Page 14 of Once Upon A Time

Dieter couldn’t have been right about Wulfie and Rae, not so quickly.

She had been teasing Wulf when she had made sure that Rae’s new clothes included an ivory, tea-length dress.

Sort of.She hadsort ofbeen teasing him.

Odd things happen when hope wars with cynicism.

Strange shopping choices, at least.

Beside Flicka’s ear, Rae asked, “They’re really close, aren’t they?”

Flicka nodded and didn’t take her eyes off the conspiracy over by the bar. “They have a lot in common.”

Tremendous amounts.

Wulf nodded with the phone still at his ear, and William clapped him on the shoulder. After another few moments of talking on the phone, Wulf handed the cell back to his cousin, who spoke seriously on it for a moment before he tapped the screen to hang up.

Wow.

Flicka realized that she was absolutely staring at them but didn’t look away.

When it was over, William jostled Wulf with the hand he still held on Wulf’s shoulder, grinned, and offered his other hand to shake. Wulf shook, and then they hugged in the quickest of shoulder-bumps before they broke apart and looked around to make sure no one in the throng of people surrounding them had noticed, which of course they had.

Shock flashed through Flicka.

In a moment of unguarded candor, because she had been drinking numerous champagne toasts at three different receptions, she murmured, “That should have been Constantin.”

Dumbfounded denial quickly turned to expediency. She turned toward Rae Stone, the source of all this consternation.

“What was he doing?” Rae asked her.

“I’m sure that I have no idea.” Flicka presented a calm facade as she thought,quickly,about what all that meant and how to deal with it without causing a kerfuffle. It wasn’t that she was worried about being upstaged at her own wedding. Quite honestly, Flicka would havelovedit, but she doubted that oh-so-private Wulf would make a spectacle of himself.

But if this went wrong, it would be terrible for him, worse than anyone but Flicka knew.

And maybe Dieter. Dieter might understand Wulf’s idiosyncrasies as well as she did.

Maybe.

“Come on,” Rae whispered. “Give it up.”

“Moi?”Flicka asked.“Je ne sais pas quoi que ce soit,but I need to talk to you, quickly, before he comes back.”

Over by the bar, Wulf and William separated. Wulf began to push through the crowd toward where Flicka and Rae were standing.

“Merde.”Flicka raised her head to whisper into Rae’s ear. “Quickly.Listen to me.I do not want to influence you in this most personal decision, but if you need to tell him no,pleasebe kind. I am begging you, be honest, but kind. You can hurt him so badly.”

Rae reared back and stared at her. “I don’t ever want to hurt him, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The girl seemed so damn young to Flicka, even though Rae was only about a year younger than she was. Maybe not growing up with assassins stalking your every move left one more innocent.

Flicka asked her, “You know about Constantin and the shooting, right?”

Rae glanced down, frowning. “Um, yeah.”

“You know about his memory, right?” Flicka pressed.

“Uh, I couldn’t say.”