violent enough to wipe out cities.

Eva had been prepared to stay quiet until her mother stopped long enough for either Finn or her to get two words in. But then her brother had appeared, standing in front of Eva like a shield, and had defended her with every breath in his body. Magnus been the first to give a public statement about how he supported his sister and Finn, and he was the self-proclaimed buffer protecting her from the worst of their family’s opinions. Their relationship still had a little healing to do. But after that, it could no longer be called broken.

The press, ironically enough, had lavished nothing but praise on the young couple. Which was a welcome, if majorly unexpected, surprise.

Public sentiment was much the same, finding the harried and unpredictable nature of their early relationship and having a child before they were marriedmodern,not scandalous. Both their families had no choice but to stop their complaining about the lack of propriety and the insult to tradition. Especially when Eva had decided—in a sleep-deprived, hormone-driven, pregnancy-muddled train of thought, she was humble enough to admit—to take to social media and start communicating with the public directly instead of being subject to the whims of the press and paparazzi. The only person she’d asked for approval from was Finn, who had just shrugged and said he didn’t mind.

It had started off with just wanting another place to post her photography, an outlet while she continued reaching out to galleries and more official sorts of venues. She’d made an account, not under an alias but as herself, “princess” in the handle and everything. Then she started posting the landscapes she loved so much along with smaller, strange little portraits of their life within the palace and candid shots of Finn looking like a nineteen-forties movie star when she’d rendered them in black and white. It was a place for her to show her own life through her own lens, not the lenses of strangers trying to photograph her around street corners.

The account had exploded. The numbers had skyrocketed over what felt like overnight, especially so when she started talking openly about her pregnancy. Annoyed with the older royals telling her that talking publicly too much about pregnancy, especially the hard parts of it, was uncouth and not to be done, Eva had gotten fed up and decided to do just that.

She’d posted a self-portrait that she’d thought up at one in the morning when she was struggling to sleep, her reflection bouncing off of multiple mirrors, showing herself off in, quite frankly, not the most flattering way she could have. But it was how she really looked. Her clothes not fitting quite right, as she already needed to go up a size in maternity wear but hadn’t gotten around to purchasing new ones.

Thousands of people had followed from there, most of them young women, plenty of them mothers. All of them looked up to Eva as if she knew what she was doing. Or maybe they were looking up to her because she openly admitted that she had no earthly clue what she was doing.

Finn had found it hilarious. Eva’s entire goal in life had always been to avoid being a public figurehead in the traditional sense that she had been raised for. To be a reclusive artist and photographer away from all of that. And in the end, through her photography, she had become a leader and guide for all of these people, cementing herself as a princess for the people. He’d spent the following weeks laughing about it, much to Eva’s chagrin. She would never be able to live down the irony of it all.

Especially when the galleries and critics really started paying attention for the first time in her life. They’d seen her photos, her portfolio, unfolding in square after square on her account and had sat up and taken notice in a way they never had when she’d shown up in person and they recognized her face or name. The art world, finally, had to admit that she was good at what she did and wasn’t just resting on her laurels as a bored little princess taking happy snaps.

The whole thing had felt like a whirlwind, that dreamlike feeling never really leaving until the last weeks of Eva’s pregnancy when everything felt heavy, and she was more tired than she’d ever been in her life. That was when Finn took control, and she happily let him take charge.

They had holed up in his, well,theirquarters in the Eschenberg palace and banned almost everyone from entering. Finn cocooned her in there, safe and quiet and relaxed, and for the first time in a very long time, Eva felt immersed in reality and totally content with everything around her. She had gone entirely offline, leaving her unexpected but enjoyable job for self-enforced maternity leave. She would have turned off her phone altogether if not for talking to Abbie multiple times a day. Finn, too, was taking time away from being a working royal. His self-confidence had soared over the last few months to the point where, when he really put his foot down, no one bothered to argue with him.

That was how they’d spent the last month of the pregnancy. Together and alone in their rooms, staying still for the first time in forever and marveling at how deeply in love they had fallen without quite realizing it.

Now, in the cabin in the mountains, it still baffled Eva how they hadn’t quite realized until that moment how besotted they were with each other. No wonder the public could see it from a mile away. No wonder their families quickly dropped any arguments or complaints about them getting together after the whole messy story had come out instead of continuing to campaign for a more tasteful, reputation-upholding relationship. They could see it too. Finn, especially, was all too pleased to point out that it was what they had all wanted in the first place. He’d gotten very rebellious in the last year. Eva had been a bad influence, clearly.

Then Sofia had been born late one night in record time, and she had become the center of their world, with her pale hair and unexpectedly dark eyes, a throwback to previous generations.

Now sitting on the bed, Eva squashed the urge to play with her little feet, all tucked away in her onesie. She’d only wake her up. The temptation was strong though.

“Don’t play with her feet,” said Finn, coming back into the room, phone and car keys in hand. “It’s the only thing that wakes her up.”

“How did you know I wanted to?”

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