Page 44 of Runaway Bride’s Husband

“Actually, I’ve always let my parents stop me. From everything,” I admitted quietly. “All my life, I’ve been the perfect Pembroke princess, even when it’s never felt like that’s who I am. I’ve done everything they’ve asked and I did it without question or complaint because that’s just how things are, but marriage? It was asking too much, Ryan. It was the one thing I couldn’t give. I tried, but…”

When I trailed off, he held my gaze for a long moment before he gave me a surprisingly soft smile. “Well, then I suppose it’s a good thing you’ve got me here to be your guide. The train was like my second home when I was in college. Obviously, we couldn’t afford plane tickets back and forth between here and Chicago, and I couldn’t afford taxis to get around the city either, so I practically lived on trains.”

“That sounds amazing,” I said, bumping my shoulder playfully against his. “I’m so jealous right now.”

He chuckled. “Oh, yeah. There’s nothing quite as worthy of your envy as being broke. It’s so sexy.”

“Hey, you got to do whatever you wanted. How many trains did you take a day?”

“At least two. Sometimes more.”

My eyes widened. “Keep rubbing it in, why don’t you?”

“Yeah, it was pretty great, actually.” For the first time since we’d walked in here, he lifted his gaze toward the terminal and let it drift from one side to the other, a grin I hadn’t expected spreading on his lips. “You should take the subway sometime soon, too. There’s something about the anonymity of them that’s just amazing. No one knows who you are, and frankly, no one cares. Everyone’s got their own stuff going on and they’re only focused on getting to where they’re going.”

“That sounds like an experience I need to have right about now.”

“You wouldn’t regret it.” He finally glanced back at me. “The weird thing about it is that at the time, I hated it. Don’t get me wrong, the anonymity was still great, but the fact that it was one of the only means of transport we could actually afford? That sucked. We went from private jets and personal drivers to buses and subways. It felt like a pretty big drop.”

“I can’t even imagine.”

“I don’t think you’d want to, but at the same time, we all had this odd new freedom. For the first few months after my dad’s arrest, we were obviously under the microscope of public scrutiny, but after that, the news cycle moved on and we could just be.”

“Until the microscope came back?”

He shrugged. “Yeah, something like that. It sort of came in waves for a long time, but in between, there was this sense of peace. I mean, we had to fight for everything we had and we worked our butts off just to get by, but the people who became our friends liked us despite our last name, not because of it. We didn’t have calendars filled with galas and dinners. I spent more than a few nights just drinking beer with my roommate and absolutely no one cared. No one called to remind me I had to be somewhere.”

For a few minutes as I listened to him, the weight of my own troubles disappeared. Ryan also didn’t speak like it was hurting him to tell me all this stuff. Instead, there was a note of disbelief entwined with exhilaration in his voice, like looking back, he’d realized it hadn’t been all bad.

“Your life must be very different now,” I said when he fell silent after telling me another story about him and his roommate. “You’re back to having drivers and tailors. You were on the guest list for my wedding and I’ve seen some news coverage of you guys recently. Obviously, I don’t know the details, but I know your brothers married Egyptian heiresses and that you guys are constantly seen living it up with the Westwoods.”

“Yeah.” Ryan stared at the wall opposite us, his jaw tightening for a beat before he looked back at me. “It’s great. It just doesn’t feel natural.”

Before I could ask what he meant, he stood and motioned toward a train that had pulled in while we’d been talking. “That’s us. Let’s go. I booked us two private sleeping rooms.”

I nodded like I knew exactly what he was talking about, even though I hadn’t known that was something one could do on a train. Ryan waved me ahead of him and we boarded. There was no elegant conductor in uniform personally escorting me to my room, nor was there a mysterious European man to drink wine and discuss art with, but the train still turned out to be everything I’d hoped.

Ryan walked me to my room, hovering at the door with his laptop when I walked in. “I’m right next door if you need anything.”

“Thank you,” I said, too busy inspecting my tiny but thrilling sleeping quarters to realize I was about to be in here alone for hours.

He lingered for another minute before he disappeared into his own room, presumably to get some work done, and as I sat there, I felt weirdly warm thinking about him now that he wasn’t around to see me do it.

I couldn’t help myself, though. There was just something different about him. I’d spent my entire life around men like Ryan. Men who could walk into any room like they owned it and who knew which designer to wear and who to avoid, which club to belong to, which deal to close, and how to close it.

Ryan knew all those things too, but he didn’t behave like those other men. Mostly, he didn’t make me feel like I was being assessed and he certainly didn’t seem to care if I was behaving the way a Pembroke woman was supposed to. I liked that.

For the next twenty minutes, I mentally rehashed the time we’d spent together and how novel it was that he made me feel like I could just be myself around him, but eventually, I got bored and walked out into the narrow corridor, wandering around until I found a little lounge car.

It was pretty empty, so I took a seat near the window and stared out at the dark landscape, wondering what stories these tables would be able to tell. I bet they’ve really seen some things.

Lost in thought, I almost didn’t notice it was my phone that buzzed a few times on the table, but when I finally glanced down, I saw several new message notifications on the screen. All of them from Daniel.

My stomach sank, but I picked up my phone and clicked into the thread, knowing the time had come.

Daniel: We need to talk about this eventually.

Daniel: I’m not trying to put pressure on you. I promise. But this limbo is messing with me, Maggie. I need your help getting some clarity.