I take a deep breath. “Are you still stepping down? Because if not… I have a number of loose ends still that need to be tied up. If you are going to keep the throne?— “
“No. You are still on track to be king.”
My expressiontightens. “Ah.”
My father looks at me for several long beats. “You don’t desire the crown?”
I give a dry chuckle. “No.”
“Mm. I didn’t either.” He looks down at the glass of orange juice in front of him, turning it slowly by the rim. “What would you do if you had more time?”
Margot’s face flashes in my mind. Frowning, I shake my head. “I don’t know. I made some decisions recently that may have been hasty…”
I trail off and drum my fingers on the tabletop. My father spears me with his frosty blue gaze.
“You are talking about Margot?”
I can feel my neck heat. “Among other things. But yes, I would do things differently if I had more time.” I scrunch my face up. “And if I had a time machine, I guess.”
My father’s eyebrows lift slightly. “How so?”
I shrug, uncomfortable. “I don’t know. I would put less pressure on her to accept my marriage proposal, I guess.”
He looks surprised. “I didn’t realize that you had asked.”
Pursing my lips, I shrug again. “I didn’t ask her officially. I asked her what her answer would be… and she took weeks to reply to it.”
He looks dubious. “Her reply was no?”
Heat creeps up my neck, coloring my cheeks. “Her reply was just that she needed more time.”
“And you felt that you were running out of that resource,” he comments, fixing his gaze on his orange juice glass again.
“Well… yes,” I admit. “If I had it to do over again, I would do it differently.”
My father sighs. “Stellan. Let me give you some advice. If you find a woman to share your life with, and you’re sure that she’s the one, you don’t halfway ask her to marryyou. You grab onto her and you don’t ever let go.” He coughs. “I consider myself insanely lucky to have found your mother. She is passionate. She is loyal. She fights for the causes she believes in. But most of all, I know that she’ll stick by my side. No matter what. That’s worth more than all the gold in the world.”
I’m a little taken back by his words. My father and mother obviously love each other, but I have never heard my father talk about her for any length of time.
Letting that sink in, I take a deep breath. “I’m glad that you found Maman.”
He snorts. “You’d better be. I never planned on having a bunch of children. That was all your mother. She wanted a big brood. And what your mother wants, she tends to get.”
“That’s… bordering on being too much information.” I wrinkle my nose.
My father rolls his eyes. “That is neither here nor there. What is certain is that you need to contact Margot. If she is your great love, she will be glad to hear from you.”
I give him a skeptical look. “Has Erik been talking to you about this? Because he said exactly the same thing.”
My father sighs. “No. But there must be something there if we both have the same advice for you, Stellan.”
Sitting back in my chair, I shrug. “I don’t know.”
“Do you love her?” My father cocks his head.
“Of course.”
His gaze narrows on my face. “I don’t understand. What is the issue?”
