She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t give me that, you know damn well that this is about you ignoring me.”
“I haven’t been ignoring you.” My tone carried a defensiveness that was strange even to me. I’d never felt the need to explain myself to anyone but my king.
“Then what’ve you been doing? We went from seeing each other every single day to you going out of your way to avoid me.” I began to speak, but before I managed to utter even a single word, she raised her finger and arched her eyebrows. “And don’t eventhinkof telling me that I’m imagining it. I have a zero gaslighting policy, and I’m not going to let you feed me any bullshit lines.”
I should’ve known that simply avoiding Ava and hoping that’d be the end of it wouldn’t work. Moreover, she had a right to know what was going on.
I sighed, shaking my head. “It’s your father.”
“You mean the guy who I’m supposed to eat dinner with k tonight but more likely than not won’t show up?”
“The very same.”
“Why did he tell you to ignore me?” Her eyes flashed with worry. “Don’t tell me he knows.”
I laughed. “You think if he knew that he would’ve let me off with a little warning? No, he doesn’t know. He was simply concerned about your, well, I won’t sugarcoat it, miserable performance as a princess so far. My avoiding you was his way of making sure I wasn’t around to be a distraction.”
The anger faded from her face, replaced with disappointment. She turned, spreading her arms and placing her hands on the balcony railing.
“I know. I know I’m totally bombing it as a princess. But… I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I’m terrible at every single part of this job, or whatever you want to call it. I can’t walk right, I can’t talk right, and the idea of dressing in the clothes that I’m expected to wear is enough to make my stomach turn.”
She turned around, a determined expression on her face.
“But you know what? I’ve made peace with that. If I can’t act the way that I’m supposed to as a princess, it’s OK. If that doesn’t sit well with my father—if I should even call him that with the way he treats me—then fine. I’m not going to lose sleep at night worrying that I’m not acting like other people expect me to. I’ve always lived my life according to my own code, and that’s not about to change.”
I had to admire her fierce determination. It was a reminder of what I’d found so damned attractive about her to begin with.
“In fact,” she continued, “I’m going to do what I want tonight.”
“Is that so?”
“It’s so. And what I want is to spend time with you.”
My heart tensed at the idea. The fact of the matter was that I wanted nothing more than to spend the evening with Ava. But I dared not speak the words.
“Is this a command of the princess?” I asked with a wry tone.
She grinned. “Nope. I’m asking you as a friend. But if issuing an official command is what gets you to hang out with me, then I won’t hesitate for a second.”
I chuckled. “Fine. After all, it’s just the orders of the king that I’m ignoring here.”
Ava wentpssh, waving her hand through the air. “Don’t look at it like that. The princess wanted to go out for the evening, and you volunteered to accompany her. After all, you’re not about to let her go out into the big, scary world all alone, are you?”
Her words took me by surprise. “Wait, you’re going out?”
“We’regoing out. And to get there, we’re going to need a ride. Come on.”
Chapter 23
Ava
“Alright, I wasn’t planning on playing the ‘by order of the princess card,’ but I’m getting very close.”
Standing in the middle of the garage, dozens of gorgeous cars of all make and model around us, my mind raced with the possibilities. Luc, on the other hand, was less enthused.
“I’m still against us going out. But if you insist on it, then we need to take something non-descript. How about this Tesla? Perfectly fine car.”
“Comeon,” I replied. “I’m from Seattle—you throw a rock out a window and it’ll bounce off like five of these. No, I’ve got something a little more fun in mind, something a little sportier.”