Page 60 of Reign

“Hey, Sam. How are you?”

The mere sound of his voice curled around her like a quilt, soothing and steadying. She sat back onto the air mattress and closed her eyes, wishing he’d gotten a smartphone so that they could chat on video. More than anything, she longed to see the emotions darting over his face.

“I’m okay.” Suddenly the force of it all crashed over her, and she let out a breath. “Jeff and Daphne had a big engagement party tonight, and I couldn’t go.”

She heard a rustling sound on the other end of the line and wondered if Marshall was getting undressed. Or maybe he’d already showered and was pulling a clean shirt on, then falling backward onto the bed…

“Sam, you wouldn’t have liked that party anyway,” he said gently.

“It’s my brother’s engagement party!”

“It’s a stuffy state occasion,” Marshall insisted. “Jeff and Daphne probably didn’t get to invite many of their real friends. That ballroom was packed with people theyhadto include, judges and nobility and whoever else is on the palace’s list. As for you…” She could almost see him shrug. “America has never had a former princess before. There’s no precedent for this.”

“I hate when you’re reasonable,” Sam joked, but he had cheered her up, at least a little.

“I’m guessing your night was more fun than if you’d been at that party. What did you do, anyway?”

Sam bit her lip; she hadn’t yet told Marshall about her job at Enclave, or about living at Liam’s. She hadn’tmeantto be deceitful. It was just so hard to get him on the phone—they’d only talked a couple of times in the past week—and whenever she did get to hear his voice, she’d found an excuse not to bring it up.

But now that it looked like she was crashing here indefinitely, she needed to tell him everything.

“I actually tended bar tonight,” she admitted. “At a club on the east side.”

Marshall chuckled. “Good one, Sam.”

He thought she was joking. She started to explain, but Marshall’s next question struck her silent.

“How much longer do you think you’ll stay in Washington?” he asked. When she didn’t answer right away, he added, “You’re coming back soon, aren’t you?”

Sam’s heart lurched. “I haven’t given it much thought.”

“Look, you tried your best with your family. And Beatrice is better, right? So you can leave, give everyone time to cool off.”

Shehadpromised that she would return to Hawaii once Beatrice was recovered. Yet everything in her recoiled at the thought of getting back on a plane and leaving her family behind—running away from it all, a second time.

“I’m sorry.” Her voice cracked over the words; she swallowed and tried again. “I’m not coming back yet. I can’t leave now—not like this.” She had to find a way to make things right with Jeff, and with Beatrice.

“I understand,” Marshall said heavily. “I just…I miss you, Sam.”

She rolled onto her side, pressing the phone tighter to her ear. “I miss you, too!”

“It’s not the same here without you.”

Sam could hear the pain in his voice. He had asked her to come back to him and she’d said no; of course he was hurt. She may have had good reasons, but she had still rejected him.

“You feel so far away right now,” she whispered.

“Yeah. Long distance really sucks.”

Things had been so simple in Hawaii, where their lives were completely intertwined. Sam hadn’t realized how much those day-to-day interactions had mattered: wandering out to the beach and collecting stray shells; cooking stir-fry together and eating it on the back deck; recounting stories from their childhood that they hadn’t yet shared with each other, until they felt like they knew every last one of each other’s anecdotes.

Those small moments were the mortar holding a relationship aloft, and without them, its structure began to wobble.

“How’s Nina?” Marshall asked, clearly trying to change the subject. “Are you being a good houseguest?”

She swallowed. “Actually, I’m not at Nina’s.”

“You went to Loughlin House after all?”