Love In London

Chapter 4

Weeks passed. Sophie worked with Sir Forkle and Lady Oralie, trying to figure out who had shot her.

Linh worried with Sophie over school—she had a lot of catchup work left.

Fitz pestered Sophie, trying to get her to convince her to go out to coffee with him—which she really didn't want to do now that she and Keefe were... well, whatever they were.

Biana tried to get Sophie to spill about what was going on with her and Keefe, and that was truly something. Dex... well, he was probably working on something.But all of them were busy, especially Sophie.

Which meant she didn't get to spend nearly enough time with Keefe. Nobody knew what had happened the day Keefe had woken up, though Sophie thought at least Dex might have some suspicions. Sophie didn't want to distract anyone from their other tasks or make them upset by telling them.

Some days, Sophie let herself take a break from the stress-filled mess that was her life.

Like today. That morning, Keefe had hailed her and, noticing the shadows under her eyes, had convinced her that she needed to relax. Though she knew the Neverseen wouldn't wait, Keefe was convincing enough that Sophie finally relented and told him to come to Havenfield.

This time, when he showed up, he was holding a package. It was wrapped in

shimmering ice blue paper—a beautiful color, now that she thought about it.

Sophie beckoned him to where she was sitting under Calla's panakes tree. "What's that?" She nodded to the rectangular parcel, heart fluttering contentedly as Keefe sat down beside her.

"I decided I wanted to become a champion gift giver, so I made this for you..." He handed it to her.

Made? Sophie opened it, smiling suspiciously. She pulled out a drawing of her and Keefe side by side in front of the panakes tree, his arm slung around her waist and her head on his shoulder.

They looked so happy together, so natural—like they had always been together and nothing could break them apart.

Keefe cleared his throat. "Do you... like it?"

"I love it, Keefe. Thank you," Sophie grabbed his hand and he smiled uncertainly, reaching up to pat his hair.

"I know, isn't it so cute?" Ro interrupted, making Sophie jump. She had forgotten about the ogre princess. "Don't worry," she said when she saw Sophie's expression, "your little man here told me everything. I made sure of it."

Since the incident in California, Grady and Edaline had bodyguards assigned to family and friends. Their words were, "If they can stalk you till California and shoot you, coming here and hurting someone else would barely be anything for them."

"Can you go bother Bo or something?" Keefe whined.

"Hmph. Fine. I'll leave you two to your business," she smirked, flaunting her pigtails and skipping off to do something that probably had a good chance of ending up in disaster.

"I—" Keefe started.

"Sophie? There you are," Edaline cut him off. "I've been looking for you. I wanted to teach you how to make custard bursts today," she said. Then her eyes found their clasped hands and wandered to the drawing, and then back again.

"Keefe can come too." She raised an eyebrow suggestively.

Sophie nodded, cheeks reddening a bit, and the three of them spent the rest of the day trying—and sometimes failing—to make custard bursts, getting butter in Keefe's hair (which had a lot to do with Ro), and laughing.

Sophie hadn't had so much fun in a while.

Sophie groaned. "I ate way too many butterscotch ones," she complained, patting her stomach.

"Your mom does make a pretty good batch of lushberry custard bursts," Ro volunteered.

Keefe leaned against the Panakes, sighing. "I still think the first batch of chocolate was the best."

"Those didn't even count as custard bursts!" Sophie looked at him skeptically.

Keefe smiled, putting his arm around her waist. "That doesn't mean they can't be the best," he replied, staring at the beautiful sunset in front of them.

Sophie sighed, shaking her head and then resting it on his shoulder. Keefe turned his head, giving Ro a meaningful look. She sighed and sauntered away, grumbling something about "always have to be alone".

Sophie grabbed Keefe's free hand, looping her fingers in his. She realized this was how he had drawn them, which struck a thought. "How long did it take you to make that drawing?" she asked.

Keefe sighed. "I started a long time ago—a very long time ago. But I couldn't get your expression right—what you felt toward Fitz was close, but it really wasn't the emotion I wanted to portray. But the day we..." his mouth formed a different word than the one he eventually said.

"Found out... everything, you had the perfect expression so many times... I knew what I needed to draw," he shrugged. "So I finished it up and gave it to you."

Sophie glanced at him. "Keefe... you really don't care that I'm- well, different?"

"Why the hell would I care that you don't have parents or that you're adopted? Or that you have brown eyes? I love you, Sophie, and nothing is going to change that. Ever."

She nodded, smiling. "We'll have to tell them all, eventually. And when we do... well, I get the feeling Grady won't like it, either. He's very... protective," she said, strong meaning behind the words.

"Well, they'll have to get used to it," Keefe murmured against her temple. "And in the end, they'll accept it. Because you and I, Sophie... we're perfect for each other."

Sophie relaxed into him, and they sat there together until the sun went down and the stars came out, bathing them in a pure white glow and filling the night sky with light.

And the rest? The rest is history. Fluffy, cute history.

A/N If you couldn't tell this is the end, I'm telling you now. This is the end. I'll be doing an Epilogue, but yeah, bye!