Page 74 of The Problem with Princes
I shrug. “I don’t know. I think we’re both trying to figure it all out. Especially after the media blow up. His parents weren’t happy.” I sigh. “I hope we can at least still be friends.”
“Yeah?” She raises her brows and puts her head up on her elbow. “Okay, so if this picture thing had never happened, where do you see things going with you guys?”
“I really like him, Texie. More than I’ve liked anyone else.” I glance down at my hands. “I think it would be easy to fall in love with him.”
She guffaws. “Well, he’s a prince. What’s not to love?”
“Everything but that.” My head drops to the side. “Unfortunately, the prince gig isn’t going to change. It only turns into a king gig eventually.”
She stares at me. “Wait, you’re serious? You think you may love him?”
I shrug. “Maybe? But I feel like an idiot even thinking that. I hardly know him.” I bite my cheek. “Except, I feel like Idoknow him. Better than I ever knew Tanner.”
“Have you heard from him since you came back?”
I hold up my phone. “Yeah. He texted me this morning before I went to work.”
She snickers. “He’s already texted you? Doesn’t he know the rules about waiting a day?”
“He didn’t even wait half a day. I had three messages waiting for me when I woke up.” I gaze down at my phone, so glad that he hadn’t followed the stupid rule. “Maybe the wait a day rule is an American thing.”
She pulls the pillow off my chest and tucks it under her head. “What did he have to say?”
“See for yourself.” I hand her my phone because I don’t think I can read them right now. Both because my eyes hurt and because my heart hurts.
She scrolls through the texts. “Oh, I like him already. He knows his place in the friend hierarchy.”
I laugh. “You liked him before that. Maybe only because he is a prince. But still.”
Texie drops my phone to the side and sighs. “True. His title does make him more tolerable.” She says in her best Mr. Darcy voice. Which really isn’t that good. But I give her props for trying. She is quiet for a moment. “Gee, you don’t have a job.”
I smirk. “Thanks for reminding me.”
She lightly smacks me on the arm. “I’m just saying, if you want to, you can go back. You don’t have to be here for anything right now.”
“Um, I need to be here to find a job.”
She lifts her shoulders. “But do you really? I don’t think princesses need outside jobs.”
I shake my head. “No. That feels like I’m running away from my failures. I don’t need him to be my knight in shining armor and rescue me from my disaster of a life.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I want mutual respect. I want him to need me just as much as I need him.”
“Hmmm.” She flops onto her back. “Did you discover if he’s got any brothers or cousins that are available?”
I grin at the ceiling. In spite of her misguided notions about royalty, I love Texie like a sister. I can’t imagine going through this with anyone else. “You already know he has a brother and a sister. But other than that, we didn’t get much into the family tree. Sorry.”
“But is his brother available?”
I give her the I-don’t-know look. “I thought you stayed back and talked with him after dinner that night.”
“It was all small talk. We didn’t get into each other’s relationship status.”
“That’s on you then.”
“If you don’t know the family tree, what good are you?” She sighs but gives me a little shoulder bump. “It’s okay. He’s still texting you, so there’s still time to find these things out.”
