Chapter 19 #2
“Sure.” He closes the door to the bathroom, and I sink onto the bed, doing my best not to picture water pounding against his broad back and muscular torso.
Not helpful.
Pulling up FaceTime, I call Nona, who answers after only a few rings, showing me an up-close image of her ear. “Valentina, my darling girl! How’s your prince?” she asks.
“Shhh, Nona! He doesn’t know my real name, remember?” I whisper. “And he’s not my prince.”
“A man who offers to drive you hours through a storm certainly wants to be yours, my dear.”
I grip the phone. What is she, psychic now? “You’re wrong, Nona,” I say in protest.
“We’ll see.”
“You need to pull the phone around. You’re on video.”
“Oh, goodness. All right.” She turns the phone for me to see her lovely face. “There you are! Where is he now?”
“He’s in the shower.”
“The shower?”
“That’s why I’m calling you now.”
“To tell me the prince is having a shower?” she teases.
“Nona,” I warn.
“Shame. I wanted to meet him.”
Not a good idea. Nona may forget I’m Fabiana and use my real name, throwing the cat right amongst the royal pigeons.
“The road south is flooded, so we have to stay the night in a little town called San Fiorenzo, but I’m hoping to get to the city tomorrow.”
“Oh, I know that place. It’s such a pretty little town, nestled in the mountains with its beautiful views. Your papa used to order those delicious pies from a bakery there, remember? It really is the perfect place for a romantic interlude.”
“Nona! Seriously,” I hiss, immediately taking her off FaceTime and lifting the receiver to my ear.
“Can’t an old lady imagine romance?”
“I would have thought you'd had quite enough of that after you went dancing with Mr. Beckman,” I reply, switching the focus to her.
She bites. “Oh, Rudolf really is quite something. I never knew! Living in the house next door all these years. I didn’t think I liked him, but I didn’t really even know him. He's quite the Fred Astaire.”
“And you're going to tell me you’re his Ginger Rogers, I suppose?”
She chuckles. “Not until my ankle’s better,” she sing-songs.
“How is your ankle? When will you be discharged?”
“I'm already home. Fred Astaire picked me up earlier today.”
“Oh, that’s good.”
I'm not quite sure what to make of this new development in my grandmother's life. Rudolf has been nothing but a neighbor all these years, and now suddenly he’s the man my grandmother is…what? Dating?
An odd sensation twists in my belly. It’s always been Nona and me, us against the world. Now, Mr. Beckman seems to have eked his way into her affections.
“Don’t worry about me, sweetheart. I'm in perfectly good hands here. You enjoy your time with your prince—who allegedly has zero designs on you—and I'll see you when your project is finished.”
“But—” I protest on more than one count. The woman’s got romance on the brain.
“No buts, Val. I can manage with a sprained ankle with Rudolf at my side.”
“As long as you’re sure?”
“I’m sure, my darling girl.” She pauses for a beat before she says, “He wasn’t the one.”
Confused, I reply, “Who wasn’t the one? Mr. Beckman?”
“The prince. It wasn’t him. It was his father.”
“I know that.”
“Do you? Because it seems to me you’ve been holding it against him all these years. He didn’t have any part in it, Val.”
Her words take me by surprise as my new friend guilt claims my chest. “Where’s this suddenly coming from, Nona?”
“It’s something I’ve wanted to say to you for some time now.”
“And you think that when I’m stuck in a small town with the guy is the perfect time?”
“Now’s as good as any. I don’t want you holding something against a man who isn’t responsible for what happened to us.”
Her words sit heavily with me. She’s right. I’ve known for a long time. I’ve spent so long hating the royal family for what the king did all those years ago, I’d lost sight of where my true anger lay. It’s not with Max. How could it be? He could have only been eleven when it all happened.
I’ve been punishing him for something he had no part in, not only in my mind, but in my life as a journalist, as well. And it’s not been fair to him. I’ve not been fair to him.
It hits me like a blow to the solar plexus.
“It's hard to separate him from it,” I reply, my voice quiet.
“But you can separate him from it, Val. He doesn’t deserve your anger.”
I chew on my lip, my emotions swirling around me like a whirlpool.
“It doesn't matter if it wasn't him personally. He's still part of the same system, the same family that —”
“Val.” Nona’s using her stern tone. She means business. “You think your anger keeps you safe, but it's keeping you from living. That boy drove through a storm for you. He didn't have to do that.”
I hang my head, my chest aching. “I know.”
“I’m not telling you he’s the one. I’m not telling you to fall in love. All I’m saying is let go of that anger. You don’t want to be a bystander to your own life.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, have an adventure. You’re stuck in a romantic town with the country’s most eligible bachelor. Have some fun.”
As the steam from the shower wafts into the room, I close my eyes, and suddenly I can see it all so clearly. My nona is right. I’ve been punishing Max—and all the royal family—for something the king did all those years ago.
The water shuts off, and panic floods through my veins. In a minute or two, he'll be out here in this room with me, and I'll have to look him in the eye knowing that I've been unfair to him from the very beginning.
And that will mean my armor will no longer be my protection, because there will be nothing to protect me from anymore.
It will be just him and me, two people with feelings for one another, sharing a bed in a small town in the mountains.
My heart drums.
“Nona, I have to go,” I say, swallowing down a growing lump in my throat.
“I love you, my darling girl. I want only good things for you. You know that, don’t you?”
Tears prick my eyes, my chest tight. “I do.”
I hang up and sit on the edge of the bed, taking shallow, shaky breaths. I’ve been wearing my anger like a thick metal jacket, and without it, it’s just me, Valentina Romano, a woman who’s falling for a prince who could break my heart without even trying.