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Linnea looks up at Jonah, then back to me. “So you want to find someone to fake marry you?” she asks.
“No. Real marry me. It has to be real.” My grandfather could easily verify something like that if he suspected I was doing it only to get the throne.
“So you need to find a girlfriend and get her to fall in love with you and agree to marry you in the next six months,” Jonah says.
Okay, yes. Love would be great. And to him and Linnea, that doesn’t sound crazy because it’s essentially what happened to them. He was supposed to help find her another guy to fall in love with so my grandfather would drop the idea that she and I would get married.
I didn’t mean for him to fall in love with her. Or vice versa. Because…well, I didn’t see that coming.
And because it’s made things complicated. Jonah doesn’t have the…pedigree…that my grandfather will accept for a husband for Linnea. And if he finds out that Jonah is wrecking all the plans he has for me and Linnea, he will be so pissed.
“Sure,” I finally say. “Let’s try that.” I finally look up at my friends. They’re both watching me with wide eyes. But neither is saying this is a bad idea. “You think this is a good idea?” I ask.
“I think you being king is a good idea,” Linnea says. “Your grandfather needs to step down. He deserves to rest. He also deserves the peace of knowing that his beloved Cara is in good hands. He deserves to see you being a good king. You deserve the chance to show him that. I’d love to see the two of you mend your relationship.” She meets my eyes, and I see her sincerity. “But I don’t think that will happen until he steps aside, and you have the actual chance to lead. So yes, if you’re ready to fall in love and get married then I think this plan is…not terrible.”
I clap my hands together as I rise. “Wonderful. Then let’s go get our princess.”
“Wait,” Jonah says. “You have someone in mind?”
I grin. Then I lean over and click on a file on my desktop. Then I step back and point at my monitor.
Jonah and Linnea both lean in.
Then Jonah looks at me. “Uh…that’s Abigail Landry.”
“Yes, it is.”
“Abigail Landry doesn’t like you.”
“That’s a bit of an overstatement,” I say.
“Well…she didn’t seem to really be into you,” Jonah amends.
I tuck my hands into my pockets. “That will change when she finds out that I have something she wants.”
Jonah straightens and faces me. “And what’s that?”
“Her dream job.”
Did her comment about hating her job when we danced intrigue me enough to look into her? Yes. Have I now learned everything about her in the past two years? Yes. Does that make me a stalker? No. Obsessed? Maybe.
“What’s her dream job?” Linnea asks.
“Eliminating world hunger,” I say. It’s a very simple summary of the things that Abigail Landry studies, works on, writes about, and wants to do.
I go on when they just stare at me. “Specifically, she wants to build indoor farms in food deserts and supply fresh food to people, especially children, year-round regardless of climate and terrain.”
They just blink at me.
“Cara is a food desert,” I say. “We can’t grow anything here! Our soil is too thin and rocky, and our weather is too cool and windy. We import everything. It’s terrible for our economy and our ability to be independent and have strong national relations.”
“So you think she’ll want to come here because this is the perfect place to do her work and you, as the prince, can give her all the resources she could possibly need,” Linnea says.
“Exactly,” I give her a smug grin. I mean, I hope the chemistry between us is part of it too, but yeah, giving her a chance to do her life’s work on an international stage won’t hurt. The woman is passionate about what she does, and she did tell me she hated her job two years ago. She’s with the same company. I can only hope it still sucks.
That sounds bad. I don’t want her to be miserable.
Unless it means she’ll marry me.
