Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 102166 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102166 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
“No, Monty. She’s been gone all night.”
“All night?” he asked, some of his usual lightness falling away.
“We were at the town hall together. But she disappeared. I haven’t seen her since.”
“You mean to tell me that a sweet, sheltered stranger to the land is lost in this sprawling metropolis and there isn’t a swarm of police in this apartment? Where are the federal agents? The National Guard?”
“Monty, I get the panic. Really, I do. But I need you to focus. Try to figure out where she might have gone. I’ve checked the usual places.”
“Was she feeling particularly tide-turned?”
“What does tide-turned mean?”
“Moody. Off.”
His mind flashed back to her face when she’d come out of the bathroom.
“Maybe. Yes. Yeah, definitely. Why?”
“She may have gone to the closest body of water, then. To clear her head. I’ll go see if I can track down some gulls and ask,” he said. He dropped his bags then moved toward the door. “You stay here.”
Finn wasn’t sure if trusting a pelican was his best bet. But, then again, no one in the city knew Iris as well as her ‘emotional support pelican.’
Alone again, Finn went into the bathroom, cranking the water to cold, then stripping and climbing in, wanting to shock himself fully awake.
It wasn’t until he climbed out that he saw it.
The ring box on the sink counter.
The ring nestled inside like a closed promise.
He knew she’d been wearing it at the town hall.
Its presence in the penthouse meant she’d come home afterward.
He rushed down the hall, pushing open the primary bedroom door and looking with fresh eyes.
There.
Half kicked under the bed was the light pink dress she’d worn to the press conference.
Along with her strapless bra.
And her panties.
All crumpled like a shed skin.
Monty was right.
She’d gone to the water.
Likely in nothing but a sundress or cover-up, so she could easily strip and slide into the waves.
As he glanced more around the apartment, he realized that while she had left the ring, she had taken something else with her. The book. His book. The one he’d spent hours picking out and getting spelled for her.
Its absence gave him hope that it wasn’t too late to change her mind.
She was running.
Not just away from the pressures of his future office.
But also from him.
Though, he was crossing his fingers that taking the book with her meant she wasn’t completely done with him.
Because he needed to bring her back.
And it wasn’t about appearances, or strategy, or trying to salvage the relationship he’d mapped out like a campaign.
This had nothing to do with optics.
It was her pillow-creased face first thing in the morning. It was her late-night laugh when Monty regaled her with stories of his adventures. It was the way she challenged him without flinching. It was how she cried happy tears when the characters in her books finally got out of their own way and fell in love. It was the way her hair fell into her face when she laughed, and her eyes warmed when she shot him one of those rare, precious smiles.
It was the way she made him want to do better, to be better. Not for the views, not for the headlines, not for the votes. But for her.
It was because she’d only been gone a short while and his world already felt darker and colder.
He had to bring her back because he knew somewhere deep in his marrow that what had started out as a strategy had become the only thing in his life that felt real.
20
Iris
She’d gotten a little turned around in the crowd.
It seemed like everyone wanted a minute or two with her after the official questioning was over.
One or two of them genuinely wanted to discuss things like the ocean and pollution.
As a whole, though, she mostly felt like they just wanted proximity to her.
Was it because she was royalty?
Or simply because she was a mermaid?
She had no idea.
But after the fifteenth face got in hers, she was finding it hard to maintain that fake smile.
Suddenly, she had a lot of respect for Finn for being able to fake it so well. Even if she deeply disliked it about him at the same time.
It took a lot of self-control not to roll her eyes or sigh at some of the things people said, the wild accusations they threw, the borderline conspiracy theory ideas they’d cooked up in their heads.
Finn faked peace and understanding perfectly.
She, as much as she hated to admit it, was going to need more practice.
When she’d finally untangled herself from that werewolf she’d been momentarily fascinated by when she’d first seen him, but quickly found him a little pushy and inappropriate one-on-one, she’d gone in search of Finn.
She was ready to go home, get comfy, and get to sleep early for once.
She’d just been moving toward the staging area when Henry’s voice carried out to her.