“Without my phone?”
“Well, obviously.” She grabbed my phone. “I’ll take care of that.”
The kids came and hugged me as I took my bike out of the garage, eager to go out with Tammy. None of them asked where I was going, but Julian told me to have fun. He didn’t growl, so I assumed he hadn’t seen my box of shame yet. Quinn smiled andwhispered, “Tell Adri to bring his tablet. I’d love to see more of his drawings.”
It threw me why they’d ask that until Tammy appeared in the front door.
“Bring him for dinner.”
Bring him for dinner? Tammy’s comment ran circles through my brain as I cycled to the hotel. Bring him for dinner. Wasn’t that what I’d tried to avoid? They didn’t even know he was a prince. I still pinched myself at least once a day to check I wasn’t dreaming. And he was leaving soon. So, what was the point?
I didn’t want another LAT—Living Apart Together—relationship. I wanted him close, wanted to wake up with him next to me, wanted him sitting at my kitchen table, drinking espresso…
Damn it! I wanted him to stay.
My heart skipped a beat as I reached the plaza. Adri sat on a bench, his eyes closed, face bathed in sunlight. He wore a layered, sleeveless tunic in shades of gray on a loose, flowy cerulean skirt matching the color of his eyes. Fuck, he was gorgeous.
I wasn’t sure he heard me approach until the very last moment. He tilted his head and opened his eyes. Then blinked and frowned.
“Sam? It’s not… you’re early. Did something happen? Are the children okay?”
Did I make him nervous? That wasn’t good. “Yeah… long story.” Who was I kidding?
“Oh? Is it a fairytale?”
A strangled laugh escaped before I could stop it. “I don’t know.” How could it be?
There was a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth, and his eyes crinkled in mischief. “I’d invite you up to my room, but I have a feeling we’d bettertalk first.”
The tone of his voice, deep and filled with want, lit a fire in me and made me want to wrap him in my arms. I took a breath. “Yeah. I guess we should. Here? Or walk to the park?”
“I don’t want to get out of the sun yet. I sat in my room too long.” His expression betrayed a hint of… being overwhelmed. Or maybe sadness. I wasn’t sure.
“Are you okay?” I sat next to him, clenching my hands in my lap. He didn’t have his tablet with him, so he hadn’t been drawing.
He scrunched his face in thought, the way he did when he talked about the Bakelite phones. “I don’t know.”
“Did you have a bad shift?”
“No. Not at all.” His face lit up, and blue lines shimmered across his bare arms and the top of his tunic. “Only a few issues left to fix. Riley was dancing and cheering. We finally started on her chandeliers.”
“That’s great news.”
He said nothing else, and we fell silent. Now that we were here, I wasn’t sure where to start or what to tell him when all I wanted was to kiss him and forget he was leaving. Why did I have to tell him it was a long story?
Taking a deep breath, I told him how my family noticed that I’d been moping. “So, Tammy’s watching the kids and shooed me out of the house.”
Adri’s eyes went wide. “But you love spending the day with your children.”
“I love every day with them.” Having them back home, their voices filling the house, put me at ease. But it hadn’t been enough to drive the thoughts of Adri away. “They deserve all of my attention… not burned toast.”
“You burned toast?” He gazed at me with a puzzled expression. “Is that an American expression?”
“No. I actually burned toast.”
“Oh.” He frowned. “That’s bad.”
Really? Even Adri thought that was noteworthy? “And I dropped plates.”
