Page 23 of The Problem with Princes
He shrugs. “Not if I have my choice.” He drops my hand and switches his mouth to the side. “If I am being honest, I was not as mad at you for spilling my coffee as I was at myself for drawing so much attention to me.”
“But you called me stupid.” There are those hackles again.
He frowns, but then his eyes lighten with understanding. “No, I never said you were stupid. When I said stupid, I was referring to myself. Or rather the situation I was in. I prefer to remain invisible when I can. The media is rarely kind to me.”
I smile and flick my brows up several times. “That is something Ihavelearned from Hallmark movies. Princes rarely like to be recognized.”
He stares at me for a minute.
“Do I have something in my teeth?” I put my hand to my mouth.
He shakes his head. “No. I just have never met anyone quite like you.”
A snort totally sneaks out. “Yeah, I’m sure about that.”
He just smiles at me again. My pulse ticks up. It’s not often a smile can cause such a reaction.
Is it possible that we are now friends? Maybe not the hang out and binge watchMelrose Placekind of friends. But maybe the stop by and say hi when you’re in town kind of friends. Whatever the scenario, I think we may have come to an armistice of sorts.
But then, I rarely stay mad at people for very long. My mom says it is one of my best attributes. In fact, my feud with Modern Ares is the longest I have ever stayed mad at anyone. Well, except for Tanner. I still pretty much can’t stand him.
“How much longer do you plan to stay in our lovely country?” The queen looks between Texie and me.
“We fly out on Saturday morning,” I say because Texie still has food in her mouth.
“Hmmm. Four more days. What have you seen while you’ve been here?”
“Not a lot, actually. The first day we spent some time looking around the city, visiting the cathedral and the bakery.” I eye my friend and grin. “Texie is a big fan ofbaklava.”She deserves the callout after her comment about my thigh highs. This time she kicks me under the table.
The queen smiles. “We do have delightful pastries.”
I nod. “I know. I’m thinking about smuggling home an entire box ofgalaktoboureko.”
Prince Tyrone smiles. “Ah, yes. I believe you mentioned them in the coffee house.”
“I will see they are delivered to your hotel first thing Saturday morning,” the queen says.
“Oh, you don’t need to do that,” I hurry to say.
“That is for me to decide,” she says.
I look down at my hands in my lap, then raise my gaze to hers. “That is very kind. Thank you.”
Prince Tyrone puts his napkin on the table. “I feel the only proper way to show you my thanks is to give you a personal tour of my country.”
“Oh, no, Your Highness.” I shake my head. “I’m certain you have better things to do than show a couple of Americans around Atraxia.”
He holds up his hand. “Nonsense. I can assure you; nothing will please me more. You will see the things most tourists do not even know about.” He looks at me, a challenge in his eyes. “You will not deny me the chance to thank you properly, will you?”
I stare at him.
“We would be honored.” Texie smiles at him and smacks my leg under the table.
I smack her back. I don’t know why I feel so reluctant to accept. Especially after our newfound truce. But I am. I’m certain it can’t have anything to do with the acrobatics happening in my stomach and chest. No, that can’t be it.
Smiling through gritted teeth, I nod. “Yes, we would be honored. Thank you for the offer.”
Prince Tyrone looks at his brother. “Great. Shall we come and collect you at nine tomorrow morning? There’s a great little restaurant I know that has an amazing breakfast. Just the way to start out the day, I think.”
