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Done and done.
“All right. I’m going to go enjoy the rest of my Christmas.” I wiped the shine off my lips. Shy looked a little shocked, but the smile playing on his face told me he quite enjoyed closing this case.
As we started to leave, Henry and Theresa went off in the direction of the ship, the two of them loudly arguing. Luna walked with us back to the table where Shy’s friends were sitting.
“Nicholas, I’m so sorry. I never would have even imagined… I shouldn’t have let that slide.”
“It’s all right, Luna. Shit happens. I’m just glad we’ve plugged up this leak. I can enjoy the rest of the cruise now.”
“Okay, good… And Shiro, when you interviewed me, I didn’t even bring them up because, well, I really wouldn’t expect one of them being involved.”
Shy waved a hand in the air. “I should have dug a little deeper. We both dropped the Christmas ornament on this one.”
Luna pursed her lips. As we reached the table, I could tell she was about to keep walking, most likely to stand a few feet away so she could keep watch over me discreetly. Shiro stopped her before she could go.
“Hey, guys.”
The table quieted down and looked to Shiro, who had Luna’s hand in his. “This is Luna. She’s a friend of mine and just so happens to be Nick’s undercover guard. He needs it, considering he’s the prince of Spain and all. So, yeah, everyone, meet Luna!”
His friends all stared for a moment before the table broke out into laughter. Shy laughed, too, finally saying, “No, guys, I’m being totally serious right now.”
Ace was the first to break out of the stunned spell. “I fucking knew it!” He clapped his hands and stood up, pointing at Rex. “This one here said that maybe you were someone from an oil family, but nope, I called royalty!” He flipped his hand and opened his palm. Rex, with a defeated grin, pulled out his wallet and slapped it on Ace’s palm. Ace opened the cracked brown leather wallet and pulled out a fifty.
“Thanks, babes.” He kissed Rex before sitting down, pocketing his win. The rest of the gang still appeared stunned. Lou blinked a few times, his girlfriend typing away furiously on her phone before lifting up and saying, “He isn’t lying,” with a picture of me and my family on her screen, the palace rising behind us.
A deluge of questions fell on me then. All at once. I tried answering them, but it was futile. The dam had broken. We spent a good twenty minutes covering the bare basics of life as a prince, but the questions were just not stopping.
Shy was able to press pause. “Okay, all right, guys. We’ll continue this Prince Silva meet and greet in fifteen minutes. Let us go get drinks first. We’ve gotta fuel up,” he said, interrupting as Jada started to ask me how the crown was cleaned. Luna took over the questions as we excused ourselves.
We walked through the sand, over to the bar that sat tucked inside of a straw hut.
“That was kind of you,” I said, leaning against the polished wood as the bartender worked on making someone else’s drink. “To introduce Luna to the group.”
“I figured her Christmas was turning out pretty shitty, I didn’t want her standing off to the side all by herself. And I also figured it would be a great way to just drop the news on them about you being a prince. They were going to find out eventually.”
I leaned in for a kiss. “It worked out perfectly.” I looked back at the table. Luna was laughing and chatting with Jada and Nick. Lou danced with his girlfriend next to the tiki torch, twirling her around as the music picked up. Ace and Rex were being very touchy-feely with a handsome olive-skinned bartender they seemed to have lured out from behind the bar and who was now sitting on Rex’s lap as Ace appeared to be giving him a hand massage.
“Who would have thought this would be how our Christmas played out,” Shy said, bumping into my side.
“Certainly not me. I had no idea what to expect when I boarded the ship.”
Before I could order our drinks, my phone started to buzz. I thought maybe it was some family member or friend back at home calling to wish me a merry Christmas.
The name on my screen made me freeze. Shy looked at the phone, his eyes opening wide.
Above the picture of the smiling man who looked a lot like me was written the word “Papa.”
“I’ve got to answer this,” I said, feeling the nerves rocket up inside me all over again. Shiro nodded and said of course as I stepped to the side, the wind picking up just then and rustling the leaves of a palm tree just behind me.
