Royal Date (29 page)

“I have this for you.” He handed me a heavy, cream-colored envelope that had the royal family’s crest on it. It was fringed in red and gold stripes. I opened it up, afraid of what I might find. But it was just a check for six thousand dollars for the article. In the other hand he had my favorite hot chocolate, and I took a sip before setting it down.

“Do you have everything? May I help with any other packing?”

“I’m good.” This would be the last time I would see him. The last time Giacomo would take care of things for me. “Hey, thanks for everything.” I wanted to hug him, but he didn’t seem like the type to do hugs.

“You are most welcome.”

I zipped my suitcase up, leaving the envelope on my bed. “I feel like I should tell you how awesome you’ve been, Giacomo. I never could have survived all this without you.”

He adjusted his glasses and straightened his tie. I wondered if I’d embarrassed him. “It has been an honor to serve you, my lady.”

I laughed. “I’m no lady, Giacomo. You and I both know that.”

He grabbed my hand, which surprised me because he was always so formal with me. “You are one of the truest ladies I have ever known.”

I couldn’t swallow, and I wanted to cry all over again. I just nodded in response. What could I say to that?

He patted me awkwardly on the arm and walked out.

I sank down on the bed, refusing to cry. I looked at the check again. It was a lot of money.

But it was tainted. I couldn’t take it. I didn’t need Nico’s money. I could figure out my tuition problem on my own. I put the envelope on top of the nightstand.

I got my toiletry bag from the bathroom and didn’t bother with any of it. I didn’t want to brush my teeth or fix my hair. It would be my carry-on. I made sure I had my ticket and my passport. I didn’t want anything to get in my way of leaving this country.

Lemon and I had a train to catch. It would take us to Milan, and from the airport there we would eventually make our way back to Colorado.

I was going home. Home. The word sounded hollow and false in my head. Because my heart felt like I was leaving my home.

There was a noise in the hallway, and I looked to see Serafina standing just behind the doorframe, hiding from me.

“Did you come to say goodbye?”

She nodded and then ran over to me, jumping into my arms. She started crying, soft little sad sobs that tore at my heart. I held her on the bed, rocking her back and forth.

“I don’t want you to go,” she said.

“I have to go.”

She looked up at me. Frak, I had really come to love this kid.

“Will I see you again?”

I didn’t want to lie to her. “I don’t think so.”

Her cries got louder. “But why can’t you just stay? Stay and marry Nico? Then someday you would be a queen. Like Elsa. Don’t you want to be like Elsa?”

How could I tell a seven-year-old that her brother wasn’t going to marry me or anybody else?

I kissed her on the forehead and made soothing sounds. “Don’t cry, everything will be all right.”

“What if I promise to be good? What if I promise to never steal your phone again? Then will you stay?”

She was absolutely breaking my heart. “Oh, sweetie, you didn’t do anything wrong. This has nothing to do with you. This was only a holiday for me, and now it’s time for me to go home. I have school and work to get back to.”

She just kept crying, and it was all I could do to keep from joining her.

“I am really, really going to miss you,” I told her.

“I am really, really going to miss you,” she said through her tears. “I wanted you to be my new sister. I like you much better than Violetta.”

That made me laugh. I hugged her tightly. I wished I could put her in my suitcase and take her to Colorado with me. Instead I put her in my bed, pulling the covers up around her. I brushed some of the tears from her cheeks. “When you miss me, I want you to watch
Frozen
and think about all the times we watched it together. Can you do that?”

She nodded her head, clutching the blanket.

“Good. Because every time I watch it, I will think of you.”

“Promise?” she sniffled.

“I promise.” I kissed her again on the cheek, picked up all of my bags, and forced myself out the door. In the hallway I found Chiara. I could not go through this again.

But she didn’t cry. She asked me to e-mail her and stay in touch, that she had more sketches that she wanted to show me. I didn’t have any intention of talking to any member of Nico’s family in the future. So I didn’t say yes, but I didn’t say no. I just hugged her.

“Please take good care of your family. Especially . . .”

She interrupted me before I could continue. “Nico?”

Even hearing his name hurt my heart. “Serafina. She’s a little sad.”

“I will.” We hugged again and Chiara left. I knocked on Lemon’s door, and she took one look at me and dragged me inside. “Tell me everything.”

“We don’t have time. We need to get to the train so we can get to the airport. What are you doing?”

She had her personal stationery out. “I was writing a thank-you note to the king and queen. They left late last night for some reason, and they took Violetta and the twins with them. Which is probably a good thing because I don’t want to have a whole scene with Dante before we leave. You can sign them if you want.”

Lemon’s mother was huge into thank-you notes and had raised her daughter to be the same way. I picked up the card and, without reading it, signed my name to the bottom. I was glad I didn’t have to see anybody else in Nico’s family. My farewell tour was wearing me down.

“I also wrote a note to Caitlin. Their flight was early this morning, so you didn’t get to say goodbye. You disappeared last night.” She had an accusatory tone, but I was in no mood. I signed that card too. Lemon put the cards into the envelopes and sealed them shut. She left them on her bed. She looked around her room, as if she wanted to remember every detail. While I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

“We need to go.”

“You need to explain yourself.”

“Not here. Not in this place.”

There was something on my face that let Lemon know I was serious. I grabbed one of her suitcases, and she managed the other three (wearing one and rolling the other two).

“I asked Giacomo to call for a taxi to take us to the train.”

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

The stairs were no fun with the suitcases. I half-expected to see Nico around every turn. My heart kept jumping and falling when he didn’t appear.

I wanted to leave without saying goodbye. I didn’t want to see him again, to relive that humiliation from last night.

Outside there was a town car, not a taxi. The driver ran over to help us with the suitcases.

“We were supposed to have a taxi,” I said.

“His Highness insisted that I drive you to the airport in Milan.”

No way was I letting that happen.

“You can take us to the train station.” I took the train to get into Monterra, and I could very well take the train back out. I didn’t need Nico’s car or his driver.

The driver looked panicked. “No, I can’t. I have to take you to the airport.”

I sighed. I didn’t want to get the poor guy fired. He didn’t deserve to lose his job over my stubbornness. I handed over one of my bags. He put our suitcases in the trunk, and Lemon and I climbed into the car. I shut the door behind me.

“Now will you talk?”

“Not yet. I’m not ready yet.” I could see the worry in Lemon’s eyes. I didn’t want to deal with anyone else’s emotions right now. I could barely deal with my own.

I closed my eyes. I had never felt so bone-weary and exhausted. I didn’t want to think about Nico and why he hadn’t come to say goodbye. Not that I wanted to see him again, but it hurt that he didn’t want to see me.

I just wanted to sleep.

Lemon woke me up when we got to the airport. We had plenty of time to check in.

But when we stepped into the airport, looking for our airline, I noticed a man with a sign that said “MACTAGGART” and “BEAUCHAMP.” No question that it was for Lemon and me.

I was going to ignore it, but then Lemon saw him. “What is that about, do you think?”

Maybe Nico was going to make some grand gesture here in the airport. Surrounded by people so that I wouldn’t make a scene or scream at him. I didn’t want to find out.

But Lemon was already walking toward the man with the sign. “I’m Lemon Beauchamp.”

“Prince Dominic has arranged for a flight for you. His personal jet is waiting.”

That was the last straw. I was not flying home in his jet. “Nuh-uh. Not happening.”

“Please, Kat. We have three layovers on our way home. It’s going to take forever. This will take us directly there. I don’t know what happened with Nico, and I’m sorry for whatever it was, but we have school first thing tomorrow. I don’t want to be exhausted. Do you?”

I couldn’t remember what it felt like to not be exhausted. But there was no fight left in me. No strength to dig in my heels. And I didn’t want to spend the entire day sitting in airports. So I gave in.

The man got our luggage and put it on a trolley. He told us to follow him. He took us through a specialized security line, and we walked down a long hallway to go out onto the tarmac.

Standing at the end of the hallway was Nico.

I felt frozen in place, just staring at him.

He wore a black designer suit with a dark blue tie. He had on a black trench coat that swirled and fluttered around his legs as the winds blew. His face was set and serious. He looked like a cross between a Roman gladiator and a fashion model who had just walked off the runway.

Lemon walked up to him, and they talked. She looked back at me and then headed out to the plane. I watched her get on board, leaving me behind.

I didn’t want to talk to him. I didn’t want to experience all the emotions I’d gone through last night again. I just wanted to go back to school so that I could put all this behind me and pretend like it had never happened.

He stood waiting, all of his attention focused on me. My stomach twisted and turned, and it was again hard to move.

Maybe I could just ignore him and walk past him. I was so churned up inside, emotions coming so fast and furious, it made me feel like I was drowning. I was afraid talking to him would make that dam burst, and I’d be a crying mess. I didn’t want to cry in front of him.

I was level with him and refused to look him in the face. His hand darted out and grabbed my upper arm, making me stop.

“Katerina, please. I want to talk to you about last night.” His quiet voice sounded hoarse and sad.

Furious, I snapped my head to look at him. “I am not talking to you about last night. You made your feelings very clear.”

“You don’t understand . . .”

“No, you don’t understand. I was such an idiot. I feel so stupid. And I don’t want to feel this way anymore. I’m going home.”

“Don’t. Please. Stay.” He said each word as if they’d been wrenched from inside him.

“Stay? What possible reason can you give me to stay?”

Nico didn’t say anything to that, even though part of me desperately hoped he would come up with the answer that would make me forget all of last night and forget my life and just stay and be happy with him.

Just silence. Which made me angry, for some reason. “That’s what I thought. I can’t stay here in this fairy tale. None of this is real.”

His eyes looked blank. “You think what happened between us wasn’t real?”

“None of this is real,” I repeated, with more conviction than I was feeling.

“What if it was real to me?”

I closed my eyes and inhaled my breath sharply. I couldn’t let him sway me. I knew how easily he could. I had to remember what mattered. Hang on to the pain and shame and humiliation from last night.

“You don’t do commitment, and I don’t do casual. There’s no future between us. We had our fun, but now it’s time to go back to reality.”

I saw him flex his jaw several times, his cheek twitching in response. “Is that really what you think about me?”

“It’s what I know. It’s what you told me. Remember? What, did you change your mind?”

“Maybe I have.”