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THREE
TARYN
The day had seemed to go by faster than usual. It helped that Taryn enjoyed her work, but today had been busier than most. Or maybe it just seemed busy because she was working by herself all day. Well, besides the enforcer that Declan had ordered to follow her around at all times unless she was in the castle.
And all this was because she couldn’t shift.
Taryn flipped theopensign on the shop’s door toclosedand started to clean and put things away. Her phone rang. Not paying attention to who it was, she answered and put it on speaker. “Hello?”
“Hey, there,” came Declan’s overly sultry voice across the phone’s speaker.
Taryn giggled a little. Declan always made her smile, and he was very playful. After a long day of working, that was exactly what she needed.
“Well, hello, there.”
“Are you still working?”
“Nope. Just closing up right now.” She restocked the shelves with the last of the bottles and made a note of what she needed more of. “So, are you going to tell me what we are doing for dinner?”
“Nope.”
She rolled her eyes, and her sight landed on the figure in the corner. The enforcer stood there saying nothing, just had his hands folded in front of him as he kept his gaze straight ahead. He used to make her very uncomfortable. Now he just annoyed her. “Will you tell me where we are going then?”
“Nope.”
She exhaled her frustration, causing Declan to laugh.
“You gotta tell me something. Pretty please?”
“That’s not going to work on me.”
“I don’t like surprises.” This was true … she wasn’t a fan of not knowing what was going on. It helped her feel in control since she didn’t have that in a lot of other ways.
“I don’t know what to tell you.”
“You can literally tell me anything I just asked you.”
“No, I mean to make you feel better about surprises. I’m not giving anything away. You’ll just have to go with it.”
Taryn said nothing as she continued cleaning up the shop.
She knew that Declan was partially teasing her, and remaining silent was her only response.
As much as she appreciated the easy banter they had, surprisesdidmake her anxious.
“If you’re done asking about that, I have something else to share with you.” Declan’s voice had a ring of humor to it. He was enjoying this.
“Oh? And what would that be?”
“Phillip will be hosting his parent’s anniversary party at the palace. You’ve met Phillip before, haven’t you?”
“Mmm. No, I don’t think so.” She had heard of him briefly in conversations, but they had never met.
“Oh. Well, you will probably meet him tomorrow. He’s one of my oldest friends … Hanna’s too. He’s a buddy. Plus, his parents are friends with mine. So, expect my mother and father to be back for the party as well. I told him to use the palace and our staff for this party.”
Taryn smiled at the generosity of her soon-to-be husband. Not many royals she knew would offer their palace, let alone staff, for a friend’s parents. “That was awfully nice of you.”
She could almost hear the smile in his tone. “I try. Anyway, he’ll possibly be stopping by to visit with you.”
