Page 61 of Once Upon a Prince

“Really? You aren’t going to tell me I’m wrong, that I’m seeing too much into it, that I should mind my own business?”

“You aren’t wrong, you aren’t seeing too much into it, and you haven’t minded your own business since you were three.”

“I didn’t, certainly not where you were concerned. You are into this woman; you want this to be something. Are you in love with her?” Ana asked.

“Can you get the tickets or not? I assume the show will start at eight. I want to make dinner reservations after, but I need to know how long the show is to figure that out.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I can get you a nice dinner reservation after too.”

“I can’t ask you to do that,” I said.

Ana laughed. “Then it’s a good thing you didn’t; I’m volunteering. If you want to impress this woman, leave it to me. I’ll make sure you two have a night you’ll never forget.”

“Would you?” I could have done some of the planning on my own but I had never tried to impress a woman with dinner and a Broadway show. I wasn’t totally sure how to do it. I never needed to, nor had impressing a woman meant as much as it did with Ella. I wanted it to be done right and no one could do it better than my sister.

“Of course, I would be happy to help. Just tell Ella you’ll be picking her up around seven thirty on Saturday and leave the rest up to me.”

“I can trust you?” I teased.

“Dax, really?” Ana said and I laughed.

“I don’t want you making a fool out of me because you’re suddenly trying to get back at me for throwing you into the pool when we were kids.”

“Oh, if I were going to get back at you over that, I wouldn’t use this, I would do something way bigger.”

“You’ll wait until you meet Ella to completely humiliate me?” I asked.

“Oh, you want me to meet her now, or you want her to meet me? This is new, this is huge. I don’t think you’ve ever asked me to meet a woman you were dating. Come to think of it, I don’t think you’ve ever dated a woman, at least not officially. Is this official? Is she your girlfriend? Is this serious?”

“Let me know when you have the details on the show so I can let Ella know.”

“You haven’t asked her if she’s free? You assume a lot of a woman, what if she has plans? What if she doesn’t want to spend time with you?” Ana teased.

“She’s already agreed to dinner with me on Saturday, I just haven’t told her the details yet as I didn’t know them. When you have them, please let me know.”

“You aren’t going to answer my questions, are you?” Ana asked.

“I’m late for a meeting. Call me when you have everything finalized. I love you; you are the best sister a guy could ask for, and I don’t deserve you.”

“Butter me up, you know that works. Even if it’s all true. I’ll call you before the end of the day with all the information. But I want to have a firm date when I get to meet this woman, with Dad.”

“Dad has already met her.”

“That isn’t what I was talking about, I think you need to bring her to Sunday dinner and invite Dad.”

“Oh, look at that. I got to go. Talk later, love you, bye.” I said and hung up the phone.

It wasn’t exactly a lie, I was late to a meeting but I didn’t want to talk to my sister about what Ella and I were and what it all meant, nor having her convince me to bring her to Sunday dinner.

I wanted to spend more time with Ella, I wanted to take her out, I wanted her in my bed at night. I wanted to take it so far as having her meet my sister and my father, to have her come to Sunday dinner. I just wasn’t ready to tell my sister all that yet. I imagined what it would be like if Ella and Ana were friends, if they met for lunch or shopping or Ella helped Ana with her charity work. I could see Ella sitting at dinner with my family, chatting easily with my father, teasing me, laughing with my sister. The thoughts and images made me smile. I was in a lot deeper and I knew and Saturday was only going to be the beginning of me trying to convince Ella to share her life with me forever.

Chapter 35

Ella

“Ella, can you come into my office, please?” Dax asked.

It was the end of the day and as usual, I hadn’t seen much of Dax. With being back we were both busy playing catch up. He had meetings both in the building and outside, including a lunch with his father and some members of the board. I knew he was excited about telling them how well the trip went and I hoped the meeting had gone well.

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