Page 90 of Not Another Happily Ever After

As if magically summoned, a gorgeous girl with long blonde hair and cerulean blue eyes, wearing a tightly fitted blue apron dress over a pale yellow short-sleeved slip, walks out of the kitchen. She’s smiling as she carries three bowls of porridge.

Then her big doe eyes land on Merrek and everything falls. Her smile. The porridge.

All of Merrek’s self-preservation.

“That’sGoldie,” Myrrdin whispers. “Merrek’s girlfriend.”

“Ex-girlfriend,” Goldie corrects, her tongue firmly pressed to the inside of her cheek. Though by the starstruck look on Merrek’s face, I’d say it’s a distinction he doesn’t quite recognize.

“Hey, babe.” He smiles, wide and toothy. Like a child who’s just been offered candy.

“The nerve of this guy.” Huffs the smallest of the brothers, who’s already rolling up his sleeves.

Oh, god.

“Should we help him?” I whisper.

Frog and Myrrdin shake their heads, leaving me alone to watch in horror as Merrek makes an even bigger mess.

“You look good.” He sweetly offers, but the way his eyes are raking over every curve in her body is pure sin.

I look away, hoping to cool the heat flooding to my face, only to catch Frog staring at me, and feel the warmth spread anyway. “Yeah, I do. And you still look like the knight that left me to go play in a big, ugly castle.” Goldie bites, but I don’t miss the subtle lift of her full lips.

Merrek’s eyes turn pleading.

“Come on, Goldie. That’s not fair. I’m a knight of Castle Ruin. There are some things I need to do before I can do the things we want to.” His voice softens. “But I also need you.”

My heart aches for the knight, but watching Goldie swallow back tears has my heart breaking for her too.

“Yeah, well,” she sniffles. “I don’t need a knight like that.”

Merrek cuts her a sidewise glance.

“You really gonna make me do this in front of all these people?” He asks.

She looks away, pretending to pick her pristine nails.

“Alrighty, then.” He nods, pursing his lips.

Then he drops to his knees. And he begs.

“Forget the kinda knight I am. What kinda knight do you need me to be?”

“Oh, I oughta?—”

“Relax Bobby. I’ve got him from here.” Goldie cuts, a small smile moving across her lips as she saunters over to where Merrek is still on the floor.

He smiles up at her. Then she slaps him, hard enough to shake the table.

“Oh.” Myrrdin winces. “Five pounds says this mark lasts longer than the last.”

“Ten says it doesn’t. She used her left hand this time,” Bobby replies, before taking off into the kitchen with his brothers to fetch some rags.

Meanwhile I’m still sitting here, wide-eyed, no closer to any answers. And now, painfully hungry.

“Goldie hasundergroundconnections.” Frog leans forward on the table, brushing his elbow against mine.

We both notice, but it’s he who pulls away first this time.