Bursting into the sitting room my mother favored for her afternoons when she wasn’t out at an engagement, I was thankful to find her at home.
Startled by my sudden entry into her private oasis, Mom stood at the sight of me bent over and breathing heavily as a result of both my panic and the sprint to find her. “Lucy! What’s happened?”
Closing my eyes, I took a few more ragged breaths to calm myself before facing my mother. Straightening, I collapsed onthe nearest chair before forcing out, “Preston. Apartment. Living together.”
“Oh, that.” Mom said it so casually, as if it were no big deal.
“Oh, that? That’s all you have to say about this? Living together, Mom! Think of what people will say!”
“Lucy, we live in a different world than the one in which I got married almost forty years ago. People live together before marriage all the time, and virgin brides are a thing of the past. You might as well take him for a test drive. Better to find out if you’re compatible now before it’s too late.”
Blinking rapidly, I gaped at my mother. Take him for a test drive? Who was this woman? Putting my tongue back inside my mouth, I scoffed. “I don’t need a test drive,Mother.I already know we aren’t compatible.”
She waved me off. “Preston had a very compelling point when we met with him yesterday. He said he hadn’t seen you in two weeks and that living together, you’d see each other daily. What better way to get to know each other than by spending time together? There’s no pressure from the press inside the palace walls, and you can be yourselves.”
“I’ve known him most of my life, and I already know I don’t like him.”
Mom assessed me with my arms crossed across my chest, practically pouting. “Lucy, no matter what you think, you can’t really know a person’s heart until you have those deep conversations. Everyone wears a mask in public. You, of all people, should know that. Get to know the person underneath. You might be surprised at what you discover.”
There was nothing to discover. I already knew Preston didn’t have a heart. He was the same jerk who pulled my pigtails when we were kids, only now he was bigger, with a larger arsenal of weapons trained to piss me off.
Accepting that I wouldn’t get the help I needed from her, I excused myself, on a mission to find the one person living here I knew would always have my back. Walking down the hallway of the residence wing, I stopped at the door opposite my apartment. Testing the knob, I sighed in relief that it wasn’t locked—a locked door to this apartment meant Amy and Liam were having “private time.” It was the middle of the afternoon, but they were still technically newlyweds, so nothing was off the table.
Letting myself into my brother and sister-in-law’s apartment, I prayed they were home. Luckily, I found them in their living room, working independently on their respective laptops.
“Amy!” I yelled, startling them both enough to look up at me.
Liam glared at me as I plopped onto the couch opposite them. The emotional ups and downs of the past half hour had exhausted me. “You can’t just barge in here anytime you want, LuLu,” he chastised.
That was it—the final straw. Shooting to my feet, I lunged at him, finger in his face for full effect as he held his ground. “Call me that one more time, and I swear to God, I’ll cut your tongue out of your mouth. You don’t want to fuck with me right now.”
Liam opened his mouth for a rebuttal when Amy cried out, “Wait a minute, I like his tongue!”
That took all the wind out of Liam’s sails, and his face turned red. “Amy!”
Unapologetically, she shrugged. “What? It’s true.”
Liam gestured to me. “You don’t need to tell my sister that!”
Taking advantage of his discomfort, wanting to get back at him, I patted his arm. “Don’t worry, big brother. Amy tells meeverything.”
Eyes bulging out of their sockets, he looked between us in disbelief. I may have been embellishing a little, but Amy merely shrugged, confirming I knew enough.
See? I told you she always had my back.
Liam groaned into his hands, realizing that his sex life wasn’t as private as he once thought, and I was satisfied that he would think twice before using my childhood nickname again.
Ignoring her uncomfortable husband, Amy walked me back to the couch, sitting beside me. “What’s going on, Lucy?”
Flailing my arms, I yelled, “He moved in!”
Amy’s brows drew down. “Who moved in?”
“Preston!”
Her green eyes grew large. “He moved in?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to say!”
