She couldn’t breathe. The ballroom’s walls contracted, stealing what air remained in the room. “Though I’m reserving judgment on whether it’s pleasant.”
Stupid mouth had gotten away from her again. The laser-sharp eyes of the crowd branded her back and she became aware of exactly how many people were witnessing this public meeting between Prince Alain and a woman they no doubt vaguely recognized. Wouldn’t take long to do an internet search and find videos, pictures and news reports of the scandal. It had garnered a ton of press.
His expression darkened. “Be sure to inform me when you decide. If you’ll excuse me, I have business with Ms. Arundel which is not of your concern.”
Finn was in rare His-Royal-Highness mode. She hated it when he got that way.
“Actually,” Elise corrected with a nervous laugh and held a palm out, “Juliet is your match.”
“What?” Finn zeroed in on Juliet, piercing her with steely blue eyes she remembered all too well. “Is this your idea of a joke? Did you beg Elise to contact me?”
Is that what he thought? Her brother was dead and afterward, Finn had abandoned her when she’d needed him most. Juliet would never forgive him. Why would she extend one small finger to see him again?
“I had nothing to do with this!” Hands on her hips, she waded straight into the rising tension, eyes and ears around them forgotten as the emotions Finn elicited zigzagged through her torso. “I thought you were getting married. What happened to your princess? What are you doing signing on with a matchmaker?”
A muscle ticked in Finn’s forehead. “My father does want me to get married, as soon as I find a bride. That’s what I’m doing here. I was promised the perfect match. Amusing how that worked out.”
Finn wasn’t engaged? There wasn’t even a potential princess on the horizon? She’d left Delamer based on something that wasn’t even true.
“Yeah, hilarious. I was promised the same.”
In tandem, they turned to Elise. She smiled and escorted them both to an unpopulated corner, likely so the coming bloodbath wouldn’t spatter her guests. Finn’s muscled companions followed and melted into the background.
“Do you remember the profile question about love?” Elise tucked her hair behind one ear with a let’s-get-down-to-business swipe. “I asked you both what you’d be willing to give up in order to have it. Juliet, what did you say?”
Arms crossed, Juliet glared at Elise and repeated the answer. “You shouldn’t have to give up anything for love. It should be effortless or else it’s not real love.”
No compromise. Why should she have to completely rearrange her entire belief system to appease one very stubborn man? The right man for her should recognize that she’d tried to upset the status quo only because she’d been forced to.
The right man for her would know he’d been everything to her.
“Finn?” Elise prompted and he sighed.
His gaze softened and he spoke directly to Juliet. “You shouldn’t have to give up anything. Love should be easy and natural, like breathing. No one asks you to give up breathing so your heart can beat.”
He had. He wanted her to forget Bernard had died serving the king’s ego, wearing the same uniform Finn put on every day. She slammed her lids closed and shoved that thought away. It was too much.
“Right. Easy and natural. That part of us wasn’t hard.”
And with the words, the good and amazing and breath-stealing aspects of her relationship with Finn lit up the darkness inside her.
Everything had been effortless between them. If Bernard hadn’t had that accident, she and Finn would probably be married by now and living happily ever after.
“No. Not hard at all.” Finn shook his head, his eyes still on her, searching for something that looked a lot like what she constantly wished for—a way to go back in time.
Which was impossible and the reason she’d fled to the States.
But she’d left Delamer because she thought Finn was marrying someone else. If that wasn’t true, what else might she need to reexamine?
Elise put her hands out, placing them gently on their arms, connecting them. “Do you remember what you each said you were looking for in a relationship?”
“The calm in the storm,” Juliet said, and her ire drained away to be replaced by the tiniest bit of hope.
“A place where I could just be, without all the other pressures of life,” Finn said, his voice a little raspy. “That’s how I answered the question.”
He didn’t move, but he felt closer. As if she could reach out and touch him, which she desperately wanted to do. Curled fingers dug into her thigh. Her heart tripped. This was not a good idea.
“So? We answered a couple of questions the same way. That’s no surprise.”
Finn agreed with a nod. “I would have been surprised if we didn’t respond in a similar vein.”
They’d always been of one mind, two hearts beating as one. When they sailed together, they never even had to talk, working in perfect tandem to reef the main or hull trim. They’d met while sailing with mutual friends, then fallen in love as the two of them skimmed the water again and again in Finn’s boat.
“So,” Elise said brightly, “maybe the better question is whether you can forget about the past and see how you both might have changed. You’re in America. The divide you had in Delamer doesn’t matter here. It’s safe. Take some time on neutral ground to explore whether that effortless love still exists.”
That was totally unnecessary. She’d never fallen out of love with Finn and being here in his presence after a long, cold year apart solidified the fact that she probably never would.
But that didn’t mean they belonged together.
“Are you a relationship counselor or a matchmaker?” Juliet asked Elise without a trace of guile.
“Both. Whatever it takes to help people find happiness.”
Happiness. That hadn’t been on her list when she came to Elise, broken and desperate for a solution to end her pain. But instead of an American husband, she’d been handed an opportunity for a second chance with Finn.
He was the only man on earth who could rightly be called her match. The only man she’d ever wanted to let into her heart. That had always been true and Elise had somehow figured that out.
That was some computer program Elise used. Juliet had hoped for a bit of magic. Perhaps she’d gotten her wish.
“Elise is right,” Finn said quietly. “This is neutral ground, with no room for politics. And it’s a party. Dance with me.”
Juliet nodded and hoped agreeing wasn’t the stupidest thing she’d ever done.
Elise
