I didn’t think he even missed me.
I was too tired to come up with a retort to Ashley. She could suck it.
After I didn’t reply, she walked away.
“Do you think maybe she has a point? You don’t seem like you like him all that much.” I could tell how hard it was for Genesis to say that to me. I had the impression that she didn’t like conflict, and it must have taken a lot for her to confront me.
“It’s hard to explain, but I promise I will fill you in on all the details someday. And how could I leave you? Somebody has to stay here and be your bodyguard against Crabigail.”
She gave me a weak smile, but I had the distinct feeling that this was not over. “I’m going to get a bottle of water. Want one?”
“Yes, please. I would love one,” I said.
She brushed the grass off her shorts and went inside.
Dante was on his phone, off standing by himself. I thought I glimpsed Marco in the bushes behind him, but I couldn’t be sure. He was like a stealth ninja. I wondered if Marco had been around when we were out at the gazebo. That was more than a little disconcerting, to imagine that we had been watched the whole time.
Although, how could I be upset about that? I was being watched around the clock thanks to those cameras.
Dante saw me looking at him, and he walked over to me, still on his phone. He was speaking in Italian, and finished up his conversation. He slid his phone into his shirt pocket.
“Totally unfair,” I complained. “How come you get your phone?”
“I’m not allowed to call family or friends. This phone will only dial the numbers that have been programmed into it. I told the show that I needed it because I was near the end of a deal that might fall apart if I couldn’t make phone calls.”
“What kind of deal?”
I noticed that he didn’t look at me. “I’m building a club.”
“Like a ‘no girls allowed’ thing?”
He let out a short laugh. “No, a nightclub.”
Wait, what? “A nightclub? When did this happen?”
Now he looked directly at me, all intensity and hotness, and I practically fell over. I blamed the dehydration.
“New Year’s Eve. When you talked about the kind of man that I was, I realized you were right about one thing. I hadn’t ever tried very hard at anything because I didn’t have to. I knew I’d never have to get a job, and there are a lot of responsibilities that come from being part of a royal family, so I figured, what was the point of doing something else?”
I had been so terrible to him that night. It was more about me than it was about him. I started to apologize, but he kept talking as he searched through the grass and pulled up a clover. “No one had ever spoken to me that way before, and it changed everything for me. I looked at what I was good at, what I enjoyed. I love putting together mixes, but there aren’t a lot of DJ princes.”
“There’s the Fresh Prince,” I said, stunned by what he was saying.
He smiled. “I don’t think he’s an actual prince. Anyway, I decided to open a nightclub in Monterra. I’m using some of my trust fund and money from investors. We’re hopeful that if it does well we can franchise it across Europe. I’m calling it ‘Inferno.’”
“I see what you did there. Dante’s Inferno. Literary humor. I like it.” I echoed his words back at him, and all the annoyance and animosity I had been feeling had somehow just dissipated as he laughed.
When his laughter subsided, he reached over and squeezed my hand. He said, “Limone, you were the first person to ever really challenge me. You made me want to be a better man. Thank you for that.”
What on earth was I supposed to say to that? My chest swelled up and I felt giddy and excited and amazed and touched and shocked and . . .
Won over.
It was one of the things that had always bothered me about him. I was from a rich family, but I wanted to work hard. I didn’t have much respect for people who didn’t care about doing their best and used their parents’ money to coast through life.
Now he was building his own nightclub. A possible franchise.
Had he done it for me?
My heartbeat was up in my throat. I was so glad he couldn’t read minds. I couldn’t settle on one thought or one feeling. My brain jumped like a frog on crack, too bewildered to make sense of his announcement.