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“I…I’m not sure what to say, exactly. Why, is probably a good place to start.”
“Because it’s been a long time since I met anyone even vaguely interesting, and I’m 27. Our parents will arrange a marriage for me when I turn 28, anyway. That’s the way it goes for us Ledonian princesses, you know.”
“You don’t have to give in like that, though. This is the 21st Century. Women are allowed to be single, you know.”
“I don’t want to be single. I want to be married.”
“To a chinless wonder?” I ask, recalling an earlier conversation with her on the topic of arranged marriages.
“He might have a chin, perhaps even a lovely square one.”
I arch my brows at her. “What about love?”
“Oh, love isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, as far as I can see.”
My heart softens. Sofia had her heart broken some years ago, and I’m not sure she’s ever fully recovered.
“Sofe—”
She shoots me a warning look. “Don’t. I’m over him. It was a long time ago. All I want now is to marry a nice man with whom I can spend my life and have children with. If I fall in love with him, then wonderful.”
“And if not?”
“Then I’ll be absolutely fine,” she says with determination in her voice.
I swing my legs over the side of the lounger to face her. “Don’t do it. I’ll set you up with some of my friends, put you on every dating app. Anything to stop this madness.”
“Alex, I know your friends, and a princess on a dating app? Are you mad? The thing is, we can’t all afford the luxury of finding The One, can we?”
Maddie fills my thoughts and I find myself smiling, despite this nuclear bomb Sofia’s just detonated about her own life.
“Oh, my gosh.” She looks like she’s doing her best imitation of a fish. “The stories are true. You and Maddie are involved in some sort of mad affair. I thought the media was just making a mountain out of a mole hill.”
We haven’t officially come out as a couple, but I’m not going to deny my feelings for Maddie. Not to my sister, anyway. The media is another matter altogether, but then they’re right about one thing: I’m very much off the market, as they put it in that trending hashtag of theirs. I’m Team Maddie all the way. And it feels amazing.
“Sofe, it really is the most wonderful thing.”
“What is?”
“When you find you’re falling for someone.”
She pushes her sunglasses on top of her head. “You’re falling for her? As in you love her?”
I smile, enjoying her shock. “That’s right, Sofe. I can shock you, too. At long last, your brother has fallen in love.”
“Are you serious? You’re in love with her?”
“Is it so hard to believe?”
“It is, actually. You’re you. None of us ever thought you’d actually fall in love.”
“That’s because I hadn’t met Maddie.”
She shakes her head, her eyes as wide as a pool ball. “Tell me everything.”
“It’s really a very simple story. We met, and after initially despising one another, we realized we actually did quite like each other. We were spending quite a lot of time together, you see, and one thing led to another, and we fell in love.”
“I can't believe it.”
