Stella shook her head. “I picked this one for me—so I’d feel confident, but now I’m afraid it will just draw attention to me when I can’t keep it together out there.”
Kate’s frown morphed into understanding. “Well, if even some small part of you picked this to impress someone else, I think it’s safe to say they will regret walking away from you.”
Tears pricked at Stella’s eyes. “He didn’t. I walked away from him.”
“What? Why?” Kate stared at her in shocked disbelief.
“Because when I finally stopped thinking about what ‘we’ wanted, I had a chance to think about whatIwant, and I don’t want to be queen.”
“But you love him.”
The lump in Stella’s throat was so large that she feared she would choke. “But I love him. He’s ridiculous and uptight, but I love him.”
“So you’re drinking to?—”
“Numb out the fact that I’m going to be attached to him for life.”
Kate’s eyes went comically wide. “We don’t know that. The gods might grant no favors—and are you so sure Teddy won’t ask for it to be broken if he is granted a favor?”
Stella took a sip of whiskey and shook her head. She looked out the sitting room window at the roses in the queen’s garden. Daylight was fading into the golden light of late afternoon, which made the garden look even more whimsical than usual.
“No. He’s going to ask for a blessing for him to choose his own wife instead of having a politically advantageous one chosen for him.”
“So, you?”
Stella shook her head. “I already told you I don’t want to be queen.”
“He’s gorgeous and in love with you, and from how loose your hips looked in that challenge yesterday, he knows what he’s doing in bed?—”
Stella scoffed. “You can’t possibly have read that from watching that challenge. It was chaos.”
Kate arched a brow. “So he is good? I knew it! No one is that hot and repressed without being wild in the bedroom.”
Stella’s cheeks burned as her friend eyed her.
“Well?” Kate prodded.
Stella looked away. “Yes, he knows what he’s doing.”
“I knew it!” Kate screeched.
Stella clapped a hand over her friend’s mouth. “Keep your voice down, pervert.”
“Say more and I will.”
“He really knows what he’s doing. I couldn’t walk for a full ten minutes afterward and if you breathe a word of that to anyone, I will set your brother up with Colleen Ruby.”
Kate froze. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Wouldn’t I?”
“You wouldn’t curse me with the chattiest sister-in-law in all of Olney.”
Stella clasped Kate’s hand. “Try me.”
Kate stared her down for a full minute before she blew out an exasperated sigh. “Fine. You are no fun at all. I can’t believe you tumbled that broody prince, and you won’t even share the details. Honestly, it’s selfish.”
Stella was so relieved to have their old dynamic back. She dragged Kate into a hug. “I should have listened to you about Arden. I know you were right, but I wasn’t ready to see it and I needed to get there on my own.”
