Clara grins at her and says, “Me do it!” before dumping more water on her dad.
“You sure do!” Emma answers. “She’s so smart. Listen to her talking in sentences already. She’s definitely a genius.”
“She gets that from her mom,” I say.
They both shrug and nod. “Most likely, yeah,” my brother admits.
Emma gives Harrison a serious look. “So, did he tell you yet?”
“Tell him what?” I ask, already annoyed even though I don’t know what they’re talking about.
She turns to me. “Tell him what really happened in that jungle and why you’ve been such a whiny brat since you got back?”
“Oh for…” I start, then, remembering my niece, I blow out a long puff of air.
Emma grins at me. “You love her.”
“He loves who?” Rosy asks from behind us. She steps under the shade of my umbrella, fanning herself with a clipboard. Turning to Clara, she says, “Hi Clara Bear, how’s my sweet girl?”
“Me do!” Clara yells, throwing her hands in the air and crouching.
“Yay! You do!” Rosy yells, before giving Emma a pointed look. “I hope you didn’t waste your honeymoon, because I want another one of these as soon as possible.”
Emma rolls her eyes. “Then bug Harrison for a follow-up baby.”
“Hey, what are you doing outside?” I ask Rosy. She hates being outdoors with a passion. In fact, if you go to her house for a barbecue, you’ll have to help carry her super-powerful air conditioner into the yard so she can have ‘nice, cool indoor air’ while she eats.
“I came to check on my Cuddle Bear,” she says, smiling down at me. “Now, who is it that you love? It’s that beautiful princess, isn’t it? There’s no way you could’ve spent all that time together without falling for her.”
Harrison grins at me but talks to Rosy. “He was just about to admit it.”
Rosy squeezes herself onto my lounge chair, next to my leg. “Oh, good! I didn’t miss it then!”
Glaring at Harrison, I say, “Nope. Not admitting anything. Not talking. What happens in the jungle, stays in the jungle.”
“So somethingdidhappen!” Emma says.
“It happened all right,” Rosy answers. “Look at his pouty little face. It’s exactly like when he’d get hurt as a boy. He could never admit it. Always had to be the toughest kid in the room.”
I pull my head away from her. “I’m not going to get tricked into admitting I love her. I’m not an idiot.”
“He loves her. He’s just scared,” Emma says.
Rosy nods. “I don’t blame him. It would be hard to make it work. After all, they couldn’t be from more different worlds.”
“True,” Emma says, looking at Rosy. “It would be almost impossible. Will would suffocate in her world, and she’s so busy with all her charity work and her royal obligations. There’s no way she could just quit.”
“I don’t know. Harry and Meghan did it,” Rosy tells Emma.
“But, neither of them is a total coward, unlike Will,” Harrison adds.
“I’m not…you know, whatever. You guys go ahead and talk. I really couldn’t care less.”
“That’s because he loves her,” Emma whispers.
“So much it terrifies him,” Rosy adds.
“Maybe he’snotscared,” Harrison says, rubbing his chin. “Maybe, he’s just waiting for his ankle to heal so he can run to her and carry her off into the sunset.”
