The Rejected True Heiress (Liora and Callum) novel Chapter 360

Liora’s POV

“Okay, but hear me out,” Mia said as she sectioned off a piece of hair near my ear. “He got on his knees. In public.”

“I know. I was there.”

“In front of, like, fifty people.”

“Mia.”

“I’m just saying.” She caught my eye in the mirror, grinning. “That’s kind of romantic, don’t you think?”

“Maybe a little,” I admitted, and immediately regretted it, because her grin widened. I rolled my eyes. “Please don’t start with this.”

“I’m not starting anything.” She pinned a piece of hair back and tilted her head, assessing her work. “I’m just making an observation. You like him.”

“I’ve always liked him. That’s never been the problem.”

“Do you think he’s actually changed?” she asked after a moment.

I thought about it for a few seconds, watching as Mia finished up my hair. “I think… yeah, maybe. His parents disowned him, and it’s like the second that happened, something changed.” I watched my own reflection while she worked. “He was always so worried about what they thought. What they expected. It drove every decision he made last semester.”

“Maybe now that he doesn’t have that hanging over him anymore,” Mia mused, “he feels kind of… free?”

“Yeah. Maybe.” I sighed. “But it doesn’t excuse everything.”

“No, obviously.” She set down the comb. “But people can grow. Sometimes it just takes the thing they were most afraid of actually happening.”

I didn’t say anything to that. We both knew she was right, anyway.

“Okay.” She picked up a tube of mascara and held it out to me. “Different question. Can you see yourself actually being with him? Like, long-term?”

I took the mascara and turned back to the mirror. “That’s a big question.”

“You don’t have to answer it.”

“No, I…” I uncapped the mascara and thought about it. Tried to picture it. Callum. Me. A future. My wolf, maybe, if it came back. “I honestly don’t know. I’m not letting myself go there yet. It’s been two dates, Mia. I’m not about to start planning my life around it.”

“And yet you have a list of bachelors in your purse,” she pointed out.

Callum’s lips twitched. “Maybe for a good reason.”

I looked at him. “What?”

“Nothing.” He guided me over to a table that we just barely managed to snag from another couple who gave us both dirty looks. It was close to a small makeshift stage. “Just watch.”

I turned to the stage. Someone in a dark “Staff” t-shirt walked out and tapped the microphone.

“Thank you all for coming,” he said, eliciting a few cheers and whistles in the crowd. “Tonight, we have a very special surprise for you all… Or maybe not a surprise to some… Dead by Summer!”

I whipped my head toward Callum. “You’re kidding me.”

Callum was grinning now, fully. “Nope.”

“How did you know they were playing tonight?”

He shrugged one shoulder. “I have my ways,” he said, and refused to elaborate further.

I hadn’t even finished processing it by the time the lights went down and the first chord hit.