Page 17 of On the Rocks

“Hmm… that depends. When’s the last time you stole someone’s pudding?”

“Last week,” she confessed, her gray eyes almost a silver as she leaned in conspiratorially. “But it was a vanilla one, so does it even count?”

I smirked, handing her the stack of magazines. She took them with a smile that doubled the one she’d greeted me with, already flipping through the pages as I settled back on her bed. It only took a few pages before she started telling me how Anne Hathaway was named after Shakespeare’s wife, and I nodded and listened intently as she continued flipping, pausing on each page to tell me a new story about a different celebrity.

Betty was born and raised in Stratford, and she’d never been farther than two counties from the town that she called home. Though she’d never physically traveled, her imagination wandered all the time, and she loved to escape into movies and books, to live the lives of spies and queens and young college students. The collages that decorated her walls brought her favorite adventures to life, and in her mind, she’d seen the world.

She’d seen everything.

“I’m getting married,” I told her after an hour had passed, and she paused where she was reading about Chris Pratt’s hobbies, a strange shadow passing over her features.

“That so?”

I nodded.

“How did he propose?”

“We were at a party with all his friends and family,” I said. “He’d just announced he was running for state representative.”

“A political man,” Betty mused. “Your father must love him.”

“He very much does.”

“And do you?”

I smiled, throat thickening in a way it never had when I was asked that question — not until it was asked by Noah Becker, anyway. “I do,” I said through the unfamiliar discomfort.

“Well,” she mused, nodding as her eyes lost focus somewhere on the page. “I’d like to meet him. Will you bring him by?”

“He’s coming into town in six weeks for the wedding,” I told her. “I’ll try to sneak him away.”

“And where will you sneak away to once the knot is tied?” She looked at me then, brows tugging inward.

I leaned forward, folding my hand over hers. “Not too far. I’ll never be too far.”

I knew she didn’t understand how much time had passed since she’d last seen me, but I also knew she could sense that it had been a while. I squeezed her hand, falling quiet as she flipped through the pages of the second magazine before a yawn stretched between us. I reached for the magazines, and once I deposited them on her bedside table, I helped her under the covers.

“This man you’ll marry,” she said as I pulled the knit blanket up to her shoulders. “Does he make you feel the way Richard Gere made Julia Roberts feel inPretty Woman?”

I smiled, tucking the blanket around her arms as I considered the question. Did Anthony make me feel like that — special, desired, beautiful in a way that he can’t resist? Not necessarily. But did he make me feel safe, comfortable, cared for? Yes.

“I think so,” I whispered, but then I raised both brows as my eyes found hers. “He’s not quite as handsome, though.”

“Well, no one is as handsome as Richard Gere, my dear,” she said on an exaggerated sigh, as if that were obvious. “Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

I laughed, and Betty smiled before her eyes fluttered closed. Within minutes, her soft breathing turned to a light snore, and I found myself staring at her favorite scene fromPretty Womanthat hung above her bedpost. I imagined the scene, wondering what Anthony would look like if he swept in to save me the way Richard Gere did — a white knight in a limo instead of on a horse.

I was sure he would act out a grand gesture if he ever needed to. I was sure he would take care of me, that I’d be comfortable as I stood by his side on his race to his political dreams. And I was sure he was just as handsome as Richard Gere, regardless of what I’d told Betty.

But as I stared at Julia Roberts’s wide smile, the one thing Ididn’tknow for sure was if I wanted to be the princess he saved.

In the back of my mind, I heard a voice I’d been trying to forget since Monday afternoon.

“No one asked you if you were ready to get married?”

And I wondered why it never occurred to me that I had a say in the matter.

Noah