Page 19 of Royally Knocked Up
“I just think I could have been put to better use than serving food,” Enzo explained. “Who doesn’t want a meet and greet with the prince?”
“See what I mean?”
“What?”
“Special treatment.” She took a sip of her champagne. “Why don’t we go outside and watch this sunset?”
She was already walking toward the balcony. Enzo watched her go, feeling rather shell-shocked. He would have expected to be angry if anyone had ever spoken to him the way she was. He would have thought he would banish the person from his company.
Instead, he couldn’t seem to stop wanting to spend more time with her, and he didn’t know what to do about it. It felt like something that needed to be gotten under control. Enzo wasn’t used to the feeling of yearning for something that he couldn’t just go and get whenever he wanted to.
He also wasn’t sure where he was hoping this was going to go.
He was attracted to her, yes, but he had already decided that it would be a bad idea for anything to happen between the two ofthem — so why was he so continually drawn to her? What was there to gain from this time they were spending together?
The truth was, it was what she had offered him in the beginning. It had happened exactly as she had said it would.
Very simply, Enzo was beginning to want her friendship.
Time spent with her meant more to him now than time spent with Luca could have, even though Luca had wanted to take him out to a club and Hailey only wanted to sit here on the balcony sipping champagne and telling him how he only had this job because his father had given it to him.
There was no reason at all he should have preferred this over getting away to Vista Grande for the evening.
And yet, inexplicably, he was glad that he had stayed.
CHAPTER 8
HAILEY
The champagne was beginning to soften Hailey’s normally sharp senses, and she knew that she shouldn’t pour herself a second glass. She was on duty, after all.
But it wasn’t as if Enzo was going anywhere. As long as she was with him, he wasn’t going to get himself into any trouble. She picked up the bottle and topped herself off, then held it out to him. “You want some more?”
“Yeah, please.”
She poured a bit more for him too.
“The sunset really is something,” he said. “How did you know it was going to be this remarkable tonight?”
“I’ve been watching it every night,” she told him. “I love sunsets.”
“So this is something you do?”
Hailey couldn’t help laughing. “You make it sound like a strange hobby.”
“I don’t know. I know people do this, but I’ve never done it myself.”
“You’ve never noticed a beautiful sunset?”
“Well, noticing is different,” he said. “You’re not talking aboutnoticing. You’re talking about stopping what you were doing to sit here and watch the sun go down.”
She nodded. “I would do sunrises too, except I don’t really like to get up that early.”
“Well, that we have in common.” He laughed. “I can’t imagine getting up before the sun just to… watch it rise.”
“I know what you mean,” Hailey agreed. “But at the same time… there’s something special about this, isn’t there? I mean, the way it forces you to slow down. I don’t know about you, but I catch myself trying to speed through my life all the time. But when you sit down to watch a sunset, it’s going to happen on its own schedule. I like that about it. I like how you just have to sit still for a while and enjoy what nature is offering you. There’s something beautiful about that, don’t you think?”
“I guess I’ve never thought about it that way,” Enzo conceded.
