Caitlin Parker was eighteen when she fell out of love with the magic of the Willow Creek Renaissance Faire—the site of her first real heartbreak. But now, twenty-four and unemployed, she finds herself in her childhood bedroom and her childhood lady-in-waiting costume, assisting a rotating cast of substitute queens for the season. The very last person she wants to see is Alexander Wright—the sword-fighting, Shakespeare-spouting young man who won and broke her teenage heart. Yet there he is, older, annoyingly hotter, and back on stage at her Faire.
When Alex broke things off with Caitlin the first time, he thought he was just ending a summer fling. He didn’t realize how much he’d fallen for her until he let her go, and he certainly didn’t know he’d tarnished her memories of her cherished Faire and worse, shattered her view on love and relationships. His need to right that wrong this summer brings them together again and again, and this time, it won’t be so easy to let go of this summer fling.
But as summer winds down, real life is catching up to both of them. Caitlin’s always thought that being an adult with adult responsibilities means leaving whimsy behind. Alex, with a life full of stage combat, songs, and sonnets, doesn’t know how to live any other way. Can they go after their dreams and find a future together where they can still say “huzzah”?
It was day one of the Willow Creek Renaissance Faire, and I was somewhere I swore I’d never be again.
On cast and in costume.
“Caitlin . . .” Behind me, my best friend Nina Pritchard’s voice held a ton of warning in just one word. She clamped my head between her hands and positioned it where she wanted it.
“Sorry.” I shifted on my rickety folding metal chair, trying to find steady ground beneath me. There was a root around here somewhere, throwing everything off-kilter. “Sorry,” I said again as Nina gave an exasperated sigh.
“Yeah, yeah.” But her voice was warm as she clucked her tongue and got back to work braiding my hair. I couldn’t help but smile.
“No more moving, I promise.”
“Have I mentioned that I’m glad you’re back?” When we were in high school, Nina and I had volunteered for the renaissance faire every summer. Now she was the dance captain. And apparently the de facto hair braider, since the one who’d come down from her booth was still doing the Queen’s hair, and it was almost time for opening gate. We were all running late today.
“Don’t get used to it,” I warned. “I’m just helping out this weekend.”
There was a snort from beside me, and I shifted my gaze as far to the right as I could without moving my head. In a similar rickety chair beside me, Toby Patterson was lacing up his second boot. “You say that now,” he said darkly. “But this place has a way of sucking you in.”
He wasn’t wrong, and he and Nina were living proof. While a large part of the cast every summer consisted of high school students volunteering their time, there were also people like Toby and Nina, who’d graduated with me seven years ago. Now we were well into our twenties, yet every summer they were back, donning both the outfits and the accents. There were people around here who’d volunteered for even longer.
Not me, though. I’d sworn off the Willow Creek Renaissance Faire when I was nineteen, even before I left home. I’d told everyone who would listen that I was done with this place. And now, here I was. Back again like I’d never even left.
“It’s just this once,” I said to Toby, a stubborn edge in my voice. It bore repeating. I wasn’t back. Not really. I was just holding up my end of a complicated bargain.
Toby held up defensive hands. “Hey, I’m grateful, believe me.”
“So am I,” the Queen chimed in from her seat beside me. I looked to my left, where my Aunt Emily was in full regalia, all blue brocade and red and gold silks. She tried to shake her head, but the braider behind her gave a little growl. We were both being held prisoner while the women behind us worked on our hairstyles. “There’s no way Toby and I can do this without you,” she continued.
That seemed to be laying it on a little thick, but Toby gave a solemn nod. “As the Queen’s royal guard, I have to walk up ahead and do my ‘make way for the Queen’ schtick.”
“Leaving me all by myself,” Emily chimed in. “I can barely remember the gate speech, much less where I’m supposed to be any given moment.”
“And the Queen has a very full schedule.” I sighed; I got it. “You’re supposed to have ladies-in-waiting.”
“Exactly,” he said. “And now we do.” He looked pointedly at me, and I sighed again. God, I really didn’t want to be here.
But it wasn’t like I had anywhere else to go. People who were unemployed and had moved back home in disgrace rarely did. I’d expected Mom to charge me rent, but to my surprise she’d said I could stay for free.
I should have known that offer would become a bargaining chip. And when Simon and Emily had come over last night, I knew that they were coming to cash in that chip. And now here I was, shepherding Emily through her day as the Queen.
“I was a lady-in-waiting one time,” I reminded Toby. “When I was fourteen. I’m really the best you could get?”
“On such short notice?” He nodded emphatically.
“We haven’t had a lot of ladies-in-waiting recently,” Emily said apologetically. “Chris knew the role like the back of her hand, and it wasn’t really necessary.”
I hadn’t been home long enough to catch up on the local gossip, but I’d known this one: Miss Chris, our Queen since the Faire had started, had moved away and abdicated her role. So now Emily was filling in, and I’d been drafted.
“Cheer up,” Nina said. “What better way to spend the summer than here with us ren faire lunatics, am I right?” She practically sang with delight as her fingers twisted my hair, tugging gently, and I couldn’t help but snort in response.
‘Lunatics’ is one word for it.” Toby stood and reached for his sword belt on the folding table to my left. “It was one thing when we were kids, doing this for extra credit in the summer.” He cinched the belt around his waist, tugging down his linen shirt and then adjusting the fabric of his jerkin so that it lay right. “Now we’re taking on an unpaid part-time job during the hottest weekends of the year.”
“Running around the woods in pretty clothes,” Nina said, reframing the concept with her usual optimism. “Flirting with pirates, cheering on knights in armor, hot women in corsets. It all sounds good to me.”
“Yeah, well.” If Nina sounded like sunshine, I was a thundercloud. “Be careful who you flirt with.” I was speaking from experience, and they both knew it.
“Ohhhh.” Toby blew out the word like a breath. “You’re talking about Alex.”
Excerpted from Well Versed by Jen DeLuca Copyright © 2026 by Jen DeLuca. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpt. ©Jen DeLuca. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
Jen DeLuca is the USA Today bestselling author of the Well Met series, which was inspired by her time volunteering as a pub wench with her local Renaissance Faire. She loves Publix chicken tender subs, cold brew coffee, and the Oxford comma. Jen lives in the Arizona desert with her husband, their rescue dog, and almost too many cats.
