31. Astrid
ASTRID
“Did you happen to hear the latest podcast episode?”
Declan turns away from the closet with three shirts in hand.
“The podcast from Cara?” he asks.
I tuck a skirt into the suitcase lying on the bed and look up at him. “Yes.”
“The one talking about my grandfather’s big announcement?” he asks with a smile, coming toward me.
“You did hear it?”
He shakes his head. “I’m just assuming that’s what they’re talking about.” He stops next to me and frowns slightly, studying my face. “What’s wrong?”
I look at him. “They’re questioning why we’re coming home.”
“They already know we’re coming?”
I smile despite the podcast’s declaration that it’s ‘weird’ for Declan and me to be coming to Cara together now.
“The long-lost prince is returning home,” I tell him.
“Along with Princess Fiona, Princess Saoirse, and Prince Cian and Princess Scarlett.” I shrug.
“It’s been a long time since the entire royal family has been in residence. ”
Neither of us points out that the last time was Christmas when he left early to make me more comfortable.
He takes my chin in his hand, turning me to face him. “And Princess Astrid.”
My heart flips, then drops into my stomach.
“But I am not the princess. Not anymore. And I guess that’s why they’re wondering why we’re coming.
The king annulled our marriage. He said it was all about him.
His news about him and my grandfather is huge, Declan.
That’s what everyone’s talking about. They figure we no longer have a reason to be together, especially for travel and public appearances as a couple. ”
“But you know there’s a very good reason.”
I feel his finger tipping my chin up and realize I’m focused on his collar.
His gaze is intense. “Right? You know that.”
I nod. I do, of course. But something doesn’t feel right. We’re not married. After almost two years of being his wife, even when I thought it wasn’t what I wanted, I feel a little…unmoored. “I just feel strange,” I confess. “I’m not Astrid Olsen O’Grady at the moment.”
“But…” He scowls. “Okay, not officially. But you are. And you will be officially as soon as we get there.”
I decide to voice one of my concerns. “What if he won’t do it?”
“Why wouldn’t he?” But Declan’s scowl deepens.
“Because he’s him,” I say with a shrug. “It’s not like he’s the most predictable guy.”
“I’ll make him do it.”
I laugh at that. “I appreciate the sentiment. But no one makes Diarmuid do anything.”
Declan shoves a hand through his hair.
I quickly say what else is on my mind before I chicken out.
“Do you maybe want to wait? Let what he told everyone blow over? Maybe you should stay here in Rebel for a while, and we can date and let everyone get used to the idea of us being together for real before we ask him to marry us. If you stay here and we spend time together, then he’ll—”
Suddenly, Declan cups the back of my head and kisses me.
Much the way I shut him up by kissing him the first night in the park, he successfully stops all my questions the same way now.
I immediately sag against him, fisting the front of his shirt, needing to keep him close.
Now that everything has sunk in—what Diarmuid said, that our marriage is legally over, that we have to go to Cara and plead our case—I feel like, after all this time of trying to push him away, trying to get him to give up on us, I might actually lose him.
Declan kisses me thoroughly, then lifts his head. “I don’t want to wait. I want to be married to you,” he says firmly.
“I want to be married to you, too. What if he won’t do it? What if he feels so guilty about it that he refuses to be a part of putting us together?”
Declan cups my face with both hands and looks into my eyes.
“I choose you,” he says. “I get to make that choice. We get to make that choice. He doesn’t.
No one else does. Us being together now has nothing to do with my grandfather, or your grandfather, or their marriage pact.
” He takes a breath. The intensity in his gaze and voice gentles.
“It also has nothing to do with creating a baby or forming another family. I can be completely happy right here like this with you. Even if all we do is adopt cats and ducks and Wilsons and Becketts.”
A laugh bursts out of me. “Well, we’re going to have animals and neighbors and hockey players regardless of the baby situation.”
He smiles and nods. “Thank God.” He runs both thumbs over my cheeks. “I have an idea.”
“I generally like your ideas.”
“Okay, come on.” He takes my hand and leads me downstairs, out the front door, and across my new porch. He leans on the now completely sturdy railing and calls across the yard. “Hey, Wilson?”
The older man is sitting on his porch, reading a book, drinking a glass of what looks like sweet tea, but could easily be whiskey.
“Hi, kids, what’s up?”
“Do you happen to have any friends who are judges in New Orleans? Judges who might rush a marriage license for a couple of great people who are really in love and who just can’t wait?”
My heart leaps. A marriage license and a judge in New Orleans?
Wilson’s grin is wide and quick. “As a matter of fact, I have three.”
Declan looks at me. “We’re getting married today. Before we go to Cara. We can have my grandfather bless it, but you’re going to be my wife. Our way, not his.”
Yes. I want that. I want him. And he wants me.
A happy calm washes over me. I take a deep breath. “Well, there are a couple of things you might need to know first.”
I watch him carefully. Will he recognize the words as the same ones I said to him on our wedding day in Cara almost two years ago?
He grins. “Astrid, I don’t care if you're a crazy cat lady, if you collect ducks, if you live in a house with horrendous seventies wallpaper. I am so madly in love with you and this town and this future ahead of us that I can’t imagine living without all of it.
All I need you to do is walk down that fucking aisle. ”
They aren’t exactly the same words he said on our previous wedding day, but it’s a fantastic rewrite.
I laugh and stretch up to kiss him. “You really think that you will always get your way, don’t you?” I also asked him that on that fateful day.
He grins down at me and gives me the same answer he did back then. “Yes.”
I giggle. “Well, okay, but those ‘couple of things’ are, I have now stolen your black T-shirt too and will be alternating sleeping in it and your button-down.”
He laughs. “I’m very good with that.” He dips his head and says, “At least on the nights you’re not sleeping completely naked.”
I shiver and kiss him quickly before saying, “And two, Patty is fostering an orange kitten, and I think we should adopt it for Oscar.”
He lifts his head, thinking that over. “Oscar needs a cat friend,” Declan says with a nod. “Great idea.”
“Orange cats are well-known goofy, chaotic, affectionate menaces.”
He thinks that over as well. “Is Beckett an orange cat in human form?”
I laugh. “Yes. Very much so.”
“Sounds perfect for the older, sometimes grumpy tabby who really just needs friends and love,” Declan says.
My heart melts. I put my hand against his cheek. “Let’s go to New Orleans and get married. Right now.”
He gives me a hot, possessive look as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone. “We’re going to need a couple of witnesses. And I know exactly who they should be.”
I assume he’s going to say Miles and Iris. But I think I have a better idea. “Do you think—”
“What do you think Alex is doing right now?”
I suck in a quick breath. That’s who I was thinking of. I smile and pull out my phone. “He’s a retired professional hockey player living in small town, Louisiana, following our Parks and Rec Director around like a lovesick puppy. I think he might be able to get away.”
Declan chuckles. “Excellent. Give him a call.” He lifts his phone to his ear and says, “Hi, Fiona, I was hoping you might possibly be free for a couple of hours today to go with Astrid and me to New Orleans.”