Page 24 of Royally Knocked Up
“We’d make it a good time for them too. Besides, this placedoeshave some clout. People have heard of it. We have royalty stay here all the time.”
“I suppose if we needed help making our point to people, we could get your dad to make a call, right?” Hailey mused.
Enzo felt something tighten within him. “No.”
“No?”
“I’m not asking for my father’s help,” he said. “I would rather fail at what I’m doing here than try to get him to help me.”
“That’s a little extreme, isn’t it?” Hailey asked mildly.
“You don’t understand. He already thinks I’m the black sheep of the family. He already doesn’t want me inside the city limits in case I create some sort of scandal for him before his coronation. How’s it going to be if he sends me all the way out here and I’mstillreaching out to him, asking for his help? He’d say that wasconfirmation of all the worst things he thought about me. He would say it proved that I couldn’t handle anything by myself, and that was why he would never be able to let me.”
“Well, that isn’t fair,” Hailey said. “Of course the king would have the most sway when it came to something like this. What does he expect you to do — not use all the resources at your disposal?”
She sounded so indignant on his behalf. Enzo had to admit that he enjoyed her reaction a little bit. “Fair doesn’t matter very much when it comes to my father,” he said. “Or rather, it does when he’s managing foreign relations — he’s a good diplomat — but not when it comes to his own family.”
“Well,” Hailey said, “we are just going to have to kick ass on this event planning, then, so he won’t be able to deny your value!”
Enzo forced himself not to laugh. He didn’t think her enthusiasm was funny — in fact, he was moved by it — but he also didn’t think his father was going to give a damn what was accomplished here. The best Enzo could hope for on that score was not to lose any esteem in his father’s eyes. And the truth was, he’d stopped hoping for his father’s opinion of him to be anything resembling good a long time ago. To be ignored — that would be ideal.
But spending the weekend with Hailey was something else.
“Do you want to come back to my room after we get off work tonight?” he asked her. “We could work on this some more. Really get down to business and dig in on it.”
It occurred to him that that offer probably sounded even more romantic than the original suggestion of having dinner together had.
It also occurred to him that he didn’t much care. Enzo Mancini was a man who was used to going for the things he wanted in life, and he wanted to spend his time with Hailey Jones. Never mind what it looked like.
She beamed at him. “That sounds great to me,” she said. “Maybe we can check out that sunset again.”
Enzo felt something strange in his gut at the reminder of the day they had watched the sunset together — the day he had been sure they were about to kiss.
What was she suggesting?
But no, she couldn’t be suggesting what he’d thought. That was his imagination.
And even if she was, I can’t go there.
We can’t go there.
CHAPTER 10
ENZO
“You know what?” Enzo said. “I’m starting to think I could get used to these sunsets.”
Hailey grinned at him. “They are nice, aren’t they?”
“Nice isn’t the word. You were right before about how it forces you to slow down.” He glanced at her. “I don’t think I’m so good at that.”
“You’re better than you think you are,” Hailey told him, smiling. “Look, just have a sip of your wine and sit quietly for a few moments. You always try to fill silences. Have you noticed that?”
“Does it bother you?”
“I like it, actually,” she confessed. “It’s one of the things that makes you so easy to talk to.”
“I didn’t know that I was easy to talk to.”
