Auggie nodded. I wondered if he thought about his father, then. I knew I did.
We explored the canals. We passed by the smoke shops. “We’ll have to come back when I’m not pregnant,” I said. Of all the things I gave up for my pregnancy, cannabis was one of the bigger sacrifices, second only to sex with my redheaded prince.
“We don’t have to come back here,” he said. “Cannabis is legal in Aldayne, even more legal than here. You can buy it. Sell it. Grow it. It’s accepted both medicinally and recreationally. And, if I do say so myself, the Midnight Coast strains are outstanding. Deep and purple and strong. I’ll take you to Noxbury,” he promised. “It’s like Las Vegas, but with more pot and less porn.”
I laughed. “Just promise me that you’ll wait till Jack is 21 to take him there.”
“No promises,” he grinned. “My first trip was when I was 18. And it was amazing.”
“What were you like as an eighteen-year-old?”
His face darkened. I remembered the sad timeline too late.
“Auggie, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up anything that would make you sad.”
“What did I tell you about apologizing?” he chastened. “You asked and I want to answer. I think it was that trip to Noxbury that changed it all for me. Dad had died. I felt like I didn’t have a friend in the world,” he said, moving quickly past the sad information, “and Old Mother wanted me to enlist in our armed forces, to complete my training as future king. I hid out in Nox as long as I possibly could. She was offering me a shackle when I wanted nothing but freedom. I drank. I got high. I fucked a lot of women,” he added, almost sheepishly. “Thank God for condoms.”
I laughed. “At least you know how to work one.”
He chuckled. “In the end, I knew that I didn’t want to be king. It had driven my mother away from my dad and driven my dad literally off a cliff. After losing both parents by the time I was legally coming into my own, life seemed a little too precious to miss. I certainly wasn’t ready to give it away. I returned to Shimmering Falls with a proposition. I begged for my freedom in exchange for a promise.”
“What was the promise?”
He glanced down at me. “That I would return to Aldayne by the time I was 35.”
I quickly did the math. There were a little over two years left. “I see.”
“Now that I’m a man, I don’t need such promises. I’ve lived the life I wanted. I made my own rules. And I still don’t wish to be king.” He grabbed my hand. “Especially now. There’s too much to lose.”
“But your promise,” I started.
“My promise to you means more,” he stated simply. “I will tell Old Mother my final decision when we go to Wandermere.”
I thought about him sitting on the throne in Ademar. “Trying it on for size,” he had said. Clearly, he had been thinking about it. Clearer still, he had been wrestling with it. “I don’t want to be the reason you give that up, Auggie.”
He turned me to face him. “What are you saying?”
“This ring on my finger means that I am accepting you and your life, right now but also in the future. I trust you to do what’s right by me and by our son, no matter what that entails. You’ve already proven it over and over again. If you decide you want to be king, I will be proud to stand beside you.”
“I thought that wasn’t the life you wanted for Jack,” he pointed out.
I thought back to Christopher’s hateful face. “What’s so great about normal life anyway?”
He pulled me into his arms. “Life could never be normal with a girl named Peaches.”
“Nor with the Duke of Mayhem,” I grinned. He bent for a kiss.
“I have no plans to change my mind,” he assured. “But the fact you would support me either way means everything to me. It also says a lot about you.” He studied my face. “None of this has been easy for you but you keep rising to the challenge. My parents would have loved you.”
I gave him a big hug.
By August, I was officially in my third trimester and the European leg of the tour was over half-done. We started the month in Paris, where he rented a room with a brilliant view of the Eiffel