Page 28 of Heavy Crown

I tug my knees tighter against my chest. “He wasn’t always. Once we came here, though, he let his parents run our life, and he couldn’t seem to stay away from Janessa. Whenever I asked, he denied it.”

To come here, I burned a big bridge with my father. My brother’s enrollment in the military cemented me as the one to take over the family farm. As the oldest, I’m the rightful inheritor, but I hoped my brother might take an interest since he had little interest in anything except hockey.

Meanwhile, my family had my life all figured out—run my pastry business out of the farm kitchen and help them with the dairy cows. The property has been in the Wilson family for five generations, and in my father’s eyes, I’m the heir. I negotiated my college degree as one last hurrah before accepting my fate.

To be fair, before I met Derrick, I hadn’t objected to their plan, but I hadn’t been part of creating it either. When I told my parents I was moving to Bellerive and might never return to run the farm, my father didn’t take it well.

Yet another reason why mixing family and business is never a good idea. If there is anyone who might understand the push-pull of that, he’s likely sitting beside me. Any royal family must be the epitome of mixing family and business. Are there lines between the two? Where are they drawn?

“If you could have done anything on your birthday, what would you have done?” Alex asks as the timer goes off for the scones.

I clamber off the couch, and he follows behind me to observe. “My parents have a dairy farm in Canada, and we have a couple horses. I miss riding them. Isn’t that silly?” I glance at him over my shoulder as I baste the wedges in butter before sliding the pan into the oven and setting another timer. “There are no horse farms in Bellerive. At least none I could find on the internet.”

“Hmm,” Alex says with a nod. “A few people own horses, but I don’t know anyone who offers riding or lessons to locals.”

“Anyway.” I wave him off and head for the couch. “Derrick wouldn’t have even remembered let alone tried to make it happen. He’s not that kind of guy.”

“So he’s lazy, and he’s a cheater.” Alex taps his temple. “I’m building a picture here.”

Was Derrick lazy? He never hesitated to ask me to take the extra shifts or go above and beyond for his family. Every time I said yes because I wanted them to like me, and I wanted Derrick to love me enough to ask me to marry him. Had I wanted to marry him, or had I just wanted to marry someone? Now that I’ve got a bit of distance from him, I’m having a hard time remembering why I pinned my hopes on them and him.

“He was different when we were in college.” I shrug. “Or maybe he was the same, but the situation made him seem different.” I wrap my long hair around my hand and pin it up into an almost bun before letting it fall again. “I should go get my stuff tomorrow.”

Alex purses his lips. “I can send a plainclothes guard with you, but I can’t help you.”

I sit up straighter in surprise. He hasn’t come back to the couch and instead is leaning against the island. The studio space is small, so there isn’t a lot of distance between us. The queen bed and bathroom are tucked around the corner, out of sight from the door.

“I wouldn’t have expected you to come. You’ve already done more than enough for some strange girl you happened to save from death.”

His gaze narrows, and he observes me with a searing intensity. “It’s not that I don’t want to, but I can’t feed into a public narrative that you and I are more than we are.”

Understanding dawns, and I tuck my hair behind my ears. Alex is the most eligible bachelor on the island. Gossip articles are written about him weekly. With the coronation coming up, there is rampant speculation about who the next queen will be. If we’re seen together, people could believe I might be that woman. Heat creeps from my chest up into my face, burning my cheeks.

A hint of a smile tugs at his lips. “I see you’ve followed the appropriate train of thought.” He makes a winding motion with one of his fingers, as though it’s journeying down a path.

“I’m a farm girl from Canada you rescued from a car crash. No one is going to jump to that kind of conclusion.”

“I once got my haircut twice in one month, and the tabloids ran a story that I was involved with my hairdresser.”

Curiosity gets the better of me. “Were you?”

“No comment.”

“Oh, no. No way. You can’t use an example of them getting it right to prove they’ll get it wrong.” I wag my finger. “You broke a pattern, and they responded to it.”

He made a fist and raised a finger. “Put my life in danger to rescue you from a car about to go over a cliff.” He raises another finger. “Brought you here to the royal doctor.” He raises another finger. “Put you up in an apartment. Offered you a job.” He counts both of those as one. “Went to a grocery store for the first time in years.” He points to his thumb. “I’m one away, if it hasn’t happened already, from the press declaring this a grand affair.”

I swallow my unease. “You’re being nice. We just met yesterday.”

“Perhaps, but I can guarantee the public won’t see it that way.” He takes a deep breath. “I can’t be seen with you again or it’ll set off all sorts of rumors and conjecture. Or if those have already started, my appearance will feed them.”

“I understand,” I whisper. While I didn’t ask him to go to my apartment with me, it’s probably best he laid out all the reasons we’ll never be going anywhere public together again. For all I know, this baking experiment in my little cottage will be the last time we’re alone together. “You don’t owe me an explanation. You’ve got a complicated life, and I don’t want to make it any worse.”

He nodded as the timer went off for the scones.

A shot of elation zipped through me, and I clapped my hands, springing off the couch. “Prepare to be amazed.” I rush past him to check the oven. They’re a beautiful golden brown. With an oven mitt on, I draw them out and place the baking sheet on the top of the stove.

From the fridge, Alex takes out the clotted cream and jam. He grabs the kettle from under the sink and fills it.