Chapter 2

"That's the kind of thing you young people like. I'm old now."

"Men only get more attractive with age. And you're not old anyway. Thirty is a man's prime."

Watching the two of them bicker, I suddenly realized how long it had been since Nat and I had shared a moment that warm.

After everyone had gone, I asked him, "You of all people know whether I ever put a charm on you. Why did you say what you said today?"

Nat answered without thinking. "I'm not one of your lineage people. How would I know?"

"But Aunt Brooklyn is a charm-master. If I'd cast a charm on you, do you think she wouldn't see it?"

"Of course my mother takes your side. You're all from the same people. Even if you had charmed me, she'd never tell me."

I wanted to say more, but my whole body, my heart included, was telling me to stop struggling. All I could manage, weakly, was:

"Nat, my mother is calling me home to get married. I'm leaving."

Nat slammed the brakes, tires screeching, and nearly rear-ended the car ahead.

"Stop it, Ainsley. You've already waited seven years. You can't wait a few more months?"

Looking at how worked up he was, I said flatly, "Nat, so you do know I waited seven years?"

"You always told me to wait. Wait until you'd built your business first, then we'd marry. Wait until you had solid footing in Rivergate. Wait until you were financially free... I waited through all of it."

"But Nat, even the warmest heart goes cold if you leave it waiting long enough."

He was quiet for a while. When he finally spoke again, that gentle mask had slipped back into place.

"So this is really about that empty name in the register. When I'm back from Harbor City, I'll change it myself. All right?"

"Ainsley, I love you. Don't say things that leave me unsettled right before a long trip, all right? Be good now."

When we were young, every time he made me angry I'd sulk and threaten to go home and marry someone else and never come back.

He naturally assumed I was throwing another childish tantrum. But I was twenty-nine now.

For the rest of the drive home I didn't say a word. I didn't want to leave him unsettled.

That night, half asleep, I was woken by the sound of Nat laughing.

The light in his study was still on. I wanted to remind him to sleep soon, since he had an early flight.

But then I heard him sigh.

"I haven't laughed like that in a long time. Talking with you young people really is the only thing that lets the pressure out."

"Then call me often, Mr. Winfield. I don't have much to do after work anyway. It gets pretty boring."

"Mm. I just don't want to be a bother."

"You're not a bother. I like talking things through with you too."

"Little Gerty, do you young people envy childhood-sweetheart romances?"

"Hard to say."

Nat's wistful voice carried out of the study and echoed through the silent house.

"All I've ever felt is the weight of it. Ainsley and I have known each other since we were kids. I confessed at eighteen, and we've been together ever since. All these years I've carried this invisible pressure."

"I didn't want to marry so early. But a woman only has so many years of youth, and she'd already waited seven years for me. Honestly, all this pressure to marry has been suffocating me."

My fingers curled in hard, nails pressing shallow crescents into my palm. So all this time I had never been the harbor Nat wanted to reach when he needed to breathe. I was the mountain crushing him.

When I woke the next morning, Nat was already gone. All he'd left was a note on the nightstand.

"Ains, remember to eat on time. Wait for me to come back."

It was a habit he'd kept for all seven years we'd been together.

But those small, offhand bits of warmth had become just another part of his job now.

Not a trace of feeling left in them.