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“They might not be able to help it.” I lift her hand to my lips and kiss her knuckles. “I know I couldn’t.”
She rolls her eyes, but I see her smile grow. “Anyway,” she says. “This is a specific plan with a clear timeline and goals. No need to get worked up over anything else. We just need to focus on the throne and the farm.”
I agree that there are some specific goals to be attained here, but I don’t like the idea that it’s all about business. I’m very into the idea of having Abigail as my wife. In every way.
And I really don’t like the timeline. A year seems like nothing. I’m ready to make this a long-term thing. Very long-term. But she keeps mentioning a year. And hell, the fact that Abigail is considering this at all is awesome. If my gorgeous scientist needs specific parameters, I can go along with it. For now.
If that’s the only way to have her, then of course I’ll agree.
But surely, she’ll fall in love with me in a year.
Right?
Or maybe, if not, then yeah, letting her go might be the right thing to do.
I’m frowning down at our entwined fingers when she says, “And we’ll just elope before we leave the US.”
My head comes up as Linnea turns in her seat again.
“You’re not going to have the wedding in Cara?” Linnea asks, clearly not a fan of that idea.
Abigail shakes her head and looks at me. “I’m sure it won’t shock you to know that the idea of standing up in front of a huge crowd of people all staring at me like that is the last thing that sounds good to me. But I also don’t want to tell a bunch of lies.”
I lift a brow. “Lies?”
“Yes. I don’t think we should stand up in front of family and friends and your entire country, in a church, and say that we love each other and vow to stay together for the rest of our lives when we know it’s only going to be a year,” she says. She takes a breath and sits straighter. “So no talking about love or forever or hearts or anything like that. The ceremony can be at the courthouse, and we can stick with do you take this man to be your husband? That’s a yes or no question. No need to involve emotions.”
“But—”
“No.” She pins me with a serious look. “Words can be misconstrued. Words mean different things to different people. They can be confusing, and they can…get complicated. Let’s just stick with facts. And actions. We’ll do the things we need to do to get you on the throne and to get crops growing in Cara. No need to add a bunch of emotional extras that could muddle things. Let’s keep things pragmatic. This is a practical solution.”
I watch her as I take all of that in.
She’s…not wrong.
This is a practical solution.
Emotions can be confusing and complicated.
And I agree that actions can be quite effective in proving what’s important.
The next second, her eyes widen. “Oh! And we don’t have to lie about how we met or any of that. We can share our real story. That we met at my sister’s wedding, then we reunited at another sister’s wedding, and we got to know each other via texting and calls after that.”
I’m just watching her process all of this in real time. It seems that all of this is just occurring to her now.
“Abigail—” I start.
“Oh! And,” she says, reaching out to grip my forearm.
I’m falling more in love with her just watching her speak. She might struggle with presenting plans and concepts to certain groups of people, but when she gets going with me, her words and enthusiasm just tumble out. Back at the farm site, behind the wall from the main area, she forgot there was a crowd, she forgot she had to make a speech, she just launched into a whole monologue about Cara’s fishing economy and attrition rates.
“You’re the prince,” she says. “You need to just start building the farms when we get there, okay? Don’t ask the king’s permission. Don’t spend time talking about it. Just tell people to start doing it. They have to listen to you. Then we’ll be able to show him our plans.” She squeezes my arm. “He’ll see that you’re committed and ready to be in charge. Don’t wait for the title. Just be the king you want to be right now.”
I'm staring at her. She's so fucking gorgeous when she’s wound up like this and right now, she’s wound up over me.
I want her so much.
I think about what she told me about her past. The times when she gave her presentations and projects her best even when she knew the people out in the audience were judging her and wanting her to fail. I think about how she said that the best way to shut them up was to just do the thing and prove them wrong. I think about the fact that she’s convinced the people of Cara are going to think she’s weird, but she’s willing to come and build these farms anyway.
