by Lynn Stevens
“Ornaments?”
“There’s a craft fair this weekend. People love Christmas. And it’s only a couple of months away. If these sell well there, I’ll put them in my online shop.” She paused. “I love the sound of that. My online shop. I’m a real entrepreneur. Love you.”
After she hung up, I sat on my bed. That conversation didn’t go how I thought it would. I expected tears, laments of disappointment, and demands to come home. Grandma never ceased to surprise me.
I shot a quick text off to Quinn. I need boxes.
Because? he replied.
I’ve been asked to leave campus. It still didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would. I kept waiting for this wash of grief to overtake me.
Where will you go? Home? he asked with a sad face emoji.
Wanna help me look for an apartment? I added a smiley emoji.
My phone rang, making me jump. “Hey,” I answered.
“You’re seriously staying?” Quinn asked, his voice a little breathless, like he’d been running.
“Yeah. I mean, I have a job starting Monday.” A knock sounded at the door. I walked toward the living area and put my hand on the knob. “Why wouldn’t I stay?”
He didn’t reply.
“Hold on,” I said, unsure if I shouldn’t just go home. This wasn’t the reaction I expected from him. I pulled open the door.
Quinn stepped inside, pulling me against his chest and kissing me. I melted against him. My heart slammed against my ribcage. Quinn’s arms tightened around me as he lifted me an inch off the floor. Then he set me down and broke our connection.
“I can get all the boxes you need,” he said, kissing the tip of my nose.
“Okay.” I was a little breathless. Shaking my head to clear the intense daze that had overtaken me, I added, “I’ll start looking for an apartment tonight. Or a roommate. I might have to get a second job to have my own place.”
“We’ll figure it out. I’m sure there are some grad students, who live off campus, looking for a roommate.” He smiled, and I reached up and ran my fingers down his scar. He was so beautiful. “What?”
“I just…” love you. That wasn’t right. I cared deeply about him, but did I love him already? Maybe, it was too soon. “I just want to be here. With you.”
Quinn smiled and picked me up, flinging me over his shoulder. “Good, because I need to be with you right now.”
I giggled at his meaning and slapped his butt hard as he carried me to my room. He didn’t know it yet, but I needed him too. In more ways than one.
Chapter Nineteen
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” I asked Delilah as she fitted me into my dress for the ball. She’d already done my hair and makeup. “Expelled means get out, not come to our biggest party of the year.”
She poked me in the side. “I didn’t go all out to make this for you for no reason. So, yes, you’re my plus one. Besides, I doubt Dean Franks will be there now.” A hint of disappointment filled her voice. Dean Franks’s wife wouldn’t be there either, and Delilah had worked hard on her ballgown. “What’re they gonna do? Kick you out? They’ve already done that.”
“True, but it seems like I’m rubbing it in their faces.” I shifted uncomfortably as she made the final adjustments. “And I wanted to spend the night with Quinn.”
Delilah snorted. “You spent last night with him.”
A smile widened across my face. We’d made love and searched for apartments. With Quinn’s help, we found a desperate grad student who needed someone to move in asap. The place was only three blocks from the Leader Gazette. I was meeting her on Sunday, hopefully moving in on Monday. The school had sent me a notice that I was to be off campus by Monday night at the latest. If the grad student was a bust, Quinn and I formulated a backup plan. Father Rossi’s sister had a large house. She’d probably let me stay there until I found an apartment. Quinn just needed to convince her.
He was very convincing.
“Okay, you can look now,” she said as she stepped back. I stared at my best friend for a moment. Her hair was pulled back into a sleek ponytail and her eyes lined with dark gray. Delilah was beautiful and strong. I hoped to be more like her one day.
I turned toward the mirror and had to put my hand out to keep from falling over. The reflection didn’t look like me. My brown hair was swept to the side in a bun that hung just beneath my ear. The makeup was subtle, but my brown eyes glowed a golden hue. Even my lips looked different with the pale pink stain shining over them. But the dress, the dress made the world stop. The pale green satin hugged my torso and hips, flaring out slightly at my thighs. A long slit stopped just before it became inappropriate on the left side. The bodice was snug and pushed my boobs up in the princess neckline, giving them more cleavage than on an average day. The effect was perfect. Just as Delilah knew it would be.
“You like?” she asked with a nervous twitch in her voice.
“I love,” I said, turning with surprising ease to face her. “You’re an amazing designer.”
Delilah giggled then ran out of the room. I met her in the living area a few moments later. Her gown was gray to match her eyes, but it was by no means dull. She looked like she’d just stepped out of a Jane Austen novel.
“Ready?” she asked, tugging the sheer shawl over her shoulders.
“Let’s go.” I picked up a gold clutch and followed her out the door.
We walked together, arm in arm, giggling like we had no problems in the world. In this moment, we didn’t. I was going to miss her so much It wasn’t that we’d lose touch, but we’d been roommates for two years. I knew her quirks. She knew mine. And it worked. I tried not to think about it. Instead, I acted as if nothing was different, even though everything was. I could tell she was thinking the same thing.
“Promise me we’ll stay friends,” she said, her voice choking on her words. “People say that all the time, but they rarely do. Promise me we’ll always be friends.”
I took her hands and squeezed. “I promise.”
“Good,” she smiled and nodded to her left. “Now go meet your prince.”
I turned toward the entrance. Quinn stood in his dress blues, staring at us. He lifted his hand in a small wave.
“He was nervous about coming,” Delilah said. “But I told him you loved the ball. And I also told him you’d enjoy it more with him than with me.”
“He looks uncomfortable,” I said, watching as he closed his eyes when someone bumped into him. “Like he’s about to lose control.”
“He’ll be fine,” she said like Quinn’s reaction to the crowd was normal. “Just get him inside.”
I nodded and hugged her. Quinn’s tension was visible as I approached him. He relaxed a little when I stopped in front of him. I reached for his hand.
“Are you my prince charming tonight?” I asked with a grin.
“You know I’m no prince charming.” Someone brushed against him. “I’m more like Quasimodo, remember?”
I snorted. “Quasimodo should’ve gotten the girl. He deserved love, too.” I lifted on my toes and pressed a quick kiss on his lips. “I’ve read the book, you know.”
“And he ends up alone.”
“I’m changing the ending.” I kissed him again. “You ready?”
He tucked my arm in his and led us inside. The ballroom was beautiful. The decorating committee went above and beyond with a mixture of silver and gold. It was glittery, but they didn’t make it gaudy. Most of the school was already there, filling the tables and aisles as they chatted. I realized I didn’t know a lot of people at Camelot. Just those in dance and Delilah. My circle was small, mainly because I kept it that way. Colin’s circle, they didn’t really count. I knew of them more than actually knew them. And I never really knew Colin at all.
We walked down the steps, arm in arm. Quinn’s tension rolled off him. The music started, a traditional first dance waltz led by the dean and his wife. As Delilah predicted, they weren’t there. My article had come out th
at morning. The evidence it presented was damning. I doubted he would have a job for much longer. Dean Stubbins and her husband did the honors in his place.
Quinn’s body tightened the farther into the crowd we went. Finally, I saw a somewhat quiet spot in the corner. I led him there, putting my hands on each side of his face to calm him down.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I don’t do well in crowds,” he said through gritted teeth. “My PTSD is manageable most of the time, but …”
I understood where he was going. This wasn’t good for him. And I didn’t want to be here anymore either. I never belonged at Camelot. I belonged outside the world of fairytale endings. College felt like a fairytale. Most of them had dark beginnings, and even darker endings. But the surface showed only perfection. I wanted to expose the perfection for what it was.
“Let’s go,” I said against his lips.
“But Delilah –”
“Will understand. Let’s go somewhere else, anywhere else.” I lifted on my toes and stared into his eyes. “I don’t need this to be happy, Quinn. I just need you.”
He took my hand and rushed us out of the ball. Once he was outside, he stopped and inhaled the jasmine scented air. He stared at the sky, his hands on his hips, until he began to relax. Then he glanced down at me.
“This is always going to be a problem for me,” he said with a frown. “It’s not as bad as it used to be, and it’s not as bad as some of the men at the shelter. But there will be times I need to get away from everything. And everyone. Can you handle that?”
I stepped closer to him. “As long as we communicate, we can handle anything.”
Quinn smiled, but it disappeared as fast as it appeared when a voice called my name.
“Miss Paquette, a word,” Dean Stubbins said behind me.
I closed my eyes before turning to face her. Quinn stuck to my side, his arm around my waist.
“Alone,” Dean Stubbins said, her gaze cutting through Quinn.
“Anything you say to me, you can say to him,” I said. “What can I do for you?”
She closed her eyes. “In the interest of full disclosure, I wanted to tell you how you totally screwed everything up.”
I raised my eyebrows, but I couldn’t even come up with a smartass reply.
“What do you mean?” Quinn asked. His fingers dug deliciously into my hip.
She glanced at him then back to me. “Director Shepherd had only scratched the surface. He was digging for more. into all the teams to find out how deep this went. The lacrosse team would be exposed soon enough. The rest of the teams, well, the investigation is underway, even though this appears to be localized to the lacrosse team alone, We still have to do our due diligence. We had a plan. We had it under control.”
“Not my problem. If you knew, you should’ve done something.”
“We were doing something,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Keep telling yourself that,” I said, my anger rising to the surface. “Then think about all the students who worked their asses off to get here, and remind yourself how you really did nothing.”
I turned on my heel and stormed away. The shoes hurt my feet, so I stopped to take them off. I hated heels. Quinn caught up with me. He didn’t say anything as I fumed. He just steered me in the direction he wanted to go. I hoped it was to his place. Some angry sex would sooth my troubled soul right about now.
We stopped on the side of the church. Quinn took out a set of keys and unlocked a door. He led me inside, closing and locking it behind us. I opened my mouth to ask him where we were going, but I thought better of it. He had a plan. I just needed to follow along. Maybe he intended to go to confession. That would be awkward.
I followed him up the never-ending staircase. Even as I worked out where we were heading, I didn’t say a word. Quinn was still coming down from his anxiety, and I was still fuming over Dean Stubbins. I knew those jerks were aware of it all.
He climbed up a short ladder, pushing a trapdoor open. I followed and emerged in one of the two bell towers. There was no bell, just four speakers facing each direction. My breath hitched in my throat. The city laid out before us, sparkling like rare gems. The spotlights from the ball illuminated the sky as they crossed over each other. In the distance, the moon glanced off the ocean. The smell of salt licked the wind, hinting at what lies in that direction. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
“I come up here when it gets to be too much down there,” Quinn said softly. He leaned against the low wall, his hands clasped in front of him. “It’s peaceful.”
I put my hand on his shoulder. “Thank you for sharing it with me.”
“Only you,” he said. He straightened up and pulled me toward him with one hand in mine and the other on my waist. Then he hummed a song, and we waltzed around the bell tower. “You should always dance.”
“Only with you,” I said.
We continued to dance to his surprisingly perfect tone. In that moment, I knew Quinn was my endgame. I knew we have some uphill battles and some perfect moments. Life isn’t about the future. It’s about the now.
And our now looked pretty amazing.
The End
Read the next book in the series! Bookish Princess
Modern Princess Collection
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Ꮇσԃɛʀռ ᎮᏒᎥɳƈɛss ƈօʅʅɛƈƚισɳ
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ᴏɴᴄᴇ ᴜᴘᴏɴ ᴀ ᴋɪss, ᴀ ᴍᴏᴅᴇʀɴ ʀᴏᴍᴀɴᴄᴇ ʙᴇᴄᴏᴍᴇs ᴀ ꜰᴀɪʀʏᴛᴀʟᴇ.
Blurb.
The prestigious ᴄᴀᴍᴇʟᴏᴛ ᴜɴɪᴠᴇʀSɪᴛʏ comes fully equipped with elitist guys, a castle, and a Glass Ball, but these self-proclaimed princesses don’t need crowns to prove their worth. They’ve taken love and life into their own hands and written their own fairytale.
The ladies of Cam U are a dangerous combination of cute and badass, full of attitude and imperfections, and coming of age secrets. Follow seven of your favorite fairytale heroines as they find their happily ever after, in these standalone, contemporary romance novels.
T̳h̳e̳ ̳C̳o̳l̳l̳e̳c̳t̳i̳o̳n̳ ̳i̳n̳c̳l̳u̳d̳e̳s̳:̳
