by Cate Remy
His mother was silent for several seconds. “Are you in love with her?”
“Yes.” Saying it aloud confirmed what he felt in his heart.
The queen looked out the window towards the garden in the distance. “Does she love you?”
“I…don’t know.” It pained him to admit it. “She’s not here.”
“It troubles me to say this, but there might be your answer.”
“She left quickly because she’s hurt and upset. If I could talk to her, I’d clear this up.” Donovan got out his car keys. “I can’t stay. I have to go out and find her.”
She turned away from the window with a long, heavy sigh. “Your father and I always wanted you to be the ruler Severn needs. Strong, smart, fair. You’re all of those things, and you’re also passionate. Sometimes you make decisions with your heart, Donovan. I hope it guides you and Shae down the right path.” She pressed a button on her wheelchair in the direction of the garden entrance.
“Thank you, Mother.”
The queen stopped and gave him a quiet smile. “You’d best go after the young lady. I’ll let your father know we talked.”
He kissed his mother on the cheek before he ran to his car outside.
He put on the gas to make the forty-minute drive to Severn’s airport. Since it was smaller than large commercial hubs, he was able to use his family’s special entrance to drive around to the back and enter the building without notice. Donovan moved swiftly among the travelers, wearing a cap and keeping his head slightly lowered so as not to draw attention to himself. He weaved in and out of the path of rolling suitcases. A buzzing erupted and people stopped to give him a double take. He was spotted. It didn’t matter. He was there to find Shae.
He went to the terminals and spoke to the first attendant he saw. “What flights are leaving for the United States today?”
“Y-your Highness,” the woman was stunned and taken off guard by his sudden appearance. “Let me check.” Her fingers flew across the computer keyboard. Donovan tried hard not to shuffle his feet as precious seconds went by.
The attendant read the flights on screen. “The last direct flight for the US took off eight minutes ago.”
“What about layovers?”
She checked the computer again before shaking her head. “Two planes took off for the US this morning, with a four-hour layover in Heathrow Airport. I’m sorry, but those were all the flights today. Would you like to use a private jet?”
“No,” he replied, hopes crushed. He missed Shae by mere minutes. “I’m already too late.” Donovan turned away from the attendant. At least fifty or sixty people had pooled into the small section of the airport terminal to look at him. Police officers came jogging up the terminal towards him.
“Your Highness, you can’t be in the terminal without security.” The first officer who reached him began steering him away from the check-in counter.
Donovan allowed himself to be herded towards one of the terminal exits. Amid the chatter of the people, he noticed for the first time the televisions blaring in each gate waiting area. He glanced up for a few seconds at one of the gates and saw a news broadcast. It showed footage from this afternoon of him pushing the photographer into the beverage cart. The banner at the bottom of the channel read Prince Donovan Goes Wild at the Races.
Every television showed the same footage. It was on all the local stations and major world news networks. As the police shuffled him past the crowd, he heard more than a few peals of laughter erupt from the people. To them this was a joke. Just another folly from the crown prince.
Once the police escorted him outside in the back, he found his car and drove home with the setting sun in his rearview mirror. He turned on the radio. Two hosts joked about the incident.
“What do you think about Prince Donovan and that photographer this afternoon?” One man chortled into the microphone.
His companion snorted. “What a way to tell somebody to cool off, right?”
He turned off the radio, then he used his car’s wireless system to call Shae’s personal cell phone. He expected to get her voicemail since she was onboard a plane.
“Hi, you’ve reached Shae’s voicemail. Please leave a message and I’ll get back with you as soon as possible. Stay sunny.”
He waited for the beep. “Shae, it’s me. I missed you at the airport. I’m driving home now. Please call me when you get this.”
Donovan drove the rest of the way on the lonely road with only the sound of the engine to keep his ears occupied.
Chapter Nineteen
Shae flew home from Severn. On the plane back to Atlanta, she worked hard to keep herself from dwelling on the scary and embarrassing paparazzi incident and from lamenting the end of her relationship with Donovan.
Stop calling it a relationship. She argued against her emotions. The past couple days were only casual dates. Maybe Donovan thought they were less than that.
For a while, she started to get wrapped up in her growing feelings for him. She should’ve trusted her first instincts. The crown prince of Severn didn’t have a reputation as a playboy for nothing. Maybe she amused him the whole time by thinking she, a commoner and an American, could actually have a romance with royalty. What if he had been using her the whole time for the hotel project and for laughs? Shae stared out at the grey clouds from her window seat and wiped a tear from her eye. She felt manipulated and foolish, but she was not going to bawl her eyes out in public like a silly little girl with a celebrity crush.
There’d be time enough for tears later when no one was watching. She busied herself for a couple hours by reading a thick paperback she purchased at the airport gift shop.
“Passengers, we’ll be making our way into ATL in approximately two hours and ten minutes,” the captain announced over the loudspeaker.
Shae leaned her head back on the headrest and closed her eyes. She just wanted to be home, away from the media and rabid paparazzi. That was Donovan’s world. He liked the attention and chaos that swirled around his carefree lifestyle.
When the plane landed, she checked her personal phone and found three missed calls, all blocked numbers. She listened to the first one. “Shae, it’s me. I missed you at the airport. I’m driving home now. Please call me when you get this.”
She chewed on her lip as she listened to Donovan’s voice on the second message. “It’s me again. I wanted to see if your plane landed.”
The third voicemail contained no message. She supposed Donovan became frustrated after getting her voicemail and simply ended the call.
The light came on for passengers to depart the plane. Shae put her phone away and got her carry-on bag out of the overhead compartment. She couldn’t talk to Donovan right now. She had no idea when she’d be able to.
Inside the airport, she set her phone to make sure his calls went straight to voicemail and his texts to a private folder where she didn’t have to see them all the time. He didn’t have the right to use her private number to contact her anymore. Not after what he allowed to happen. If he wanted to reach her concerning the hotel business, she’d have no choice but to talk to him on the other phone he gave her for business. However, she could do that in a work setting, not on her own time.
“Hey.”
She lifted her chin to see she was being addressed by a female flight attendant who was onboard her previous flight. “Yes?” She wondered if she was being stopped because she left something on the plane.
The flight attendant pointed at her and then motioned her finger towards the gate’s television screen.
“You look like that girl Prince Donovan took to the horse race.”
Shae averted her gaze from the footage that forced her to relive the past several hours again and again. The next news cycle couldn’t come fast enough. She knew getting over Donovan would take much longer.
For the next three weeks, she tied up loose ends with the hotel project. Donovan’s ideas worked. Both Kleghorn hotels saw an increase in guest reservat
ions. The one in Harper was already booked for a big writers retreat next month in December, with several more retreats on the calendar for January and February of next year. The main Atlanta hotel was set to host a major philanthropist ball in December, with the proceeds going to a charity that helped fund surgeries for premature babies like Mr. Hightower’s now healthy baby girl.
“Do you think Prince Donovan will be here to headline the ball?” asked Nina, one of the Kleghorn’s housekeeping staff, in a meeting with Shae.
Other hotel employees in the meeting looked at Shae as if she had all the answers. She cleared her throat. “I haven’t heard from him recently. I’m sure he’ll contact the hotel if he plans on coming.”
Since the hotel project was a success, Donovan likely put it behind him and moved on. It was time for her to do the same.
She applied for jobs at business consulting firms. While waiting to hear from them, she also kept a draft of her two weeks’ notice saved on her laptop. She dreaded the day when she’d have to turn it in to the hotel’s Human Resources department, but she couldn’t work at the hotel for much longer after she graduated in December. The short time she spent working with Donovan there made it too painful.
One evening after work, she checked her voicemail. She got a call earlier in the afternoon from a firm she applied to, asking to set up an interview. Shae hoped it wasn’t too late to return the call when the firm opened again in the morning.
“Goodnight.” She told Missy at the front desk after clocking out.
She headed towards the revolving doors just as a man in a jacket and hat came in. He removed the hat and revealed his auburn hair.
“Donovan?”
The prince headed straight to her. “Shae, I’m so glad I caught you.”
She couldn’t believe he was standing in front of her. “Are you here to check on the hotel?”
“No, I came to see you. I’ve been trying to call you for weeks, but you haven’t returned my calls or texts.”
She pressed her lips together. “I know it looks like petty behavior, but I couldn’t talk to you right away.”
“We need to talk, though.”
Shae looked around. The lobby was practically empty except for a few businessmen reading news on their phones at the charging stations in the far corner. “I don’t know what else there is to say. You really hurt me when you tried to use our time at the races as a photo-op.”
“I really did cancel that photo-op when I knew you were coming with me. The photographers decided to crash the event anyway.”
“It was scary.”
“They’re facing criminal charges. I’m working with the Severn Cabinet to get a motion passed that will limit what paparazzi and photographers can do.” He sighed. “Shae, I want you to know that I never intended to hurt you or use our relationship for publicity.”
She searched his face. His eyes focused deeply into hers. She sensed he was telling the truth. “I still have feelings for you, but I don’t want to put myself in a vulnerable position again. How do I know I won’t be just another dumb tabloid headline, Prince Donovan’s Dating Disaster?”
“Because I haven’t been that kind of man in a long time, and I’m not going to be again. I don’t want to just date you.” He got closer. “As I said before, I want to be committed. You made me fall in love with you, Shae. Don’t make me leave Atlanta without at least telling me you are or you aren’t willing to explore this.”
She stared at him. “When you say committed, do you mean-”
“A life partner. A wife. That’s what I want.”
She was stunned. “I really don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything about it now. Can you at least promise to give it a lot of thought while we spend time together?”
“I don’t like making quick decisions. You’d have to be in this for the long haul.”
He smiled. “I could live with that. On one condition. We first revisit that place you took me for brunch.”
Shae laughed. “Lucky for you, Moonlight & Mimosas has a late night menu.”
She took the prince’s hand and walked out of the hotel with him and into the awaiting car.
Epilogue
One year later
From her guest room at the royal Caldwell estate, Shae heard the church bells ringing in the cathedral and her heart matched their rhythm. Once she left the estate and got into the car waiting outside, she’d be on her way to meet her groom.
“Are you nervous, Shae?” Her mother finished fastening a pearl bracelet on her wrist. It was a miracle Shae could hold her arm out without shaking.
“Yes and no. Yes, because Donovan and I are going to be televised across the globe. No, because, well, you know.” She felt a blush creep up on her cheeks. “We’re in love.”
“Don’t I know it? Your father and I could tell the moment you brought Donovan to DC to visit us that you two were smitten with each other.” Her mother adjusted the veil over her face.
Shae played with the hem of the antique lace. During the medieval ages, Severn was known for its fine lace-making techniques. The lace used to make her veil and decorate the sleeves of her dress came from a batch that once belonged to Donovan’s great-great grandmother. She couldn’t believe she was adorned with something that held so much history and family value.
Her mother took a deep breath. “Everyone’s waiting at the church for you. Are you ready?”
Shae listening to the sweet tolling of the bells. Donovan was waiting. With a nod, she picked up her bouquet and exited the room.
Outside, a driver waited to take her and her mother up the long road to the cathedral. A crowd stood across the street, calling her name and asking her to smile for pictures. Cameras flashed everywhere, including the royal family’s personal photographer who waited at the foot of the estate steps to take her picture as she descended. The veil made the people’s faces a little blurry, which helped Shae’s nerves calm a bit. She waved to the crowd before getting into the vintage Rolls Royce. Her mother climbed in beside her.
“Thanks for being here with me, Mom. I know you missed a large part of the guests filing in the cathedral.”
“Your father can fill me in about those guests later. Just between us, he also gets a kick out of the outfits they wear to these royal shindigs.”
“Shindigs?” Shae laughed as the car started moving. “Where are you getting these words, and since when has Daddy been interested in royal weddings?”
“I just wanted to make you laugh. It’s going to be a beautiful day.” Her mother touched her shoulder. “I can feel it.”
Shae could feel it, too. The sun was bright in the blue sky this spring morning. She looked out the window at all the people of Severn who had come out to see the wedding. If someone told her a little over a year ago that she would be marrying a prince, she would’ve laughed.
Now it was really happening. After graduating with her MBA and a year of following royal protocol on how to date and make public appearances, she and Donovan were one step closer to their destination. They were going to the cathedral separately. They’d be leaving together as husband and wife.
The car stopped in front of cathedral steps, where a long red carpet draped the ancient stone. A uniformed attendant opened the door. Shae got out. Photographers scurried to get pictures of her in her floor-length gown. She experienced a brief case of the nerves again. Then, for a moment, she felt the sun’s golden rays beam down on her, blanketing her in warmth. Excitement and eagerness to see her love quickly chased away any anxious thoughts about the eyes of the world on her. This day belonged to her and Prince Donovan. Her prince.
Dispensing with protocol, she embraced her mother before walking up the steps. She wanted the world to know how much she adored the woman who gave her love, encouragement, and stood by her all her life.
A boys’ choir sang in sweet falsetto as she arrived at the top of the steps. Ceremonial guards stood by as her father waited to walk her down t
he aisle.
Through her veil, she saw the tears in his eyes. “You look so beautiful, honey.”
She looped her arm through his and began the walk. Her heart fluttered as she saw the cathedral filled with dignitaries, royals who came throughout Europe, and her own friends. She smiled at Mr. Hightower and his wife. Several of her co-workers as well as college friends sat in the middle rows. Her two bridesmaids as well as the groomsmen were in front. She was thankful to have people in her life who cared about her and wanted to share in her and Donovan’s special day.
The king and queen of Severn sat in their personal booth alongside other members of the royal family, including Donovan’s Aunt Resa. The king and queen wore pleasant expressions when they looked at her, but maintained regal dignity. Aunt Resa gave her a wink.
Then everything and everyone faded into the background as Shae saw Donovan standing before the altar. He looked strong and handsome in his blue and white military uniform. Sunlight drifting in from the cathedral’s stained glass windows gave his coppery hair a mischievous, fiery glow.
He grinned when she approached. I love you. His mouth formed the words.
The choir ended their song, and a brief piano solo played the refrain. The cathedral was quiet after it ended. Then the priest addressed the congregation.
“Who will bring this woman into the welcoming embrace of the royal family of Severn?”
“We will,” Shae’s mother and father said in unison. Shae’s father gave her hand to Donovan before taking a seat with his wife in the front row.
Shae turned to Donovan. He lifted the veil from her face. She saw fully the emotions in his green eyes.
The priest proceeded with the ceremony. He talked about the sanctity of marriage and the joy it brought. He told a funny story about his own early days of marriage to his wife that sent the congregation into laughter. Soon, after exchanging vows, the moment finally arrived. Donovan placed a square-cut diamond ring on her finger.