Page 25 of Awestruck (Starstruck Love Stories #4)

Elliot

Havenford is smaller than I expected, a tiny fishing village tucked away at the base of a sweeping cliff on the coast. Granted, I could only see so much when we arrived because a storm blew in this afternoon, leaving the whole countryside in a thick misty rain, but I haven’t been able to figure out why Gregor added this town to the campaign trail.

Or why Grimstad would come here as well.

I’m obviously missing something.

“How many people live here?” I grumble as I stare out the window of the inn we’ve commandeered, trying to see anything through the rain. All I can make out is an empty cobblestone street and a few thatch-roofed houses.

“Few hundred?” Hex tosses an almond in the air and catches it with his mouth. He and Sander were as eager to come here as Freya seemed to be, but no one has explained why. “It’ll be better when the rain stops.”

Even at the start of the campaign, there wasn’t a planned speech for this stop, and all Freya told me in the car this morning was that she has everything under control and I don’t need to worry. Which is exactly what she shouldn’t have said if she doesn’t want me to worry.

I can’t keep her safe if I’m unprepared.

When we arrived, I tried to look up the town to get a better sense of what I’m facing, but I don’t have enough cell service to get an internet signal, and the innkeeper gave me a funny look when I asked if there was Wi-Fi.

While that hopefully means we’ll also be safe from more Hot Scoop nonsense while we’re here, I don’t like being disconnected like this.

“What’s wrong with you, El?” Hex asks, then tosses another nut into his mouth. With his legs stretched out on the chair across from him, he looks like he doesn’t have a care in the world, and I envy his ability to relax.

I let my guard down last night after Grimstad left, and that was a bad move.

Freya got more out of me than I would have liked, and a part of me still wanted to tell her my secrets when we were trapped in the car on the way here.

It’s better for everyone if I keep my shields up and stay focused on my job, but right now it feels like I’m the only one not taking it easy.

Well, me and the guards I stationed outside, though they’ll need to be relieved soon so they’re not out in the elements for too long.

“Freya’s napping,” Hex says. “Sander’s in her room with her. Not many people are dumb enough to be out in this storm, so you can relax a bit.”

Shaking my head, I return my gaze to the window. He’s right about everyone being inside—I haven’t seen anyone in the village except for a few curious townspeople when we first arrived—but relax? That’s not happening.

Sighing heavily, Hex drops his boots to the floor and gets to his feet like it’s the most laborious movement in the world.

He comes to join me at the window, throwing an arm around my shoulders, and then he presses a hand to my chest. “Seriously, Elliot. You’re allowed to have down moments too.

You’re new to the bodyguard thing, but no one expects you to be on all the time, especially after what she put you through yesterday. ”

His hand over my heart has a strange effect, like I can suddenly breathe more easily. I knew I was tense, but my body practically crumbles under his touch, and I have to reach out and grip the window frame to keep upright.

“Mate…” Hex mutters before stepping back. His eyebrows are low as he looks at me with concern, and he seems ready to jump back in and catch me at a moment’s notice.

It makes sense; I can only imagine how I look right now. My body feels heavy without Hex’s touch, and I don’t like it. I’ve come to see him and Sander as brothers like I did with my old ODA, but we haven’t known each other for long. I shouldn’t feel that much relief from a little bit of support.

I need to get a hold of myself.

Hex frowns. “Yeah, you definitely need some down time that isn’t the few hours of sleep you get at night. You’re wearing yourself thin.”

I’m doing my job, and I might have slept better last night if Freya hadn’t touched my arm while we talked to Grimstad.

It was such a soothing gesture of familiarity that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, or the way it spurred me to tuck her arm through mine as we walked back to her room.

She called us friends, and even if I had hoped we would get to that point eventually, I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.

I didn’t expect to feel the warmth of her friendship deep in my chest, like it’s something I’ve been needing for a long time.

“How close was Freya to Gregor?” I ask, slowly releasing my grip on the window and standing straight. I’m fine. I’ve endured way more stress than this, and I need to pull myself together. Concentrate.

If Hex finds my question strange, he doesn’t say so. “He was her protector from the day she was born,” he says with a shrug. “He’s family to all of us, but their dynamic was…different.”

I raise an eyebrow. “What do you mean, different?”

“I mean my sister trusted Gregor with all of her secrets, good and bad, so he was probably the closest person to her. Closer than her friends or even us. She cried like a baby when he announced his retirement, even if she knew it was time.”

I was afraid of that. I knew going into this job that I would be in close quarters with the princess for most of her day, but yesterday really knocked the truth of it into me. I go where she goes. I sleep when she sleeps. My whole life revolves around Freya Alverra, and that’s…

Dangerous.

“You’re not thinking of backing out of the job, are you?”

Hex looks so genuinely horrified that I laugh and shake my head.

“And let you think you’re the best fighter in Candora?

Of course not.” But I am surprised by how easy it is to say that I intend to stick to my position.

No matter how unprepared I was for this job, I can’t imagine leaving Freya’s safety up to anyone but me.

“She’s stuck with me now, which means you are too. ”

“Good.” Hex smiles. “In that case, I’m going to give you a choice.”

I don’t like the sound of that. “Okay?”

“You can either go upstairs and take a nap because you look like you’ve been to hell and back, or you and I are going out.”

Glancing at the rain, I debate my options.

I could refuse to do either, but Hex holds back when he fights me.

Not sure I want to face him when I’m not at my best. So, I can try to get some sleep—not likely—or I can venture into the downpour that’s showing no signs of stopping. I’ve been in worse conditions…

I swallow. Going out is a bad idea. “Freya needs—”

“Sander can look after Freya. Or I can stay with her, and you can go explore Havenford with San, but either way you’re going out and taking a breather before you work yourself to death.

If there’s anywhere for you to relax, it’s here.

” He folds his arms and lifts his eyebrows in a silent taunt, reminding me why he’s so hard to beat in a fight.

In terms of size, he’s smaller than me, but I have never met a man with more grit and determination than Hex Alverra, except for his twin.

Like Sander, he likes to let people underestimate him, and I know better than to fall into that trap.

I don’t think I actually have a choice here.

“Fine,” I say on a sigh. “We’ll go out, and you can show me what’s so special about this tiny town, but I’m only giving you an hour. One hour, and then we’re back here. Got it?”

Hex already has an arm around my shoulders, guiding me to the door. “Yeah, sure. An hour. Let’s go!”

“You’re serious?”

The woman in front of me nods with all the seriousness that a seventy-year-old with a nonstop grin can muster. “A fish for a kiss,” she says, which is what she said to me thirty seconds ago, so I did hear her right.

“A fish for a kiss,” I repeat, as if that might make it make sense. I’m too tired for this.

A few feet to my left, Hex looks like he’s having the time of his life as he sits with a man so weathered that I can barely see his eyes through his wrinkled skin, the two of them chatting and mending a fishing net.

What am I even doing? I spent the last two hours on a fishing boat hauling in teeming nets and wondering if we’d sink as the rain kept falling, but the instant the rain stopped, we were back on shore as the main street in Havenford burst to life.

I’m tired, wet, and starving, but I just got told no one in Havenford accepts money, and if I want to eat some of the fish and chips that is making my stomach clench and my mouth water from its aroma, my payment will be a kiss.

A kiss.

What in the world is this place?

“Oi! Elliot!” That’s Sander’s voice, since Hex is still working on the net, and I turn to find him arm in arm with Freya and walking down the street with no other guards in sight. Is he serious?

“I’m going to kill you,” I grumble even though he’s too far away to hear me. He can read lips.

Sander merely grins and keeps heading in my direction.

At his side, Freya is beaming and taking in all the booths and shops that are popping up around us, like she’s a little girl at a carnival.

Is this what she was so excited about? A street market?

We passed at least three of them in Windgaard while on our tour with Halevik, but she didn’t ask to stop at any of them.

Her hair is completely loose for only the second time since the tour started, and she looks…

free. Like she has nothing to hide here.

“Well?” the old woman in front of me says, tilting her head as she continues to smile at me.

I feel like I crossed into the Twilight Zone at some point. It was probably while I was on the boat with Hex.

“Tova!” Sander slides his arm from Freya’s when he reaches my side, and then he leans over the table and plants a kiss on the old woman’s cheek. “It smells better than ever!”