Page 81 of The Thing About My Prince

“It’s only the American,” he says.

Lexi turns us onto the road, and that’s it—we’re out.

After Lexi’s pulled over in the clearing and freed me from the boot, everything is considerably more comfortable.

The air is definitely a lot fresher lying on the back seat. And there’s the bonus of being able to enjoy Lexi’s profile as she concentrates as hard on driving as a teenager on their first lesson.

After a little while, I lift my head and shoulders enough to peer over the bottom of the window. “See that gravel road leading off on the right?”

“Yup.” She puts on the indicator.

“That’s where we’re going.” I sit up, finally sure no one’s around. “I think you go down here a bit, then park by that sign that says public bridleway.”

“If we’re getting on horses, I’m done. I got thrown from one when I was a kid. My mom felt severely inferior to all the other parents at my school whose daughters took riding lessons. Or had their own horses. And she thought I should learn too. Well, first day, the damn thing threw me and I refused to go back. My mom was furious.”

“I bet. They should put you on a nice docile horse on your first day.”

“Oh, she wasn’t furious with the horse. She was pissed off with me. For refusing to go back. She said people would think I wasn’t going because we couldn’t afford it. And we probably couldn’t.”

“And you thinkmyparents are unreasonable.”

She snorts. “Whatever. I’m not getting on a horse.”

“A bridleway is just what you would call a trail. Horses are not compulsory.”

She lights up as she brings the car to a stop and yanks on the hand brake.

“Oh, I know where this is.” She looks over her shoulder at me with a bright smile. “It’s the path to the waterfall, right?”

I slump a little. “Well, that takes the edge off how excited I was to surprise you.”

I should have known she was too smart for this.

“Oh God. I’m sorry.” She reaches between the seats and strokes my knee. “I should have kept my clumsy mouth shut.”

I lace my fingers with hers. “I think we established last night that your mouth is anything but clumsy.”

She looks down and giggles a little.

“And I guess it’s pretty obvious what this place is since I told you about it last night. But it’s such a freakishly warm and beautiful day that I couldn’t risk waiting to bring you here. I want the person responsible for making me feel as good and as happy as I did last night—and as I still do right now—to see what gave me that happy day I had when I was a kid.”

“Great idea.” She picks up her bag from the passenger seat. “I’ll take some photos. They’ll be good for social media promo posts for the book.”

My heart sinks and hits the pit of my stomach with a crash. Her instinctive reaction is to see this as a way to gather publicity material for the job she’s doing, rather than as a way to share something important to me.

“Sure, yeah. We can do that.” I get out and go around to the boot to take out the blanket, as well as the food that Flora’s prepared for us.

Was Chase right that I should remember that, at heart, Lexi is a journalist always looking for a story and to be careful not to let down my guard?

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

OLIVER

“Absolutely stunning.” Lexi shields her eyes from the sun as she looks up at the waterfall that’s surrounded by lush green vegetation.

The water cascades into a large pool edged by gray rocks, then flows off through a tunnel in the rock wall on the other side.

The scent of the damp earth and the freshest air I’ve ever breathed rewind my memory, and the emotions of the first day I came here flood back.