Every part of me wanted him to push me up against the wall and kiss me this way forever, but instead, he suddenly pulled away. My lips felt abandoned without him there. I had the strong desire to pull him back to me and kiss him again, but I resisted. There was no telling when Grandpa would come trouncing up those stairs, and I definitely didn’t want him to see August and me making out. A shock like that could’ve sent him straight to the hospital.
Staring hard at me, August’s chest rose and fell like he’d just run a marathon. There was something in his eyes. Something I couldn’t name. It almost looked like he was in pain. With his right hand, he reached out and softly drew the pad of his thumb across my lower lip.
“You’re worth it, Princess.”
Then he turned and marched down the stairs.
I was slightly in shock, standing there frozen in my open doorway. What had just happened? Obviously, I’d been wrong. August didn’t want to cut things off between us. Not unless I knew absolutely nothing about men. Did this mean we were a thing now? For real? I couldn’t be sure of anything at that point, other than the fact that I was one hundred percent sure I still wanted August.
I walked back into my room in a daze and lowered myself onto my bed, staring at the ceiling for a good ten minutes and gingerly touching my tingling lips before the doorbell rang.
I listened for the sound of footsteps, waiting for Grandpa or August to answer, but it didn’t come. Instead, the doorbell rang two more times. Pushing myself off my bed, I hurried downstairs to answer it. And when I opened the door, my whole body clenched with anger.
Greta Highlander stood there in a dress so red and tight that it hurt my eyes. Her matching lipstick was just as painful. She smirked at me and then shoved a letter into my hands.
“Here. You’re welcome.”
I stared blankly at it, wondering what could’ve brought Greta to my doorstep. Was she here to gloat? To rub in my face that she was better than any of the Thorpes? The thought made me rage in a way I hadn’t allowed myself to since getting the news of my rejection. How dare she show up here? This was my home. She didn’t belong here.
“Why can’t you just leave us alone?” I demanded, taking a step onto my porch. Part of me wished I had a broom handy so I could sweep her right off the edge. “I get that you didn’t like my mom, but why can’t you just leave that in the past? Why are you so petty that you have to punish an innocent kid for someone else’s mistakes? Are you really that shallow?”
Greta blinked hard, her self-congratulatory expression turning hard. “You know what? I didn’t come here for this. It wasn’t part of the deal.”
“Deal? What deal?”
She snarled and then pointed at the letter. “Your boyfriend. He made a little arrangement in exchange for that. Thanks to you, the Prince of Valta now represents Highlander Realty.”
The disgusting look of pride on her face nearly made me miss the words she’d just spoken. Had she just called August the Prince of Valta? How did she know that? Who told her?
Curiosity got the better of me, and I tore the envelope open. Inside was a simply printed letter with the NHS logo in the corner. My eyes scanned quickly over the text. It was my acceptance letter into the program. I was officially a National Honors Society member.
“How . . .?” I shook my head, trying to make sense of it all.
And then everything started to come together in my head. August had made a deal with Greta. A deal to get me into the club that I’d wanted to be in so badly that I’d sunk myself into misery. He’d given up his true identity. The moment the word got out, he’d be shipped back to Valta. No Sweet Mountain graduation. No gap year in Europe. No more fun. He’d given all that up for me.
“August?!”
I ran back inside and slammed the door shut on an offended-looking Greta. He had to be here, somewhere. I was going to find him and convince him to take back the deal. There was no way he could give up his plans for me. We’d find some way to make Greta keep his secret. There had to be a way. I wasn’t going to let it happen.
“August!”
I sprinted up the stairs and burst into his room, but he wasn’t there. Neither were his personal items. The bedsheets had been stripped and placed in the laundry. The closet was completely empty, save for that garish Gucci jacket I’d picked out of there on his first day of school. I plucked it from the hanger and hugged it tight to my chest, desperately trying to make sense of what was going on. Where was August?
There was a noise downstairs. Hope sprung alive inside my chest. Clutching tightly to the jacket, I bounded down the stairs and into the kitchen. Olive and Grandpa were just coming in through the sliding glass doors. They both wore garden gloves and had pruners in hand.
“Where’s August?” I slid to a stop on the wood floor and stared at them expectantly. Someone had to explain to me what was going on and quick.
Olive frowned and brushed a curl out of her face. “Honey, he’s gone.”
I didn’t understand what she was saying. How could he have been gone? I’d just seen him fifteen minutes ago.
Grandpa tugged his gloves off and set them on the countertop. He took a hesitant step toward me as if approaching a wild animal. “He wanted to leave before word got out about him, so he ordered a car to take him to the airport. Didn’t he say goodbye to you?”
Desperation washed over me. “No, he didn’t.”
Was that what that kiss had been? Goodbye? Now that I played it back in my head, it made more sense. He’d been kissing me goodbye. Telling me that sacrificing his last year of fun had been worth it for me. My heart pulsed with pain, and I had to lean on the counter for support. It wasn’t fair. I never would’ve allowed him to do this for me if I’d known.
Erin had been right. I’d been blind. Blind to the people in my life who loved me, supported me, and would sacrifice for me. Maybe I’d never win people over like Greta Highlander, but that didn’t matter. Not when I had people like my Gramps, Olive, Erin, and August. Or my other friends at school. They mattered. And so did I. Not some silly club. Not even the mother who’d left to live her own life. The here and now was what was important.
I was going to fix this.
“Gramps, can I borrow the keys to your truck?”
“The truck?” It took him a beat to get over his shock, but then his face lit up with a knowing smile. “Sure. I just filled up the tank this morning. You need us to come along?”
“No, I think I need to do this on my own.”
Olive grinned and then plucked Grandpa’s key off the hook on the wall and tossed them to me. “You got it, girl. Go find him!”
My heart rate was picking up with excitement. I snatched my purse from the living room and then turned back to them.
“Can you do me a favor while I’m gone? Can you get in touch with the King of Valta? I’m guessing he’ll have something to say about all of this.”
Grandpa nodded solemnly. “Absolutely.”
I knew he would, too. And with a wave goodbye, I ran out the front door and jumped into the pickup. Heaven help me; I was going to drive that thing like the wind.
And if the angels were on my side, I’d find August before he got on that plane.
15
August
The telltale clicking sound of a camera shutter next to me made me nearly jump out of my skin. I spun around to observe a mother taking a photograph of her two little kids with her phone, the camera shutter sound repeating as she told them to smile.
Slowly, my heart rate began to return to normal. I’d been hoping to catch a flight back to Valta before word leaked out about me, but knowing Greta Highlander, she most likely hadn’t kept that information under lock and key for very long. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d called the paparazzi herself the moment I left her office, just to get the buzz about me started before she announced our new business deal. A woman like that wouldn’t think twice about it.
Pulling the hood of my sweatshirt up, I turned
back around and continued waiting in line at the airport counter. The hour-long drive to the airport had been excruciating. Even more so when I saw Tori’s name flash on my phone. She’d called at least five times, which told me she’d discovered my empty room. I hoped the jacket I’d left behind would bring her some kind of comfort.
I’d knocked on her door this afternoon, fully intending to tell her the truth about my sudden exit, but one glance into her sad blue eyes and I just couldn’t bring myself to do that. Maybe I was a chicken, but I didn’t want to see her any sadder. She deserved to be happy. I hoped this deal would bring her a little bit of that in the end.
“Next, please,” a thin man with a blond goatee said as he waved me forward.
Lugging my cart of luggage forward, I leaned on the counter and pushed my credit card and passport toward him. “I need to fly to Valta as soon as possible. Any flight you have available, please, as long as it’s the fastest route.”
He plucked my card off the counter, stared suspiciously at it for a moment, and then began to clack away at his keyboard. It was a few moments before he spoke again.
“We’ve got a flight leaving Gate B in three hours,” he said in a droll voice. “There’s a layover in Charles de Gaulle Airport and then a direct flight to Valta.”
I sighed, not looking forward to a three-hour wait for my next flight. What if news got out by then? I’d surely be hounded the rest of the way home. All I really desired was a peaceful flight where I could dream of an alternate universe where I could’ve stayed in Sweet Mountain with Tori.
“Is there anything else available, perchance? Anything sooner?”
He frowned and then clicked on his keyboard again. His eyebrow rose, and he hit the spacebar. “There’s a flight leaving from Gate C in ten minutes. It stops in London Heathrow, and then there’s a connecting flight to Valta. It’ll get you there two hours faster, but your luggage may take a few more hours to connect.”
“I’ll take it!” I began piling my suitcases onto the scale in a haphazard fashion. I honestly didn’t care where my suitcases ended up, as long as I arrived home as soon as possible.
“You’ll have to hurry,” the man said as he scanned my credit card. “They won’t hold the plane for you.”
“It’s fine. I can run.”
He nodded and then handed me my things, along with a freshly printed ticket. I thought it would feel good to hold it in my hands, but all I felt was an overwhelming sense of moroseness. This was my ticket out of here and far away from the friends I’d made in Sweet Mountain. I’d most likely never see them again. It was too sad to bear.
Once the man had collected all of my bags, except for my small carry-on, I hurried in the direction of security. Thankfully, there seemed to be a lull in the rush. Only two people stood in front of me, waiting to be directed through the metal detectors. I tapped my toe impatiently as I waited. No way did I want to miss this flight.
My phone buzzed in my hand. I looked down to see Tori’s name once again flashing on the screen. A dart of pain went through my chest. Was she calling to stop me from leaving? Or calling to tell me off for being a total jerk and leaving without having the gall to properly say goodbye? Either way, I couldn’t stomach answering it. I slipped it in my pocket, determined to wait until I got to Valta to try and call her back.
Under no circumstances was I foolish enough to think that I could continue a relationship with Tori on the other side of the world. It just wasn’t going to happen. This was goodbye. The best I could hope for was that she wouldn’t hate me in the end.
It was nearly my turn to go through security. I began to unload my pockets into the trays on the scanning belt. A cell phone, a wallet, a set of ear buds, and a picture of Tori that I’d stolen from Richard’s fridge. Part of me felt terrible for nicking it, but it had been an impulse move on my way out of the house. She’d looked so happy in it. A wide smile stretched across her face as she held out a potted plant toward the person holding the camera. I wanted to remember that side of Tori. The girl who’d kissed me and then beat me off the rocks into the freezing cold water.
As I was working on untying my shoes, I thought I heard my name being called down the hall. At first, I shook it off. It was that same kind of paranoid thinking that had me nearly passing out in line, thinking I’d heard a camera click in my direction. But then, I heard my name again, and my heart sank.
They were here.
There was no beating it.
“August! Wait!”
My stomach clenched with anticipation. This time, the voice had sparked recognition inside my brain. Could it really be her? I abandoned my efforts with my shoelaces and shot straight up, my gaze searching the airport hallway behind me. Sure enough, the owner of that voice was running toward me with her cellphone clutched tightly in her hand, her dark hair flowing out behind her like Aphrodite approaching on a cloud. I lost sensation in every extraneous limb, my body going numb.
“Princess?” I pulled down my hood and stared in disbelief at her. “What are you doing here?”
“You can’t get on that plane,” she said loudly.
She came to a sliding halt in front of me and pressed a hand to her chest, her breathing rapid. Her eyes were wild and bright. A strand of hair had been caught in her mouth. I wanted nothing more than to reach out and gently tuck it behind her ear, but I knew myself. I was too weak of a man to just keep it at that. We’d already had our goodbye. So, I kept my hands firmly to my side. She wiped the hair away and then took another step toward me.
“I know what you did, August, but you can’t leave. Not yet. Your time isn’t up.”
I looked up at one of the massive clocks hanging on the airport wall. Tori was wrong. My time was nearly up. I only had eight more minutes until my flight departed.
“I can’t stay here,” I said, shaking my head. “I have to leave before the news gets out about me. You know Greta Highlander won’t wait a second before she’s spreading it all over Sweet Mountain. We made a deal.”
“That’s the thing. The deal’s changed.”
“Wait—what?”
She didn’t know what she was talking about. I’d signed a contract. I’d made a deal. There was no changing that.
Tori held up her phone to me, urgency sparking in her eyes. “Here, talk to him, and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.”
Curiously, I took the phone from her hand. Nothing she had said made sense to me, but I pressed it to my ear. “Hello?”
“Seems like someone owes me a jaguar, fully loaded.” Henry’s voice came through the speaker, and I nearly laughed.
“And I fully intend to pay up on that bet when I arrive home, brother.”
“Well, let’s not rush ourselves,” he said. “I think you still have some time left in Sweet Mountain to sow your wild oats, or whatever it is American teenagers do. Isn’t that right, Father?”
“Augustus, I expect you to turn around now and go back to your host family.” Father’s voice was gruff and sounded far away, as if he were standing on the other side of the room from the speaker. “That’s an order from your king.”
I ran a hand over my head and bared my teeth. “You don’t understand. I can’t go back. I made a deal with a woman in town to sponsor her business as the Prince of Valta. My identity is no longer secret. I’ve broken your rules. I have to come home now.”
Father grunted loudly. “And I’ve been told you made that deal for a young woman’s benefit.”
“Yes. Yes, I did.”
I looked up at Tori’s face. She was watching me closely with hope and expectation written all over her face. I wanted to pull her into my arms and never let go. Just a minute ago I’d thought I might never get to see her again. Fate had given me one last moment together.
“Son, I’m proud of you.”
My hands trembled slightly as my father’s words reverberated inside my head. Had I . . . had I heard him correctly? He was proud of me? I’d thought for sure that he’d be an
gry I’d given up my identity.
“You are?” I swallowed down the lump in my throat. “You’re not angry with me?”
“You’ve learned to put another’s interest before yours,” he said in a gravelly voice. “That is the greatest quality a leader can have. My most insipid fear was that I wouldn’t impart that lesson to you before my disease took me from this earth. That I would fail you as a father. Instead, you have made me proud, Augustus. More than I can say.”
“Thank you, Father.”
I hated the fact that my eyes had grown watery in front of Tori. It wasn’t the manly image I hoped to portray in front of her. Still, when she reached for my hand and gently squeezed it, I knew it didn’t matter. What mattered was my father’s words. I hadn’t realized how much I’d wanted to make him proud. How much I needed that.
“As it just so happens,” Henry said, jumping back on the line, “we spoke to a Ms. Greta Highlander on your behalf and have reminded her that you are underage. Thus, unable to legally sign a contract and fulfill its terms and conditions.”
I inhaled sharply. If there was no contract, then Tori wouldn’t get into her club. And everything I’d done would’ve been for nothing. However, Henry didn’t seem to pick up on my worry.
“We renegotiated the terms of your little deal,” he continued to the sound of shuffling paper in the background. “Ms. Highlander will keep your identity a secret, and Ms. Thorpe will be a rightful member of the National Honors Society. In exchange, we shall refrain from notifying the city council of Ms. Highlander’s deplorable behavior toward an innocent child of Sweet Mountain.”
Righteous laughter peeled from my lips. “I’m quite sure she fought you on that.”
My Royally Cute Enemy: A YA Sweet Romance (Sweet Mountain High, Year 2: A Sweet YA Romance Series Book 3) Page 12
