Page 46 of The Prince and the Puck
CHAPTER 27
DECK
SACRIFICING THE SAUCE.
As soon asLizzy was out the door, I began texting her a list of things I would need.
I had no idea how long we would be gone. I guessed maybe forever. But I couldn’t take everything I owned, even if everything I owned reminded me of the freedom and wonder of a life lived away from being royalty.
Declan: 12 pairs of boxer briefs. Please get the bright pink pair. It’s my favorite for workouts.
Five T-shirts. Be sure to get the one with the panda breaking a chair over the other panda’s head and the one that says "pew pew" in the Star Wars font.
There’s a bunch of jeans in my closet. I hate most of them, so pick the ones you think you like best. Can princes wear jeans?
I really had no idea what proper attire for a prince in his home kingdom might be. I hadn’t played that role in a long time, and none of the clothes I’d worn when I was ten would fit me now.
The list got longer and longer as I thought of things I would miss. When I got to Chick-fil-A sauce, Lizzy stopped me.
Lizzy: Declan, we should not take perishable goods.
Right. No Chick-fil-A sauce. Dammit. We didn’t have Chik-fil-A in Murdan, though.
Declan: You sure no sauce?
Lizzy: No Sauce.
I waited, wondering what Lizzy would encounter at my house. Would there be armed assassins waiting for me? Would she be okay? And after I thought about that, I wondered how Lizzy even knew where my house was, since she had never been there with me.
But then again, Lizzy wasn’t Lizzy. She was Eliza—an elite member of my father‘s guard. Eliza had killed people, I guessed. Did that change the way I felt about Lizzy?
The whole thing was super confusing. I didn’t know how I was supposed to feel about anything at this point. The only thing I was sure of was that I was worried about my dad. And about Lambert, if I was telling the truth. I wanted to call him, but I also didn’t want to tie up my phone in case Lizzy needed me.
Then again, would Lizzy really need me? Would a woman capable of the things Lizzy was capable of ever need a man? The woman I had come to know had never made me feel inferior in any way. Well, maybe that one time when she flipped me onto my back on Arndt’s lawn. But honestly? That was kind of hot.
Still, Lizzy might’ve been more man than I was.
For a lot of guys, their masculinity might have felt challenged. But I poked around at mine, and either it wasn’t assensitive as some dudes’ or it just wasn’t very well developed, because it didn’t feel challenged at all.
More concerning was the lie. I understood why Lizzy had to lie. But that didn’t mean I had to like it. And it left a whole lot of questions in places where growing certainty between two people becoming intimate really belonged. Without that certainty, how did I know if we were compatible? How did I know who this woman really was?
We’d been close when we were nine. What did that mean now? I sighed deeply, leaning back into Lizzy‘s very squeaky white couch. The squeaks and groans of the couch seemed sympathetic with my own groans of despair.
The only thing that was certain was that I was going home.
Not to visit.
Not to check in.
But possibly, to rule.
Lizzy was back not an hour later. She came upstairs, telling me she had packed three suitcases for me. If I couldn’t fit what I needed in three suitcases, I probably didn’t need it.
"Are you ready, Your Highness?"
I stared at Lizzy. I wanted her to be Lizzy, the PR lady. I didn’t want her to be Eliza, the terrifying operative. I was kinda hot for them both, but that really wasn’t the point right now.
"Hey, can we quit with the Your Highness stuff?" It was the least I could hope for.
