Page 35 of Fallen Crown

“My mother was very free-range, and my father was very nonexistent unless we got hurt.”

“How’d you end up in adventure racing?” We’ve spent so many hours together, but we’re never truly alone. Our conversations have always been tempered by the reality of other ears within range. Jag or someone else is often tailing us, ensuring my safety, even though I’m not sure why anymore. With Grace, the line of succession is even further from me than before. When Nick and Jules have kids, I’ll be another level down. Maybe letting me do this without Jag is Alex’s way of acknowledging the new reality. My place in the monarchy is even less necessary than it was before.

“Mrs. Hayes—do you remember her from St. George’s Middle School? She put together a junior adventure race team when I was eleven. Since I was a good runner, she asked if I wanted to train for it. The rest is history. I started, and I never really stopped.”

We walk in silence for a few moments with Tucker holding some branches so they don’t slingshot into my face. There was a time when she definitely would have released them, perhaps with a gleeful cackle.

“You never answered my question,” she says.

“You had a question?”

“The worldly part of your claim, I can understand. The royal family has probably been to every country in the world. What did you mean by the sheltered bit?”

“This,” I say, gesturing to the forest around us. “I could play on the estate, and if something was tied to school, I could participate. But to go out into the wilderness and camp? Without security? Without five hundred contingency plans in case someone wanted to kidnap or murder me? Didn’t happen. A bit less restrictive at university in London, but I’m never truly alone. Not that it’s ever bothered me.” That much is true. I am a people person whether by choice or design.

“I think we must be opposites,” she says.

“You don’t say.” I can’t keep the sardonic tone out of my voice.

“I enjoy silence and my alone time.”

“I’m learning to appreciate silence.” Our nights where we climb in the barn, there’s a companionable quiet between us, and there’s a similar comfort when we run or bike or paddleboard together. We don’t have to talk—we can just exist together. Not sure I’ve ever had a friendship quite like that. Where something in me is comforted by the mere presence of someone else without a single word having to be exchanged.

“And I’m learning to appreciate inane chatter.” There’s a hint of amusement in her voice to take the sting out of her words.

“Don’t forget the dad jokes.”

“That would be the inane part.” She hops over a little creek of water and points to a particularly slippery rock to warn me. “What is your obsession with dad jokes, anyway?”

“Practice. Embarrass my own kids when I’m a dad.” I’m halfway over the creek before I realize what I’ve said. Not exactly something I imagined telling Tucker, let alone anyone. Her shoulders tense, and I wince at my stupidity. Bringing up kids around her is something I try to avoid. “Forget I said that.”

She turns around, walking backward in the little clearing we’ve come to, and instead of pain or whatever else I might see, she seems curious.

“What?” I ask, a hint of challenge in my tone. I’d be a good dad.

“Mr. I-don’t-do-commitment wants a baby?” Her look is definitely tinged with disbelief before she turns back around to lead the way.

“Don’t want the wife or the girlfriend or whatever,” I clarify. “Just the kid.”

“Well, I suppose anything is possible nowadays. Let me know how the birth goes once you’ve figured the logistics out.”

“Obviously I could hire a surrogate. Not much fun in that for me.”

“Oh, my God. Did you really just say that?”

“You cannot fault my honesty.”

“You’re aiming to knock up some poor, unsuspecting woman? You realize you’d have to share custody. Make support payments—possibly to mother and child. The whole thing.”

“Logic has no place here, Tucker. A man can dream.”

“Dream of impregnating a woman on purpose but also by accident.”

“Alex did it,” I say.

“I’m not entirely sure what happened between King Alexander and Queen Aurora, but I’m certain it’s not the mess he fed to the press.”

“Not really supposed to discuss that mess with outsiders,” I say. Alex would remove my head from my shoulders for putting Rory back in the line of fire since things have finally settled down.