“Thank you.”
Alex picked a booth in the back and pulled his jacket off. I set mine next to me in the booth and tried to not fidget in my seat. Alex passed one of the menus to me.
“Thank goodness there are pictures.” I stared at the images in relief.
“I wouldn’t let you order something nasty.”
“Sure, sure.”
“Well, not too nasty.” He laughed and it eased some of the tension gripping my shoulders.
“So, this is the burger joint Cathy was talking about?” I let my gaze drift over the pictures and tried to pick apart some of the descriptions. “Laitu?”
“Lettuce.” He set his menu down. “And yes, this is the best burger in Lilaria. I thought maybe after this week you could do with some familiar food.”
I smiled because he was right. We ordered our food and went back to working on my Lilarian. I was seriously lacking in the language department.
“I feel like I’m trying to cram before a final.”
“Cram?” He raised an eyebrow.
“You know, pull an all-nighter studying. Cram in as much information as possible before the big test.” The waiter deposited our food and whisked off to another table.
“Ah.” He picked up some fries.
“I’m really unprepared.”
“I think we need back up.” He frowned. “If we had more time, you’d pick it up just fine, but it wouldn’t hurt to have someone with more practice helping you.”
“What about the bargain? I won!”
“I’ll still help.”
“Oh, no. You’re not getting out that easy. I want the picture.”
“You don’t even know what I was working on.” He laughed.
“Doesn’t matter. A bet’s a bet.”
“Okay.” He took a sip from his water.
“Okay?” I frowned. “Just like that?”
“You’re right. I can’t hold up my end of the bargain, so I have to do something else.” He polished off the rest of his burger while I watched him.
“All right.” I took another bite of my food and thought about it. “What is it of?”
“You’ll see.”
“You’re frustrating.”
“I warned you.”
I rolled my eyes. He had said I’d either end up hating him if I didn’t end up in his bed.
People at the restaurant had started to recognize who we were and had turned to look at us. Alex threw some money on the table and stood up. He pulled his jacket on and held his hand out to help me stand up.
“Time to get out of here.”
We took a scenic route around the city and Alex pointed out some of the places we hadn’t seen the other night. After a while we ended up back at the palace. The guard nodded us through the gate and Alex parked back by the kitchen while I tried to guess what he had been sketching.
“It’s a bird.”
“No.” He shook his head.
“A plane?”
“Not a plane and not Superman either.” He held the kitchen door open for me.
“Kyle with devil horns?”
He laughed. “Now that would have been a good idea.”
We made our way through the kitchen and to my room and I looked down the hallway. “Maybe we should go get the drawing now so you don’t try to back out.”
“Are you trying to find a way in my room?” Alex asked.
“If that’s what I was looking for, I’d just drag you into my room.” I bit my lip. His eyes focused on my mouth and I thought about asking him. Asking him to kiss me. Asking him to come into my room. Asking him to let me get lost in him.
“You’ll have to wait. I sent it out to have it framed.”
“Oh. I didn’t realize it was something you wanted to keep.” I looked away from him. “You don’t have to give it to me if it means something to you.”
“I want you to have it.”
I touched the necklace and looked up at him. “Thank you for tonight. It’s the first time I’ve felt like myself since I got here.”
“Be you, Samantha. No one can ask for more than that.”
I stood on my tiptoes and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. I lingered for a moment, breathing in his smell before turning and going into my room.
When I closed my door, I leaned against it and took a deep breath. I was in trouble.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Is Your Man a Prince?
—The Jolene Waters Show
The next couple of days were a blur, except for the angry meeting with Duvall where I was told not to duck my security detail again. Becca had not been a happy camper either. I’d had to explain that going out to the bookstore hadn’t seemed like a thing I would need security for, but they only seemed slightly mollified. The only bright spots were the lunches I had with Cathy at a small table tucked away in the kitchen. She gave me the gossip about some of the royals and local celebrities. She was also full of information on the upcoming events and charities.
“What about politics? I know Royals don’t vote or run for office, but is there anything I need to be on the lookout for?”
“Mainly you want to do the political dance if you’re ever on the spot. Vague answers, smiles, and hoping for the best stuff. Anything else can come back to bite you in the arse.” Cathy took a bite of her sandwich.
“So what is our job exactly?” I sipped at the soda I had found in a pantry.
“We host dignitaries, advise parliament, lead charities, and see to our own lands. When something tragic happens in our districts, it’s our job to try to help. Sometimes that’s with money, other times it can be with connections or a simple friendly hand.” She stopped and thought for a minute. “Actually, we’re really busy. It probably feels like you’re doing a bunch of things that don’t matter right now, but you can’t think of it that way. Think of it as networking. You’re building a base of people who might be able to assist you in the future. “
“And in turn I need to help them in some way.” I thought about it. “Oh, man, Cathy. This is such a bad job for me. I’m terrible at keeping my opinions to myself. I’m likely to piss someone off and not on accident. It’s a miracle that I’ve gotten through this week without doing it.”
“Are you kidding me? You’re American and they expect you to be curt and adorable.”
“Uh, that’s offensive.” I shook my head. “There are a lot of Americans that would go out of their way to not insult anyone. I’m just not one of them.”
“Exactly. And people like it. They think it’s refreshing.”
I snorted and almost dribbled soda out of my mouth. “Refreshing. Right.”
“Seriously. I heard you shot down Jeremy and he still wanted you to do his show.” She waved her chip in the air. “He thought it was great that you were so transparent and upfront. No tiptoeing around stuff.”
“Jeremy is a weird guy and I’d rather stab myself in the eye with a spork than be the host of a television show.”
“A spork?” Her mouth twitched.
“Weird little spoon that thinks it’s a fork.”
“You’re kind of crazy.” She smiled. “I can see why Alex is so smitten.”
“Excuse me?” I looked around to see if anyone was listening, but the closest person was washing dishes on the other side of the room.
“C’mon. I’m not blind, Sam.”
“We’re just friends.” I looked down at my food.
“Why?” She pushed my plate with her finger so that I’d look up.
“What?”
“Why are you just friends? You’re wearing the necklace he gave you, he hovers around you like a mommy bear, and the chemistry is disgustingly obvious.” She narrowed her eyes. “Is it because of Melissa? You have to know how much that hurt Alex.”
“No, it’s not that.” I frowned. “There’s just so much going on and I don’t think I can handle a relationship on top of it all.”
“So, it’s because of your father?”
“No. Yes. Partly. It’s everything. I’m trying to learn how to do all this.” I motioned around the kitchen. “Plus, I’m leaving soon and Dad will be here. He’s going to need me.”
“Is that all of it?” She leveled her gaze on mine and I squirmed.
“Did you take classes as a child on how to get what you want?”
“Don’t change the subject, Samantha. What is this really about?” She leaned forward.
“I just told you!”
“You think your father would want you to miss out on something—someone—that would love you because of him? All this change, it’s scary. I get that. But it can be good, too. You don’t see it because you’re living it, but to those of us watching, it’s obvious that you were meant for this job, for this life.”
I chewed on my lip while I pondered what she was saying. “That’s pretty deep for an eighteen-year-old.”
“I might have come from a life of privilege, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have any perspective.” Something in her eyes shifted and I saw a much older girl looking back at me.
“I’m scared.” I said the words in a rush. Maybe if I said it out loud it would make it less real.
“Of what, exactly?”
“Alex—it wouldn’t be a fling. It wouldn’t be simple or easy. If I let myself, I’d just end up hurt and then it would be in every newspaper and on every gossip site.”
“Why do you think Alex would hurt you?” She sat back in her seat. “No one knows Alex the way I do. When Daddy died, Alex stepped up and became the man of the house. He watched out for me and Max. Max has classic middle-child syndrome and left for school as quickly as he could, but every decision Alex has made was based on how it would affect us. And I can see how much he already cares about you. He would never do anything to hurt you.”
“Not on purpose.” I played with my napkin. “I don’t think I could handle the scrutiny, the media attention.”
“That’ll die down after a while. Or you’ll get used to it. It’s overwhelming right now, but we do have real lives. We go on vacations and sometimes have lazy Sundays like everyone else in the world.”
She didn’t understand. She’d been born into something that was so foreign to me I felt as if I’d been dropped on another planet. And Alex would break my heart—he’d have to when it came time for him to take the throne. I’d read enough in my Idiots Guide to the Monarchy that I knew he had to marry someone of royal blood who would be able to help him rule the country.
“The wheels are turning in your head; I can practically hear the gears squeak.” She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “You know what I think? I think you’re worried about what it would mean if it all worked out. Alex comes with some heavy baggage. Crown prince isn’t nearly as fun as they make it out to be in the storybooks. Whoever he chooses will be queen.”
I groaned. “Exactly. I’m an American, for crying out loud. Remember? The adorable little foreigner that says whatever she’s thinking? No one would accept me as their queen and God knows I wouldn’t blame them. When I think about being with Alex, I can’t just think about how he makes me feel, I have to think about how it would affect an entire country. If they reject me, he would have to leave me. And if they don’t reject me, how badly could I screw it all up?”
Cathy smiled and leaned back in her chair. “He could always abdicate.”
“Geez, Cathy, that wouldn’t make me feel like an ass or anything.” I glared at her. “Our entire relationship, I would be the reason he wasn’t king.”
“The very things that have you worried are the exact things that mean you would make an excellent queen.”
“You don’t understand. You’ve been brought up your whole life with that as a possible future. I was brought up in a land with no kings or queens. The very idea makes me nervous.”
“You do realize you’re from a line of royalty that once held the crown of Lilaria?” She snorted and picked up her plate. “Sam, get it together. Sometimes all our plans for life go to shit. You end up doing something you never dreamed of and you know what you do?”
I stood up and followed her to the sink with my plate. “What’s that, oh wise one?”
“You make the best out of it you can. Nothing is ever as good or as bad as you think it will be. It’s what you make of it.” Alex had said that exact same thing to me. She tossed her leftovers and handed the plate to the dishwasher. “But I can tell you this: You will never find another man that would love you the way Alex would.”
“Riddle me this. If you’re so smart, why are you hanging out with Kyle? He’s a scumbag.” I looked over at her as we walked.
“Oh, I know.” She shrugged. “I know exactly what he’s after, but when it’s just us, we have fun. I might understand how the world works, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to just be a little wild.”
“Be careful there. The lines become blurry when we’re living it.”
“I will.” Her blithe answer did nothing to make me feel like I had gotten through to her. Kyle was dangerous and I’d hate to see some of her sweetness smothered by the scars he would leave on her heart. “You leave tomorrow?”
“Yep. Bright and early. I think we’re driving.” I shrugged. “Chadwick already packed up my clothes and sent them to the house.”
“You’ll love it out there. Lots of trees and quiet.”
“I’ve seen some pictures online, but I’m really looking forward to being there in person.” I stopped near my bedroom door.