Page 67 of Rivals

“You’re only saying that because you’ve run out of material.” Daphne looked up with a sly, teasing smile. “I, for one, could keep going all night.”

What was happening right now? Were she and Daphne actually makingjokesat each other’s expense?

Nina leaned back, bracing her hands on the mattress. “You really think you can make Gabriella trust you?”

Daphne nodded. “She won’t be able to resist lording it over the prince’s girlfriend. Come to think of it,” she saidslowly, “maybe I shouldn’tbethe prince’s girlfriend for this conversation. I’ll ask Gabriella for a moment alone, get her advice about my breakup with Jefferson.”

“Your breakup?”

Something sizzled through Nina at the thought of a newly single Prince Jefferson.

No,she reminded herself. She and Jeff were friends now; that was all.

“I’m not actually breaking up with him, of course,” Daphne was saying, oblivious to Nina’s sudden turmoil. “I’ll just make it seem that way. If Gabriella thinks our relationship is on the rocks, she’ll draw me close in the hopes of getting all the sordid details.”

This sounded like a risky plan, but Nina knew Daphne well enough by now not to underestimate her. “Good luck,” Nina said uncertainly.

“Good luck? You’re coming with me. This is still a two-person operation,” Daphne informed her. “Someone has to record Gabriella once I’ve made her trust me.”

“Record her?”

“So that we haveproof,of course.”

“When exactly is this all going to happen?”

“We’ll figure something out,” Daphne said confidently. “I’ll keep you updated once I’ve found a way to hang out with Gabriella.”

Nina winced. “I’m glad it’s you and not me.” The thought of voluntarily spending time with Gabriella was abhorrent.

Though she would have said that about Daphne once, and look where they were now, teaming up to help each other.

She and Daphne, a team. It wasn’t as outrageous a thought as it used to be.

The next day, Nina sat in the library with Jeff, reviewing his essay for Introduction to World History.

When she’d realized how anxious he was about the class, Nina had offered to read through his essays, and Jeff had taken her up on it. So here she was, trying desperately to focus on Jeff’s computer screen, not on the sheer fact of him sitting next to her.

Yet she kept glancing at where his hands were splayed on the table, kept feeling his leg brush against hers. If only he weren’t so painfully, effortlessly gorgeous. Except—that was never really what had attracted her, not his looks and certainly not his titles.

She’d never understood girls who were able to kiss someone they’d just met, the way Sam used to in her wilder days. For Nina, the physical was too inextricably tied with the emotional. Back when they dated, Nina hadn’t cared that she was with Prince Jefferson; she’d fallen for Jeff, the boy underneath it all.

She forced herself to focus on his screen. At least she’d made it to page four of a six-page essay. “You could have picked a topic that I’m more familiar with,” she couldn’t resist pointing out. “I know next to nothing about ancient Rome.”

“Please, you know everything about everything,” Jeff said, with such matter-of-fact confidence that she smiled.

“I could be more helpful if you’d chosen to write about the Tudors, or the transfer of power to the Russian duma.”

“Yes, but ancient Rome hadgladiators,” Jeff said, which she had expected, and then he added something she hadn’t. “Plus, the structure of their government was so interesting. Did you know our Founding Fathers discussed an elected executive branch, because the Romans elected their consuls?”

An elected executive—how would that work? How couldyou possibly get anything accomplished if you were always changing the person in charge?

Nina read through the last two pages, asking Jeff to rewrite a sentence here and there, shuffling the order of a few paragraphs so that the argument built more cohesively. When they’d finished, he pushed his chair back with a sigh.

“Thanks so much, Nina. I really owe you one.”

“I’m always happy to help a friend,” she assured him.

They left the library, a drizzling mist hanging heavy in the air. Jeff nodded at the sedan in the parking lot. “Can I give you a ride back to the Chalet?”