Chapter 187

NOLAN

It was still dark, a long ways till dawn, but Yena was awake and stirring at Nolan’s side. Usually she slept in when she could.

“Morning,” he said, stretching. “You’re up early.”

“Yeah.” She glanced at the electric rectangle of light that was the screen of her cell phone. “I told Evan I would meet up with him today. And I know you and I have that train to catch at noon, so I asked if he could meet me early at the bakery by our parents’ house, so I can get back in time.”

Nolan rolled onto his side, reaching out to stroke Yena’s thigh. He was not feeling wonderful about her rushing out of bed right now for the purpose of meeting up with Evan.

“What does Evan need to meet up with you for?”

“I don’t know. He sent me a weird text last night. Said he needs to talk to me about something in person.”

“Huh. Well, alright.” Nolan dared to slip his hand a little deeper down the inside of Yena’s thigh. Her body was still warm from having been under the covers with him all night. “Do you have to get up right this minute?”

“Hmm.” She put her hand on top of his, stroked her fingertips lightly between his knuckles. “Not really, but I do need to go soon, and I have a feeling if I stay here with you any longer, I’ll lose track of time.”

“That’s fair.” Nolan gave her thigh a little pat, giving up on the other idea. “I’ll get up with you. Start some work. I need to rehearse my speech for tonight.”

Yena showered quickly and dressed even faster. Dealing with her hair, which was extra tangled from last night’s frantic lovemaking, gave her some delay. Nolan, fresh out of a quick shower of his own, tucked a towel around his waist and paused his own routine to help her comb the tangles out.

Yena thanked him for this assistance sweetly, stood on her tip-toes to plant a fast little kiss on Nolan’s lips, and then rushed away with her hair still damp.

Nolan felt sure by now that Evan was not a threat to their marriage. Yena had spent weeks alone with her brother, and after that, she came back to Nolan; she had chosen the prince, definitively, over the rival.

But the surprise that Yena was running off to see her brother alone right now had given Nolan an unpleasant shock of jealousy, whether or not it made sense to his rational mind.

Continued thoughts about it were sticky and persistent, too, difficult to shake out of his mind and extremely distracting.

YENA

I rode to the bakery in the back of a limo, having gotten comfortable again going everywhere like that.

It seemed to amaze some passers-by who saw the car turning into the parking lot, though. And when I climbed out of the backseat with the help of the driver, they started whispering and pulled out their cell phones to take pictures. That, I never got used to.

Evan was already there inside the bakery, waiting for me. He got up to greet me.

“Hey, little sister.” He swept me into a big hug.

“Hey, big brother,” I echoed in the same sing-song way. “Missed you.” These words came out in reaction to the comfort of smelling Evan’s woodsy, citrusy scent for the first time in a while. I’d just gotten used to having him around recently. It was a nice feeling to see him again.

But he had some anxious energy about him this morning. I was well aware this was not just a social call. Quality family time was not urgent like this.

Evan insisted on buying a coffee for me so I let him, giving him my order and taking a seat at the table where he’d already taken up residence with his own hot beverage.

When he finally sat down, I asked him impatiently what was going on.

“Woof, okay, here we go.” He took a sip of his coffee first, though, delaying this thing to almost an extreme. “I was thinking about asking out your friend Lucy,” he finally confessed. “See, we been spending time together recently, and it’s not something I talked to her about yet, I just, uh, wanted to run it by you first.”

“Oh.” Though I had kind of seen this coming, I still needed a moment before I could really respond. I had to sip my coffee for a pause just like he’d done. “I was wondering when we would have this conversation, actually.”

The look on Evan’s face told me this surprised and for some reason also sort of upset him. “Really? Why?”

I shrugged. “I know you have been hanging out with her. You’re an attractive guy…” I said this as a statement of fact, because it was a fact, but found I had to move my eyes away from my brother’s gaze while I said it. “Lucy’s an attractive woman. I don’t know, I thought it might come up.”

“Huh.” Evan folded his arms over his chest. “So, I guess, what do you think? Would it bother you? Because I would never want to do something to upset you. I won’t do anything if you have any problem with it, I don’t want anything to be weird between the two of you, or with you and me…”

“I don’t have a problem with it,” I said quickly. It came out sounding kind of defensive, but I didn’t mean it that way. I was just trying to stop his painfully awkward rambling. “Have you really thought this through though, Evan?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know what Lucy’s last relationship was like, right?”

“Yeah, I know.” He shook his head, looking flushed with frustration immediately. “I know what he did to both of you, at least a little about it, what Lucy’s told me from her angle.”

“Adan hurt her really badly. I don’t want to see her get her heart broken again. Just, please… only do this if you are serious about it, Evan.”

“That makes sense,” he said quietly, pursing his lips and nodding. He looked out the big window at the sun rising over the university campus. And didn’t say anything else, not confirming his intentions either way. Maybe he needed to think it over some more.

I glanced at my watch. “I’m sorry to be so rushed about this, Evan, but I should be getting back. Nolan and I are traveling today. He’s doing a media tour and we’re going somewhere tonight for a town hall thing…”

Evan did not care to hear the details. “Yeah, of course,” he interrupted. “Thanks for meeting me, sis. I know you’re a busy lady. Appreciate you making the time.”

“Of course. And, um, thanks for… talking to me about this, before…” I ran out of words that weren’t unbearably cringey.

“Yeah, mm-hmm.” Evan was also apparently out of complete sentences to be spoken on the Lucy topic.

We shared a quick hug and I took my coffee to go. I got lost in thought in the limo and forgot the coffee existed till I was back at the palace and found it was cold.

I was not thrilled with Evan’s idea.

I knew he would never hurt Lucy on purpose. But there was something about the situation that made me feel like… well, for one thing, like maybe he was trying to distract himself now that I had left home again, and he was back there without me and bored and lonely.

It would not be my place to stand in the way if the two of them wanted to date. Regardless of whether or not I liked it. But I did not like it.

Maybe Lucy would just not be interested. That was a possibility.

Not a very likely one, though, if I was being honest with myself.