Page 74 of Royally Benevolent

I continued mopping the mess. “Apologies. Just be careful on the wet floor.”

I finished my cleanup. Theo was happy to follow the nanny almost anywhere, which was a relief.

“So, your time spent with the royals has nothing to do with this?” Mom continued.

“Uh… only that… it’s too weird, and I don’t need that whole thing in my life.”

“Whole thing? Didn’t Theo have a good time? He said he loved Princess Kari. He said he’d marry her!” Mom laughed. “Oh, Wyatt, he made friends. What on earth did they do toyou?”

“I almost slept with Odette while I was out of town.” Word vomit spewed from within me. “And probably would have if circumstances differed. But… she’s not for me. It was stupid. I cannot lead her on and?—”

“Princess Odette?”

I shrugged.

“And does she… reciprocate these feelings?”

“Yes,” I answered. “She’s lovely and gracious.”

“But her family are mean?”

“No, they’re funny andnotwhat I expected. Rick and Alex have relatively normal, perfectly imperfect children like Theo.”

“So, what is the issue?”

“It’s not what I want. That life with her would beanythingbut what I want. It’d be life in the public eye, parties, and a bunch of showy bullshit. It’s not me. Most of all, it’s not what we ever planned.”

“First of all, you’re you. You already live life in the public eye. Second, you already have to go to parties. Aren’t you doing a fancy dinner tonight? Third, who is we?”

“Isla and me.”

My mother’s face grew sad but kinder. “You and Isla had plans, but someone ended that too soon. Sweetheart, those plans are nearly four years out-of-date, and you’ll never replace Isla. You’d die trying—alone—and that’s not what she’d want.”

“That’s what she wanted for Theo.”

“She wanted Theo to be whatever he wanted to be and to be raised around a family of people who love him. I don’t think she ever considered royal life. However, I think she would approve of how well Odette does with Theo. Also, let me remind you that wanting to have an intimate relationship with someone and wanting to blend a family with them are two different things?”

“It’s too complicated to do one without the other.”

“Uh-huh? And all of this has made you basically what? Miserable. Sad.Unfulfilled?”

It had. I was perpetually in a lousy mood. I wanted something I couldn’t have—someone like Odette without Odette’s baggage. And where the fuck would I find a woman as kind, patient, and clever as her?

“I think she deserves a bit more credit than you just writing her off. If she makes you happy—even to see her—then that’s a good thing. You do not have to marry Odette to make this thing worthwhile. What did you feel like before you got into your head and began comparing Odette to Isla?”

“I didn’t?—”

“Wyatt Edward, do not lie to me!”

I groaned. She was right.

“I felt only good things, you know? I connected with her. I felt happy to feelseenand to have conversations that didn’t focus on Theo. I got to be myself. And for the first time in years… I felt like I had a future somewhere—even if it wasn’t with her.”

Mom patted me on the shoulder. “Then you know what you need to do. Give her a chance.”

“It’s silly. She’s too young, and I’m too?—”

“Wyatt, if you have feelings for her and havetoldher about them only to pull back and say nothing, you’re cruel. Either completely end it if you are done or see where it goes. Don’t cravenly string her along.”

---