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"Of what, exactly?"

"Alex--it wouldn’t be a fling It wouldn’t be simple or easy If I let myself, I’d just end up hurt and then it would be in every newspaper and on every gossip site"

"Why do you think Alex would hurt you?" She sat back in her seat "No one knows Alex the way I do When Daddy died, Alex stepped up and became the man of the house He watched out for me and Max Max has classic middle-child syndrome and left for school as quickly as he could, but every decision Alex has made was based on hoould affect us And I can see howto hurt you"

"Not on purpose" I played with my napkin "I don’t think I could handle the scrutiny, the media attention"

"That’ll die down after a while Or you’ll get used to it It’s overwhelo on vacations and sometimes have lazy Sundays like everyone else in the world"

She didn’t understand She’d been born into son to me I felt as if I’d been dropped on another planet And Alex would break my heart--he’d have to when it cah in my Idiots Guide to the Monarchy that I knew he had to marry someone of royal blood ould be able to help hi in your head; I can practically hear the gears squeak" She leaned forward and lowered her voice "You knohat I think? I think you’re worried about what it would e Crown prince isn’t nearly as fun as they make it out to be in the storybooks Whoever he chooses will be queen"

I groaned "Exactly I’ out loud Rener that says whatever she’s thinking? No one would accept me as their queen and God knoouldn’t bla with Alex, I can’t just think about how he makes me feel, I have to think about hoould affect an entire country If they reject me, he would have to leave me And if they don’t reject me, how badly could I screw it all up?"

Cathy smiled and leaned back in her chair "He could always abdicate"

"Geez, Cathy, that wouldn’t lared at her "Our entire relationship, I would be the reason he wasn’t king"

"The very things that have you worried are the exact things that mean you would make an excellent queen"

"You don’t understand You’ve been brought up your whole life with that as a possible future I was brought up in a land with no kings or queens The very idea makes me nervous"

"You do realize you’re from a line of royalty that once held the crown of Lilaria?" She snorted and picked up her plate "Sao to shit You end up doing so you never dreamed of and you knohat you do?"

I stood up and followed her to the sink with my plate "What’s that, oh wise one?"

"You ood or as bad as you think it will be It’s what youto me She tossed her leftovers and handed the plate to the dishwasher "But I can tell you this: You will never find another man that would love you the way Alex would"