Page 80 of The Problem with Princes
I roll my eyes at her. I don’t need to see any pictures of Ty. I’ve already taken a hit today. But then I focus on where her index finger points. The picture is of MSG being led into a building. His hands are cuffed behind him.
“The first half is about him trying to kill Tyrone because he blamed him for being laid off from his job. Basically, the guy is unstable, to put it mildly. He’d never see the inside of a prison here in the states. He’d be sent straight to the psych ward.”
Just seeing his face makes my hands sweat. This picture is much better than the one on the security video I watched with Sander. Here, you can see the coldness of his eyes.
Texie’s finger moves down the page, marking the beginning of a paragraph. “For her role in saving Prince Tyrone’s life, the Atraxian Parliament voted unanimously to bestow an earldom upon the American lobbyist. She will be one of only a handful of countesses in her own right, in all of Atraxia. Along with the title, Miss Martindale will hold a seat in parliament and be given an estate. The date of the ennobling ceremony has yet to be announced. The new countess was unavailable for comment.”
I stared at Texie, with my mouth slightly agape. “A title?”
“It will do until you become a princess.” She winks.
“I wonder why they didn’t contact me?”
Texie eyes me. “Are you sure they didn’t? Why would they not have called you?”
I frown. “It’s weir—” I stop. “Oh. They may have but I ignored it.”
Texie looks at me like I’m an alien or something. “Why on earth would you have ignored it?”
“After I came home from our trip and there was the whole picture fiasco, several reporters from Atraxia started calling me for a comment. After the first few, I just stopped answering numbers I didn’t know. I have Ty’s number in my contacts, so I wasn’t worried that it was him.” I shrug, trying not to feel like an idiot. “Besides, why would I think that anyone besides Ty would try to get in touch with me?”
“And they didn’t leave a message?”
“I may have deleted them without looking.” I grimace. “Like I said, who would be calling me? Reading reporters’ messages are almost as irritating as speaking to them.”
“Ah, duh. The Atraxian government was obviously trying to call you.” Texie shakes her head at me like she does at an opposing witness in court. But then she grins and lets out a squeal. “Oh, my gosh, Gee. You are a countess!”
I shake my head. “From what the article says, I have to attend a ceremony first.” I lift my shoulders and drop them. “Still just regular old Grace.”
“That’s still really cool, though,” Jake says.
Both Texie and I look back at Jake who shuffles from one foot to the other. From the look on Texie’s face, I’m guessing she only just remembered he is there.
“Oh, hey.” I smile, trying to look upbeat. “And guess who got a job?”
“Really, Gee? At what firm?” She stands up quickly and grabs my arms.
I pull my lip between my teeth. “Not at a firm, really.”
Her face drops. “Then where?”
“Umm. The Froth and Go on the corner.”
“Really, Gee?”
I close my eyes. “I don’t need a lecture, tonight, Texie,” I whisper.
She pinches her lips shut. “Well, I just want to make sure you saw that. If you have any questions, I’m sure that Prince Tyrone can answer them for you. She gives Jake a little shove toward the door. “Jake and I should be going, right Jake?”
He looks at her. “But we already went to—”
She gives him another hard push and a wide-eyed stare. “You said we could get ice cream. Remember?”
He nods, but his face says he doesn’t really remember. “Does she really know a prince? Or is it like a nickname or something?” He mumbles as he walks out the door.
Texie looks at me over her shoulder and rolls her eyes. “Not a nickname. He’s an actual prince.”
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