Page 17 of Amelia and Her Prince Charming
“Really?” Amelia started to slowly nod. “She’d love that.”
“You don’t have things you need to do?” I asked, a little desperately. “Grading papers or something?”
She shook her head. “It’s summer, Hud.” Then her eyes narrowed on me, and I squirmed. “Yes, I’d absolutely love to go. I think it’s exactly what I need.”
Chapter 10
The Matchmaking Mommas Group Chat
Bret
Did you really forget your mom’s ring at the cabin?
Rosie
I really did!
Gage
See? Organic. It works every time.
Rosie
Good job, guys. I don’t think it’s too soon to give ourselves a pat on the back.
Chapter 11
Amelia
Hudsonwasquiettheentire drive to the marina.
Maybe I shouldn’t have pushed my way into this trip, but I needed to get to the bottom of why he was acting weird, and Bret and Gage had handed it to me on a silver platter. Even if the long silence was starting to make me feel itchy.
“Your sailboat is getting repairs?” I asked, even though I already knew it was getting repairs. That’s why we’d gone to his parents’ house to grab the keys to their dinghy.
“Just normal maintenance,” he replied.
“How has traveling this last year been?”
“Good. I’ve met a lot of interesting people.”
He parked his car, and I think we both breathed a sigh of relief when we exited. Things had never been awkward between us like this, and I was more determined than ever to make him talk to me. Maybe he resented me for relying on him so much after Shiloh died. He’d given up a really great job to do so and had worked a terrible shift at a run-down hospital in order to live close to me and Quinn. Maybe he’d been in a relationship, and it hadn’t survived the distance. I’d been so in my head, Inever even thought to ask him about the life he’d left behind to come and help me. But he’d told me he wanted to be there, and I believed him. I still did. It had to be something else.
He was studiously avoiding looking at me, which was making me feel more and more dejected. A blue jay flitted to land on the ropes beside me, and my heart stilled. I reached out to grab Hudson’s arm, and he paused and looked back.
“It’s a blue jay,” I whispered.
Blue was always Shiloh’s favorite color, and after he died, Hudson and I remarked on how often we noticed the birds around the house. It always felt like it was a reminder that Shiloh was still close and loved us.
We stood together quietly until it flitted away, and the air seemed more relaxed between us as we continued walking down the floating marina. Until Hudson paused in front of a red metal floating boat-adjacent thing. Scratched and dented, it was definitely older than me and appeared to be listing concerningly to one side.
“This?” Say, no. Say, it’s the big, beautiful yacht behind this one, silly. And then we could both laugh at how I thought this rickety thing was going to take us to Dylan’s island.
“Yep,” he said instead. “I’ll help you step in.”
He held out his hand to me, but I hesitated as I watched the tiny boat bob with the motion of the water. Maybe this was a bad idea. I wasn’t a huge fan of the ocean, with all its mysterious creatures lying in wait to make you feel like you were in a horror movie. Truly, I wasn’t a huge fan of any body of water larger than a bathtub. Maybe I could corner Hudson tonight, instead, after I got Quinn to sleep and force him to tell me what was going on.
His brows furrowed when I didn’t move. “Amelia, if you’d rather not come—”
