“Usually there aren’t this many,” Cassie said, and Keegan looked worried.
As I added some sausage to my plate, I noted, “Sometimes he likes to keep a few more around to intimidate people, and it seems he has an interest in intimidating myboyfriend.”
Cassie giggled and glanced between me and Keegan, then asked Keegan, “Are you guys going to get married?”
My mouth dropped open at the question.
“What?” Lucas asked. “Where did that question come from?”
She shrugged, her gaze wandering as she acted innocent, even though she was anything but.
“Now, Cassie, you know as well as I do that we can’t marry in Parlaisa,” I answered.
“But you could marry where Keegan is from.”
Lucas stared at her blankly, like he was horrified I might have considered such a tactic.
“Cassie,” Lucas said. “I don’t think this conversation is appropriate for breakfast.”
“Yeah, that’s a little…lot…soon,” Keegan told her. “We just started seeing each other. Likejustjust.”
He gazed at me as we shared a knowing look, reflecting on our conversation the night before.
Lucas seemed to take notice before he said, “What sort of enterprise is your family involved in, Keegan?”
An apparent subject change.
Although, I suspected he already knew the answer to his own question. Just like with Frederick, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that Lucas had hired some private investigator to run a background check on my new boyfriend, scoping him out, surely trying to find any sort of dirt on him that he could.
“My brother’s a firefighter, and my mom’s a retired teacher.”
“And your ambitions? I hear you’re in school.”
“Yeah, community college right now. Plan on transferring after and going to veterinary school.”
“And what university are you considering? I believe I’m familiar with the more prestigious Ivy League universities in your country.”
“Oh, wow. Nothing like that. There’s a really good university that has a great veterinary program, and I was considering it, but it’s in Georgia, my home state.”
“Keegan, we have a wonderful university here in Parlaisa with a veterinary school,” I mentioned. “Wouldn’t be so bad if you went there so that we could be closer together.”
Lucas narrowed his eyes as he stared me down.
“At least he has a backup if Parlaisa doesn’t work out,” he said.
“Oh, really? And what would a man who was born heir to a throne know about backup schools?”
He snarled, obviously not appreciating how I challenged him. Although, I didn’t particularly care for the way he was interrogating my boyfriend.
Well, fake boyfriend…
Formerly-fake-boyfriend-but-now-heading-toward-the-boyfriend-department boyfriend.
Hmmm…we had a lot of things to figure out.
“How old are you again?” Lucas asked, changing tack once again.
“Nineteen.”
