Connection.” She seemed to be holding her breath, waiting for his reply.
“Come here,” he said, realizing what she wanted.
She wanted to be held. She wanted to be told it was all going to be okay. She wanted to feel protected.
He knew that, because those were the things he wanted, too. He wanted to feel like he mattered. Phillip hadn’t had that in a long time.
She allowed him to pull her close, and she rested her head on his chest, her arms around his waist. She smelled so good. He couldn’t quite place the scent, but it was soft, feminine, and what he imagined heaven smelled like.
He drew his hand up and down her back in a gentle, soothing motion.
Phillip was thinking about how nice it was when he heard her sniff.
“Zuri?”
“I haven’t had this in a long time.”
“Me either,” he confessed.
She felt so good pressed against him, and not just because she was a three-alarm fire in that sweater.
“Jonquil told me I needed to grieve, and I didn’t feel anything for so long. Not even when I heard his voice today. He called me. We talked. I felt nothing. Now, I’m here with this hot guy holding me, and I wanna cry about it.” She sniffed again.
“It’s okay. Didn’t you just tell me to feel what I need to feel? Same goes, princess.”
Staying green didn’t seem like such a big deal if it meant he could have this when he was a man.
The logical part of his brain told him he needed to reverse that train right back into the station because he just met her. Just because they were both lonely wasn’t an excuse to imagine whatever was happening between them had some kind of future.
He was cursed.
She was brokenhearted.
These were not the ingredients for happiness.
“Tell me something good. What made you decide to turn the castle into a B and B?”
“It was the godmothers’ idea. Our little town was dying, and they decided we could be a premier wedding destination. We’re lucky it worked.”
“What did you do before that?”
What did he do before that? Besides feel sorry for himself? Not much, if he was honest. “Eh, well. I was still deciding on my path. Did you always want to be a wedding planner?”
“From the time I was a little girl. I designed weddings in my Barbie mansion, and I catered them, too. We drove my mama nuts with the cupcake wedding cake, and I made steaks for all the guests by slicing hot dogs as thin as I could get them. With my mama’s razor, of course.” She laughed. “Oh, she put up with so much.”
“Are you close to your parents?”
“I was close with my mother. My father, not so much. He wasn’t distant, or a bad father. He just worked a lot. He died in a plane crash when we were ten, and my mother passed a few years ago. So it’s just Zeva and me. Are you close with your parents?”
“I was. Yes. They’ve passed, too. A long time ago.” He missed them more than he could say.
“You’re alone in the world?”
The way she said it made it sound so sad. It wasn’t. He’d had his parents for a long time. If Ever After had been enchanted sooner, he’d still have them.
“No, I’m not alone in the world. I’ve got the godmothers, and the rest of the town. We’re all very close, and no matter what happens, we take care of one another. I’ve also got my best friend, Hunter. He’s kind of like a brother to me. More, even.”
“I don’t think I’ve met him yet. What does he do in Ever After? Everyone is so like their job. What’s his?”
“A beast of all trades, you might say.” He continued stroking her back gently. “He’s not usually around in the daytime. He’s got a bit of a . . . skin condition. The people here are used to him, but he’s not sure how all the tourists are going to feel, so he keeps to the dungeons.”
“Dungeons? Of course the castle has dungeons. I’d love to meet him. I can promise, I’m not going to be a jerk about a skin condition.”
“It’s severe.”
“Consider me warned. If he doesn’t want to meet anyone new yet, I understand. When he does, I hope I’ll get to meet him.”
He wondered if he could trust her with that. She said she understood, but once she saw him . . .
“It occurs to me that we’re in the same predicament, here.