Page 71 of Crimson Kingdom
There were plenty of things he had waited to mention, and Evander wasn’t always much more forthcoming.
I looked beseechingly at Davin. “Can’t you...find that out? Isn’t that what you do, know things?”
He coughed on a dry laugh. “I’m flattered you think so, Row, but my sources on Socairan wedding rituals are largely lacking in Lochlann, unless you’d like me to go ask your future groom myself.”
“How would that conversation go?” Gallagher snorted. “Hello there, old chum. Care to talk details about your wedding night with my cousin?”
“I...see no problem.” I shrugged, and Gwyn erupted in laughter.
Avani ran a hand over her face, looking at me pointedly. “I swear, Row, you grew up a lot in Socair, but something about Evander seems to make you go backward in your maturity level.”
“Hurtful,” I muttered, tossing down a card.
“But true,” she bit back, rubbing her temples. “For stars’ sake, you’re going to have your first wedding night in just over a week. Don’t you think that merits a conversation?”
“Not really,” I said, smoothing out my curls again. “It won’t change anything.”
Her emerald eyes bored into mine. “I know that you’re afraid of letting him in, and I even understand why. I was there when you came home, Row.”
I looked away, any last unreasonable hope that I had hidden my grief those few months evaporating with her words.
“But don’t make choices now that you will regret for the rest of your life,” she continued. “Just...act like you’re an adult, about to marry another adult, instead of whatever the hell games the two of you have been playing this week.”
It was an uncomfortable echo of my thoughts earlier this evening.
“In fairness, that’s not one-sided,” Davin spoke up in my defense.
“No,” Gallagher agreed. “But someone needs to cave, and I get the feeling he’s not the caving type.”
“Then why should that be on Rowan?” Gwyn interjected, defiance in her tone.
“Fine.” Avani huffed out an irritable breath. “Enjoy your stubbornness, both of you. But at least talk to him about this, for your own sake, if nothing else.”
She shooed me away from the table, but Davin held out a hand.
“Wait,” he said.
We all looked expectantly at him.
He grabbed the bottle of whiskey, filling up my glass. “Take this fortification when you go.”
I saluted him. “You’re a good man, Cousin.”
And with that, I was off to have a hopelessly awkward conversation with my fiancé.
I took the passageways until I found myself once again at Evander’s door.
Half the glass of whiskey was gone, and I still didn’t feel nearly ready for this conversation by the time I pushed into his room, more hesitantly than usual.
He glanced up casually from where he sat at the small desk. The sight of him with a quill in his hand was so achingly familiar that for a moment, I forgot why I had come to begin with.
Then his lips quirked into his usual bastard smirk, and I remembered. Unfortunately.
“We need to talk,” I blurted out.
He nodded. “About what your father said--”
“No, not that. Just...ignore him,” I muttered. “I am.”