Page 51 of Rags to Royals

“What’s that have to do with it?” I ask, leaning back in my chair and crossing my arms.

Henry chuckles and I look at him. He shrugs. “One of them will be the king. The king makes the laws in Cara. If they want her to keep her title, she will.”

I roll my eyes. Royalty is so…weird.

But also, that’s really nice.

“Really?” Mariah asks. “You think they’ll love me?”

“Of course they will,” Cian says.

“Definitely,” Henry agrees.

Oh dammit. They’re talking as if it’s going to happen for sure. That shewillmeet these people. That theywilllove her. That Cian and Iwillbe married.

“Like Brian with you and Ruby, Mom.”

“Yeah, I know,” I say past the tightness in my throat. Our stepfather, Brian, and our mother got married when we were eight and divorced when we were in high school, but he was still a part of our lives afterward. We saw him all the time, he came to all of our events, we went to his house for dinner once a week, and we knew we could call him anytime for any reason. And then he gave us this house and my business. Brian didn’t stop being our stepfather just because he wasn’t married to our mother.

Yeah. I definitely know.

“But…” Greta says, clearly working something through. “If Scarlett and Cian get married, and you become a princess, and everything… we can’t tell anyone here.”

“Why not?” Mariah demands. She shoots a look at Cian. “I swear I don’t like you just because you’re a prince, but Iwouldwant people to know.”

He laughs. “I believe you.”

Mariah turns back to Greta. “But why?”

“Because then they’ll know we all lied to them about everything,” Greta says. “That would be really bad.”

Mariah slumps in her chair. “Ugh. We’d have to keep telling them he’s a professor? And when we make trips to Cara, we have to make up someplace we’re going for vacation? That sucks.” She sits up. “What if the podcast talks about it though?”

“See?” I say. “This would be way too complicated.”

No one even acknowledges me. Except Cian. Who just gives me a raised eyebrow.

“How are you going to keep telling people you’re a professor?” Greta asks Cian. “You’ll have to go to Columbus every day and pretend you’re going to the college.”

He laughs. “I don’t know. I didn’t think about that.”

I roll my eyes. Imagine that.

“What are youactuallygoing to do for work?” Greta says.

Cian shrugs. “I don’t know.”

“But how will you make money? You’ll have to work somewhere that people in Emerald never go.”

“I don’t really need to make money,” Cian says.

I roll my eyesagain. Exactly and that is a big part of why we’renotgetting married.

“People will wonder,” Greta says. “They wonder abouteverythingin this town.”

I look around the table, waiting for one of the grown-ups to suggest that we could move. It’s all hypothetical anyway and not going to happen, but the idea of Mariah moving away wouldkillGreta. She’d think and worry about it every day for the next eighteen days.

Though she might just help me with my mission to turn Cian off of this whole idea…

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