Wavingas she walked toward the door of the same restaurant where she’d had lunch with her sister, Amalia hoped her nerves didn’t show on her face.
Ryker walked next to her, his hand on her lower back, clearly more intimate than a mere friend would do.
In a moment they were at the same table she’d shared with Ginny.
“How are you?” Amalia reached for her glass of water.
“I survived. It’s not my first time through a line like that.” Ryker sounded more nervous than his words let on.
She took a sip then set her glass back down. “But it is the first time you were the subject of interest rather than a protection officer.” The attempt to hide her smirk failed. “But I did notice that you looked more like the protection officer you’ve been for so long rather than the date of a princess.”
“From talking to King Benjamin’s former head of security who became his step-father, I doubt I’ll ever stop being a protection agent at some level.” He seemed to make a concerted effort to relax but wasn’t fully successful.
“I appreciate the attempt.”
The waiter chose that moment to approach the table. After bowing their direction, he guided them in their choice of meals.
As they waited for their first course, Amalia wanted to keep the conversation light. The likelihood of being overheard wasn’t great, but she saw no reason to take the chance.
“Tell me about your childhood.” That seemed safe enough.
Ryker stared out the window for a moment. “It was normal enough. My mum passed about the time I turned twenty-one. My father loved her very deeply and had a difficult time dealing with her death. They were both Trekkies - they absolutely lovedStar Trek.”
“That’s how you got your name, right?”
“It is,” he nodded.
His words from the ferry came back to her. “And your pets did, too.”
A grin crossed his face. “Our dogs all had the same name. Scotty Tiberius McCoy, but they went by Spock. We had three over the years. The cats all had names of female crew members like Uhura and Captain Janeway.”
“I looked them up after we talked about it before. I did see the first movie of the most recent reboot, but that’s it.”
“We can fix that.” He fiddled with his glass. “I went to work as a protection officer not long before my mum died. Worked my way up to Princess Genevieve’s primary detail. Now, here I am.”
The waiter returned with their first course.
“What about you?” he asked as they began to eat. “I know a little bit about how you grew up knowing about your sister, but what about the rest of your childhood?”
Amalia didn’t quite know how to answer that. “I know I had an incredibly privileged upbringing. We had good times, lots of them, but always this specter of my mother’s first child hung over everything. Someone would mention how not all of their children were in attendance at an event or lament about another missed birthday or Christmas. Sometimes, the press or the public would say such things, but more often a member of the family did. Even my younger siblings would, but her disappearance and potential reappearance didn’t affect them as much as it did me. I don’t know that any of those kinds of things ever occurred to them.”
“The realities of succession didn’t affect them?”
“Not really.” She pushed the plate away from her slightly, her appetite having disappeared for the moment. “My parents didn’t see a reason for them to be overly concerned with those kinds of things. They understood on a surface level, but not the way I had to.”
Ryker stopped eating when she did.
“They knew we lived in a palace, that Grandfather was the king and mum would be queen someday. They thought I’d be queen, but also knew we had an older sister. Understanding the implications of what all of that meant didn’t come until they were much older.” She wanted to slump back into her seat, but even if they couldn’t be overheard, they would likely be seen.
His hand covered hers. “And sometimes you wished your life could be as carefree as theirs seemed to be?” he asked gently.
She nodded, squeezing her eyes shut to hold back her reaction to the unexpectedly emotional conversation. Blowing out a breath, she collected herself. “I’m all right, but I wouldn’t mind turning the conversation to something lighter. I didn’t expect this to turn so serious.”
“Of course.” He grinned. “Where do snowmen keep their savings?”
Amalia grinned. “In a snow bank.”
Ryker clutched a hand to his chest. “You already know my best joke?”
