“Holy shit,” I said, exhaling a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. “How long was I staring at him?”
Kinsley gripped my hand and squeezed it, hard. “I thought you went catatonic there for a second.”
I squeezed my eyes closed and groaned under my breath. Then, a hand reached out and tapped my shoulder. It was the girl from before—the swimmer with the nails-on-a-chalkboard squeal.
“Um, excuse me. Do you know Freddie?”
Before I could answer, her friend chimed in.
“If you do, could you introduce us? It’s just that—”
Kinsley held up her hand to stop them. “She doesn’t know him. He was clearly waving at the juice man,” she said, motioning to the elderly Brazilian man behind the counter.
I forced myself to move forward in line and I kept my eyes trained ahead of me, but the excitement behind me was too hard to ignore. People whispered, girls squealed, and cameras flashed as Freddie took photos with his fans. I moved forward and ordered a strawberry banana protein smoothie, and as I turned to find a seat with Kinsley, I ignored every urge to look in his direction as I passed. It was painful to deny myself that simple pleasure, and I was still lamenting that fact when he bent out of line and reached for my hand. His palm touched mine and my heart stopped. He gripped my hand tightly, just for a moment, then let it go.
Hhhhoooookkkkaay. I was definitely having a heart attack. This is the end. I’m going to die in a smoothie line. I couldn’t breathe and my chest hurt, and then he smiled and started speaking, but I couldn’t hear him over the sound of my heart.
“I’m sorry,” I accidentally shouted. “What?”
He smiled wider, reveling in the fact that he’d knocked me off my senses. I could only focus on his eyes, at the exact shade of light brown that promised to be my demise.
“Your smoothie,” he said with a smooth British accent. “You’ve left it.”
I whipped around to see a girl behind the counter waving my smoothie in the air like a metronome. “Don’t you want this?” she asked, confused.
I cringed. Had I not grabbed it already? Apparently not. I hid my face as I walked back and took it from her hand. Every single person in line trailed my movements, either because they thought I was a little off my rocker, or because Freddie Archibald had just reached out and held my hand. His touch had been warm and his palm was massive, wrapping around mine with no effort at all.
I’d stood in line for a smoothie for a solid twenty minutes and then I’d walked away empty-handed, too dumbstruck to care. All because of Freddie-freaking-Archibald—who, by the way, was still watching me.
I forced myself to make eye contact with him as I passed, and he smiled a secret little smile I knew I’d be dissecting for hours.
“See you around,” he said, and the words felt more like a promise than a dismissal.
Kinsley and Becca didn’t say a word as we took our seats at a table far, far away from Freddie and his adoring fans. I purposely positioned myself with my back to him and stared at my smoothie.
“Honestly, Andie, you need to cool your jets with Freddie—”
Kinsley started rambling on again, but I wasn’t listening. She was going to tell me to “focus on soccer” and “stay away from boys” and “don’t party” and “keep your head in the game”, and I didn’t want to hear it.
I pulled my phone out of my purse to find a text message my mom had sent right after I’d hung up on her. I swiped it open much to the dismay of Kinsley.
“Andie!” Kinsley said. “Are you listening?”
Mom: You didn’t let me finish! Frederick is betrothed. Can you believe it? Maybe if the two of you become friends you’ll be invited to a royal wedding! Or maybe he has a friend…another duke perhaps! Meemaw would be so excited!
NO! Betrothed? Betrothed? No. No. No.
My stomach hurt. This wasn’t right. He was supposed to be single. We were supposed to touch hands and exchange sly smiles and…
“He’s betrothed?” I asked, hearing the shock in my voice.
I dropped my phone on the table and Kinsley leaned forward to read the text message. When she was done, she glanced up at me with a pitiful frown.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you all morning. Freddie is set to marry some girl named Caroline Montague. The betrothal was announced a few weeks ago.”
That made no sense.
Who the hell was Caroline Montague?
CHAPTER EIGHT
Andie