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CHAPTER 39

DECK

STEALING THUNDER.

I had meant to speak with Lizzy long before the coronation actually occurred. I needed to tell her everything—everything I felt, everything I wanted, everything I hoped might possibly come true between us. And yet, from the look on her face, I could see I had done a poor job of setting her expectations.

“There’s so much I need to talk to you about,” I told her.

“Declan, I understand,” she said. And I saw it then. She thought I was ending this.

I shook my head. “No, Lizzy, I don’t think you do.”

“Tell me. Please, Declan. I’ve spent these last weeks so confused. I tried to tell you how I feel, but there’s just never been the time. And then I thought, with your father, and with you being crowned…” Her eyes shone with unshed tears, and my heart clenched inside my chest. I had caused her so much pain.

“But I wasn’t crowned,” I reminded her. “I’m not king. Nothing is different than it was before. And Dad—he’s okay.”

“He doesn’t have lymphoma?”

“He does, but not the kind they suspected. He has a very slow-growing kind, and with management and treatment, his doctor told him something else would probably kill him first. That’s what Lambert came to tell me the other day on the beach.” I delivered this news almost gleefully, the atmosphere of the day infusing my words.

“Oh, well, that’s… better.”

“It is.” I grinned. “I should have told you before, I’m sorry things have been so hectic. But now everything can go back to normal, Lizzy.”

“Declan, no, it can’t. Everything is different. Now you really are the heir.” Her beautiful face was creased with concern.

“That might be true, but hopefully, Celeste and Lambert will produce their own heirs, and nobody will need me. I’ll be just like Prince Harry, and you can be Meghan.”

“I don’t want to be Meghan.”

I wasn’t sure what she meant by that—Meghan Markle was amazing—but we could talk about that later. Right now, I needed her to understand. “I’ve been talking to the coach.”

Lizzy’s face did not take on the gleeful expression I had hoped for at this point in the conversation. But I realized that telling her I had spoken to the coach did not equate to me sharing all of my hopes and dreams with her.

“I’ve been talking to the coach, and my place on the team is still there.”

“You’re thinking of going back to Virginia?” Lizzy’s eyes widened in surprise, but then her face fell again. “I guess that’s great. If that’s what you want.”

I was royally messing this up.

“I do want to go back, but as you pointed out, I’m the heir.”

Lizzy shook her head, and a tendril of dark hair escaped her elaborate updo, falling to frame her face. I lifted a hand and pushed it behind her ear. “I don’t understand.”

“I was hoping you might come with me.”

Lizzy held my gaze for a long moment, and then one of those unshed tears actually spilled onto her cheek. “Declan, what would I even do in Virginia? It’s not like I could take back my position as PR consultant for the team.”

“Actually, John emailed and said that the calendar has been selling like crazy. Joey did a great job producing it, and the wombat is ridiculously popular. They’ve even made plushies of him now.”

Lizzy smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. I could see that I still hadn’t said the right words. Part of me was scared to say them, but I knew what they were.

I took a deep breath. The woman in front of me was the bravest person I knew. If she could take down dictators in foreign lands, I could tell her how I felt.

“Lizzy, the thing is… I won’t go without you. I can’t. I love you. I’ve always loved you. You’re the only woman I can imagine spending my life with, and I’ll do it in Murdan, I’ll do it in Virginia, I’ll do it wherever you want to live.”

I watched her face as I spoke. Her eyes widened, a small smile playing at her lips. But disbelief flared in her expression, and she still did not look convinced. “That’s all I want,” she whispered, but her voice broke, and she sounded sad.

“Then why can’t you just say yes?”

I reached for her, but she didn’t lean into me. Instead, she sat still as I rested a hand on her shoulder, stroking her collarbone with my thumb and hoping with everything inside me that she would fall into my arms and tell me forever was possible.

“Declan, I love you too. I probably have since I was a little girl, for whatever that’s worth. But our lives are so different. We are worlds apart. You’re… you’re royalty.”

“That has never mattered.”

She shook her head. “That’s easy to say?—”

“That’s because it’s true,” I interrupted. “My family might stand on tradition, and yes, I was born into royalty. I’m a prince, for whatever that’s worth. But I will never be king. And my life will not be dictated by the regency into which I was born. I will live my life for me, and for you. And maybe that’s selfish.” I let my gaze drift to the head table, where my brother sat, Celeste at his side, the two of them laughing with their heads pressed together. “But I actually don’t think it is.”

“What will we do?” Lizzy asked.

Hope blossomed inside me. “Well, I’m going to need security if I go back to the states. Now that everyone knows who I really am.”

“You want me to come as your security?” Lizzy’s face fell.

I shook my head. “No, I want you to come to be with me. But your background suggests you might be capable of managing my security detail.”

We stared at each other for a long moment, and I still wasn’t sure what she was going to say. Lizzy’s lips trembled, her eyes filled with tears again, and my heart plummeted.

Was she going to turn me down?

If she did, I thought, I would just stay here. I’d give up hockey. I’d move back to Murdan. I would spend as long as it took to convince her. If that’s what it took to be with Lizzy.

“I guess I do have the experience to do that,” she said. I could see she was considering the idea.

I took both of her hands in mine and pulled them to my lips.

“So you’ll do it? You’ll come with me to Virginia?”

She stared at me, and then she nodded—the tiniest little motion, but the best thing I had ever seen.

“First, though,” I said, figuring if I was in for a dime, I was in for a dollar. I stood abruptly, kicking my chair out from behind me and dropping to one knee. “There’s one other thing I wanted to ask you. I didn’t want to do it tonight because I didn’t want to steal Lambert’s thunder, but… no one’s really looking, are they?”

Lizzy looked stunned, caught between laughing and crying, a huge smile spreading across her face even as tears poured down her cheeks. She glanced around. “Actually… a lot of people are watching.”

It was true. Kicking my chair from beneath me might have caused a bit of a commotion. We were definitely drawing a crowd.

I didn’t care. Maybe I was stealing some of Lambert’s thunder. But it was too late now.

I couldn’t stop myself from asking the woman I loved if she would spend her life with me.

“Lizzy, I don’t just want you to come to Virginia to manage my security detail. In fact, I don’t really want that at all—that was just an excuse to get you there. What I really want, with all my heart, is for you to be my wife.”

I stared at her expectantly.

Lizzy’s face beamed with joy, but she said nothing.

I held my breath. One of the spectators stepped in close, leaning down to my shoulder. “Hey mate, don’t mean to interrupt, but I think she might be waiting for you to ask an actual question.”

The man stepped away again, and I realized he was right. I swallowed hard and tried again.

“Eliza Canfield, I’ve loved you as long as I’ve known what that word means. And it would make me the happiest man in the world if you would agree to be my wife.” I took a deep breath. “Lizzy, will you marry me?”

She nodded first—just a tiny nod. Then finally, she said the words I had been dying to hear. “Yes, Declan. I will marry you.”

I swept her into my arms, spinning her in a huge circle as the crowd around us erupted in applause and cheers.

Soon, my brother, my mother, and my father were at my side, congratulating both of us—though they had completely missed the actual proposal.

“Is this what I think it is?” My mother asked us when we’d stepped apart enough for anyone else to get a word in.

“I hope so,” said another voice—Lizzy’s mother. “I’ve been expecting this for years.”

“Like, oh, twenty or so?” My mother agreed.

The two women laughed and hugged us, and then my brother and Celeste stepped in. “What do you think, bro, double wedding?” Lambert asked.

“No way,” I told him. “Your wedding is going to be the biggest event Murdan has seen since… well, since today! Ours?” I looked at Lizzy. “We’ll figure it out, but I don’t think we plan to invite the entire country.”

“Fair enough,” Lambert said, clapping me on the back.

Celeste and Lizzy hugged and whispered a few words to one another, and then the music swelled again. The night was young, and the people of Murdan had a lot to celebrate. Soon, the dance floor was full and the spirit in the room was soaring.

I danced with my fiancée, letting the joy of the night fill me, giving me a feeling of completion I’d never known before.

Later, as Lizzy talked with her mother and mine, I moved to the bar for a refreshment. My father met me there.

“Son,” he said, shaking my hand and squeezing my shoulder. “I cannot tell you how proud I am of you today. Of both my sons.” My father looked happy, and more relaxed than I’d ever seen him.

“Are you relieved to be a regular guy now?” I joked. Dad would never be a regular guy, but it had to be a relief not to be king anymore.

He grinned at me. “A regular guy who’s not dying anytime soon.” A serious look flickered across his face, replaced a moment later by a contemplative look. “If nothing else, these last few weeks have made me realize how very precious life is. And more than that, how much those around us matter—family, friends…”

I felt the same way. I’d neglected my family these last years, but I vowed not to do it again. “I know I haven’t been the most attentive son?—”

“Do not interrupt your king,” my father said. And then we both realized he was no longer king, and he amended his reprimand. “Or your father.”

“Sorry,” I laughed.

“I was about to say that I think the family you’ve found back in Virginia is every bit as important as the one you were born into here. And I want to be sure you know that you do not have to choose. You love hockey, and I know you love your team. If there is still a spot for you son, you should go back. If that’s what you want, of course.” His gaze drifted to where Lizzy stood with his wife, laughing. “You and Eliza.”

“Thanks, Dad,” I said, relief washing through me and making my elation over the events of the evening feel even more intoxicating. “I think that’s what I’d like to do… but I’ll come home in the summers.”

“Perhaps your mother and I will come see a few games,” he said, looking thoughtful. “Now that we are more free to travel.”

“I’d love that, Dad.”