Page 53 of Rags to Royals

Cian straightens in his chair. “Me?”

“Well, Dean Brady.”

Henry frowns. “What did you do? How could you have possibly gotten in trouble with theprincipalof the school here? How does she even know about you?”

“Because he introduced himself to the town at thecafe,” Ruby says. “Nothing that happens there is ever a secret for more than five minutes. And you two are new to town. Of course people were paying attention.”

It’s amazing that no one recognizes Henry from past visits to Emerald, but honestly, every time he’s been here, he’s pretty much stayed here, with us.

Cian shakes his head. “No way am I in trouble. I’ve been with you every minute,” he says to Henry.

“What’s it about?” Henry asks me.

I shrug. “No idea.” I totally sound normal and not at all too curious or, worse, jealous.

Everyone at the table is completely quiet, watching as Cian pulls his phone out. I hold my phone so he can see her number. He taps the numbers, then lifts his phone to his ear.

“Hi. Is this Amanda?”

His voice sounds flirty. Why does his voice sound flirty? I frown.

“Yes, this is Dean Brady. I understand you needed to get a hold of me?”

He pauses, listening. Then he looks surprised. Then he smiles. “I see. Well, that’s very interesting.”

It’sinterestingthat she needs him to escort her to her niece's wedding this weekend? Amanda is easily ten years older than Cian. Hell,I’msix years older than him.

God, I’m six years older than this young, hot prince who thinks he’s in love with me and thinks maybe we should just get married if he still likes me at the end of eighteen days.

“Yes, definitely,” he says to Amanda.

Yes? He saidyes?

“I’m glad you thought to ask me,” he tells her. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He disconnects and I just stare at him.

I guess I thought the eighteen days we’d be spending together would bemonogamousdays. But, we didn’t really specify that, did we? And I’m the one fighting the idea. Why am I upset about this?

“She wants me to substitute teach at the high school,” he says, grinning.

That takes a little too long to sink in for me, so it’s Henry that responds first.

“Substituteteach?”

“Yep. She heard about my history and poli-sci degrees, and it turns out that their history teacher is having some kind of hernia repair? They’re expecting him to be out two to three weeks.”

“Wow,” Ruby says. “Just like that? They hear some guy is in town and they’ll let him teach the kids forthreeweeks?”

“Well, I have a degree,” Cian says, looking mildly offended. “And I assume they’ll do a background check.” He looks at Henry. “We have all of that in the system for Dean, right?”

“Yeah,” Henry says. He glances at Ruby. “It’s legit. Cian’s fine. Perfectly safe to work around kids.”

She laughs. “I’m not questioning that. I’m more curious about how he thinks he can teach history for three weeks.”

“He can totally teach high school history for a few weeks,” Henry says. “He’s overqualified in fact.”

“Well, I need to get a substitute teaching license and do employment paperwork, but I’m going in tomorrow to do all of that. Amanda said they’ll help me with it and fast track it. They’re in a tight spot here, so she’s confident they can get it all approved before next Monday.”

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