Page 34 of Royal Agenda

Grace nodded eagerly. These were all on Grandma’s mother’s side of the family, so she must have put in her information. “It’s legitimate. You should do great-grandpa’s side, too. They were a little more rock and roll.” She winked, knowing Grandma would love knowing she was related to Elvis—16th cousins, but who but a genealogist counted those things?

She checked her watch. She’d give them six more minutes to peruse the info and then set them loose to look for their family members. She’d noted several were in English records and would pull that group aside to go over the finer points of digging through some of the most thoroughly indexed records in history.

So far, so good.

Grandma patted her hand, drawing her attention. “I didn’t know any of this.” She pointed to the screen. “It’s incredible.”

There! Grace wanted to squee and jump up and down. The wire had been tripped, the explosion happened, and–instead of total destruction . . . magic! The enchanting moment when someone realized they were all connected—that the family tree was wider than they’d ever thought possible, that they were part of something bigger than themselves, something amazing. That they came from greatness and even the most quiet of life left an imprint behind.

That was the fire that burned in Grace’s soul, and she could see a mirror of it sparking to life in her grandma. If nothing else came out of this class, or even her visit to Diamond Cove, then it would be a smashing success because Grandma tasted the extraordinary that Grace got to work with every single day.

Seriously–she didn’t need anything else; she was so happy right now.

The door flew open, and Ryker strode inside as if shoved from behind. Harry came in after him, a grim look on his face. Silence fell, and they stared at the two men.

Grace froze and stared–two things that would have made her etiquette teacher flush with embarrassment.

Her soul leaped, and she felt like she was floating above herself, doing a happy dance in spirit form because he was here. Had she really felt whole and complete just seconds before Ryker appeared and then felt as though she was even more with him in the room really just happen?

Yes. Yes, it did.

Grace hurried over, finding her voice in the process and praying she didn’t embarrass herself. “Would you like to join us?” Or run off to Europe and relive every one of my teenaged kissing fantasies? We can start at the top of the Eiffel Tower, where skinny arms tried to stick his tongue down my throat.

Ryker adjusted his button-up shirt. “He would very much like to join your class.”

She blinked and realized Harry was still standing there. Thinking of kissing Ryker, while he was a mere four feet away from her made everyone in the room disappear. Her face flushed. Your grandmother is watching! Pull those hormones back into your pocket and catch your breath.

Harry cleared his throat and ducked his chin. “Ryker was the one who wanted to come in here. I told him I would come with him so he didn’t have to come alone.”

Grace caught on pretty quickly that it wasn’t Ryker who was afraid of coming alone but Harry. “Ah.” She turned slightly so only Ryker could see her face and winked. “That was very kind of you.”

“Yoo-hoo, Bello!” Betty waved from her chair. “Are you going to find your long-lost family? I’m told this is the girl to make all your dreams come true.” She winked at Grace.

Grace flushed from her roots to her pastel pink-painted toes. “Not all of them,” she corrected.

“There’s Nancy. I’ll sit with her.” Harry ducked out of the conversation and sat by Grandma. She excitedly showed him the information she’d found.

“Perhaps I should . . .” Ryker pointed to the door. It slammed shut, and Don’s face appeared in the window for a moment before it disappeared.

“Don’t go anywhere,” growled Harry. He kept one eye on Ryker and one on what Grandma explained.

Grace snickered. “Looks like you’re stuck with me.” Please get stuck with me. On a deserted island with palm trees and pineapples…

“There are worse places to be, Bellissima.” His eyes drifted from her hoop earrings down to the tiny gold chain at her neck and then caressed her hair. He spoke with a delicious accent that made her knees quake with the desire to give out and propel her into his arms.

She was always like that—melting for an Italian accent. It didn’t even matter what they said.

Take that guy that cost her an entire pastry display and times him by a thousand (because Isladian men in Florida were as rare as a crown jewel) and you had Ryker. He was so delicious she’d give up cannoli for him. Heck, she’d give up everything and have his babies.

“A-hem!” Grandma cleared her throat.

What? Were her ovaries making kissy faces? Grace blinked back to the reality where she was not the mother of Ryker’s beautiful children. It was a rough transition because the temptation was as deep as the ocean.

Not to mention, Ryker hadn’t run screaming despite her doe-eyed fantasies written across her face. Which said a lot for him. Maybe. Maybe! He was a man who could actually handle her. And by that, she meant all of her. Because the last guy she’d allowed to see into the nooks and crannies of her intuition, personality, and the massive amounts of love waiting behind a vault door, had run back to base camp screaming that she was crazy.

To be fair, she’d crawled out of a tomb with a large (not poisonous) spider on her back that she’d jokingly called Tyrell, but still–any man worth his salt should have been able to deal with a spider. Was it too much to ask for someone who could slay crawling things for her? Sometimes, she wanted to stand at the back of a speeding train and scream, “Where have all the real men gone?”

Her eyes rolled over Ryker’s short-sleeved, button-up shirt, and she decided that they must be in Isola de la Famiglia. Seriously, why hadn’t she been there yet?

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