Page 131 of The Thing About My Secret Billionaire
My brain might as well be pea soup in a blender. Turned to full power. And without the lid on.
“Of course I was.” Prince Oliver puts his arm around Miller’s shoulders and turns him so they’re standing side-by-side facing me.
“We heard our friend here created a bit of a bad first impression,” the only member of a royal family to ever set foot in this barn says to me. “So we thought we’d come to let you know that he really doesn’t make a habit of going around impersonating farmhands to seduce women.”
I don’t know how to turn off the blender.
“You guys are…friends?” I manage.
“Yeah,” Miller says. “We own a soccer team.”
“Oh, shit. Yes.” And now I remember Paige telling me that, when I was so filled with anger I was barely absorbing what she was saying.
But even if that fact hadn’t fallen out of my head amid all my hurt over everything that’s happened, combined with the frantic preparations for today and the stress over whether it would be a success, it would never have occurred to me that they might be actual close pals. Certainly not charging-over-here-to-convince-me-he’s-a-good-person close, at any rate.
“Too right we own a soccer team,” Prince Oliver says. “The bloody Boston Commoners.”
“They were shit,” Leo says. “But now they’re good.” He checks his watch. “We’re not needed here, right? So we’re done?”
Miller steps away from Prince Oliver and casually takes my hand, like we’ve been together for about ten years and this is just how we stand.
And it does feel like he’s been by my side forever. But it also feels like the new and exciting thing that it is. Either way, it definitely makes my belly go all warm and fluttery.
I wrap my other hand over the top of his and lean against him to steady myself.
“Sorry,” I stammer to the three men standing in front of me. “I don’t mean to be rude. I’m just a bit shocked and trying to process how come you’re here. Are you saying you knew Miller was coming to talk to me, and you followed him to be his character witnesses?”
“Pretty much,” Chase Cooper says. Seriously. Chase freaking Cooper. And he really looks exactly as he does in the movies. “Miller told us he was on his way here. And it didn’t take long to figure out there’sonly one donkey sanctuary in Warm Springs. So we hit the road because we weren’t sure you’d believe him.”
“But we thought you might believe us.” Prince Oliver gestures to all three of them.
“Didn’t think I’d believe what?” I ask.
“That he’s not a lying liarson who lies all the time,” Oliver says. “I know he lost his mind over the whole revenge on the arsehole who virtually left them homeless when he was a kid thing. And that’s what made him do the whole pretending to be someone else so you’d sell the land to him thing. But that’s really not something he’d usually do.”
“Yeah,” Chase says. “He’s usually acompleteasshole.”
The crowd, which I’d forgotten was still here, dissolves into laughter as Oliver holds his hand up for a high five and Chase slaps it.
“Oh, I knew he was made of good things the night he slept with Petunia,” I say to reassure these men who’ve gone to quite some extreme lengths to stick up for their friend.
“I beg your pardon?” Leo’s face darts up from his phone.
“She’s super nervy,” I explain. “And there was a thunderstorm, and she was terrified and shaking. So Miller petted her. And sang to her. And fell asleep with her.”
The three of them look from me to Miller, deep concern etched on all their faces.
“Petunia is a donkey,” Miller clarifies.
“Oh,” they all say with sighs of relief.
“Never had you down as a sleeping-with-a-donkey kind of guy,” Chase says.
“Neither did I.” Miller drops a kiss on my forehead. “Turns out I didn’t really know what kind of guy I was till a few days ago.”
“Anyway, the long and the short of it is that Oliver made us come here,” Leo says, going back to flicking through his phone.
“Thanks, pal.” Miller pats the prince on the shoulder.
