Page 63 of Royal Fling
“And a lot of the kids see me as a friend, too,” I added. “In fact, only last year I helped a boy and his family with a fundraiser to help them keep their home. If I didn’t have that sort of relationship with them, he and his family would have ended up homeless.”
When that didn’t impress him, either, I slumped my shoulders, downed my champagne, and went in search of more.
Of course he wasn’t impressed. Why would a millionaire—or probably billionaire if he was here—care about one family becoming homeless? It wasn’t as if a single man’s fortune could end poverty worldwide or anything.
I tried to talk to more people, with and without August’s help, but as expected, most weren’t interested in what I had to say. Actually, most seemed to turn up their noses as soon as the fact that I worked for a public school came up.
“For what it’s worth, I think you’re worth whatever they are combined,” August said, and I turned to find him standing behind me.
I’d come out to the terrace with a fresh glass of champagne and was stargazing when he spoke.
“Are you okay?” he asked, a sliver of his Elysian accent peering through again. Just as I liked it.
“Yes,” I said with a smile that made my cheeks ache instantly.
“You’re a terrible liar,” he said.
He stood beside me and closed his eyes, leaning on the stone balustrade.
“I love the sound of the waves. It puts me at such ease,” he hummed.
I watched him. The calm on his face, his relaxed eyes, the paced breathing. This. This was the August I was falling for.
“I’m the same. I love the water,” I said.
He opened his eyes and gazed at me.
“How do you put up with these people?” I asked. He shrugged, and I bit my lip. “I guess they are the kind of people you’re used to socializing with, aren’t they? Forget I asked.”
I turned my body around and leaned my butt against the balustrade when what I really wanted was to close the distance between us.
“It’s silly,” he said.
“What is?”
“The way I put up with them.”
I looked up and into his eyes. They reflected the starlight, and I had to swallow the knot in my throat and cradle the balustrade under my hands before I did something crazy.
“What is it?”
“You’ll think I’m an arrogant asshole,” he said.
I scrunched up my face pointedly, and he laughed. Well, I had called him an asshole the first time we met.
“I imagine that I’m richer than them, and that I’m king, and since I’m richer and above them, I can override their stupidity with a royal order,” he said, and I smiled. “See? I told you it’s silly.”
“It’s not,” I said and covered his hand with mine.
I couldn’t help it. Not after his admission.
“It is. Even if I were a king, I couldn’t sign any orders. We’re just figureheads.”
“Even so,” I said. “It’s not silly. Most people use their privilege to crush others. The fact that you imagineandtry to do good in this world isn’t silly. It’s the most beautiful thing in the world.”
“No, it’s not. You are,” he said.
And with those simple words, he managed to make an unbearable evening one of the best of my life.
