Chapter 214: pool party IV

Chapter 214: Chapter 214: pool party IV

On the other side of the conservatory, Anthony was standing with several of his friends when one of them suddenly glanced toward the pool.

"Anthony."

He looked over.

"What?"

"Isn’t that Lady Beaumont?"

Anthony followed his friend’s gaze.

And there she was.

Vivienne.

For a moment, he simply watched her.

She was laughing beside the pool, dressed in a lavender two-piece swimsuit beneath her light cover-up, her golden-blonde hair pulled into a ponytail.

Anthony’s gaze lingered.

He had seen her dressed beautifully before.

But this was different.

The Founder’s Ball had been the first time he had really allowed himself to notice how much she had changed.

Six years had passed since he had last known the younger Vivienne.

The girl he remembered had become a woman.

He had noticed it that night because she had made certain he noticed.

The way she had smiled at him.

The way she had drawn closer.

The way she had rested her head against his shoulder.

Even the kiss against his cheek.

She had been trying to charm him.

And, despite everything he had spent years telling himself, he had noticed.

More than noticed.

For a moment, he had been embarrassed by how strongly he had reacted to her.

That was precisely why he had spoken to her afterward.

He had needed to make himself clear.

He couldn’t love her.

He wouldn’t allow her to build a future around a feeling he could not promise to return.

And yet, only a few days later, she had been the one to tell him that their engagement should end.

Anthony had agreed.

He had thought he would feel relieved.

Instead, there had been a strange emptiness he had not quite known what to do with.

Now, seeing her standing by the pool, he understood why.

The cover-up concealed enough to preserve some modesty, but not enough to prevent his attention from catching on the graceful line of her neck and shoulders, the length of her legs, the narrowness of her waist.

Then Vivienne laughed.

She reached for the edges of her cover-up.

And slipped it from her shoulders.

Anthony went still.

The light fabric fell away.

The lavender swimsuit revealed her figure far more clearly than the dresses he had grown accustomed to seeing her wear.

The fitted top emphasized the feminine fullness of her chest. Her waist appeared narrower by comparison, leading into the graceful curve of her hips and the long line of her legs.

Anthony’s eyes lingered.

He caught himself.

His gaze moved away.

Then returned almost immediately.

She turned slightly as she spoke to Claire, and he caught another glimpse of the curve of her hips beneath the lavender fabric.

His jaw tightened.

He looked away again.

This was precisely the sort of thing he shouldn’t be noticing.

Yet he was.

And that irritated him more than he cared to admit.

He had already noticed her as a woman at the Founder’s Ball.

The pool merely made it impossible to pretend otherwise.

His friend glanced at him.

"You two really broke it off?"

Anthony’s eyes remained on Vivienne.

"Yes."

"So she’s free now."

"I suppose she is."

A young man near Vivienne said something.

She laughed.

Anthony’s jaw tightened slightly.

His friend noticed.

"Don’t tell me you’re bothered."

"I’m not."

The answer came immediately.

His friend raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

Anthony looked away.

Unbecoming.

The thought surfaced almost automatically.

The swimsuit.

The setting.

The number of young men around her.

The way she was allowing herself to be seen like this.

It was unbecoming.

That was what bothered him.

At least, that was what he told himself.

He knew perfectly well that Vivienne was no longer his fiancée.

She had made that decision herself.

She had told him, calmly and clearly, that she wanted the freedom to choose someone who wanted her.

And he had agreed.

He had no right to object.

No right to question what she wore.

No right to care who looked at her.

Anthony’s gaze returned to the pool.

Another man was watching Vivienne.

Then another.

Something unpleasant tightened in his chest.

He immediately dismissed it.

Ridiculous.

She was free.

That was the entire point.

He had been the one who couldn’t give her what she wanted.

He had been the one to tell her so.

He had no grounds to resent the fact that someone else might now want her.

And yet...

His eyes remained on her.

A thought slipped quietly into his mind.

Was she here because she knew he would be?

Anthony frowned.

The thought was so presumptuous that he nearly dismissed it immediately.

The party was large.

Vivienne had friends here.

There were countless reasons for her to attend.

There was absolutely no reason to assume she had come because of him.

And yet he couldn’t quite stop the thought.

Because he remembered the number of times she did so. From when they were younger, from the start of the school year, from her joining the polo club only to be ushered to the equestrian club, from her joining the foundation, from her getting his number, there were so many instances that proves that point.

He remembered how deliberately she had sought him out.

How she had smiled at him.

How she had drawn closer.

How obvious it had been that she wanted him to notice her.

He remembered, too, when he told her he couldn’t love her.

And then, only days later, she had ended everything.

It was baffling how something that has taken root for more than a decade be reduced and forgotten simply in days.

Perhaps that was why the idea had occurred to him now.

Perhaps she had known he would be here.

Perhaps—

Anthony stopped himself.

No.

That was too presumptuous.

He had no right to assume she was still thinking about him simply because she had once loved him.

She had ended their engagement.

She had told him she wanted the freedom to fall in love with someone else.

Perhaps she had already begun moving on.

Perhaps this was simply what being free looked like.

His eyes returned to her.

She was laughing with Claire, completely at ease.

Another young man glanced her way.

Anthony noticed.

His jaw tightened.

Then, against his better judgment, another possibility surfaced.

Maybe she wanted him to notice.

Maybe she wanted him to feel something.

Jealousy.

Regret.

Anything.

It was a ridiculous thought.

And yet, to his own annoyance, a tiny part of him found the idea strangely appealing.

Anthony looked away.

He shouldn’t like that possibility.

He had been the one who had told her he could not love her.

He had been the one who had kept her at a distance for years.

He had no right to suddenly want proof that she still cared.

And yet... ℴ

The thought remained.

Perhaps she hadn’t stopped caring simply because she had ended the engagement.

Perhaps a week was not enough time for that.

Anthony exhaled slowly.

No.

He would not indulge the thought.

Whatever Vivienne did now was her choice.

Whatever man she spoke to was her business.

Whatever attention she received was no longer his concern.

He had no claim over her.

Still, when the host raised his microphone and called for the second round, Anthony’s eyes followed Vivienne as she stepped forward.

He told himself he was merely watching because he knew her.

But the explanation felt increasingly unconvincing.

For years, he had thought of Vivienne as the girl who loved him.

At the Founder’s Ball, he had begun to see the woman she had become.

And now, standing across the pool in lavender, he was being forced to confront something else entirely.

She was no longer his fiancée.

Other men were free to notice her.

And, whether he liked it or not, he was one of those men now.

Anthony’s expression remained composed.

But somewhere beneath the propriety, beneath the irritation he had labeled unbecoming, that small, presumptuous thought still lingered.

Perhaps she had known he was here.

Perhaps she had wanted him to see her.

He knew better than to believe it.

He simply couldn’t deny that he liked the possibility.

--

Tbc