Thinking of him taking consolation in one of their arms made me feel like going postal. Stupid, stupid me. I’d had my shot … and blew it. I could’ve kissed him in the meadow, but I’d taken the high road. Or the low, slinking road of cowardice, depending on how you looked at it. My heart twisted sharply with that observation, and I had to remind myself that it was better this way. I was leaving at the first opportunity.
Unable to continue watching the macabre flirtfest, I drifted along the edges of the pavilion until I came to the lake. Heavy rain caused a symphony of ripples on the water’s surface. Little clusters of ducks and geese, reveling in the downpour, swam in jubilant pursuit of each another. At times, one or another would stop to dive for an underwater morsel, their duck butts quivering and bobbing along the water’s surface.
In the midst of such aquatic frivolity, a single swan glided in complete isolation. The graceful black and white bird cast such a somber contrast to the reckless ducklings that I felt drawn to it. Wasn’t it a bird like the others? Yet unaffected by the ducks’ infectious play, it floated among them as an entity apart.
“Swans mate for life, ye know.”
In my distraction, I hadn’t heard Duncan approach. His smooth brogue caused me to jump in surprise and set my girl parts to tingling. “No, I didn’t know.” Intrigued by the noble swan, I returned to my contemplation of the lake and conveniently away from an even more captivating view.
“His name’s Romeo,” Duncan supplied. The words rolled softly from his tongue, making me long to hear him recite the soliloquy of Shakespeare’s iconic hero. O that I were a glove upon that hand …
Pulling myself back to present, I asked, “Where’s his Juliet?”
“Died.”
The poignancy in that single word caused my chest to contract as I faced the prince. Grief etched deep lines around his eyes and the corners of his mouth. As I stared at him, Duncan continued to regard the lake with luminous eyes. “Five winters ago … Not a day goes by that he does not miss her terribly.”
“How do you know?”
He turned to me with his weary, honest gaze and a tight smile. “Because they were inseparable. If ye were to watch them, you could feel how happy they were. Romeo’s not been the same since his Juliet left him.”
“What if you found him a new mate at the Centennial, maybe—”
“No. He wouldna take to her.”
His face held more than a deep empathy for the bird, something honest but unfathomable. The golden flecks in his chocolate eyes shimmered as he leaned slightly forward and reduced the distance between us. Caught in his magnetic pull, I struggled to recall our dialogue—oh, yeah, swans, and mating for life.
I swallowed down the egg-sized lump that’d materialized in my throat. “It must be difficult to be a swan.”
“But amazin’ too. Swans are nature’s true soul mates.”
Duncan and I were not swans. Or Romeo and Juliet for that matter, and we hadn’t—uh—mated. We were humans—plenty of fish in the sea, and all that.
Duncan cleared his throat. When he spoke, his voice cracked awkwardly. “Have you—uh—ever been to a funeral before?”
Okay, that was a random, personal segue. As I pondered my answer, I looked into his guileless eyes and the world slipped away. I felt myself nod without any conscious decision to open up. “My mom’s—but I don’t remember much. And then when my aunt passed … I was twelve.”
Quiet as a whisper, he said, “Tell me about it.”
Under his hypnotic spell, I began to share. “I remember feeling devastated, lost. Everyone was telling me how sorry they were, but all I wanted was to be left alone. When I finally slipped away, I went to see an old friend. A boy, actually.”
“And?” Despite the heaviness of the word, his face remained impassive.
“He kissed me.” Never mind that Finn was imaginary—so the factualness of the kiss was questionable. Duncan didn’t need to hear that part. “It was the last time I ever saw him.”
“Have you been kissed since?”
“Oh, sure.” I’d had my share of lip locks and tongue tangles, both on stage and off, though none had come even close to Finn. Made up or not, it was hands down the best kiss I’d ever had.
Following my unspoken thoughts, a deep sigh slipped from Duncan’s mouth. “But there’s nothing like your first.”