Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
I just groan.
He cocks his head. “Why did you go along with it, for that matter? Come on. Tell me the truth.”
“I don’t know. Your general hotness lulled me into a false state of calm regarding the topic of our fake nuptials. It’s not my fault you’re a walking, talking thirst trap. And we were all having such a good time. I guess I didn’t want to burst their bubble.”
“You didn’t want to let them down either. They did seem really excited about it all, didn’t they?”
“Yeah. You’re the first man I brought home that they actually liked instead of just pretending to. Now that I’ve seen the difference, it seems so obvious.”
“I’m honored.” His cell buzzes in his pocket and he pulls it out. “It’s my mother. I’ll talk to her later.”
“No. You should answer it. It might be important.”
He does as told, putting the call on speaker. “Yes?”
“Thank goodness you picked up, my sweet boy. Your father is on his way,” says Lady Helena in a harried voice. “I just heard from his people. It’s an unofficial thing. Top secret. No firm ETA given, but we’re to expect him within the next two to twenty-four hours. We need to plan our defense or attack or whatever the hell it is we’re going to do. How quickly can you two get here?”
“He’s coming to see you?”
“No, my darling. He’s coming to see you.”
Alistair gazes into the shadows of the garage in shock. “Shit.”
“Indeed,” she says. “I suggested this would be the perfect time for us to all disappear and avoid him entirely. Tanzania is lovely this time of year for a family vacation. I have a friend with a beach house in Zanzibar. Such a great spot for a wedding. But Dougal said no. Then he made some long-winded speech about how you deserved the chance to meet your father and settle things between you once and for all. At least, I think that’s what it was about. I tuned out halfway through. You know how he can go on.”
Alistair says nothing. He just keeps blinking.
“Lady Helena, we’re on our way,” I jump in, and hang up the call. “I think it would be best if I drive.”
Nothing from him.
“Ali?”
This time, he blinks in my direction. “Lilah. Sorry, I...”
“I know. It’s okay. I’ve got you. Get in the car.”
* * *
It’s weird to be making the drive up the Pacific Coast Highway again under these conditions. And in a different prestige vehicle. A lot has changed since Monday. Just about everything.
Alistair doesn’t speak again until we can see the sea. All the charm and clever talking from the last few hours with my folks have disappeared without a trace. He is an entirely different man. The blank face that hides every last one of his feelings reappears for the first time in a while. “I met him once...the king. Though to say I met him is misleading. There was no introduction or anything like that.”
“When was that?”
“I was about six or seven. He and my mother were arguing in the billiard room. She always hated that room, said the glass eyes of Grandfather’s hunting trophies followed her around.” He smiles briefly. “The king wanted me sent out of the country for schooling, and she refused. Said that I was too little to be sent away just because he wanted to hide his dirty secret. She told him he could fuck right off.”
“I do like your mother.”
He grunts.
“Did he say anything to you?”
“He told me to move,” says Alistair, his brogue thickening. “I’d been standing in the doorway listening. I was in his way, and he wanted to leave.”
“That’s all he said to you? ‘Move’?”
“Aye.”
“What an asshole.”
“He just seemed so tall and angry. I didn’t even know who he was until the housekeeper curtsied and a groundskeeper called him Your Highness.” He sighs. “I’ll never forget the look on Helena’s face when she saw me there... She hadn’t meant for me to hear her call me that. His ‘dirty secret.’ For years, she’d been telling me I didn’t have a father and I didn’t need one. That we were better off on our own. She felt so bad about it she drove us to an ice cream parlor two towns over and let me order whatever I wanted.”
“Did you make yourself sick?”
“You bet I did,” he says. “Then she told me the same thing she always did. That we don’t need him. But also that he didn’t deserve us. I believed her that time.”
I steer the Cadillac through the nighttime traffic. It’s a heck of a vehicle. Huge and stately.
Out of nowhere, he says, “I’ll tell your parents the engagement isn’t real. Say that I just got carried away or something.”
“Decided you don’t want to marry me after all?” I ask, glancing at him. “That’s disappointing. I’ve been mentally shopping for my wedding dress for the past hour.”