Page 66 of The Prince of New York

“Soup!”

Then, as children did when overstimulated with good news, they devolved into laughing, giggling messes, babbling over having soup. As Danielle no longer cried, I moved her to a chair beside her sister before taking my spot on the other side of the table. That way, I’d be able to give both girls equal attention while giving them the perception of safety.

I remembered the days of the table protecting me. While my parents could, if they wanted, reach across to give me a swat, they never had. I’d also worked hard to avoid earning their wrath during meals.

His Royal Majesty of Maine rose to his feet and said, “I’ll go supervise things in the kitchen. I suspect they expect a flavor of broth they like and some token noodles, so we might have to ease them into the chicken and vegetables. Their bloodwork was worse than bad.”

“Worse than Adam’s?”

“Adam was healthier than an ox compared to them, Ian. They’ll recover, but you’re going to want a stroller for Danielle. Expect a workout hauling May around for the next few days at a minimum. Little girls recover quickly, but I expect that you’ll be functioning as their feet for them for a while. I’ll talk to Terry about their detail, and I’ll get Daphne to make some recommendations as well. They’re going to need RPS agents who are a little better with kids than most.”

I foresaw a rough few weeks—or months—ahead of us. “But they’ll be all right?”

“I’ve known you since you were a little squirt pretending you wanted to dump your sister in the river and drown her, Ian. You’re the best medicine I could possibly prescribe. And no, you can’t trick me, boy. I knew you had a bleeding heart from the first time I saw you. That, for the record, is not a bad thing. Just be patient with yourself. I have no doubt you’ll be patient with them. Also, do try to squeeze in an extra meal, and make it high in protein. An extra steak a day would do you good.”

“Most doctors would be telling me I need to watch my cholesterol,” I replied with a grin.

“I’m genuinely scared to look at your test results.” Maine’s king tossed his hands in the air and headed towards the door. “So help me, if Dr. Stanton reports you’re a disaster, I’m going to teach you your manners on that obstacle course myself.”

“In good news, Dr. Stanton doesn’t think I’m a disaster. They did my bloodwork when I got the concussion. There is some room for improvement, but there wasn’t anything serious from my understanding of the situation.”

“It’s a miracle,” the old man muttered on his way out the door.

NINETEEN

Even the RPS agent had a milkshake.

When His Royal Majesty of Maine’sguess on what the girls had been permitted to eat proved to be the truth, I clung on to my temper long enough to feed the children, put them to bed, and make certain there were at least four agents keeping an eye on them. To keep my talent from erupting and seeking out the source of their misery, I took myself to the mud run, waited for the RPS to get into position to bail my ass out should I inflict injury upon myself again, and took out my frustrations on the obstacles.

Fury fueled me, and it took two complete circuits to wear myself out enough my talent settled to something I could manage.

Sometime through my first attempt, someone had summoned my sister, her husband, Madelyn, and Terry, all of whom lounged on chairs nearby to observe my efforts.

Even the RPS agent had a milkshake.

I wondered what he was doing back at the palace already, and once I determined I wouldn’t be self-combustingortaking anyone out unintentionally, I staggered over, sat on the grass, and groaned. “I thought you were tending to your wife’s every need, Terry.”

“I had been until His Royal Majesty of Maine crashed the party, sent his daughter to bed, and stole Dr. Stanton to make a treatment plan for your girls. Olivia has decided she’s their aunt, so you’re going to just have to call her your sister now. The last I checked, she was prowling the palace organizing anything she possibly can. The pregnancy hormones have taken over, and I decided it was a wise idea to swiftly retreat.”

As I generally viewed the Montana princess as someone who’d make an excellent sister, I saw no problems with Terry’s edict, although it concerned me he’d fled from his wife. “I didn’t already screw this up hitting the course rather than hovering, right?”

The RPS agent sighed, shook his head, and grabbed a bottle of water, twisting off the cap before handing it to me. “They’re going to be sleeping off breakfast, and they’re both passed out so hard the RPS agents are checking on them every few minutes out of paranoia. After you get cleaned up, you get to go work with Thunder.”

Madelyn sipped her wine glass, lifting it in salute. “I was told to keep an eye on all these royals. It seems they need adult supervision, and Terry’s off duty. He’s not allowed to be adult supervision. They only let him watch you on the course if he promised to have a milkshake and only intervene if you actually hurt yourself again. We’ve been discussing your performance.”

I was covered head to toe in mud but had somehow survived two passes of the course. As such, I grinned. “I thought I did pretty okay, honestly.”

“You beat my time on the second run,” Terry grumbled.

I regarded the agent with wide eyes. “No way.”

He nodded. “It’s true. Your first run, you were pretty slow, but it looked like you were getting warmed up. Your second run? Judging from your expression, the course had pissed you off, and you were going to teach it a thing or two about the stubbornness of New Yorkers. You did your kingdom proud—and you impressed a bunch of your court, who all fled back inside when you got near the end, in case you weren’t done being pissy yet.”

Damn. I’d been that obvious? “Yeah, I was pretty cranky when I came out here. It was the first thing I thought of that was physical.” I downed the entire bottle of water and allowed myself to flop, questioning why I had thought it had been a good idea to challenge the course twice. “Someone probably should have stopped me after once through.”

Terry chuckled. “Nobody was brave enough. You were still steaming a bit after your first run.”

“Should I apologize for that?”

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