from depression, Mum.”
Kiki’s alarmed stare swept the rapt audience sat on the nearby banquette. “Shh!” Her eyes flew back to her son. “You do not!”
Tarquin expelled an audible breath. “Why are you shushing me? You embarrassed, Mum? Ashamed of me? Afraid you’ll look bad by association?”
Spying Fiona and most of the party looking on, Leia stuffed her fists into the pockets of her dress. Tarquin shouldn’t have to explain his depression in public. He’s been forced into this corner because of me.
“What on Earth do you have to be depressed about?” Kiki sputtered. “I swear, you’re just doing this for attention.”
“And there it is!” Tarquin nodded and threw his hands in the air. “The reaction I expected. Let’s just sweep it under the carpet, shall we? Pretend it doesn’t exist? Because growing up, you made it abundantly clear that mental health ‘failings’, as you called them, happened to other people.” His dark gaze shifted to Leia. “When Nick was ten and had a panic attack on set, she told everyone it was an allergic reaction to shellfish! Classy, eh?”
Leia winced.
“So, after she dismissed Nick so heartlessly, there was no hope in hell I’d ever confide in her.”
Kiki scoffed. “I didn’t dismiss him! I was protecting him.”
“Bullshit! You were protecting yourself!” Tarquin pointed at her. “All that matters to you is your reputation and wealth. If you really cared, nothing would’ve been more important than the wellbeing of your child, but that’s not how the great Kiki Balfour rolls.”
“That’s not true!” she protested, jutting out a sparkly hip.
People are staring. Leia slouched and pulled her hands from her pockets. Tarquin is so private. He’ll be hating this.
His scowl slid away from his mother, his disgust lifting as he reached out to Leia. “I felt so alone, so lost—until I met this one.” Weaving his fingers through hers again, he pulled her close.
“Tarquin…” Leia pressed her lips together.
“Learning about Leia’s struggles and how she deals with them helped me find the courage to do something about mine. For too long I’ve been scared of what everyone would say and think. Not anymore. I honestly don’t give a flying fuck.”
Leia blinked back tears. “I’m proud of you,” she whispered, unlocking his soft smile.
It didn’t linger. Turning to his mother, Tarquin glared. “Leia means everything to me, and I won’t stand for you insulting her. Our relationship is none of your damn business, so you can keep your ignorant opinions and poisonous gossip to yourself. I’m not interested.”
He’s standing up for me—for us. Leia’s heart felt fit to burst. Noticing Rupert nodding and Fiona’s silently mouthed ‘YES!’, she broke into a determined grin. “That makes two of us.”
Kiki bristled. “You’re actually choosing this girl over your own family?”
“No, just you.” He kissed Leia’s hand. “See ya, Mum.”
As Tarquin led her through the sea of tables and respectful nods of Orcadian solidarity, Leia glanced down at her fingers entwined with his. I can’t hide any longer. I need to share my whole past even if it ultimately pushes him away.
Once through the door, Tarquin stopped dead by the bar’s coat rack and exhaled a deep, deliberate breath, then offered Leia a frustrated smile. “So. I thought that went pretty well…?”
Leia winced but felt overwhelming love for him, trying to lift her spirits. “Tarquin, are you sure you can deal with my baggage? ’Cause I have a ton.”
He pulled her into a warm hug, nodding back toward the restaurant. “Who doesn’t, Ginger? Who doesn’t?”
He jokes now, but how will he feel once he knows the truth?
Thirty
TARQUIN
Hidden away from family and the cold afternoon rain lashing the guest house windows, Tarquin stepped back from the blazing fire and climbed on top of the king-size bed beside Leia, the conversation from their fifteen-minute drive from Kirkwall still whirling in his head. In the car, Leia had begun to unload, sharing stories about dating Tyler through high school in Oshawa, Ontario, and their idyllic first years in Pittsburgh where he played professional hockey while she attended college. Life for the loved-up pair sounded hectic but exciting and a bright future lay ahead, but seven years into their relationship and four months after their 2015 castle wedding, the fairy tale began to sour—badly.
“So, Tyler decides to fuck his teammate’s wife,” said Leia, lying on her side. She tugged the hem of her sweatshirt over her pajama bottoms. “And not just any teammate. The captain.”
I knew it! She didn’t cheat! Tarquin felt a sense of relief, and then anger. “What a