Page 29 of The Prodigal Prince

Fiona blinked. Mac was supposed to be in charge of the Games? She had no idea.

From the look on his face, Mac didn’t either.

* * *

The Gamesof the Sargasso Sea? They hadn’t finished their earlier conversation, but... “They won’t be here again for years,” Mac pointed out. “What is there to plan?”

His sister arched her eyebrow the same way their mother had, and he knew he would have little choice in the matter.

She wouldn’tforcehim but that didn’t mean one couldreallysay no when your sister the queen asked you to do something.

“The facilities need maintaining and updating. Someone needs to be in charge of that. Gabe won’t have time since he’ll be doing more and more for me again.” Her eyes twinkled. “I’m going to be a bit busy growing another person.”

Fiona and Jasmine squealed. Gabe grinned. David punched his brother on the shoulder.

Mac just smiled. It made sense that Esme would want him to stick around to help take on more as she found herself able to do less for a bit in the near future and even less when she got closer to delivery. He hadn’t been around, but he’d kept an eye on things - with help from Silas. She’d been sick, but not too sick with her previous pregnancies. They seemed to take enough of a toll on her so that she cut back fairly early on.

In the off years, the countries often did update their facilities in between the other events they were used for. Someone would need to be in charge.

The brother of the queen seemed a logic choice.

He’d also noticed that since their meeting earlier, it had become much harder to remember his parentage and easier to continue thinking of Esme as his sister.

“Are you going to come back here to live then?” The look on Fiona’s face told him there was a lot riding on this answer.

Mac nodded slowly. “It appears I will be at least for a while. I can travel back to the States regularly, or you and Gray can come here - move here even, if you wanted.”

Fiona appeared to have second thoughts about having the discussion at that particular moment. “We’ll talk about that later.” The addition of “in private” remained unspoken.

“Of course, you both are always welcome here.” Esme took over the conversation again. “All three of you, and Tinsley is always welcome to come with you. You’re family. The information is public after yesterday, so there’s no need to conceal your presence. We will, of course, provide protection services for you, at least for the time being. While you’re here, obviously, but if you return to the States, we’ll have a member of our team coordinate with Jonathan Langley-Cranston. He handles quite a bit of security for us and others we know in the area.”

“I’ve worked with him before,” Fiona confirmed. “He knows what he’s doing.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Mac noticed someone walk in and give a signal to Esme.

Gabe stood and held out a hand to Mac’s sister. “That’s our cue. We have a video conference with Ezekiel in a few minutes. Since time zones are a thing, we had to choose a time when neither one of us would be sleeping.”

Esme stifled a yawn. “Yet.”

It took Mac a minute to place Ezekiel. When he realized, Ezekiel was the relatively new king of New Sargasso, he understood Gabe’s statement. There had to be almost twelve hours time difference between their locations.

With that, the other two couples went their separate ways, leaving Mac alone with Fiona. They headed down one of the hallways, but Fiona didn’t seem to be in any hurry, so Mac didn’t rush.

“Do we need to get Gray? Or is he all right where he is?” Fiona glanced at him, clearly uncertain about what she was going to say. “I adore him. You know that. Normally, I’d enjoy a bit of child free time with adults, but with everything yesterday, I’m not sure how I feel. On one level, I want to be so close to him I can feel him at all times, but on another, I know he’s safe. He doesn’t appear to be overly traumatized by the situation, and I think I’m okay with leaving him be for the moment. Then I worry that even thinking that makes me a bad mom.”

Mac reached out and took her hand as they walked. Squeezing it gently, he tried to reassure her. “You are a wonderful mum. It’s normal, probably even healthy, to want to spend time with adults. That’s okay. Even after yesterday. He doesn’t seem to be overly bothered by it, and if you felt he wouldn’t be okay going somewhere without you, we’d be having an entirely different conversation.”

Without meaning to, he’d walked them toward the door to his apartment and let them inside.

“Where are we?” She sounded curious, and possibly a bit cautious.

“My quarters.” Mac winced as he looked at her. “I can show you how to get back to yours or we could have a drink and you can have some more time talking to another grown-up.”

He could tell from the look on her face that Fiona was sizing him up, trying to determine if he had any ulterior motives.

He didn’t.

“All right. I’d like some ice water if that’s the kind of drink you mean.”

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