Page 13 of Royally Knocked Up
So shecanbe respectful.“No,” he told her, putting the phone in his pocket. “It’s just a buddy of mine. I’ll get back to him later.”
She nodded. “In that case, do you want to come out with me for a bit? I was thinking of walking around the resort, maybe familiarizing myself with the place a little bit, and I’d do best with a tour guide.”
“You’re asking me to give you a tour? Didn’t Isla give you one?”
“She started to, but we were interrupted. It’s been kind of a busy day, to be honest,” Hailey admitted. “My flight from the States arrived earlier this morning.”
“Wow. You just flew in today? You must be jet-lagged. You wouldn’t rather sleep and do a tour tomorrow?”
“Who knows if there will be time tomorrow? Besides, I’ve caught a second wind. I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep right now. Come walk around with me. I’d really appreciate it.”
She was asking so kindly, so humbly, and Enzo suddenly realized that this was probably the friendliest conversation the two of them had had since they had been introduced.
He found that he wanted to make the most of this newfound good energy between them. Maybe theywouldbe able to establish something resembling a friendship — and there was no doubt that it would be good to have a friend here, as long as he was stuck.
“All right,” he said. “Let me just go get my shoes on and then we can go.”
“Okay,” Hailey agreed. “I’ll wait for you out in the hall.”
CHAPTER 6
HAILEY
“I’m surprised you wanted to socialize with me,” Enzo said as the two of them stepped through the wide double doors at the back of the resort that led into the open air.
“Why?” Hailey asked him. “You were a little standoffish, but you weren’tthatrude.”
“Not because of that,” Enzo said. “It’s just that not many people would choose to spend time with a prince. They’d be too intimidated.”
“I’m not intimidated by you.”
“I can tell.”
Hailey took a breath. She knew she had to be careful here — she couldn’t allow him to realize that she had come here knowing she would be working alongside a prince before she had even arrived here.
She took a breath. “I was surprised when Isla let me know that a member of the royal family would be here while I was,” she said.“I knew your family owned this resort, but I assumed that none of you would have much to do with the day-to-day operations.”
“We usually wouldn’t.” He didn’t explain why things were different now, and Hailey didn’t ask. She hoped he would interpret that as her simply not wanting to pry too deeply into his affairs. The truth was, he was opening up to her, and she didn’t want to spook him and cause him to withdraw.
“Well, I told myself that I was just going to have to get comfortable with the idea of working in close proximity to a member of the royal family,” Hailey explained. It did have me feeling a little jumpy at first — I wondered if I might accidentally do something to give offense. But then I thought — well, I’m an American. A clever prince will realize that I have no experience with royalty, and he’ll give me the benefit of the doubt. And I think I was right to feel that way, because in spite of the minor tension between the two of us so far, youhavebeen pretty understanding toward me while I figure out the protocol here. And I want to thank you for that.”
Enzo nodded. “You haven’t been out of line or anything,” he assured her. “A little rude, yes, but nothing that would have caused a diplomatic incident.”
“Well,that’sgood to hear,” Hailey said.
“What brings you all the way to Monteverde anyway? I know it’s not just that you wanted to work at a ski resort. You can’t convince me that you don’t have ski resorts in America.”
Hailey had to laugh at that. “No, you’re right, we do,” she said. “And plenty of them.”
“So why come all the way over here?”
“Culture.” Hailey had prepared this answer. “I wanted to see the world.”
“And you picked Monteverde?”
“Well, Monteverde was where I got hired,” Hailey said. “But I might have picked it anyway. It’s awfully beautiful here. The mountains — gorgeous. Like nothing we have back at home.”
“Oh, come on. I know you have mountains in the States.”
