I didn’t know what to do. He’s a prominent corporate lawyer at my company, and this event is well attended by everyone in our business community—including my own parents.
My mom is thrilled. She hugged me tightly while the onlookers clapped, and my dad was next. “Are you sure this is what you want?” he asked.
I gave him a small smile in response because no, I’m not sure this is what I want. In fact, it’s becoming more and more clear to me that this isn’t what I want at all.
I nodded my head just once after William asked the question.
I wasn’t nodding at him.
I was nodding because I finally knew what I had to do. It was a nod of conviction, and I didn’t realize in the blur of what was happening that he might misinterpret what it meant. Just as I was about to open my mouth to tell him this isn’t what I want, he stood and pressed his mouth to mine.
He took it as a yes.
What else was I supposed to do? He slipped the ring on my finger before I could even process what was happening. My eyes went immediately to the door as the ring made its way up my third finger to rest in its cradle just above my knuckle. Carson turned and disappeared through the door, taking my heart with him.
My heart isn’t here, isn’t with William. It’s out that door with Carson.
I want to run after him and tell him that, but William’s death grip on me has me rooted to the spot as we move in a slow circle. He’s all blissed out, and I’m panicking again. Carson thinks I want to marry William. My parents dance beside us, smiling with approval. They think I want to marry William. Everyone in this room thinks I want to marry William.
I don’t want to marry William.
I didn’t even say yes.
What’s the appropriate amount of time to wait to tell him? One song? Two?
Or do I just leave it where it is for the moment and excuse myself to the restroom once everyone stops staring at the happy, newly engaged couple?
These are the thoughts turning over in my mind while I dance with William. After one song, the attention moves off of us a bit, but I don’t know if it’s too late. I don’t know where Carson went or what must be going through his head right now.
I wonder if he’s still here or if he left. Would he have gone back to his hotel?
Last night he told me he was staying at the Hyatt, and I memorized the room number he told me: thirty-eight twenty-seven. The Hyatt isn’t far from here.
Or would he have found a bar somewhere close by? A place where he could find a random woman to bring back to his hotel?
He’s so wrong for me. He’s a womanizer. He’s stealing my family’s business. He’s unpredictable and he’s a prick. But…he’s also a vulnerable boy who wants to impress his father. He’s funny and has a kind side to him that I don’t think he lets many people see. He’s so ridiculously hot and he brings out these emotions in me that I didn’t even know existed.
He’s making me see color where I always saw black and white. He’s woken me from a lifetime of sleeping.
And I barely even know him.
I wonder when life got so damn complicated.
Two songs, that’s my limit. “I need to run to the restroom,” I tell William. He grins at me and nods, his hair flopping in that way it does, and I want to feel warmth when I look at him, but it no longer exists there. I manage to get away from him before he plants another kiss on my lips.
I try to rush out of the room, but I’m stopped by friends and colleagues with words of congratulation. I plaster that smile back on my face, but the beast inside me is clawing its way out. I need to get to him. I need to tell him this is all just a big misunderstanding and that even though I can’t comprehend what I’m feeling for him, it’s stronger than anything I ever felt for William.
He’s not in the lobby so I rush out to the front of the hotel, but there’s no sign of him. I make my way through the lobby and out to the pool. He’s not there, either—not with a random and not by himself.
I don’t know if he’s in the kitchen with some waitress or up on the stage with Lindor’s wife. I could text him and hope for a reply, but my phone is in my little clutch on the table in the ballroom. I can’t just sneak back in there to send a covert text; I’ll be stopped by a hundred different people, and William will surely be waiting for me.
I sit on one of the lounge chairs by the pool for a second to try to figure out what the hell to do. I stare into the tranquil water, trying to find some clarity to calm the tumultuous thoughts pulling at my brain.
I’ll go back into the ballroom. I’ll get to my phone at some point, and I’ll figure out what to say when I need to say it.
Just as I come to grips with this new, weak plan, I hear my name.
“Sylvie.”
I turn toward the voice, and he walks toward me before he stops in front of the chair next to me.
“May I?” he asks, nodding to the chair.
I nod, and he sits.
“I’m Carter, Carson’s brother, but I gather you already know that.”
I nod again. We’re quiet for a few beats, both of us staring into the water. He leans forward with his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped in front of him.
“There’s a legend in my family.”
I glance over at him and then back at the water.
“My great-great-grandfather was a workaholic who had an idea for newsprint and started King Communications. It was immediately successful. Despite the fact that we’re a public company now, he wanted the company to stay in the family. He wrote bylaws that said the CEO would be the eldest son in the family, but he wasn’t married. He didn’t have any children, so he didn’t know who he would pass the company to. He’d spent fifteen years of his life pouring his heart and soul into this company, ignoring his personal life, and he was fine with that. He was happy, but he needed an heir. That was always on his mind, but he didn’t have time to go out and meet women, and he didn’t want to just settle. He wanted a woman who was worthy of the empire he’d built.”
He pauses and lets that settle for a beat before he goes on. “When Hilda Jacobs walked into his office for an interview as his secretary, he immediately knew she was the one. Immediately. It took only one glance at her. It wasn’t just some physical connection; it went deeper than that. It was some inexplicable thing he’d never felt with any of the women he’d met in his entire life. He hired her without interviewing her, and they were married a couple months later. They had my grandfather along with two other children.”
“Love at first sight?”
“Something like that, but there’s more. It happened for my grandfather, too. He’d just moved into his own apartment, fresh out of college and in line to be the next King CEO. He went home for dinner, and his sister brought a friend. My grandfather married that friend six months later.”
“That’s adorable.”
“My parents were married two months after they met. I married Courtney less than four months after I met her.”
“So fast marriages run in your family?”
“Maybe, I don’t know, but when King men know they’ve met their match, they make sure they don’t lose her. None of us have had the kind of struggle you’ve given Carson, though.”
My heart skips a beat at the mention of his name. “Where’d he go?” I ask.
“I don’t know.”
“I don’t want to marry William,” I whisper.
“I know.”
My head whips over to him. “You know? How?”
“Your eyes were on Carson the entire time William was on his knee.”
I sigh. I wonder if anyone else noticed that.
“I know my brother, and I’ve never seen him like this.”
“You all keep saying that.”
“It’s true. He changed the second he met you, and if you believe in legends, I think you understand why.”
“Thanks, Carter.”
He nods and stands. “Let me know if I can do anything.”
“Find him.”