Even when she should have offered him anything to stay. Even for just a little bit longer. What could they have done with just a little bit more time?
“Highness?”
She tugged her head up and glanced dutifully out of the town car’s window. “Yes,” she chimed. “Hello. Hi. I am here!”
Requiemme chuckled, despite having been on her third or fourth repetition of the hail. “Are you certain?”
“Yes.” She tried not to be snappy about it. “Of course. Honestly. I promise.”
She meant it. She had to. After all, if she had to stuff Brickham away for a while, one of the best distractions was getting to return to some princess duties. The medical team had not cleared her for distance travel or even full days yet, which meant sticking close to home and assisting Evrest with ceremonial and community events. Not usually the most glamorous assignments on the roster, but there were only so many books, phone games, and palais redecorating projects she could tolerate. This way, she was out in the sunshine and doing worthy work for her people.
“All right, then.” Emme extended a tube of lipstick and a small powder compact. While Jayd polished off appearances with the help of the pull-down makeup mirror, her maid added, “I see that the energy nectar has definitely kicked in.”
Jayd giggled. “You think?” She stole another glance outside, at the well-kept street in a higher-end section of Sancti. “Well. Ending the schedule with some swanky flair, hmm?”
“’Twould seem so,” Emme supplied.
“So what do we have?” she asked. “School appearance, perhaps? Please tell me it is not a culinary academy.”
“Thank the Creator, no.” This time, the woman’s laugh was strained. They had taste-tested some stew creations at a cooking school last week and both ended up flat on their backs for a day. Later, they learned a student had confused regular milk with expired buttermilk. “This is a preopening tour of a new business. A newcomer to Sancti, trying something new.”
“A preopening tour?” She scowled. “Of something new how? And why on earth are you smirking like that?”
“Do I have to have a reason to smile?”
“I said smirk, not smile. Emme—”
“Ah. Here already!” As soon as the driver swung open the door, her friend waved with fluttery fingertips. “Have a wonderful time.”
“Wait.” Jayd ducked her head back into the car. “You are not coming along?”
“Fairly certain I will not be needed.”
Her maid waved again, though this time at a spot past Jayd’s shoulder. When she followed that visual cue, it was to collide her stare with a pair of the most welcome faces in her world.
“Well, I do declare!” she joked, spinning and rushing to where the two men stood. “Jagger Fox and Ozias Demos. Trouble has come to the neighborhood!” She exclaimed most of that into the solid expanses of their shoulders during their exchanges of tight, happy hugs. “I thought you two were on some kind of spirit quest in the outback. Though you were not truly fooling anyone with all that, you know. Kinky fuckery by any other name…”
“Ahhh.” Oz stepped back with a hand over his heart. “That’s it, Jag. Our jig is up.”
Jagger stepped over and sidled next to his man, tucking his head along Oz’s shoulder. “To be honest, I never thought it would last this long.” He winked at Jayd. “You must be staying very busy.”
“As much as I possibly can.”
She fought her damndest to match his buoyant tone, but the guy was still one of her closest friends. Why pretend to be intrinsically happy when she was truly not? Oh, yes, contentment was usually attainable—but soul-deep happiness? Not yet. Not when she still ached this much for a man who was so many miles away. For a dynamic she could not imagine having with anyone else…
“So, I guess you two are staying busy too?”
“As much as we possibly can.”
While Oz accented his innuendo with dancing eyebrows, Jagger added, “Between the busy, we have been spending a lot of time right here.”
“Here?” That was curious enough to pull her giggles short and tug her stare higher. “Doing what?”
Oz deferred his new grin to Jag—who deferred his right over to her. His expression seemed to take on a strange shroud as he finally declared, “Helping to build a dream.”
“A…dream?”
What if someone doesn’t want the dream to be over?
She ordered the words away from her mind and their impact out of her heart. Not everything in her world had to keep reminding her of Brickham. One day, hopefully soon, that would be an easier deletion to make. For now, she concentrated on the new surge of happiness that dawned in her heart.
“Jag…Oz…are you the new proprietors setting up shop over here?”
She openly admired the building behind them, which was a newer build in Sancti. There were three floors total, each with a dedicated stairwell entrance from the main door. A glass elevator tube went up one side of the building too. Every floor had lovely stained-glass insets, leading her eye to a cascading water feature that angled down from floor to floor. At the bottom, the flumes emptied into a diamond-shaped reflecting pool that was surrounded by benches beneath manzanita trees.
“It is a stunning venue,” she marveled. “How wonderful for you two! I should have been faster on the uptake when Emme flashed the Cheshire Cat leer and then said I was meeting with a new resident in Sancti. I just never imagined it would be—”
“Okay, damn. Hold up that furphy-mobile, little Sheila.” Oz grinned. “We’re not the droids—or the proprietors—you’re looking for. Though I must admit, Sancti’s growing on me more by the day…”
He trailed off into a series of mushy kisses with Jag that had Jayd wondering whether to applaud or groan.
She eschewed both to simply ask, “So can you lovebirds just give me an idea of what floor to head for, lüt vous plait?”
Since Ozias now cinched his boyfriend by the nape, he used his free hand to hold up three fingers. With a husky laugh, Jag broke free long enough to reiterate it. “Up on floor three, Ripley.”
The nickname had her smile stretching even wider. “Merderim, trusty partner in crime.”
“Ohhh, no,” Jagger volleyed. “Tonight, you get to have all the violations.”
Oz snickered. “Lucky girl.”
“Huh?” She gave it twice the thrust of the first time.
“Would you just get your sassy arse up those stairs?” Oz quipped. “He’s been waiting too long.”
“He who?” she asked.
“And our little princess is looking ever so cute.” Jagger gave her a sultry once-over as Oz snuggled into his neck. “So Marian Librarian in that swing skirt. But he will love those Mary Jane heels most of all.”
“He who?”
But by the time she burst it as an outright demand, her friends were wrapped up in each other once more. For a second, Jayd was just wistfully mesmerized—until an unsettling force took over her senses.
She glanced up and then around. Was it dejá vu? Perhaps, but not likely. She had definitely never been to this part of Sancti before. But the feeling continued, now tied into more organic sensations. She studied the sky, wondering if a sudden storm was about to hit. Not a single cloud lingered in the thickening lavender of twilight. The trees barely moved.