Page 11 of Rags to Royals

But now? Idefinitelybelieve it now. Now that I know he’s aprinceand has immeasurable wealth and power and influence.

Ofcourse, when I do something spontaneous and throw my inhibitions out and actually have a good time, I do it with a guy like that.

The universe hates me.

Actually…I’m pretty sure it’s punishing me.

Still.

I force enthusiasm into my voice. “I did!” I give Mariah a smile. “Linnea and Jonah. Wow! I didn’t see that comingat all.”

“Right?” Mariah asks, grinning at me. “They aresogreat together. I love it. Jonah is so hot.”

He is. I don’t comment on that though. She’s fifteen and I know she’s noticing how guys look and that’s fine, but Jonah Greene is twice her age at least and is a bearded, broody, tattooed bodyguard. Not sure I want to know that’s my daughter’s type just yet.

I turn to refill my cup. “I really like what I know about Linnea. She seems pretty kickass. Good for her marrying someone unexpected like that.”

Ugh. I know all about Linnea Olsen and I wish I didn’t. Not because ofher. She really does seem amazing. It’s just one more sign that I know way too much about the royal family of Cara and their friends. And lovers.

I didn’t even know that Cara existed until a few months ago. And there’s no reason for me to know. I’m not a citizen of Cara. I’m not in politics in the US. I don’t follow hockey or gymnastics, so I only know Astrid Olsen’s name because of her post-injury advocacy work. There’s no way I would have known her older sister’s name was Linnea if it wasn’t for Cian. I certainly wouldn’t know who Linnea was in love with and who she’d married in a whirlwind wedding last night right on the heels of Prince Torin and Princess Abigail’s wedding if it wasn’t for Cian. I wouldn’t even know who Prince Torin and Princess Abigail were.

Well, if it wasn’t forHenryshowing up and telling me all about Cian.

I wouldn’t have knownCianwas a fucking prince. I would have gone on living my life thinking I’d had a hot weekend flingwith some amazing guy I’d met at my sister’s club and would never see again.

But now I can see him whenever I want to… online. You have to search for them but there are lots of photos. And stories. There’s a whole damned podcast that talks about Cian’s family and they mention the youngest playboy prince as much as they possibly can.

He’s understandably a favorite topic. He’s fun and charming and adventurous and seemingly a bit of a troublemaker, which makes for amazing podcast material.

And terrible boyfriend material for a single mom from Ohio who needs to keep her head down and be humble in order to make the second chance in her hometown work.

Why can’t Henry understand that?

He seemed to think that knowing Cian is a prince, that weekends like the one we had in the Presidential Suite at the Windsor Court hotel in New Orleans could be my everyday life, would be a selling point.

Nope. No way. Not at all.

Henry Dean, Cian’s best friend, is on my shit list for a number of reasons.

First and foremost, for tracking me down.

Secondly for making my sister fall for him and then breaking her heart.

Thirdly for telling us who Cian really is and getting us all caught up in the royal history and gossip from his home country.

Rubywas the one that started all of this. She was veryinterested in the royal prince thing.

She’s kind of on my shit list too, as a matter of fact.

“Of course,Linnea is kickass,” Mariah says, plopping onto the stool across the island from me. “I think it’s romantic that they couldn’t wait. I bet they got all caught up in Torin and Abigail’s wedding and justhadto get married too.”

Hmm. Two years ago, my cynical ass would have said no way do people get caught up like that. Love like that isn’t real. People don’t just look at each other and sayI can’t live another day without you.

In fact,thatkind of emotion, in my experience, is the sure-fire way to send a guy running in the opposite direction.

But, then Cian O’Grady swept into my life…

Okay, I was the one that told him he could have anything he wanted from me for twenty-four hours. And when he asked for twenty-four more after that, I said yes. And when he asked for more afterthat, I said yes to that too.

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