Page 101 of Bitter Prince

“Your grandmother has been calling you,” Isla explained. “And she’s been FaceTiming Phoenix like every two minutes, but your sister hasn’t just let it ring out. She’s been declining the calls so the old dragon knows she’s purposely not answering.” I sighed. “Then the text messages started streaming in.”

Hesitantly, I took my sister’s phone just as it buzzed. A text message came up.

Answer your fucking phone or I’ll pack up the triplets and you and Reina will be babysitting for the summer.

I scoffed. “As if Alexander would ever let those triplets out of his sight,” I muttered under my breath.

“You call her and handle it,” Phoenix signed, frustration clear on her face. “Call. Don’t FaceTime.”

“Can I use your phone? I’m not sure where mine is.”

She nodded and returned to her spot at the table. “If she asks to talk to me, say I’m unavailable. For the foreseeable future.” Phoenix was seriously mad at our grandma. It’d been happening frequently over the last two years.

My finger hovered over Grandma’s name and I exhaled heavily, then pressed call. She answered on the first ring.

“Hello, Grandma,” I greeted. She’d know it was me since Phoenix wouldn’t just call her. FaceTime or texts were her go-to, for obvious reasons.

“Reina! Where are you?” I opened my mouth to answer, but before I could say a thing, she continued her rant. “Do you know how worried I was?” Her voice increased in pitch with each word spoken. I shifted the headset away from my ear for fear of losing my hearing. “I thought you were dead. My baby. And on her eighteenth birthday.”

“We slept in.”

Raven slapped her forehead. Athena shook her head vigorously. I blinked in confusion. Amon looked just as confused while Dante leaned back his chair, a flicker of boredom on his face. Something told me that bored Dante was equivalent to a ticking bomb, although I had nothing to base it on.

“We told her we’re in Saint-Tropez,” Athena whisper-yelled.

“Why would you do that?” I mouthed.

Raven and Phoenix rolled their eyes.

“I slipped,” Isla admitted sheepishly, signing at the same time for Phoenix’s benefit. “I didn’t expect her to call me, and it just came out.”

“Yeah, she thought she was in a confessional booth,” Raven said.

“Reina, are you listening to me?” Grandma’s voice came through. Shit, I missed whatever she said.

“Yes, sorry.” My whole body tensed, realizing I was no good at bullshitting. She would sniff it out from miles away. “Actually, no. I wasn’t. What did you say again?”

That got another stream of berating words scolded my way. I pulled the phone away from my ear slightly.

Amon’s hand came to my thigh under the table, squeezing in comfort.

“What are you doing in Saint-Tropez?” she demanded.

My eyes darted to the girls, not wanting to answer differently from what was already told to her.

I covered the mic and whispered, “Did you tell her why we’re here?”

Isla shrugged. “We told her we surprised you for your birthday.”

I nodded. “The girls surprised me for my birthday,” I told Grandma.

“It’s just you girls?” she questioned.

“Yes, just us girls.” Dante’s gaze flicked to me as if to say “busted, liar” but I ignored him. It was then that I caught Phoenix’s eyes on him.Longing.She watched Dante with such longing in her eyes, leaving me speechless. “Who else did you expect?” I asked absentmindedly.

Grandma scoffed. “Knowing the girls, they’d surprise you with a Chippendale show.”

“Well, it was nothing as exciting as a Chippendale,” I retorted dryly. Although it was debatable if getting arrested fell into the same category. Not that I’d ever ask her.