Page 60 of The Problem with Princes
“Climbing? What kind of climbing?” My stomach clenches.
“Rock climbing. We have a wall here in the palace that’s pretty great. I think you’ll like it.” He put the paper back on the tray and holds out his hand. “But if I am going to be on time for my meeting, we should go eat now.”
I take his hand and step out of bed, slipping on my slippers. I reach out and grab the cup and saucer off the tray. If they had made hot chocolate specially for me, the least I can do is drink it.
Ty smiles and leads me from the room. When we are halfway down the hall, he stops. “Wait here a moment. There is something I need to speak with Cora about.”
“Who is Cora?” I call as he jogs down the hall and back into my bedroom.
He returns only moments later, and we continue down to the breakfast room. “That’s the name of your maid.”
He opens a door and we enter a room with a large buffet along one wall. It is filled with trays of food. A round table with eight chairs sits off to the side in a large bay window.
I set my teacup on the table and move over to the selections of food, staring at all the options. The Las Vegas buffets have nothing on this spread. I lean toward Ty. “Who’s going to eat all this stuff?”
He picks up a plate and hands it to me. “We are. And then anything left over will be for the staff.”
I load up my plate; everything looks delicious. We sit down and I take a bite of the pita bread with eggs on top.
Ty turns to me. “So you never did finish telling me the story about, what was it? Your nylons falling off?”
I choke and a bit of bread flies from my mouth and lands on the tablecloth between us.
Tyrone hands me my cup and I take a drink, partially to stop my choking, but also to stall while I come up with an answer. I swallow and finally, I’m able to stop coughing. “It really isn’t a flattering story. I have no idea why I even brought it up.”
He raises his brow. “But you did. And now I want to hear the rest of it.”
I set my fork down. “Listen,” I put my hand toward him on the table. “I humored you with the MASH game. But I think this time, I’m going to give you a hard pass on sharing.”
“Oh, come on. You’re the one who mentioned it first. You can’t bring something like that up and then not share it.” Is he actually pouting?
“Ah, but I can, and I will.” He doesn’t need to know every single embarrassing story about my life. There are plenty of them, and none of them are royal-appropriate.
He lets out a heavy sigh. “Don’t make me ask Texie about it.”
“You wouldn’t dare.” I narrow my eyes at him.
He shrugs in a you-leave-me-no-choice way.
“Listen, I’ll tell you about it someday. Just not today, okay?”
He opens his mouth and I stop him. “Or tomorrow. I will tell you when I decide it’s time. Besides,” I put my elbows on the table and lean toward him. “You know all these embarrassing things about me, but I know nothing about you.”
He leans back and folds his arms across his chest. “What do you want to know?”
“I have no idea. What is something embarrassing that has happened to you?”
He frowns. “You already know most of them. They were splattered all over the internet.”
I bite my cheek. I hadn’t thought of that. At least my embarrassing moments have been fairly private.
“Which one do you regret the most?”
He looks over at me. “Spilling coffee on a poor, unsuspecting tourist.”
I roll my eyes. “Okay, which one do you regret second-most?”
He sucks in a deep breath. “Getting drunk and swimming naked in the Chancellor’s fountain. My parents were so angry about that. Are so angry about that. I got the ‘you have a responsibility to your family and to your country’ speech.” He fiddles with the spoon at the side of his plate. “All the pictures on the internet don’t help either.”
