Royal Holiday (The Wedding Date, #4)(39)

He just hoped he could put this whole thing out of his head for the next few days and enjoy this time with Vivian.

Speaking of Vivian, here was another situation where he didn’t know exactly what was going on, or how to resolve it. He’d hoped she’d be spending these few days with him, at his flat, but she’d never really addressed that part of his invitation. So he supposed he’d just see if she brought her luggage down today when she met him in the lobby.

Where was she? He glanced at his watch. 12:02. He had said noon in his text, hadn’t he? He pulled out his phone and scrolled down to their texts. Yes, definitely, he had. Should he text her? Or call up to her room?

12:05. Something must be wrong.

Had she changed her mind? Maybe she’d left with Maddie this morning and hadn’t told him.

No, Vivian wouldn’t do that.

At least, he didn’t think she would.

He had gotten the hotel correct, hadn’t he? He found the email that the Duchess’s private secretary had sent him with the Forests’ travel information. Yes, The Goring. Well, maybe . . .

“Malcolm! Sorry I’m late. I hope you haven’t been waiting long!”

There she was, walking to him from the elevator, with a smile on her face.

He smiled at her, so relieved she was here and not on her way back to California that he was almost not annoyed at her casual lateness. And almost not disappointed she had no luggage by her side.

“Not a problem. Are you ready?”

She smiled at him.

“That depends on what we’re doing today.” She cocked her head at him. “What are we doing today?”

His original plan had been that they’d swing by his flat to drop off her luggage before they did anything else, but that didn’t seem to be necessary. He’d have to quickly revise his plan.

He opened the hotel door for her.

“How do you feel about surprises?”

She laughed.

“I hate surprises.”

He stopped on the sidewalk and turned to her.

“Are you . . . do you really?”

She nodded.

“For the most part, absolutely.” She shrugged. “Well, you asked! So often, surprises are just a way for someone to do something they’re not sure you would like, so they present it to you as a fait accompli so you can’t argue with them about it. And even worse, you have to put on a happy face, because ‘It’s a surprise!’ so you’re supposed to be thrilled about it, and you look like a jerk when you’re not. There have been a handful of times in my life when a surprise was thoughtful, someone thinking about what would make me happy. But too often, it’s them thinking about themselves. The problem is so often surprises are about the other person and what they want, and not the person they’re surprising.”

Oh. Splendid. Just splendid.

She patted him on the shoulder.

“Oh God, you look crestfallen. I’m not saying all surprises are bad! I have had a few good ones . . .”

He knew when women said things just to humor him. Now he had no fucking idea what he was going to do. And now the one bright spot in his week had been ruined. Fantastic.

The surprises he’d planned for Vivian had been the only things he’d been happy about all week. He’d made a bunch of calls and pulled a bunch of strings to get things perfect, and now he didn’t know what to do.

Vivian caught herself before she let out a sigh. She probably shouldn’t have been honest with Malcolm about that, but it wasn’t in her nature anymore to lie about her feelings. Though now she was worried that she’d ruined everything.

She had no real idea about how the next few days would go. She and Malcolm had texted a little bit on Christmas Day, but then not again until yesterday. She’d even worried that the plan to have her stay on in London was off, until she’d gotten that rather curt text from him that he’d meet her in the lobby of her hotel at noon. She’d wanted to ask if she was invited to stay with him, but it felt strange to ask that over a text, and his demeanor this afternoon had been pretty chilly so far. She’d packed her suitcase before coming downstairs this morning but had lost her nerve and had left it, all packed, in her hotel room.

She couldn’t fight back the sigh this time. She’d thought she was going to have sex tonight! She’d looked forward to it! But Malcolm had barely touched her so far, so that seemed less and less likely by the moment.

“Where did you and Maddie go in your two days in London?” Malcolm asked after they’d gotten in the car.

Oh, thank God, something to talk about.

“Want to see?” She pulled out her phone and narrated some of the pictures she and Maddie had taken over the past few days: their walk along the Thames; their trip to Liberty department store; their dinner out; their visit to the British Museum; their selfie outside of Buckingham Palace; their fancy tea.

“We went to this really fun place for tea, so colorful and creative—see? Look how cute it is. But the food was great, too: there were cucumber sandwiches and smoked salmon sandwiches and these incredible curry chicken sandwiches, and oh, the egg salad sandwiches were the best I’ve ever had. The pastries were so pretty it was almost a shame to eat them, but the scones weren’t as good as Julia’s.”

They’d really fit a lot into their two days in London—they’d treated themselves to blowouts, which gave them lots of time for a good hairdresser’s chair gossip; they’d done a lot of shopping, for themselves and for presents for the family; and they’d just had time to relax together. She and Maddie hadn’t had this much one-on-one time in years. Maybe once she had a handle on the new job, and felt like she could take an actual vacation, they could go somewhere again, just the two of them.