Chapter 369: Chapter 369
"Pearl, I don't understand. Why are you leaving the country to go to some ranch?" Sebastian asked. They had moved him to a rehabilitation institute and he was close to going home where he would have private caregivers and therapists work with him at the palace.
"You are much better. Your mind is clear and you are focused. You don't need me to run things as I was. Charles is good. Auggie is good. And we can tell the public I'm on a charity mission or something. I don't care. I need a break." She said.
He looked furious. "A break! I thought that's why you took my children with you to Highgrove. For a break." He said, spinning the wheels of his chair and propelling to the window in his room, looking out.
"I miss you. I love you. I want to make us ok again. We can't make us ok if you are stateside. It won't work." He said.
"I'm not ready to work on us. I need to work on me." She said. "I love you, too."
She walked over to him and bent down to his eye level.
"The kids have missed you. They need to spend some time with you when you get home. Tia will be there to help with them. And Maggie. You need to reconnect with them, on your own." She said. "And I need some fresh air and some peace and quiet to think. To sort all of this out."
He looked at her. "You mean to decide if you want to continue this marriage or not." He said, matter-of-factly.
"Yes." She said. "That too." She leaned up and kissed his forehead.
"I love you, Bash. And nothing will ever change that." She said. "Not even you." And she left him sitting there by the window.
Jim followed her to the car and they headed to the airport where Dylan was waiting.
"All set?" Dylan asked when they arrived.
"Yes." She said. They boarded the jet, Pearl taking her seat and settling in. She looked over at Dylan. He seemed quiet.
"Hey, are you alright?" She asked.
"Yeah. I am good." He said, rubbing his forehead.
He asked the attendant for a drink. He looked edgy, nervous. His hair was pulled back into a man bun, with some falling out. He was wearing jeans and cowboy boots. Something she wasn't used to him wearing. He looked incredible, though. Long gone was the grungy, wrinkled, flannel and rock tee wearing angsty youth she first met. He was a man now. Classy and clean and comfortable in his own skin, and he looked like a Stetson model. She laughed.
"What?" He asked.
"Nothing. Just time, change. It's all so fascinating to me." She said. He nodded and lifted his eyebrow. He leaned into the aisle and closer to her.
"You want to know my favorite thing about you?" He asked.
"Sure." She said.
"It's not your hair, the way it looks today like you put zero effort into it but I know you used a curling iron for those waves because you wanted to look nice. It's not your body, how it's changed in the most beautiful way since the children, making your hips and belly more feminine and full like a Rembrandt or Renoir muse. Or the way you blush whenever someone compliments you, like right now. Or how your lip curls when you are focused. It's not your voice or your eyes. Or the incredible mother that you are. I mean, I do love those things. But they are ever changing. What I love the most about you never changes. It's your mind. And how I love the fact that I will never, no matter how hard I try, be able to know what goes on inside of it." He said, looking into her eyes.
She stopped smiling. She didn't know how to react. She felt equally uncomfortable and flattered.
The attendant handed him a drink. He smiled and thanked her and looked back at Pearl for a moment and then his gaze shifted to the window, watching the wheels pull up and the plane take off. She sat back in her seat and sighed.
"I'll have a drink, too." She called out.
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