Gamble on Engagement (15 page)

Eventually, I made it toward the North wing
of the castle, pulled by the faint sound of voices.

And that’s when I proceeded to barge into
the dining room where, unbeknownst to me, Leo was entertaining
company. I know, I know, the voices in conversation should have
been a tip-off, but honestly, there hadn’t been a single visitor
since I’d arrived at Gatesbury, so the thought hadn’t even crossed
my mind.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry,” I said, pulling
the pocket doors back shut in front of me as quickly as I
could.

“Josie!” Leo yelled from beyond them.

Which was really kind of awkward because
there I was, having just rudely interrupted and in no way wanting
to go back in there, but obviously I heard Leo shouting, so I had
to go back in there, but with as red as my face was, I really,
really didn’t want to.

I cringed, then put on my best smile as I
slowly opened the doors again, just a little, to peek inside. “I
really didn’t mean to interrupt,” I said, sheepishly, noticing now
who Leo’s guest was. An older lady. A very familiar looking older
lady. But why she might be familiar, I had no idea.

“Josie, there’s someone I’d like you to
meet. I looked for you earlier, but you must have been out.”

The spread of baked goods covering the table
was almost as ridiculous as it was large. There was no way two
people would ever be able to eat all of it. Of course, I supposed
the employees would likely get a chance to indulge after the Prince
was through.

“Josephine McMaster, this is my mother, Lady
Worthington.”

Well that explains the familiarity.

“Very nice to meet you,” I said, resisting
the urge to curtsey.

“I had been hoping you could have joined us
for brunch,” she said.

“Oh!” I said, sadly not doing a very good
job of hiding my shock.

I mean, why on Earth would Leo want me to
join him and his mother for brunch? Unless… good God he does have a
thing for me, so much so that he already wants me to meet his
mother!

My face began to flush. “I’m sorry, I didn’t
realize…. If I’d known…”

For some reason I was having a bit of
trouble forming complete sentences.

“Well, why don’t you sit down for a bit
dear,” Lady Worthington said, motioning to a chair. “I do have to
get going soon, but I’m sure I could sneak in a little story or two
about my little Leo before I have to rush off.”

I let out the whoosh of air that had been
building in my lungs. The book. They just wanted to tell me stories
for the book. Thank God.

“Great!” I said, probably far more chipper
than was appropriate for the situation. “Please, tell me
everything!”

Leo’s mother gave me a bit of a curious
look, not that I was unused to those or anything, then began
telling me all about Leo’s childhood.

How he always had so much energy that she
could hardly keep up with him, but how he also had a quiet,
introspective side, always on the lookout for a baby bird who had
fallen out of a tree, or a bunny who had lost its mama. Apparently,
at one point, he had quite the animal rescue farm going in one of
the old barns on his grandparents’ farm. Of course, the workers
were none too happy that they had to care for the litter while Leo
was in the city during the week for school, but they knew better
than to complain or, Heaven forbid, let one of the animals get lost
or die.

Leo smiled the entire time his mother was
speaking, looking at her with the utmost love and respect, only
turning his attention away from her to gaze at me.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get it out of my
head that his gaze lingered on me just a little longer than was
necessary to be polite, and the goofy smile that he gave his
mother, turned to a slightly different, though almost as admiring,
when he bestowed it on me.

Just as I was thinking it was probably
getting close to time for Lady Worthington to get going, my cell
rang.

Jake.

Ugh, I finally hear from him and I’m sitting
here talking to a real live royal Lady. I mean, I couldn’t just
excuse myself to go talk on the phone… could I?

But I hadn’t talked to Jake in so long. “Um…
do you mind if I take this? I’ve been waiting on this call for a
while?” I asked, hoping I wasn’t breaking any royal laws or
anything.

“Of course dear, I was just leaving anyway.”
She smiled and actually got up as I stood, giving me a little peck
on the cheek.

I couldn’t help but wonder if I was supposed
to like, give her a kiss on the cheek too, or one of those little
kiss-kiss thingies on each check the way people do in movies, but
if I took any longer, I was going to miss my call. And this was
definitely not a call I wanted to miss.

“Thanks so much for brunch,” I yelled on my
way, practically running out the double doors.

“Hello?” I answered, rushing around the
corner so I wouldn’t bother Leo and his mother with my call.

“Hi,” Jake said. “I thought you weren’t
there.”

“Sorry, I had to rush out of the dining room
to take the call. Leo had his mother over.”

“Oh, so you’re meeting the parents already?”
Something in his voice sounded off.

“She just had some old childhood stories to
tell me, you know, for the book.”

“For the book,” Jake said, sounding a little
skeptical.

“Uh huh,” I answered slowly, wondering what
the weird attitude was all about.

“And that’s it?”

“Um, yeah. Wait, what do you mean?”

“I saw you in the paper,” he said, and it
did not sound like he was going to compliment me on how good I
looked all dressed up in disguise.

“Oh yeah, that.” I cleared my throat. “Well,
Leo just wanted to, you know, head out on the town… show me what a
day in the life of a Prince was like or whatever. It was
nothing.”

Jake sighed. “I’m sorry, it’s just that I
was so shocked to see the paper. I mean, I thought you were
supposed to stay under the radar or something. And then I see this…
and I just thought….” He let out a breath of air. “I don’t know
what I thought. I guess maybe I was a little jealous.”

In spite of the situation, I couldn’t help
but let a smile creep across my face. Jake Hall, movie star
extraordinaire, was jealous that I might be interested in another
guy.

“Don’t worry. There is nothing going on. And
there never will be anything going on. I’m with you. Completely.”
It was more than a little surreal to imagine that I was the one
needing to convince Jake that everything was okay between us.

“I guess I just miss you,” he said,
delivering the words like the true movie star he was, and
effectively melting my heart.

“I miss you too,” I said, clutching the
necklace he’d given me, smiling.

“And I don’t have to like it if you’re out
gallivanting with some other guy, no matter how platonic or
professional it is. Remember what it was like when you saw that
picture of me and Mitzi dancing?” he asked. “Now I feel even worse
about putting you through all that,” he said.

I did remember. And it was horrible. Had
Jake actually felt the same way? “Ugh, I hadn’t thought of it that
way. I’m sorry.”

“Shit,” Jake said. “I gotta get going.”

“Already?” I pouted.

“Sorry, they’re calling me for the shot,” he
said.

“Okay, but call me soon, okay?”

“Of course,” he said. “I love you.”

I was so shocked at the words that I didn’t
even get a chance to say them back before he hung up. I mean, I
totally loved him too, but I just thought it was too soon or
whatever to say them out loud. I really, really hadn’t wanted to
mess anything up by saying it too soon. But now that he’d said it,
I wanted to shout it from the rooftops. Okay, really I just wanted
to say it back to him, but the stinkin’ guy hadn’t given me a
chance.

The nerve!

I wondered if he was worried I wouldn’t say
it back. Which, of course, was ridiculous. Honestly it was shocking
how unsure a super star could be deep down inside. Which just made
him all that much cuter, in my opinion. Who ever heard of a humble
movie star?

Sigh. And I had him all to myself. I don’t
know how long I stood there, clutching my phone to my chest with a
dorky content face plastered on, but it wasn’t long before I was
interrupted. “Everything okay in romance-ville?” Leo asked, coming
so stealthily around the corner that I had to wonder if he’d been
standing there all along.

“Oh, uh, yeah. Great!” I said, now clutching
my chest in more of a ‘you just gave me a heart attack’ way.

“Great,” he said, though his plastic smile
seemed to indicate things weren’t actually all that great at all.
“Well, uh, I guess I’ll leave you to it.”

“Um, okay,” I said, not really sure what he
was leaving me to do. I suppose I could have gone back to
daydreaming about my awesomest of awesome boyfriend, but that just
kind of seemed silly now, so instead I went back to my room to grab
my computer in hopes that I could get some work done on the
book.

I headed out to the pool, and, after having
more of the local bakery’s oh-my-God-to-die-for goods, and the
fabulous conversation with Jake, I found myself a little tired, not
to mention in kind of a dreamy state, so it wasn’t that long before
my intentions to work my butt off, became a lazy afternoon nap.

~ 13 ~

It was the most annoying clearing of the
throat you could imagine. I mean, I’ve never been woken up by
someone clearing their throat before, but let me tell you, it is
obnoxious.

“Oh, you’re finally up,” Miranda said, her
hands on her hips in what I’m sure she thought was an authoritative
manner, but really it kind of looked more like she was a petulant
child.

Which was kind of the way I was starting to
think of her.

I finished blinking awake and sat up a bit
straighter, looking around, remembering where I was. “Uh, yeah. Did
you need something?”

“The Prince is looking for you,” she said,
obviously more than a little annoyed that she had been sent out to
find me.

I actually felt a little bad for her. You
know, for about a half a second. Until I fully processed the depth
of the scowl on her face. “He’s waiting for you in the
library.”

“Thank you,” I said, gathering up my
things.

“By the way,” Miranda said. “How
is
the book coming along?” I sincerely did not like the smirk on her
face as she crossed her arms.

“Great!” I lied, and smiled my most
confident smile.

Okay, my most confident fake smile, I
suppose, because right then, I was in no way confident about the
book, or pretty much anything else for that matter.

Hell, the only thing I’d written since I got
to England was that ridiculous dream world ‘a Prince and his
illegitimate lover with child’ story, which was in no way ever
going to find a home in the biography.

Still, Miranda didn’t have to look so damned
smug when she said it.

“Good to hear,” she said, still staring as I
walked away.

I tried to hold my head high, really I did,
but it was kind of hard considering I had no clue how I was ever
going to write an entire book in the five or so weeks I had left in
the deadline.

Of course, maybe the Prince was finally
ready to start spilling about his life and I was wasting time
worrying about nothing. I couldn’t help but think that writing a
biography would probably be a lot easier if the biographer felt at
all comfortable around their subject. I mean, I knew all the
weirdness from the past few days was all in my head, but I still
felt a little on edge every time I was around him.

“Hi,” Leo said, as I entered the Library. “I
hope it’s okay that I sent Miranda to look for you.” His smile
beamed.

“Oh sure, no problem. What’s up?”

“Well, I was thinking of heading back into
London again tonight.”

I cringed internally. I mean, at least I
hoped it was only internally. I often had little control over the
way my body language seemed to scream every tiny thought.

“I really just need to get away for a while.
There are all these pressures piling up, and well… we do need to
talk a bit more about the book.”

I nodded, but inside I was thinking, a
bit
more? When did we even talk about it in the first place?
“Sure. What did you have in mind?” I could only hope he meant
heading to some obscure restaurant or something where no one would
recognize him (or me!) and it would be nice and quiet so he could
tell me his whole life story.

“Well,” he said, looking rather more
flirtatious and conspiratorial than I would have liked. “I was
thinking about sneaking off to the city and just doing a bunch of
zany, crazy things that I’ve wanted to do my whole life, you know,
the kinds of things that would really go great in a biography… zip
lining, wall climbing, bungee jumping, white water rafting,
surfing, those sorts of things. And if you do them with me, you’ll
be able to write all about what they’re like, and I’ll finally be
the outdoorsman the whole world seems to think I am.”

I could not stop my mouth from falling like
one of those amusement park rides that leaves your stomach several
stories up while the rest of you plummets down.

One might say that danger was definitely not
my middle name. Of course, the entire world knew what name suited
me much, much better.

Disaster.

The word filled my head like a blog’s tag
cloud, different fonts, big and small, swirling in a never-ending
sea.

“Um, well, I can certainly watch…” I said,
trying to get the swirly-ness to stop for just a second so I could
come up with a decent excuse. Not that a person should need an
excuse for not wanting to put their life in danger, but, something
told me the Prince wouldn’t look at it that way.