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“Please have a seat,” Rafe said. This was what he’d be giving up, he thought as Hector talked about where foreign dignitaries would be seated. Alma was going to be a world player. Lots of countries were interested in doing business with them since their previous ruler had kept the country isolated. Rafe’s skills in business made him uniquely suited to help Alma get the most from their entry into the global marketplace.
“Do you like that?”
Rafe had to start paying attention. As Emily said, he needed to find the things about it that excited him. “You know better than me, Hector. No offense, but I’m not at all interested in color schemes or seating arrangements.”
“None taken. You’re a man of action and need to be doing something,” Hector said.
“True. I’m going to let you make all the choices. If something doesn’t look right then I will tell you.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Clearly you know what you’re doing,” Rafe said.
Hector stood up to leave, but turned back when he got to the door. “I mean, thank you for coming back here. It means a lot to our people.”
Hector left.
Rafe felt humbled. He knew that he wasn’t going to find it easy to choose between Alma and Emily. He needed her and the people needed him.
Five
“I toured the countryside today. I have to say that it is beautiful. There’s a little cove that I know you would like,” Rafe said.
It was 10:00 a.m. Emily sat at one of the corner tables in the coffeehouse on Duval Street talking to Rafe. It had become their date. He hadn’t missed calling her one time since the day he’d sent the stained glass mermaid a week ago. She hated to admit it, but she looked forward to his calls every day.
She took a sip of her herbal tea and looked out the window, but she didn’t see Key West. Instead she saw the countryside of Alma as he described the rolling hills and hedgerows. The sheep on the hillside munching on grass.
“How’s the weather there?” she asked. “I’ve never been farther north than Georgia.”
“It’s nice. The island isn’t that big and so the sea breezes keep it cool. I think you’d like it.”
He said that almost every time they talked, but she’d read the papers and online articles and knew there was no way she could ever visit him there. There was even speculation online that he’d chosen a bride from one of Alma’s aristocratic families. She knew that came with the territory of being a monarch.
“Met any nice locals?” she asked before she could stop herself.
“A few. The head of the Coronation Committee is a great guy. He’s helped me find things I like to do,” he said.
She noticed he didn’t mention any women, even though she’d seen his picture with more than one. It still made her sad.
Not sad enough that she stopped taking his calls or looking forward to talking to him.
She suddenly understood how a woman could willingly become a man’s mistress. Because she had the feeling that if he asked her to, she’d be tempted to say yes. She was falling for him and he wasn’t even here with her. But the silly thing was it was more intense by not actually having him physically here. They didn’t argue over the little things like what to get for dinner because they only had a few hours together each week, and then it was only by phone.
“You still there?”
“Yes,” she said. “Just imagining Alma.”
“What’s your view like today?”
“Sunburned tourists in swimsuits and flip-flops. There was a guy last night at the bar who had a few too many and kept coming on to this group of coeds. They ignored him and so he started stripping. Can you imagine? I was laughing because he was harmless. A sunburned middle-aged man. I wanted to see how far he’d go. But Harry put an end to it.”
“Sounds interesting. Did you think he’d look good naked?” Rafe asked.
“Nah. He didn’t look anything like you. It was the expression on his face that had me hooked. He wasn’t going to stop until those women acknowledged him.”
“So he didn’t look like me... Does that mean you like the way I look naked?” Rafe asked. “Because I haven’t slept a single night without remembering how you felt in my arms that last time in Miami.”
She took a sip of her tea and put her feet up on the chair across from her. She’d thought of little else but the way Rafe looked with his shirt off or how he’d moved when he’d been rapping to Jay-Z in his bedroom at the penthouse. She hadn’t realized that she could be so lusty with this pregnancy, but she was.
