“What should I call you, then?”
Her sigh of indignation was enough to make me grin harder. “Just Tori, please.”
“Okay, Just Tori. What’s my cover story?”
“I was thinking about this today during Algebra II.” She began pacing the floor with her finger tapping her chin. “We’ve got to think of something that’s too boring to make kids look you up, but something that also makes the snobbery make sense.”
“Hey!” I shifted in my seat. That was at least the third time today that she’d accused me of being a snob.
Her gaze shifted to me with an unapologetic gleam. “Sorry, but it is what it is. I doubt it’s your fault. It was just the way you were brought up.”
“Fine.” I couldn’t help but chuckle, even if it stung my pride. “What about a servant at a castle? Maybe I worked there?”
Her lips twisted to one side in thought, and then she shook her head. “Nah. That’s too interesting. They’ll want to know more about the people that live in the castle, and that’ll blow your cover.”
She was right, of course. Not a great idea.
“What if my father was a headmaster at a fancy school?” I thought about the boarding schools my friends had been sent to one by one until they were nearly all gone. While I languished behind. The stories they had brought home during holidays could be my own. “If my father were a headmaster, he’d probably raise me to be quite upright.”
Tori stopped pacing, and her whole face lit up. “That’s . . . actually perfect! And you came here to begin a new student exchange program with Valta.”
She liked it. Pride had me sitting up straighter on the bed. “That sounds reasonable. The perfect backstory. Then, does that mean we’re done here?”
There were a million things I wanted to do, starting with exploring this town further. I had a feeling Tori was holding back on the diverting things for teenagers to do around here. Before they sent me back to Valta in chains, I wanted to experience every single one of them.
“Not yet. We still have one more issue.” She walked to the closet door and swung it open. Inside that tiny space was where I’d somehow managed to stuff most of my wardrobe. She plucked a hanger from the midst and held it up for me to see. It was a black Gucci jacket with a big gold G on the chest. “See the problem?”
I deadpan stared at her. That happened to be one of my favorite pieces. A jacket my father never would’ve allowed me to wear in the confines of our castle. “Um . . . no?”
“Do kids wear this stuff in your country?”
I stood and crossed the room to join her, trying not to let frustration enter my voice. “Of course they do. All of my friends wear this stuff.”
Her nose wrinkled. “And what about the regular kids? The ones that didn’t grow up in a castle and didn’t get a Jaguar when they turned sixteen. What do they wear?”
“I didn’t get a Jaguar until I was seventeen,” I grumbled, which only caused Tori to smirk at me in a terrible, know-it-all way that was absolutely annoying. She already knew how to push my buttons. Henry would’ve taken notes if he’d been here. “Okay, fine. I’m not sure what most kids wear. My father didn’t actually allow me to do much mingling. He was too busy pushing me to study and become another one of his stiffs in court.”
The smarmy smile slowly dissolved from her face. She lowered the jacket and looked sincerely into my eyes. “That’s okay. We’ll pick out some stuff at the mall for you to wear. Stuff that won’t draw so much attention around here. Sound good?”
“Whatever you deem necessary, Princess.” I went to throw myself on my bed. This de-royal-fying was exhausting.
“Don’t worry, you’ll fit in soon. I don’t know how you managed it, but they actually like you.”
I wasn’t sure I liked the way she put that. It was almost as if my lovely hostess didn’t have any faith in me.
I lifted my head from the bed and fixed her with a charming smile. “Yes, but they all like you. So, I knew they had good taste.”
It was satisfying to see the slight reddening of her cheeks. The blushing would’ve been easy to miss if I hadn’t been waiting for it.
She shifted awkwardly and grimaced at me. “They don’t all like me.”
“Yes, they do.” I sat up and studied her wilting expression. I’d never seen a girl so at odds with herself. One moment, she seemed as fearsome and battleworthy as an Amazonian warrior. The next, she was sinking into herself as if she wished to disappear. We might have made a pact to help me stay in Sweet Mountain, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t impart some of my own wisdom while we were at it. “You know what your problem is?”
She rolled her eyes and hung the jacket back in my closet. “You’ve known me for twenty-four hours. You can’t possibly know what my problem is.”
I patted the bed next to me. Tori had given me a pink, floral monstrosity for a bedsheet, but it had served its purpose last night well enough. And it served its purpose again as Tori reluctantly took a seat next to me.
It was strange, having her there. I’d never had a girl in my room at home. And most definitely not on my bed. There were far too many staff members running around to avoid getting caught. Father would’ve chained me to his desk in his study for an entire month if I’d even attempted to pull off something like that. But here we were, sitting only inches apart, in a house that was totally empty except for us.
“Fine, let me have it,” Tori said, combing her fingers through her sleek locks.
“Your problem is that you’re far too stiff.”
She laughed and gave me a disbelieving look. “Right. Says the nobleman.”
“Right, but I was born a noble. This snobbishness, as you call it, is who we are. What’s your excuse?”
The room fell into silence as she stared at an empty bookcase across the room. I wished I could see what was going on inside her mind. It would’ve helped to get to know my hostess a bit more.
The kids at school didn’t seem disturbed by her stiff and unmoving attitude. It seemed that they were used to this from their classmate. But even in the short time I’d been here, I’d already seen a different side to Tori. A side that genuinely laughed at a joke her grandfather told at supper. A side that allowed her to bite into a delectable donut and not care that there was a lick of frosting lingering from those perfectly proportioned lips. Not to mention the fiery side that made her snap and crackle anytime I was around.
It seemed that not many people got to see that side of her.
Tori’s eyes seemed to darken. She blinked hard and then frowned down at her lap. “Let’s just say, the people around here are not as accepting as you think. I’ve got a lot to prove before anyone will give me a chance.”
I studied the side of her face, wondering exactly how a girl like Tori had come to think so little of herself. The kids at school hadn’t cared about her proving herself. No one there seemed to think she didn’t belong. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was all in her head, and if so, what had put it there?
“Well, maybe you’ll feel how accepting they are at the basketball game this Friday,” I said, leaning back on the bed and giving her my most princely smile.
She whipped around so fast I was sure she was going to knock herself off the edge of the bed. “What? No! I don’t do basketball games.”
“Where I go, you go, remember? That is the gig.”
Her expression immediately soured, and she covered her face with her hands. “Why can’t you be the kind of guy that likes to stay home on the weekends and play video games? Basketball games are not part of the deal.”
I took her hands and slowly pulled them from her face, forcing her to look at me. Looking deep into her blue eyes was kind of unsettling, like falling into a whirlpool. It would be hard to pull myself out of that if I’d let myself go.
“I’m not like those boys because I have so much life to live and not much time left to do it,” I said firmly.
The slight quirk of the left side of her l
ovely mouth was the only thing that could’ve torn my eyes away from hers. “You make it sound like you’re dying.”
I shrugged, still staring at her lips. “Only my childhood. And basketball games are absolutely part of the deal. Period.”
Her mouth slowly curled into a wry smile. “Should we hold a funeral?”
“The next seven months are one big wake,” I said solemnly.
She snorted, but I managed to maintain my frown somehow. It was important to impress on her how much this meant to me. How close I was to experiencing a normal teenage life. I knew I’d won the moment the tension went out of her hands, but I didn’t get to celebrate my victory. The squeak of the staircase announced an incoming visitor. We barely had time to move apart on the bed before Richard came walking in.
“Hey August, I was hoping I’d find you here—” His voice cut off when he noticed Tori sitting next to me.
I felt the blood rush to the tips of my ears. Who could say how my host would react to finding his granddaughter in the bed of a prince? Even if I didn’t have any intention of doing anything nefarious with her.
What was left of my last bit of freedom couldn’t be complicated by something like that.
“Hey, Gramps,” Tori said, her cheeks once again turning just a slight shade of red. “How’s it going?”
“Good, actually. I just wanted to check on how August’s first day at school went. They wanted me to check in daily about his progress.”
Inwardly, I groaned. Of course, Father was checking up on me even from half a world away. Why had I thought this situation would be any different? I was sure Richard had been instructed to keep a close eye on me. And there was no doubt, by the way he was looking at me now, he’d live up to his end of the bargain.
“What . . . uh . . . what were you kids up to?” Richard asked, his hands flitting over the buttons on his suit jacket, his smile strained.
I could see the discomfort in the slight twitch of his jaw as his gaze flicked back and forth between us. I’d seen that look before. Mostly from fathers of girls in court when my friends pursued them. What was usually massively entertaining to observe from a distance was guilt-inducing when it was targeted at myself. I cleared my throat and rushed to make the situation right.
“Nothing much,” I said rather cheerfully. “You have perfect timing, actually. I was just relaying to Tori how everything about this day has been wonderful. And she’s just agreed to escort me to the basketball game this Friday.”
Relief washed over Richard’s features. He rubbed his hands together and grinned. “That’s great news! That’s exactly what I’d like to see. You both need to get involved. Get a piece of the real high school experience.”
“Yeah. Totally great.” Tori shot me a mock glare as she stood from the bed and crossed the room.
I grinned in response. Even Richard liked my plan. She most definitely couldn’t fight it anymore. We were busting out of this house and discovering exactly what amusements could be found at a high school basketball game.
“Come on, Gramps,” she said, patting him on the shoulder. “Olive left us a casserole in the fridge this morning. Let’s go see what’s for dinner.”
As she led him down the stairs, I fell back onto my bed and grinned. It wouldn’t take me long to grab my slice of American life. With Tori’s help, I wouldn’t blow my top-secret cover.
8
Tori
The sudden shock of the pep band drums made me jump closer to August’s side. He chuckled as we strolled together into the high school gym. The pep band was playing a high energy tune that had the crowd jamming. There were only minutes left until the start of the game, and everyone was ready to cheer for our boys.
I’d tried about a hundred times to talk August out of coming to the game tonight. All week, I’d practically paraded a million other amazing things he could do in front of his face, but for some reason, he’d had his eyes set purely on this event. My entire school career, I’d managed to avoid scenes like this. Ones that my classmates gladly took advantage of to let loose and show their wild sides. I didn’t have that luxury. The town wasn’t watching them—waiting for them to screw up.
“Relax, Princess,” August muttered as he grinned and waved at a couple of the seniors sitting up on the bleachers in the student section. “It’s just a game. We’re just here to have fun.”
I shot him a nervous smile and then stared back down at my feet. Of course, I knew I was probably being silly, but between the massive crowd, the booming of the pep band, and the lack of sleep this week, my nerves were seriously in jeopardy of putting me into cardiac arrest. I couldn’t even pull my gaze from the floor in front of me.
Which was likely why I clipped the person walking the opposite way on the edge of the court with my shoulder. Pain reverberated throughout my body. Rubbing a hand on the bruised spot, I looked up in alarm to see the face of the last woman I’d ever wanted to run into at a high school game.
I gulped down my cry of pain. “Greta!”
“You nearly plowed me over,” Greta Highlander snapped, her dark eyes scanning me over.
I shrunk a little into myself, wishing I could hide from her scrutiny. Greta was our local realtor and an upstanding member of Sweet Mountain society. Her face was plastered on nearly every bench or spare ballpoint pen in a forty-mile radius of town. She stood at my same height in her three-inch, leather black boots. A royal-blue dress hugged every inch of her curves, and a single strand of pearls hung from her neck. Her dark brown curls bobbed as she rubbed her own shoulder and glared accusingly at me.
“I’m so sorry, Greta, I wasn’t watching where I was going.” I stood uselessly at her side, caught between the strong urge to run and get her a bag of ice, or stand here, or hide behind August.
“Obviously.” She sucked her teeth, her dark gaze flicking to August, and her expression immediately softening. “Tori, dear, is this the new exchange student I’ve heard so much about? You really must introduce me.”
I grimaced. Of course Greta would know about August. She always had her ear to the ground, listening for gossip. Especially if it meant new blood she could peddle her realty swag to. “Yeah. Um . . . this is August. He’s a senior. He’s going to live with us until the end of the school year.”
A sickly sweet smile formed on her dark cherry lips. She held out a hand and snatched his up to shake before he could respond. “Nice to meet you, August. I’m Greta Highlander, realty queen of the county. Welcome to our quaint little town of Sweet Mountain. I sincerely hope we’ve made you comfortable enough to take off your shoes and stay awhile.”
Her entire spiel was as stiff as if she’d read her own slogan off of one of the plastic frisbees she gave away to the little kids at football games in the hopes that it would end up in the hands of their parents.
August gave her a cool smile and then shook her hand. “Delighted to meet you.”
Her eyes bugged slightly, and she looked conspiratorially at me as if she hadn’t just lashed out at me for bumping her. “What an accent. And what a lucky girl to be hosting our newest town addition.”
I had the strong urge to roll my eyes, but Greta would’ve made me pay for it. Instead, I just nodded. “Yep. We’re lucky.”
“You just be sure to call me if you need anything, young man,” she said, still holding tight to August’s hand as she pulled a card from her purse and pressed it into his palm. “We all know Richard Thorpe had enough trouble raising one teenager. I can’t imagine two at the same time, especially at his age.” Her gaze moved to me and landed firmly on my stomach. “We wouldn’t want a repeat of history, now would we?”
I recoiled, covering myself with my arms. Greta had grown up with my mom. If my mom had completed high school, they would’ve graduated together. She knew the history better than anyone. And no one liked to remind me of history more than Greta Highlander. She was the mouthpiece of the community. She said what everyone else was just kind enough to keep inside.
M
y mother was a mess. They were all betting that I would follow in her footsteps.
It wasn’t that hard to figure out.
“Thank you, Ms. Highlander.” August shoved her business card in his pocket and extracted himself from her vice-like grip. Wrapping his arm around mine, he turned us in the direction of the bleachers as he shot her one last parting grin. “We’ll keep in touch. Come on, Tori. I think I see a spot for us.”
I didn’t need much prodding to run as far away from Greta as possible. We mounted the bleachers, and the whole time, I could feel her judging gaze on my back. When we finally found a spot at the top, away from the crowd, I turned to sit and found her still watching me. With the slightest lift of her nose, she smirked and then walked off.
This time, it was my turn to watch. And every step she took, I silently said a prayer that she would fall on her heels. Maybe, for a second, the town would be focused on someone else’s mistakes for a change.
I wasn’t that lucky.
“What was that?” August stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets and gave a throaty chuckle. “I was certain she was about to tar and feather you just now. Whatever did you do to make her so mad?”
“I was born,” I mumbled, crossing my arms and slumping in my seat.
I could feel him studying the side of my face. It was slightly unnerving. Surely, someone like August had no interest in the petty little day-to-day dramas of a place like Sweet Mountain. He was here to enjoy himself. To sow a few wild oats. The moment he got back to Valta, all of this would become a distant memory. He probably wouldn’t even remember my name. I wasn’t sure why he even cared to ask.
Still, he at least had the decency to harrumph and act offended at my declaration. “What? Why would she care if you’d been born? That’s ridiculous.”
I shifted my gaze to him and tried to smile when we made eye contact. “Welcome to small-town America, where your parents’ sins are held against you. Thank goodness no one knows who my dad is. At least I only have to atone for one parent.”
My Royally Cute Enemy: A YA Sweet Romance (Sweet Mountain High, Year 2: A Sweet YA Romance Series Book 3) Page 6
