Page 40 of Royal Rising

“You’d be okay,” I tell him automatically because, what am I supposed to say? Tell Bo that I worry about his mental health if he has to be king?

Bo shakes his head. “You don’t think so, and that’s okay. I don’t have the big game temperament that the rest of you do. If I was firstborn, I would have already given up. But you…” He meets my gaze, and it’s like looking in the mirror. Bo and I look the most alike, with our darker blond hair and beards, but it’s our eyes that show us as brothers. “This is what you were born for. Not just because you were the first,” he stammers. “But because you’ll be good at being king.”

“I’m not dad,” I tell him quietly.

“Nobody is. But you could be great.”

“You have to believe it, though,” Spencer adds quietly.

I shrug. They make it sound so simple.Believe in Yourself, which should be a title for one of those old Chicken Soup for the Soul books Mom used to read.

“I believe in you,” Bo continues. “And so do most of Laandia, more people than you can imagine. I doubt this will make it easier, but I’m saying it out loud—if you don’t do this, I’m not going to either.”

I wipe away a non-existent smudge on the bar top. As soon as I saw them here, I knew this was where Bo would eventually end up at. I don’t blame him. I can’t, because I think about the same thing. “Then, Gunnar…” I trail off, not needing to finish.

“Ithink he’d be great. I really do.” Spencer meets my gaze, looking earnest and serious. “He’s grown up. He’s not the little bugger racing all over the world anymore. And this happened before Stella, so who knows what magic she’s going to work on him? She really steadies him.”

I’ve noticed that too.

But Bo isn’t finished. “I guess what I want to say is that it’ll be cool, no matter what you want,” he says slowly. “I trust you.”

“Sometimes I wish Dad never gave us the choice. The option.” I rub the back of my neck, staring idly at the pockets of customers. I’ve spent so much time here, making it into a place I could be proud of. If I grew up without having an option, I wouldn’t have started the bar. I wouldn’t have played hockey or ball, or anything but stayed home and learned everything I needed to know. I might have been better off.

“That’s not Dad’s way. He made this his choice and you get to as well. And just so you know, I think you needed to do all those things because they made you the man you are.”

I chuckle to break the seriousness of the discussion. “Now you’re going deep.”

Bo nods with a bemused smile. “Done, now.”

I finish my beer, attention caught by the T.V showing the old Jays game. Bottom of the sixth. I’ve watched repeats of it enough that I know exactly how it ends. It’s still fun to see.

Edie was right about me missing baseball most of all.

I pull my mind off of her for another moment. “When I was talking to Dad, he told me some stuff about Dante,” I start carefully. “Do you ever wonder what it would be like if Dad had let Dante take the throne back then?”

“Laandia would be a very different place,” Spencer says.

“Yeah. Dante… can’t really see him as a king.” And that’s probably the nicest thing I can say about my uncle.

“Don’t think it matters because we wouldn’t be here,” Bo says, always the pragmatic one.

“Yeah. Yeah, I guess.”

We finish our beers. There hasn’t been much time in the last few years where I can hang out with my brothers and Spencer without big conversations. Questions to be asked. Decisions that need to be made.

Sometimes I wish we could go back and be kids running wild around the castle. It was a good childhood. There might not have been a lot of outside friends that I was close to, but we had each other, and Spencer. And I had Edie.

I really hope I didn’t mess it up with her. Because that would—

I don’t even want to think about what that would be like.

I watch as she comes from the kitchen with a tray of nachos, the smell of cheese making my stomach rumble. For a moment, Ithink she’s bringing them to us, but she veers off to the back corner where a group of kids are parked.

“What’s up?” Bo asks, watching me watch Edie.

I scrub a hand along the back of my neck, thinking of this morning when I woke up alone. “I don’t know,” I admit. “But I’ll let you know when I do.”

After Bo and Spencer take off, I hide out in the office for a bit, tidying the papers on the desk because I know Edie will disappear back in here to do it, as soon as I come out.

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