Up for Heir - Stella Starling Page 0,14

although neither hair of the dog nor feline hairballs were likely to apply in this case—but for some reason, instead of the mess making him want to turn around and run back to the palace, it aroused a completely unprecedented protective instinct that Leo had no plausible explanation for.

He could fix this. He wanted to. It was… odd.

“Right then,” he said, clapping a hand on Eddie’s shoulder and steering him back into the apartment as he invited himself in. “Let’s see what I can do to help, shall we?”

“Um,” Eddie said, scrubbing a hand through his already messy hair as he blinked up at Leo, stopping in his tracks. “No?”

It sounded more like a question than a statement, but still… no? To be honest, it wasn’t a word Leo heard all that often. At least, not directed at him.

Leo cocked his head to the side, wondering at what point the little librarian would stop surprising him. “Why not?”

“Why not?” Eddie repeated, the parroted words flowing out as smooth as silk. Then he barked out a short laugh, mimicking Leo’s stance with his head tipped to the side, too, as he peered up through those cute little glasses. “B-B-Because you’re a p-p-p-prince,” he stuttered out in that endearingly determined way he had. “You c-c-can’t… y-y-you… that is, y-y-you’re… Leo.” He made a frustrated motion, his throat working for a minute as he swayed on his feet. Then, in an almost sing-song voice, “Why are you even here?”

“You canceled on me,” Leo said, which, he realized, really wasn’t an answer at all, because he honestly didn’t have one.

“I kn-kn-know,” Eddie said, his shoulders slumping. He gestured behind him. “M-M-My sisters are sick.”

There were purple-ish smudges under his ridiculously large eyes, and it suddenly struck Leo that the man wasn’t just flustered, splattered, and rumpled… he was also exhausted.

There was a blanket-covered lump on the sway-backed sofa visible in the front room, and it suddenly shifted, proving to be a green-faced teenage girl who peered out of her nest blearily.

“Eddie?” the girl whispered pitifully. “I’m going to be sick again.”

Eddie’s shoulders straightened. “Right,” he said just as the sound of retching started up from another room. He brushed past Leo to help the girl on the couch up to her feet, sparing Leo a quick glance and mumbling another apology before guiding her out of the room.

Before Leo could decide what to do about that, another girl—the sister of Eddie’s who’d been at the library event, but who now looking much more bedraggled and was clearly a third sick person since there was still retching happening elsewhere in the small apartment—suddenly stumbled into view, clutching her stomach and mumbling something about sympathy pains before disappearing in the direction Eddie had just gone.

Truly unpleasant sounds—and smells—quickly followed.

Leo swallowed, his iron stomach serving him well but suddenly aware of just how out of his depth he was. Honestly, he had no idea why he’d ever offered to help in the first place. He should probably just leave the entire family in peace and go find another diversion for his Saturday afternoon, shouldn’t he?

Yes. That definitely seemed the best course of action… it therefore made no sense whatsoever that a few minutes later, he found himself crowding into a very small, very smelly bathroom, assisting Eddie in cleaning up his sisters and, eventually, helping to tuck them all back into nested little blanket cocoons in a bedroom approximately the size of the armoire Hugo kept Leo’s ties in.

“Okay then,” Leo managed once everyone was settled, gripping Eddie’s arm to steady him when he swayed on his feet again. “How about you, Eddie?”

“Me?” Eddie asked, blinking up at him blearily. He didn’t just look tired, he looked genuinely confused. “What… what… what about me?”

What about Eddie? Who took care of him?

It was a question that was none of Leo’s concern and totally out of character for him to even wonder about.

Leo straightened Eddie’s glasses again. “Have you eaten?”

Eddie’s brow furrowed, as if he had to take a minute to think about that one.

It was all the answer Leo needed, and even though he had no skills in the kitchen himself, he did order a mean take-out and had an entire fleet of drivers at his disposal to deliver it. And if a few cartons of Pad Thai earned him the smile Eddie gave him once finally it arrived? The slightly stunning one that caught Leo off guard and transformed Eddie’s somewhat ordinary face into a beam of