“Do you want me to?” Zeva flashed a smug grin.
“No.” Zuri crossed her arms. “Maybe. I’m going to miss you, Zeva.”
“I can come visit you anywhere that you are. Well, at least after I’m done with FGA. I’d love for you to stay in Ever After, but you said that’s not what you need. Since I love you, what can I do but let you go?”
“You’re really too wise for your own good.”
“Not really. Being an FG in T is teaching me that I really don’t know anything. No one should give me the wheel for anything. Ever. I know nothing.”
“I’m sure there’s some kind of philosophical point in there somewhere,” Zuri said.
“Uh-huh, but I’m too tired to chew on it.”
“Me too.”
“Wanna build a blanket fort?”
This was the medicine she needed more than any exotic location, or anything else she could think of. A blanket fort with her sister, and the castle helping.
This was home.
How would she ever leave it?
How could she not?
Chapter 27
He didn’t have to knock on Zuri’s door.
The castle knew exactly where he wanted to be, and even though he’d instructed the castle not to take him places without his verbal request, he found that he couldn’t be upset.
He admired the blanket and pillow fort that had been constructed in the middle of the room. Phillip was impressed it had a makeshift drawbridge. He was sure only magic held it together, but he liked it nonetheless.
“Permission to enter?” he said.
“Phillip, what are you doing here?” Zuri poked her head up out of the top of the pillow fort.
“What do you think I’m doing here?”
“I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking.” She dropped back down into the depths of the pillows and blankets. “I was just coming to find you to say goodbye, as I promised.”
“Will you stay one more night?”
“Phillip, we can’t.”
He wanted to blurt out that they could, it was his last night as a man, but he knew it wasn’t fair to put the weight of his choice on her.
“We can. Just talking. I wouldn’t insult you like that.” He supposed maybe it was asking too much of her anyway.
“Okay,” she relented.
“I thought you were going to wait until after the Markhoff wedding was over before you left,” he said.
“I was, but Alec proposed to me during the rehearsal.”
“That bastard.”
“I know. It was so embarrassing. Everyone was looking at me expectantly. As if he’d somehow convinced them all that this was a good idea. What in the actual hell?”
“We can still fry his memory.”
“No. I handled it. I quit the wedding. I told him what I’d do. And I did. I’m sure that everything will still go off perfectly, because I do know what I’m doing after all, but I won’t be there. I instructed the castle to please make sure I was never in a room with him again.”
“That’s fairly devious. I like it.” He sank down toward the makeshift door. “Are you going to let me in, or is the castle not supposed to let us be in the same room, either?”
The pillow drawbridge opened, and he crawled inside.
The inside was much bigger than the outside had led him to believe, but he should’ve expected it because it was magic.
The interior was spacious and filled with brightly colored carpets, filmy curtains, and mountains and mountains of silk embroidered pillows.
And of course, cups of drinking chocolate.
At first, his brain tried to remind him constantly that this was the last cup of drinking chocolate he’d have. The last things he’d ever talk about. The last sights he’d see.
He had friends he wanted to tell goodbye, but all of it paled in comparison to spending this time with Zuri.
Phillip finally managed to turn that part of his brain off. He didn’t want to think of this as the last of anything.
He was just an average Prince Charming, and this was his princess.
In their pillow fort castle.
Phillip wouldn’t tell her that this was his Happily Ever After. She’d find out soon enough.
He didn’t feel like he was cheating her of anything, she was the one who’d decided this was goodbye. So he was confident she’d say anything she’d wanted to tell him.
“This is pretty amazing.”
“Yeah, it’s a lovely little retreat. I’m going to miss your castle.”
“I think she’s going to miss you.”
“Yeah, she flung my suitcase out the window at a swan earlier, so I got the point.”
He was overwhelmed with the need to touch her. Just to hold her so that he could anchor himself in the real.
She scooted closer to him, and he reached out a hand to touch her but then dropped it. “Zuri?”
She seemed to know what he was asking, and she laid her head on his chest.
It felt so good to hold her close. To smell her hair. To feel her solid presence in his arms.
Then, he realized he was fucking this all up. He didn’t want to put the weight of his choices on her shoulders, but how would she ever know he picked her if he didn’t tell her? He hadn’t thought any of this through.
She thought she was saying goodbye to a man who had agreed to marry someone else.
He was, in essence, taking her choice away from her.
Phillip wasn’t going to screw this up. It was the last thing he could do for her. It wasn’t selfish of him to let her know how much he loved her.
That he loved her more than himself.
It was a gift that he could give her.
The thing that she would take with her when he was gone.
Hunter was right. He was kind of dumb when it came to these things. But it wasn’t like he’d had a lot of experience.
“Zuri, I have to tell you something.”
“God, what else can there be? I don’t think I can take anything else.”
“Just this. I broke off the engagement.”
She shot up. “Why? Why would you do that?”
He watched as the answer dawned on her, and she shook her head.
“No, Phillip. You can’t do this.”
“It’s done,” he said. “Come here and let me hold you.”
She bit her lip and was choked by a sob. “No. You just go undo it. I won’t let you do this.”
“You are it for me, Zuri Davis. I got to choose between a thousand forevers and one more night with you. How many of us get that choice? I’m so damn lucky that I get to pick you.”
Her lips quivered. “This is the dumbest thing you’ve ever done. By far and away. I mean, it’s dumber than courting two Blossom sisters at the same time.”
“No, baby. It’s the best. None of all my long years were actually spent living until I met you. This is my Happily Ever After.” Then he remembered Bluebonnet’s words. “It may not be the way I envisioned it, but it’s mine.”
“Phillip . . .” She let him pull her back down to him. “You don’t have to let this curse win just to prove you love me. I know you love me.”
“But you don’t know what you’re worth. You’re everything.”
“I’ve been crying for the last week, and it’s all your fault.”
“Be mad at me after I’m a frog. Go see Ravenna and feed me dragonflies as revenge. You know I hate getting their wings in my teeth.”
“Ravenna?”
“Yeah, she wanted me to tell you that she’s going to make sure nothing eats me. She’s going to keep my froggy self to save me from the mermaid fountain. Not that I’ll know the difference.” He managed a dry laugh.
“You won’t have any teeth.” She sniffed.
“There’s my girl.”
She slapped at his shoulders. “I can’t believe you weren’t going to tell me. What were you going to do? Sit here with me until you had to hop to Ravenna’s and just never com
e back?”
He pulled her tighter. “I hadn’t really thought it through, actually. I didn’t get any further than not being able to let you go thinking you weren’t my everything.”
“And how would I have known that if you didn’t tell me? Oh, I’m so mad at you.”
“Yeah, I know. It was a tough balance between not wanting to burden you with my choices and wanting you to know. But you’re smart. You’d have figured it out.” He kissed her forehead. “Be mad at me later.”
“I will!” she assured him. “So what do you want to do for your Happily Ever After?”
“Just this.”
“Really? You’re not going to leverage your last night on earth to get me to do some kinky sex game?”
“Nope. I had a lot of that before I met you. A lot. I mean, the last century or so I was celibate because who can be bothered without some kind of deeper connection? I couldn’t be, anyway.”
“You don’t have any wild fantasies about us?”
“Are you disappointed to know that this, right here, is my wildest fantasy come to life? Just you and me, together. For the rest of the time I have left. However long that happens to be. This was my fantasy before I knew my curse was going to become permanent.”
“You’re ridiculous.” She curled more closely into him.
“I know. That’s why you love me, though.”
“It is.”
“What about your fantasies? Is there anything you want to do with me?”
“Besides everything? I suppose just this.”
“Screw all that angst, and the unnecessary goodbye. These are the moments that make a life.”
She clung to him more tightly.
For his part, he was simply content to hold her.
It wasn’t long before the roof of the makeshift fort disappeared, giving them an unfettered view of a black velvet sky that glittered with diamond stars and bursts of comets.
“I wonder how many people are looking up at these same stars,” Zuri said. “When I was in high school, I had a boyfriend once tell me that wishing on stars was stupid, because they were all dead. Their light was the last burst of energy they had to give, and to ask for more was selfish.”
“I never thought of it that way.”
“Me either. I still don’t know if I think it’s bitter, deep, or, somehow, kind of beautiful. He works for the space program now.”
“That’s fitting. It seems like he’s still asking more from the stars, isn’t he? He still wants to know their secrets.”
“Don’t we all?”
Her fingers intertwined with his, and he found himself drifting toward sleep. He fought to stay awake.
“If you want to sleep, sleep.”
“My body wants to sleep, but I want to be awake.”
“If this were any other night, what would you do?” she asked.
“Hold you until dawn. I don’t usually sleep when I’m a man.”
“What would you do without this stupid curse?”
“I’d fall asleep with you in my arms because I’d know I’d have tomorrow.”
“Then let’s pretend you have tomorrow.”
Zuri shifted and changed their positions. She was the big spoon, and he let her. He got to bury his face in the comforting softness of her cleavage and feel the sweet warmth of her body wrapped around him.
This time it was Zuri who kissed his forehead and stroked his hair. Zuri who hummed a soft lullaby while the edges of his consciousness shifted to a dream world where forever with her was real.
This was it, he realized. And it was okay.
He didn’t want to go with a sad goodbye. With tears. With regrets.
He’d slip away while she held him in her arms, and he couldn’t ask for more.
“Love you,” he murmured as the darkness pulled him away into a soft cocoon where there was no pain, no loss, and Zuri’s sweet embrace was forever.
Chapter 28
Zuri came awake slowly, in shades of no and more no.
She knew that when she awoke, she’d be alone and her Prince Charming would be gone.
She wasn’t ready to face that world.
She’d put off telling him goodbye; she could put this off, too. Not forever, just for a little bit longer.
A loud cackle, however, jerked her into wakefulness. “What’s up, fuckers?” Petty asked.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Zuri shrieked.
“Securing your Happily Ever After, that’s what.” Petty replied in a smug tone.
“Oh my God, shut up,” Phillip mumbled.
Phillip!
Mumbled!
He was there! It was dawn! He was him. He wasn’t a frog!
“Ah, I see it’s finally taking root. Okay.” Petty clapped her hands. “Chop-chop. We have things to do. We need to start planning this wedding because Zeva has to go to FGA and can’t visit for some time. That is, unless you don’t care if your sister is at your wedding.”
“Petty, it’s the middle of the night, and you’re ruining my Happily Ever After. Get. Out,” Phillip grumbled.
“No, no. It’s dawn. It’s past dawn. It’s time for breakfast. We’re all starving, and we’re all waiting for you to ring the castle bells so we can celebrate the engagement of Ever After’s king . . . er, mayor, whatever we want to call it for the normies. Move. Your. Green. Butt.”
“It’s not green anymore!” Zuri cried.
“It’s going to be if you don’t get moving,” Jonquil advised knowingly.
Phillip sat up and looked around. He checked himself with his hands. First, checking all of the angles of his face. His shoulders. He hugged himself and checked his arms. Then his legs, before looking to Zuri.
His eyes were still that intense, surreal green.
“Zuri, is this real?”
“If it’s just your froggy fantasy, do you really want to wake up?” Petty asked kindly.
“No. Never,” he said. “Wait, yes. It’s not really Happily Ever After if I’m not with Zuri.”
“Right answer, Prince Charming.”
“I don’t understand why True Love’s Kiss didn’t break the curse,” Zuri asked.
“It did. It was his love for you that had to be true. He had to love you more than himself. That’s all.” Petty shrugged her shoulders.
“You could’ve told me and saved us all that angst,” Zuri groused.
“I tried.”
Zuri remembered Zeva telling her that she had to have faith. She remembered Zeva’s words when she asked what Zuri would do if one more night would change everything. How she was so close and it was too important to give up now.
If she would’ve left, she’d have lost it all.
Phillip would have, too.
She looked up at the castle. “Thanks for not letting me leave. I guess you knew what you were doing.”
“You were trying to leave? Oh, my dear. You would’ve ruined everything,” Petty said.
“The castle helped. So did Zeva. She told me I couldn’t give up.”
“She was right. And much too close to breaking the spirit of the rule if not the letter. She’s a sneaky one, isn’t she?” Petty asked. “But I suppose I knew that.”
“Zeva reminds me of you, Petty. When you were younger,” Bluebonnet said.
“Dearie me. That means we’re really in for it.” Petty shook her head. “So, hey, Zuri, why don’t you show him that dress Rosebud gave you. It’s beautiful. I think it would be the perfect wedding dress.”
“Petty. No one said we’re getting married,” Zuri said.
“No?” Phillip asked her. “I suppose we can wait if that’s what you want.”
“Why are you two the most stubborn charges I’ve ever had?” Petty asked.
“I bet you say that about all of them,” Zuri teased.
“I do. Right now, you’re the worst. Listen, after all this work, you’re getting married. I’ve decided. You have to help us plan all these other weddings, and we need you happy and fulf
illed. Both of you. So get with the program.”
Phillip grinned. “I don’t know. It’s all up to Zuri. Wait, is that dress that Petty is talking about by any chance lavender?”
Zuri looked up to see Petty’s eyes twinkle with mischief, and pink fairy dust exploded around her in a bright display of mini fireworks.
“It is,” Zuri replied with a smile.
“The bride in Ravenna’s vision was wearing a lavender dress,” Phillip said.
Warmth and joy welled up inside her as she realized this fairy tale really did belong to her.
“Well, if you’ve seen the dress,” Zuri began, unable to resist giving Petty a hard time. “Then I couldn’t possibly use it for my wedding dress.”
“What have I told you two about fate?” Petty huffed.
“Don’t fuck with it,” they repeated together in monotone.
“Well, at least you’re listening part of the time. Come on, ring the castle bells so we can all celebrate the breaking of the curse and another Happily Ever After. I’ve been dying for this one,” Petty said.
“You?” Phillip arched a brow and scoffed.
“Yes, me. Every day of your curse . . .” She trailed off and looked away to the left. Then she coughed. “Every day of your curse after the first hundred years has been agonizing for me. I felt so awful. I’m so happy for you, Phillip. FGI wishes you the happiest of Happily Ever Afters.”
“Do you really?” He arched a brow.
“Yes!” Petty cried.
“Then get out so I can start enjoying it properly.”
Petty cocked her head to the side. “I really don’t see . . . Oh. Oh!”
“Yes, oh! Go. Shoo.” Phillip waved her out.
“You did not just shoo me. I swear, I’ll . . .”
“Go ring the castle bells for us?” Zuri asked hopefully.
“Okay, but after shenanigans will you promise me we can start planning the wedding? Please?” Petty begged.
“I will not. Phillip hasn’t asked. Let our love story finish unfolding,” Zuri pleaded.
“I think we should get started. If she’s still here when I get naked, that’s on her.”
“I thought you said you didn’t have any kinky fantasies?” Zuri teased.
Petty fluttered her wings anxiously. “Oh, okay. But I’m ringing the bells.”
Men Are Frogs Page 26