Yena dove into her bed, landing in the middle of all the new, big fluffy pillows and laughing.

“It’s weird,” she said. “Everything’s so different now. It feels really good to be back here though, that’s for sure.”

She grabbed a pink velvet pillow and held it to her chest. Then looked at Evan and smiled.

“You’re different, too,” she said. “Like you finally grew up or something.”

Evan shrugged. “Guess it had to happen at some point, right?”

She giggled.

He had a vision of diving onto the bed on top of her, pinning her down, and kissing her.

Yena raised an eyebrow at him and asked, “What?”

“Nothing.” Evan shook his head. “I guess I was thinking that you… you really grew up, yourself.”

Yena looked up at the ceiling and sighed.

Suddenly she started looking very sad.

Evan’s mind was still running through the vision where he was lying on top of her in the bed. Now he was thinking about putting his hands on her thighs, running them up underneath that pretty, silky dress she was wearing.

Yena sat up and changed the subject.

“So we’re going running in the morning, right?”

Evan smiled. “Sure, if you’re up for it. You don’t think you’ll wanna sleep in after today?”

“I don’t know, I’m already feeling antsy,” she said.

She walked over to the corner of her room where her boxes and bags were piled neatly, and she bent over to pick something up.

Evan had to look away.

“I just remembered that I gotta go do something,” he said suddenly. “I’ll see you downstairs in a few.”

Then he rushed away, closing Yena’s bedroom door behind him.

Yes, he might be getting a second chance to go after Yena…

But it was much too soon. She had only left Nolan earlier today. The prince’s smell was still on her, inside of her.

Evan’s thoughts pulled back to the image of her lying in her bed, though. Her body was sexier than he’d ever seen it before. She looked fit, like she’d been training.

Evan started pacing his small bedroom, just walking up and down the length of it. He’d started getting turned on. He needed to get a grip before heading down to dinner with Yena and their parents.

He heard her open her bedroom door, and then her footsteps on the stairs as she went down.

In the bathroom, Evan ran the cold water and threw some on his face.

“You can do this,” he said quietly to his reflection in the mirror. “Just be cool.”

It was something an old football coach taught him to do. Look yourself in the eye and give a quick pep talk. He got his hands wet and used his fingers to comb his long hair back, trying to make it look at least a little bit tidy.

And then he was heading back downstairs, where he found Tina, Peter, and Yena were already seated at the dinner table, filling their plates, and laughing together.

Yena caught Evan’s eye as he descended the stairs, and she gave him a sweet little smile.

His foot almost missed the bottom stair, but he caught himself just in time, before he wouldn’t totally eaten it and fallen to the floor.

So much for being cool.

NOLAN

Nolan kept himself busy with work until it was very late. He realized he had been putting off returning to the bedroom now that Yena was gone.

But sleep was calling to him and he was not going to spend another night in his office. That was for sure. His neck was still aching from the night before.

Finally, he made his way across the palace, to what used to be his and Yena’s suite.

It was just his again, now…

But when he walked through the doors, he realized she was not entirely gone.

Her smell was still everywhere.

Nolan started wandering around the room, missing her. Thinking about how everything in here had been touched by her at some point.

And she’d left so much of her stuff behind.

Nolan remembered his one visit to Tina’s house. It was small, so it made sense that Yena couldn’t pack up all the things she had here.

But he was still a little surprised when went into her closet. It looked untouched… like she had not taken anything from here at all.

And right there on her dressing table was the box he’d given her the gold necklace in.

He went over and opened it up, and sure enough, the necklace was inside.

That hurt him.

He thought that Yena loved this necklace. And it’s not like it was a big thing she couldn’t take with her. She could’ve even just kept it around her neck.

But she left it behind, like it meant nothing to her.

All the dresses and lingerie he’d given her… those were all still here, too.

Looking around at everything, it almost felt like Yena might have just stepped next door to her studio and was coming right back.

But she wasn’t.

Nolan climbed up into Yena’s side of their bed. The sheets hadn’t been changed today, and they smelled like her. Nolan put his head on the pillow that she’d last slept on and drifted off almost immediately, breathing in all that was left of her here.

EVAN

Tina was stroking Yena’s long blonde curls and saying, “You just look so beautiful!”

“Stop,” Yena said, blushing and batting Tina’s hand away gently.

Peter nodded, chewing and swallowing a big bite of steak.

“You really do look so grown up, sweetheart,” he said. “And absolutely gorgeous. Where did my sweet little girl go?”

Evan took a seat and started helping himself to the feast.

“Just beautiful,” Tina kept saying, looking at Yena with a look of pure admiration. Now that Evan was here, she finally sat down too.

“Please, stop it,” Yena said, smiling but using a kind of stern and confident-sounding tone.

“Evan, doesn’t your sister look beautiful?” Tina asked, ignoring Yena’s protests.

He nodded and filled his mouth with a big bite of potatoes, and muttered, “Mm-hmm.”

“And everything you’ve done, sweetie,” Tina went on. “It’s very impressive. I still can’t believe we’re all used to seeing you on the news all the time recently.”

Yena winced, like she didn’t want to be reminded of that.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Tina whispered, understanding. She covered Yena’s hand with her own and gave it a squeeze.

“It’s okay,” Yena said. “I just don’t think the stuff on the news is really flattering, for either me or…”

Nolan. That was the end of the sentence. Evan stuffed some more food in his mouth, trying to keep himself from saying something petty about hating that asshole.

“No, honey,” Tina said. “Honestly, I don’t blame you if you don’t look at the news a lot, but so much of it really is positive about you.”

Yena gave her a doubtful look and shrugged.

“Whatever,” she mumbled. “But enough about me, anyway. Tell me everything that I’ve missed since I’ve been gone.”

“There’s not much to tell,” Tina answered. “This is the most exciting thing that’s happened for any of us since you’ve been gone!”

Yena caught Evan’s eye, and he saw she was trying to communicate something to him. She glanced sideways at Tina, then looked back to Evan, and finally rolled her eyes dramatically. It was a cry for help, to change the topic.