Page 23 of The Prince and the Double Shot (Runaway Prince Hotel #2)

PHIL

I am so utterly messed up right now. I had to leave him standing on the beach, and it was the second hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. But what choice did I have?

He lied to me.

I bit my bottom lip as I concentrated on a small seedling I had taken from the garden.

Omission of something so… huge was in itself a lie, right?

His people and mine still had an uneasy truce after three hundred years.

The Tranquilles still lived in fear of the mountains.

According to the accords, neither people could cross the borders into each other’s land.

For years, there were small skirmishes between families that got into squabbles on the borders when the Montagnes came too close to the valleys.

That had been many, many years ago. Our border guards always took care of it.

But my people would never be ok with my consort being a…

He didn’t want to be my consort. He almost spat it at me in anger.

He didn’t actually lie – I reminded myself as I gently twined the roots of one seedling onto another.

A small, dwarf plant that would bloom just in time for the ball.

Sheena had asked me to help with some arrangements, and instead of cutting flowers, I was making something alive and special that you could find nowhere else.

Sadly, their life span would be shorter than normal, but they could thrive like this for a few years.

Not telling the truth was a lie.

But what if he really didn’t know who I was? That changed everything.

Nothing.

It changed nothing.

He was a Montagne, and I was a Tranquille. I was a prince, and he was… whatever he was.

I loved my country and he… He defended his.

But he ran away. He left it and came to America for whatever reason.

Broken? He thought he was born broken, and that drove a wedge between him and his family for some reason.

There was so much I didn’t understand. How could I do anything about our situation when I was living in the dark?

Zane’s secrets had secrets.

It was too much.

How can I trust him when he’s kept himself a… I never pushed him. I never made it a non-negotiable, a line in the sand where I needed to know.

I was as much to blame for the surprise as he was.

Still…

The secret was his. It was his to give, and he withheld it from me. Maybe he knew who I was, and maybe he didn’t. But the truth changed everything.

Except for how I felt.

I still wanted him to hold me closely against his chest. I hadn’t slept so well in years. I got lost in his eyes, so deep and thoughtful – so full of secrets.

Petra would be mortified. His family had been granted asylum when he was just a child.

They left the mountains and created a life in Grandir.

It was rare for one of them to seek help somewhere else.

The mountain people were proud – so I’d been told.

But his family came to our borders and was finally granted access.

They were given a small plot of land, and within a few years had turned it into a thriving farm on the edge of the valley.

He never spoke about it. He barely remembered it. All he remembered was his father’s fear that they would not be able to eat the next week.

Zane was so much like him, in many ways. Besides their looks, there was a ferocity within him, just like Petra. He would have done anything for me. Would Zane?

God, I was being selfish. I set the newly created air plant into its pot and offered it a little extra energy – pushing hard enough to create small buds. I would feed them over the next twenty-four hours until they blossomed and showed off for all the guests.

Mother will be here tomorrow. I groaned, knowing that I had shirked any responsibility for my future. I had opened the satchel a few times, but could not find the desire to look inside. What did I know of any of these people my mother had chosen for me? They were strangers.

In some ways, so was Zane.

I stood up and grabbed the satchel from the floor where I had thrown it a couple of days ago. I should look at it, shouldn’t I? How could I prove that I was ready to step in if I hadn’t done the only thing that she had asked?

I reached in and pulled out a small pile of papers that had been stapled together. Each one had a printed photo attached.

“Oh, God, no.” I threw the Duke of Exham on the floor immediately. He had once cornered me at a gathering and blathered on about his pet goose for almost an hour. I’d rather anyone but him.

Then I got to the next one. And the next one. One horrible choice after another.

What was she trying to do? I was positive that she had better taste than this. Perhaps, these were the only people she found suitable, but she had apparently never spent any time with any of them.

A prince from a small kingdom near the North Pole? What was she thinking? I hated the cold and could barely stand our own winters in Grandir. I usually huddled by the fireplace under a blanket through those four horrid months. She knew better.

She knew more about all of these men. None of them were someone I would want to spend time with, much less the rest of my life.

I turned back to my plants and admired their perseverance.

They could face hardships and wither with neglect, but with the right amount of care, they always came back.

They hid underground in the winter only to sprout once again in the spring’s sunshine.

I had started to sprout once again myself, hadn’t I. But I hadn’t done it alone.

Not by a long shot.

The trip, and reconnecting to my roots, to the land and the plants that thrived upon it, had been the start of my journey. But it had been Zane who truly helped me heal. He had not taken no for an answer.

No, he didn’t. Why?

I slumped against the wall and held my legs tightly.

Once again, I could only think of one thing. Did he know who I was? Had this been some nefarious thing?

I couldn’t believe it. It didn’t seem or feel like anything that he could do. He had only wanted what was best for me, hadn’t he?

I sat there and let the night come. I had no idea what it was I should do.