Page 21 of The Prince and the Puck
“Why do you ask?”
“Well, if we’re gonna be friends, I feel like I should know a little bit about you. So where did you grow up?”
“Nowhere around here.”
She wouldn’t meet my eyes, and I got the sense that there was something she was hiding. I couldn’t imagine why she would hide where she grew up—but then I realized maybe it was a place she wasn’t proud of.
“That’s okay,” I said. “Were you happy as a kid? Did you have a good family? Do you keep in touch with them?”
“That’s a lot of questions, Declan.”
“You don’t have to answer them. I’m just trying to get to know you.”
The weird thing was, I really did want her to answer them. There was something about Lizzy that felt so familiar, like there was some thread of commonality that we shared that I couldn’t put my finger on. And while I understood that nothing could ever happen between us—at least not while she was working for the team—some part of me felt like she might understand me in a way that other women had never been able to.
Of course, that was insane, because I could never tell any woman the truth about who I really was or where I was from. That was something I had accepted a long time ago, and the one serious relationship I had tried had failed spectacularly for that very reason. I had chosen my freedom, and freedom meant being alone. For me, at least.
“I grew up happy,” said Lizzy. “My mom loved me. I didn’t see my dad a lot, but that was okay. I didn’t have any brothers or sisters.”
Lizzy hesitated, and there was something in her eyes I couldn’t quite identify.
“But I did have a best friend. Who felt a lot like a brother when we were young.”
Lizzy’s voice was slow as she said these words, hesitant, like there was something she was divulging that she wasn’t sure she should tell me. “What about you?”
“I do have a brother,” I told her. “We used to be pretty close. But we’re not now, and I feel like that’s my fault in a lot of ways.”
“Your fault how?”
I lifted a shoulder. “It’s complicated, but I guess you could say I kind of abandoned him. There was a job,” I searched for a way to tell her what had gone down. “It wasn’t ever supposed to be mine because, well, it just wasn’t. It was always going to be his. But it’s a really hard job, and he didn’t really want it. And so when I left to pursue my dreams, I think maybe he was kind of jealous.” My heart twisted at the thought of Lambert and how he’d opted to handle the pressure and disappointment. And at the guilt I always felt about it.
“That must be hard,” Lizzy said. She nodded in sympathy and then went on. “I don’t have any siblings, but I’ve seen how those relationships operate. I feel like there’s a lot of expectation between siblings. And that would be kind of difficult.”
“Yeah, maybe that’s it.”
I thought about Lambert back at home. Abandoned, because I left him there. Abandoned to rule a kingdom, sure, which is something most people might want. Or think that they want. But I had abandoned him all the same. Because I selfishly wanted to pursue my own dreams, and he was kind enough to encourage me to do it.
“I didn’t grow up with money,” Lizzy volunteered suddenly. “I grew up with a tough mom, who had to make her own way. And so she made me tough, I think.”
“Yeah, I saw that the other night in the parking lot,” I reminded her.
Lizzy’s gaze dropped to her lap for a second as she inspected the top of her water bottle, toying with it before meeting my eyes again.
“It has made things a little bit difficult,” she said.
“What has? Being independent?”
“Yeah,” she hesitated. “But also... men aren’t always looking for a woman who can put them on their ass.”
I grinned. I couldn’t help it. It was exactly what I had thought the first time I saw her. And for me, that was my catnip. I didn’t want a shy, demure toothpick of a blonde who I could blow over with one misplaced high five. I wanted a woman who could hold her own, who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to try to get it. I wanted a woman like Lizzy.
If, of course, I could have a woman at all. Which, as had already been established, I could not.
“Well, that’s ridiculous,” I told her. “And any guy who is afraid of a woman who can handle herself doesn’t deserve a woman like you in the first place.”
I watched, intrigued, as an adorable blush climbed Lizzy’s neck, her dark hair hanging around her face as she looked down at the top of the water bottle again, a tiny smile pulling her full lips just slightly wider. I liked that I could make her blush, that I could make her smile. If nothing else, Lizzy deserved to hear that she was gorgeous—and that I appreciated her ability to kick my ass.
Suddenly Lizzy stood, putting her water bottle on the coffee table between us.
