Page 26 of Amelia and Her Prince Charming
“I didn’t know that.”
She didn’t look up as she traced another line, this one running horizontal across my palm. Her nails were ragged and torn, the manicure she’d had done for the wedding destroyed. But her hands were still beautiful to me. The delicate lines of her knuckles, the smooth skin that tapered at her fingertips. The very fact that they belonged to Amelia.
“I was so cold all day,” she said. “It was like Mom’s death took all the warmth from me, and I was desperate to replace it somehow. You always got to class before me, but this time, your seat was empty. I felt the nudge from my mom, her whispering: Go. Get warm.” The pressure of Amelia’s fingers increased as she traced exploratory lines on my palm. I was finding it impossible to breathe. “When you walked in and saw me there, I held still, waiting for you to come and ask me to move. But you didn’t. Your eyebrows just did that quirk thing they do when you’re trying to figure something out, but I didn’t know that’s what it meant at the time. So I decided to save a seat for you next class. Partly out of guilt, but mostly because you had a safe vibe. There were so many guys at school who I had to be on my guard with,but not you. This is going to sound so weird, but when I was with you, I felt closer to my mom. I missed her still, but the pain wasn’t as overwhelming. I never told you thank you for that.”
“I wish I could have met her.”
Amelia nodded. “Why’d you bring me a drink after I stole your seat?”
Because even then I was in love with her. Or, at least, drawn to her in a way that irrevocably changed me. I was like the man who wouldn’t ever leave this cabin, hoping for his family to come back. And just like him, I was destined to die alone, longing for the one I loved.
Well, that was dark. I closed my eyes as physical pain rolled through me, more intense than before. It was making it hard to focus on the things I was lucky about.
“I brought you a warm drink because you’d said you were cold, and I wanted to help you.” I was out of breath. Out of energy.
She pressed her palm to my cheek. Her touch was cool, the pad of her thumb softer than a ripe peach. She brushed her thumb hesitantly over my skin, sending a wave of sparks through my body. I would give her my seat a million times over, bring her a warm drink every time she was cold.
“I know you would, Hudson.” She pressed the back of her hand to my chest.
“I didn’t … say that … out loud,” I told her. Why was it so hard to breathe and talk?
“No. I’m reading your mind.”
My hair shifted as she ran her finger through it. “Well, that’s … dangerous.”
“Why? Do you have secrets you need to confess?” She said it teasingly, but I could hear the underlying worry in her voice.
Just that I loved her, but I wasnotgoing to say that out loud. “My secrets … are locked … tight.”
Her hand paused over my heart. “You’re feeling really warm, Hud.”
“Then why am I so cold?” But the moment the words left my mouth I knew. Fever.
Chapter 17
Amelia
Lost at Sea
In a tragic and unexpected event, Amelia Blaire and the brother of her late husband have been swept out to sea. The Blaire family’s dinghy has been found, destroyed by the weather and the ocean. No one could have survived. It is a tragic story of jealousy, anger, and the lengths we will tread to be a coveted member of a wedding party. We mourn the loss of Amelia and the brother of Shiloh Blaire. The family has declined to comment and has asked for respect and privacy at this time. We are on site in Winterhaven and will keep you up to date with the very latest news.
—Hot Goss Magazine
FirelightdancedacrossHudson’spale face as he slept. It gave me something to focus on as my entire body was wracked with chills as well. I didn’t think I had a fever, but I was cold all the way to my bones. I wanted to curl into Hudson’s heat, but what if that made his fever worse?
I dragged another almost-too-heavy-to-carry log into the fire and tucked myself into a ball.
Outside, the light was starting to fill the windows. Soon, I’d have to make my way to the other cabin, except I didn’t know where it was, or how I was going to have the strength to walk there. But for Hudson, I’d find a way.
I love you.The declaration came back to me, his words like the lever that starts a roller coaster on its racing spiral journey. All the times he’d helped me. Dropped everything for me. The way he looked at me when I caught him watching me. How he’d been avoiding me lately and acting strange. All the hints the team had dropped—and even Anita Blaire yesterday after breakfast.
Like the final clues in a book being put into place as the detective laid them out for a rapt audience, it all became clear to me what I should have seen all along.
Hudson Blaire was in love with me.
Or he was in a delirious fever state and didn’t know or mean what he was saying.
He moaned in his sleep, and I shook him awake, panicked suddenly at the idea of him not waking up. I needed advice from a doctor.I’m lucky I have a doctor with me.Even if he was half-unconscious and the person I needed a doctor for.
