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“Leo.” Alicia placed a hand on his chest, right over his heart, and stared up at him with wide, endlessly blue, caring eyes. “Stay positive. We don’t know anything yet.”
“Yeah. Okay.”
Carefully, he withdrew his hand and struggled to his feet. Alicia stood, too, pulling her shirt back down and running her fingers through her hair. He watched her, not moving, because once he did, he would get to his father’s bedside and maybe find out that he’d lost the only person on this planet who truly loved him. The man who had taught him how to be a man.
His father.
They silently took their skates off, and he buttoned up his shirt. After he grabbed his coat, Alicia reached out and entwined her fingers with his, much like he had done to her earlier, and squeezed reassuringly. “Don’t read too much into it. I just want to make sure you don’t fall.”
He locked eyes with her. “I can’t lose him, Alicia. I’m not ready.”
“We’re never ready, but you haven’t lost him yet. Don’t give up hope.” Avoiding his eyes, she grabbed her shoes, and he did the same. “Let’s go be with your father.”
He followed her, empty inside because he felt it, deep down…
It was too late.
His father was gone.
Chapter Fourteen
By the time they got to the hospital, Alicia’s heart was pounding and breaking simultaneously. Seeing the pain, the fear, in Leo’s eyes was tearing her in half, and she wanted to make him feel better—she just didn’t know how. Holding Leo’s hand in her lap, running her thumb over the back of his knuckles, she stole a quick look at him.
He stared out the window, blankly, at the hospital where his father had been taken. His possibly dead father.
If he was gone, Leo would feel a pain that she would never wish upon anyone, not even her biggest enemy. Losing her father had literally changed her life. It had ruined her. Destroyed her. And for Leo, not only would he endure the loss of a parent, but the loss of a ruler, too. He’d become a king. He wouldn’t have time to grieve, or suffer in silence.
He’d have to comfort a whole country instead.
Her heart hurt for him.
She covered their hands with her other one, ignoring the warning bells going off in her head when he clung to her as if she kept him grounded in the midst of all of this pain. “Shit,” he muttered. “The reporters are already here.”
She glanced past his shoulder, and sure enough, there were at least fifteen newsmen out there, with cameras and microphones primed and ready for him to get out of the car. “What do you want to do?”
He frowned, not speaking.
The glass dividing the driver from them rolled down, and the guard who rode up front said, “We’ll take you around the back, but there will likely be a few of them there, too. Will Ms. Forkes be staying in the car, or going inside with you?”
Leo looked at her, his brow furrowed. “I…”
After he drifted off, she squeezed his hand. “I’ll go in with you, if you want. For support. I’d like to be there for you.”
It wasn’t until she said the words, until she admitted that she wanted to go with him, that she realized how very true those words were. She didn’t want to go back to the castle alone, she wanted to be with him, by his side, supporting him. She wanted to put herself out there and trust, for once, that he hadn’t done all those horrible things.
That he was as innocent as she was.
His fingers flexed on hers, and she started to undo her seat belt. He covered her hand with his, smiling sadly. “You don’t have to do that.”
“But—” she started.
“Would you like us to take Ms. Forkes home?”
Leo glanced at her. She stared back, silently awaiting his judgment call, since it really wasn’t up to her. His father. His country. His decision. “Yes, please. We don’t need people asking questions about her…or digging into her past. It’s going to be zoo.”
And that hurt more than a slap to the face. He didn’t want anyone to wonder why he was hanging out with the orphan who’d run away from her foster home was basically what he was saying. He didn’t want anyone to find out who or what she was to him.
Because I’m not good enough for him.
