“Ugh,” I groaned dramatically. “Get out of here with your fairy tale shit.”
Lara hushed me. “Language. Clarissa’s at the age where she’ll repeat anything she hears.”
“Sorry,” I giggled. “Get out of here with your fairy tale stuff.”
“Is this Mr. No One the reason why you’re here?”
I nodded slowly. “Yeah, but I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised.”
“What happened?”
“He took me to a party and ignored me the whole time.”
Lara hissed through her teeth. “Yeah, that’s not a good sign. Maybe he’s just not–”
“If you tell me he’s just not that into me, I will lick all of your spoons.”
She let out a mock gasp. “You wouldn’t dare.”
I closed my eyes, sighing deeply. “I just thought he was different, I guess. But you should have seen the way everybody practically threw themselves at him.” I conveniently left out the part about William being royal, and the fact that he kept that vital piece of information from me.
Lara looked me in the eye and held my gaze. “Do you like him?”
“I mean, yeah. Yeah, I do.”
“Then what’s holding you back? It’s not like you to not pursue what you want.”
“Like I said, it’s complicated.”
“It doesn’t have to be. Remember what you told me when I first started seeing Chuck?”
The corners of my lips ticked up into a small grin. “Feel free to refresh my memory.”
Lara smiled wide. “First, you asked for me to grab an autograph for you. And then you told me to go for it. And I did. So I’m going to return the favor and tell you to go for it.”
“You really think that’s a good idea?”
“To hell with the consequences,” she said. “If you like him, you like him. Tell him how you feel and go from there.”
Behind us, a pair of tiny footsteps dashed up from down the hall. “To hell with the consequences!” cheered Clarissa, bounding toward us with her hands in the air. “To hell! To hell!”
I burst out laughing. “Oh, she really is a copycat.”
Lara giggled nervously. “Now, now, honey. Don’t say that.”
“Don’t say that!” the little girl echoed proudly.
I continued to laugh as I got up, thoroughly enjoying Lara’s face palm. “Okay, I said. I’m going to do it. Sorry you had to go through the trouble of making up the couch for me.”
“That’s okay,” said Lara. She picked up her step-daughter and bounced Clarissa on her lap. “Can you say ‘good luck’ to Auntie Hannah?”
“Don’t say that!” she shouted defiantly.
* * *
I practically jumped out of the cab and into the main lobby of the hotel. It was a little past one in the morning, but I didn’t care. My footsteps were thunderous, echoing loudly in the empty lobby. Cathy was sitting behind the counter, resting her head on her hand, looking very close to passing out asleep. When she heard me dash past her, she jolted awake and shouted after me. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m going to see William,” I stated in a hurry, making my way over to the elevator.
“You mean Mister Laurier?”
“Yes, him. Do you know if he’s in?”
Cathy’s expression fell, stiffening into something that looked a lot like pity. “Hannah, he isn’t here.”
I panted, a little breathless from my 100-yard dash. “What do you mean he’s not here? Is he still at the wedding reception?”
“No, that’s not what I meant. He’s already checked out of his room.”
I frowned. My heart sank into the pit of my stomach. “What? He wasn’t supposed to leave until tomorrow.”
“He said he was catching an early flight. Said he missed his chance or something and left.”
“No, this… This can’t be right. Did he leave a message for me or anything?”
Cathy shook her head slowly. “No, I’m sorry. He didn’t.”
I cast my eyes down to the floor, unable to look her in the eye. I liked William. I really thought we had something special. He must not have felt the same way.
“Hannah?” whispered Cathy. “Are you okay?”
I plastered a smile onto my face, fighting to hold back tears. “Yep!” I said as cheerfully as I could even though all I wanted to do was cry. “I’m totally fine. I need to move forwards, not backwards. If it was meant to be, it was meant to be. And all that…” I said, voice faltering slightly. “And all that other crap.”
10
William
A lot could happen in a year.
Andrew wound up moving to America officially, giving up his title and his land to his younger brother. It wasn’t too big of a deal since he was only a minor duke. But it still felt weird to be calling someone else the Duke of Caftershire. It was slightly more difficult to keep in touch, but we did our best to make weekly Skype calls. But the reality of it was we’d managed every other week, sometimes every third. Life was busy for the both of us, and I wasn’t going to hold Andrew hostage for a call if I knew he was stressed about other things –like getting his brand-new house in order.