Chapter Sixteen #2
“I should talk to Emily about that…” I examined the food court, mentally assessing where I would put a fruit cart. You know, if I were staying and helping shape the future of the Willow Creek Renaissance Faire. I kept forgetting that I wasn’t.
As I looked around I caught sight of Toby. As we locked eyes, he tapped his wrist. Shit. I’d totally lost track of time. I needed to get Lulu back out there.
As though reading my mind, Alex said, “I need to get over to the chess field. Time for the afternoon show.” He offered me the last fry, and I ate it from his hand.
“See you over there?”
He nodded. “And maybe later? Tonight? We could grab dinner or something?”
“I’d like that.” I could practically feel my eyes dancing as I looked up at him.
I liked this. Easy conversation between us, sharing some food…
this had practically been a date, right here at the Faire together.
And now we were planning another one. It all felt so normal, like something regular couples did. It felt…real.
Alex stepped closer, one hand threading through my hair to grip the back of my head. His mouth tasted like salt and heat, and I kissed him as though I couldn’t get enough. And from the way his tongue tangled with mine, slow and lingering, he couldn’t get enough, either.
“Nice,” Toby said as I rejoined him.
“Oh, shush.” But I couldn’t keep the grin from my face. I was breathless as we headed down the hill to get Lulu. My turn for some water.
—
Sunday morning, there was another rose waiting for me.
“Is this becoming a thing?” Toby asked with a knowing smile as Nina handed me the rose.
“Someone’s got a secret admirer,” Nina said in a singsong voice.
Toby shook his head as he laced up his boots. “Not so secret, I think.” He met my eyes and my face turned probably the color of the rose. He’d seen me with Alex at the food court yesterday, kissing our way through those chicken tenders and fries.
He had a point, I realized with a start.
The first time around everything had been furtive and in secret.
Kisses behind stages, covert meetups at night so meticulously planned that we could have been staging a heist. But this was different.
Daily roses, kisses in the middle of the food court, declaring himself my champion in front of the cast and audience at the chess match… this time Alex was loving me out loud.
I couldn’t keep the silly smile off my face the whole time we got ready for the day.
The rose lay on the table in front of me while I put my makeup on and twisted up my hair, and every time I looked down at its soft pink petals the corners of my lips tugged upward again.
It was so goofy, this whole flower-every-morning thing.
So old-fashioned. But damn if it wasn’t getting to me.
“Simon did this too, you know.” Emily bent down to check her lipstick in the mirror next to me.
“Did what?”
“Wooed me with roses.” While Nina finished helping Lulu get ready Emily helped me, lacing me into my gown. She took the rose off the table, carefully trimming off most of the stem before threading it into my updo.
Her words struck a memory. “Oh, God. I remember that.” There was a flower seller by the front gate, and back when Simon and Emily first got together, he’d practically bought out her entire stock of red roses.
Then he’d spent the day having them delivered by cast members and costumed patrons alike, until Emily had ended up with a flower crown made of a dozen red roses.
Fourteen-year-old me had swooned at the idea.
But twenty-four-year-old me didn’t swoon. “Am I going to be getting roses all day long?” Dread swirled, and I pressed a hand to my stomach. I wasn’t built for that kind of attention.
Emily gave a happy little hum, probably remembering her own rose-laden wooing from back in the day. “You never know.”
But I should have known better. Alex wasn’t Simon, and no two wooings were alike.
As the day went on and I was not bombarded by roses, I felt more and more relieved.
Alex knew what I liked. The single pink rose in my hair, lush and full, gave off a subtle, gorgeous scent that accompanied me all day, reminding me of him even though our schedules kept us mostly apart.
Another thing filling me with relief was my Queen.
I’d started the morning warily, knowing that it was coming.
Time for Lulu to start complaining. I’d been through this enough times to know the drill by now.
The first day was nerve-racking, as we worked through stage fright or an ill-fitting costume, getting through it all by sheer force of will.
But Sunday was a different matter. It was the end of the weekend, with a long week of not being Queen stretched out on the horizon like the promised land.
The end was nigh, and they never wanted to do this again.
I was on my third Queen in as many weekends; why would this one be any different?
But this morning, as we started up the hill from the Hollow, Lulu turned to me with a grin. “Being Queen is kind of fun.”
“What?” I blinked. That was the last thing I’d expected to hear. “Really?”
“Sure,” she said. “Everyone’s bowing to you wherever you go, getting called Your Majesty all day. This could really affect my ego.”
I gave her some side-eye. “Don’t lawyers already have big enough egos?
” She gave a very nonregal snort as we passed through the food court and hit the main lane.
The morning sun was bright but not oppressive, filtering its way through the trees, and we enjoyed a walk on these wooded paths before the gates opened.
As we passed some vendor booths I caught the eye of the leather vendor; she’d become judge and jury of my Queen selections all season.
Lulu was right there, so I couldn’t exactly ask her opinion, but I raised pointed eyebrows in the vendor’s direction and nodded my head toward Lulu.
The vendor gave a half shrug, half nod, moving her hand back and forth in a teeter-totter gesture.
It was better than a straight-up thumbs-down. I’d take it.
As we rounded the bend, starting on the straightaway toward the front gate, here came Dex striding up the lane from the Marlowe Stage. He kicked up a grin when he saw us. Well, when he saw Lulu.
“Your Majesty.” He swept a dramatic bow, his blousy white linen shirt open at the throat and his kilt brushing his knees. I’d never been a man-bun girl, but with Dex I could understand the hype.
Lulu glanced in my direction with a smile. “See what I mean? So good for the ego.” She extended an arm toward Dex, and he took her hand to bow over it. Then he tugged, pulling her into him in a very non-royal-looking embrace.
“Looking good,” he said. One hand spanned her back, while his other hand threaded their fingers together. “Think you can wear that getup later tonight? We could…”
He bent to whisper in her ear and Lulu gave a giggle that was not queenly at all.
“Okay,” I said. “Knock it off.” I stepped between them, prying them apart. “She’s gotta be dignified. Can you please stop distracting my Queen?”
“Sorry, kiddo.” But Dex’s wicked smile said that he wasn’t sorry in the least. He adjusted the tie that held up his hair, then nodded at the both of us.
“See you at home.” Lulu blew him one more kiss as he started down the lane the way we had come.
I groaned. I was going to have to Lysol down the entire guest room when they were gone, wasn’t I?
Lulu turned to watch him go with a dreamy smile, then gave herself a little shake. “Sorry.” She didn’t sound sorry, either; a lot of that going around lately. “What were we saying?”
“You like being the Queen,” I reminded her, gesturing for her to walk ahead of me. We weren’t too far from the gate now, and it was time we got in position.
She picked up her skirts and strode ahead of me. “I really do!” She sounded surprised. “I’m not really one for performing, and I’m not gonna lie, this shit is a lot of work. But it’s also a lot of fun, you know?”
Oh, I knew. But it was nice to be reminded, because it was easy to forget.
Our schedule was a little different today than yesterday.
Meet and greets went on a little longer; we were a little more hurried to get to the first chess match.
Once the joust and handfasting were over, Lulu practically dragged me over to the Marlowe Stage to catch the end of the Dueling Kilts’ set.
My steps slowed as we passed the Chaucer Stage, my ears catching Alex’s voice if not his words.
While I’d gotten in a good ogle during the chess match, I hadn’t had a chance to speak to him today.
Thank him for my rose. I’d done my best to telegraph my thanks with my eyes from the sidelines of the chess match, but I’d never been good at that kind of thing, so it might have just looked like I was having a stroke.
This new relationship with Alex felt like uncharted waters.
The years of animosity were gone now, all that anger and resentment sloughing off like a snake shedding its skin.
But that fresh skin was tender, and I worried about new wounds.
I reminded myself that I was keeping my eyes wide open this time.
No expectations, no promises of the future.
We had one weekend left, and then Alex would be moving on to the next Faire.
And the next one after that. It wasn’t like I could follow him…
That was a thought. A terrible one, but still a thought. Would he want that from me? And how would it even work?
I quickened my steps, catching up to Lulu and Toby, where they stood at the back of the Marlowe Stage. Lulu practically had hearts for eyes as she watched Dex onstage, and I felt like an idiot. Because of course. I knew exactly who to ask.