cheer. “You need to be hassled. Now more than ever. I promise I’ll always be ready to call you out on your shit.”
“I should probably thank you for that heartfelt offer.” And then Christian ran out of steam. He’d been faking it to everyone since the state dinner. Held himself together with grit—and coffee—but he couldn’t do it anymore. Didn’t want to.
He wanted comfort. Sympathy.
So instead of finishing his thought, he just put his arms around Kelsey and leaned into her.
“Oh. Oh geez. Has no one been taking care of you since the breakup?” Kelsey hugged him back ferociously. Then she stroked his back in soothing circles. She was on tiptoe. He was crouched over. But it was the best moment he’d had in almost forty-eight hours. “I assumed Elias and Theo and Marko were…well, doing something to help you. What do guys do?”
As if any of them had been in love before the past year? Women evidently had a rehearsed formula for getting over heartbreak. Yet one more way they were far emotionally savvier than men.
“Nothing. I don’t know? I’ve never done this before. Never felt like this before. Plus, there’s the whole too busy to scratch my ass phase I’ve been in since Mallory dropped her bombshell.”
“The timing couldn’t have been worse,” she agreed, switching to soothing pats.
“Could have. If she did it right before the prime minister took my oath as king.”
“Yeah, I don’t really see that as a helpful comment.” Kelsey pulled back. “I’m sympathetic as all get-out, Christian, but my first patronage gala is tonight. Can you put a cork in your wallowing until midnight? Then I promise I’ll spend all day with you tomorrow. I’ll list all of Mallory’s annoying quirks and faults and fill you with pizza and beer and brownies.”
“I’m fairly certain I have to do king things tomorrow. And the next day. And the next.”
She clasped her hands in front of her heart, as if about to impart the secret to the meaning of life. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it. The last guy with your job? He had a freaking mental breakdown. So if you pull rank and say you need to take a day? I don’t think anyone will object.”
It felt heartless to…laugh. At his father’s illness.
But that’s exactly what Christian did.
And it felt almost as good as the hug she’d given him. “Please don’t ever lose that American bluntness. It is exactly what this family needs.”
She plucked a frosted tumbler with the five royal palaces outlined in gold. “Here I thought this toothbrush holder was exactly what we needed.”
“Thank you. I needed to laugh.”
Kelsey picked up a tea towel emblazoned with a gold peacock. “Being dumped is the worst.”
It was the fact of being apart from her that hurt, not how it happened. “I can’t blame Mallory. To be honest, I was on the brink of doing it myself, but was too scared to lose her. She was just brave enough to do it first.”
“Maybe. Or maybe brave’s not anywhere close to the right word.”
“What do you mean?”
She threw up her hands. “You’re both miserable. Broken. I heard the litany of reasons about why you two don’t work as a couple, but…this doesn’t feel right.”
“Agreed,” he said in a low, hollow voice.
“But I could be biased, since I’m freaking out about her leaving.”
It was another kick to the gut. Christian steadied himself on a rack of sweatshirts. “Leaving? Mallory?”
“She’s going home tomorrow. That’s why I’m here. I’m getting her some souvenirs.” She tugged a sweatshirt off the hanger and draped it over her arm. “I’m going to hide them in her suitcase.”
“For a visit?”
“No. To stay. So she doesn’t have to watch you woo and wed a royal bride. Because she loves you and that would be torture.”
No. Torture would be not seeing her every day. Not hearing her voice. “She can’t leave.”
“She can’t stay. C’mon. Think about how…well, how shitty that would be. This isn’t a down-the-road thing once you’ve both started healing. I’ll bet the Privy Council has you on a series of dates within a week. They want to announce an engagement by the end of the year. I don’t even speak the language and I’ve picked up on that.”
Those were all stellar points.
He didn’t care. If Mallory left—he wouldn’t care about anything.
Christian pressed his palms to his eyes. “You’ve been bucking against protocol and tradition since the day you arrived.”
“Only the ones I see as useless,” she protested quickly. “Or classist. Or require me