Page 34 of My Queendom for a Horse

“Absolutely not,” Aleks says. “This man pretends to save you, but he’s trying to buy you.”

“You said you’d stay out of it,” I say. “So honor your promise, and shut up.”

The waitress returns with menus. “I brought one in Russian.” She winks at Aleks.

“Would he be considered handsome?” Sean asks. “In Latvia, I mean?”

I’m pretty sure that Aleksandr’s good-looking literally everywhere, but I don’t say that. I bite my lip and look at him and say, “No, I wouldn’t say that he is.”

Sean looks relieved.

“Which of them is your boyfriend?” the waitress asks me in Latvian.

“Neither one,” I say.

“But the Russian one?” She wiggles her eyebrows.

“He was horribly rude to you,” I say. “You should just ignore him.”

She giggles. “I kind of like it.”

Why in the world do women want things that are bad for them? “Trust me. He’s not a very good person.”

“The woman belongs to me,” Aleks says suddenly. “Until our meal is ready, go away and stop bothering her.”

For heaven’s sake. The poor waitress’ eyes widen dramatically, and her lower lip wobbles.

“I don’t belong to anyone,” I snap.

Sean, apparently oblivious to all of the back and forth, says, “Are we ready to order?”

I help him place an order for a few different things, including the traditional grey peas and bacon, and skabu kapostu zupa—our common but delicious cabbage soup, and then I order borsch for Aleks. I have no idea whether he likes it.

Actually, I rather hope he hates it.

“This doesn’t count as one of them,” Sean says.

“Excuse me?”

“Our lunch today.” He looks pointedly at Aleks. “It isn’t one of our dates, because your strange Russian trainer tagged along.”

I can’t help but smile. “Sure,” I say. “I agree.”

“I’m going to win you back in the next three months,” Sean says. “Just wait.”

“No, he won’t,” Aleks says. “Because I bet I kill him inside of a month.”

This conversation alone might do me in.

I know one thing for sure: I absolutely have to figure out how to control this stupid horse-man, or I’m going to lose my mind long before Sean has any hope of changing it.

7

I survive the lunch, barely. Sean didn’t want to pay for Aleks’ meal, but he didn’t want me to have to pay for it, so eventually, when it was clear that Aleks had no money, he paid for everything.

And miraculously, Aleks stuck to Russian the entire time, so that was a success. Sort of.

But when Sean drops us off—he thankfully has a meeting later and is in a rush—Dad’s waiting outside on the front porch.

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