Unexpectedly Royal Read online

  Copyright © 2016 Jennifer Domenico

  All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Formatting by Elaine York/Allusion Graphics, LLC/Publishing & Book Formatting

  Chapter 1 Delaney

  Chapter 2 Lathan

  Chapter 3 Delaney

  Chapter 4 Lathan

  Chapter 5 Delaney

  Chapter 6 Lathan

  Chapter 7 Delaney

  Chapter 8 Lathan

  Chapter 9 Delaney

  Chapter 10 Lathan

  Chapter 11 Delaney

  Chapter 12 Lathan

  Chapter 13 Delaney

  Chapter 14 Lathan

  Chapter 15 Delaney

  Chapter 16 Lathan

  Chapter 17 Delaney

  Chapter 18 Lathan

  Chapter 19 Delaney

  Chapter 20 Lathan

  Chapter 21 Delaney

  Chapter 22 Lathan

  Chapter 23 Delaney

  Chapter 24 Lathan

  Chapter 25 Delaney

  Chapter 26 Lathan

  Chapter 27 Delaney

  Chapter 28 Lathan

  Chapter 29 Delaney

  Chapter 30 Lathan

  Chapter 31 Delaney

  Chapter 32 Lathan

  Chapter 33 Delaney

  Chapter 34 Lathan

  Chapter 35 Delaney

  Chapter 36 Lathan

  Chapter 37 Delaney

  Chapter 38 Lathan

  Chapter 39 Delaney

  Chapter 40 Lathan

  Chapter 41 Delaney

  Chapter 42 Lathan

  Chapter 43 Delaney

  Chapter 44 Lathan

  Chapter 45 Delaney

  Chapter 46 Lathan

  Chapter 47 Delaney

  Chapter 48 Lathan

  Chapter 49 Delaney

  Chapter 50 Delaney

  Chapter 51 Lathan

  Chapter 52 Delaney

  Chapter 53 Lathan

  Chapter 54 Delaney

  Chapter 55 Lathan

  Chapter 56 Delaney

  Chapter 57 Lathan

  Chapter 58 Delaney

  Chapter 59 Lathan

  Chapter 60 Delaney

  Chapter 61 Lathan

  Chapter 62 Delaney

  Chapter 63 Lathan

  Chapter 64 Delaney

  Chapter 65 Lathan

  Chapter 66 Delaney

  Chapter 67 Lathan

  Chapter 68 Delaney

  Chapter 69 Lathan

  Chapter 70 Delaney

  Chapter 71 Lathan

  Chapter 72 Delaney

  Chapter 73 Lathan

  Chapter 74 Delaney

  Chapter 75 Lathan

  Chapter 76 Delaney

  Chapter 77 Lathan

  Chapter 78 Delaney

  Chapter 79 Lathan

  Chapter 80 Delaney

  Chapter 81 Lathan

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgements

  Other Books by Jennifer Domenico

  Contact Me

  For all the women that still believe in fairy tales.

  “It’s time!” Fallyn exclaims, lifting her martini and grinning. “You go first.”

  “I haven’t thought of any yet.” Sitting back on my couch in my apartment, I sip my caramel apple martini. “Maybe I’ll resolve to drink a few of these every week.”

  Fallyn shakes her head and sits cross-legged. “You can do better than that. I’ll go first.”

  “Please do.”

  “This year, I resolve to go on one remarkable and spontaneous adventure.”

  “How?”

  “Well, I don’t know yet.” She smiles. “That’s the spontaneous part. At some point, I’ll be presented with an opportunity and instead of thinking of ways it won’t work, I’ll just do it.”

  “That’s too safe for you. You’re already bold and spontaneous.”

  “Hmm,” she says, tapping her chin with her index finger. “You have a point.” She’s quiet for all of a minute before she gets that dangerous gleam in her eye that usually causes me trouble. “I have an idea.”

  “I assumed you did.”

  “Why don’t we each make a resolution that’s for the other person.”

  “What do you mean? Like I give you one and you give me one?”

  “Exactly.”

  “No way.” I shake my head as I speak. “You’ll have me skydiving or bungee jumping.”

  Fallyn laughs, tossing back her long mane of dark purple hair. “I would never do that to you. This is about trust. I’m your forever best friend. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you.”

  “True.” I tilt my head. “It’s not a bad idea actually.”

  “I already know what I want for you.”

  “Hit me.”

  She scrunches her nose. “You know I love you, right?” I nod. “Don’t be offended, but your cooking is fucking atrocious. I think you should take a cooking class.”

  I chuckle. “I’m not offended because you’re right.”

  “I get to pick the class.”

  “Fine. I can handle that. It’ll be fun, and I’ll learn something new.”

  “Goodie!” She claps her hands, laughing. “Now me.”

  “Hmmm.” My eyes shift to the ceiling while I ponder my best friend’s life. She drinks too much, smokes too much, swears too much. Everything she does is in excess. She’d kill me if I suggested she give up the smokes. I have to try something much easier. “Got it.”

  “I’m dying. Tell me.”

  “Your resolution is to eliminate the F-word from your vocabulary.”

  Her smile disappears. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  I laugh, shaking my head. “No. You say it way too much, and you’ve even said yourself that it’s taking over your speech. I think it would be a really good challenge to be mindful of it all year.”

  Fallyn pops her bottom lip out. “I give you something fun and you fucking torture me?”

  “Cooking is not fun for me.”

  “Fair enough. We’ll be miserable together.”

  “It’s good for us. We’ll be better people by this time next year. I’ll host a dinner party and you’ll be my non F-word saying co-host.” I lift my martini glass. “Cheers, Fallyn.”

  “Cheers, Delaney.” We clink glasses, and she leans forward to kiss my cheek. “Here’s to another amazing year.”

  We each take a sip of our drinks and lean back on my couch. Fallyn props her feet up on my coffee table as we both watch the glowing fire. We’re silent for several minutes, each of us thinking our own thoughts.

  “I hope something amazing happens this year,” Fallyn says softly. “I’m ready for something like that.”

  “Me too.”

  “Do you think we’ll ever find good men or are we gonna be spinsters together?”

  I laugh softly. “No one says spinster anymore.”

  “What do they say?” She leans her head on my shoulder. “Crazy cat ladies?”

  “Yeah, I think that’s it.”

  “I’ll probably be a cougar and chase young guys around.”

  “And I’ll chase you to try to get you to come back into the house and settle down.”

  Fallyn chuckles. “Yep, that’s us.” She threads her fingers through mine. “I love you, but I’d rather find a man.”

  “Same.”

  “Now that I’ve raised my standards, it’s much harder.”

  “Welcome to my world.”

  “Amen. Thank god for vibrators.”

  Shaking my head,
I just laugh. “Keeps us out of trouble.”

  “Right.” Fallyn sits up and takes a sip of her drink. “My personal resolution is to try and put myself in situations where I’ll meet better quality men. Maybe I’ll take a class or something too.”

  “That’s a good resolution.” I exhale deeply. “I’d love to meet someone special.”

  “Maybe this’ll be our year for that too. By this time next year, everything could be completely different.”

  “It’s not so bad now; it’s just sort of regular.”

  “Yeah, regular.”

  “And I want spectacular. I want a life worthy of envy. I don’t want to sit on the sidelines anymore.”

  “I hear ya. I’m always in the game, but apparently not the right sport.”

  “Good analogy.”

  Fallyn grins. “Thanks, English major.” She nudges my arm. “We can make it happen. We’re awesome people. We’re smart, pretty, tough. We can have spectacular if we want it.”

  “I agree. We just have to push out of our comfort zones more.”

  She lifts her glass for another toast. “So we’re doing this? This is our year of spectacular!”

  “Love it!” I clink her glass, and we both down the rest of our drinks.

  “Another one?”

  I nod. “Might as well.”

  Fallyn disappears in the kitchen to make our drinks as I sit back on the couch thinking about our convo. What would spectacular look like to me? Traveling? New skills? I look down at my slight stomach pooch. Maybe lose a few pounds. I’ll be twenty-four next month. That leaves a little over a year before I hit the quarter century mark. I should take this year and really do it up right.

  Fallyn returns carrying two precariously full glasses. I take one and sip it down a bit before setting it down.

  “I’m actually excited,” I say. “I’m in a rut, and I needed this talk to see it.”

  “I’m glad. I’m in one too. I’ve been partying too hard and not taking life seriously enough.”

  I hug my friend. “I’m so happy to have you in my life.”

  Fallyn grins. “That goes both ways. Promise me, next year at midnight, we’ll both be kissing princes instead of frogs.”

  “Or each other!” I laugh and Fallyn does too.

  “Yeah, or each other.” She looks down at her watch and notices the time. “Well, shall we count down?”

  “Let’s do it.”

  We count in unison. “5… 4… 3… 2…1… Happy New Year!”

  We laugh, kiss each other the way sister’s do, and clink glasses one more time.

  “To spectacular!” I say.

  “To kissing princes,” Fallyn says.

  “Yes!”

  We drink down our martinis, ringing in the new year as only Fallyn and I can.

  A few days later, while sitting at my desk with my staff’s quality reports, I find myself staring out the window. It’s snowing and frigidly cold out there. Winter always makes me feel like life is on hold. Everything is waiting for spring. The trees, the flowers, the grass. We wait for warm weather to get pedicures, go running, or sit outside and read a book. Time seems to be frozen just like the landscape around me.

  My desk phone ringing breaks me from my dreary thoughts.

  “Delaney Somers, speaking.”

  “It’s me,” Fallyn says.

  “Hey. What’s up?”

  “Ready to start your resolution?”

  “Um, I guess. What’s going on?”

  “I found a cooking class for you. It’s just three blocks from your house, and it starts at six on Thursday. It’s two hours and it lasts for four weeks. It’s an introductory class. It’s fucking perfect for you.”

  I sigh. “Okay. I said I would.”

  “Great. I already signed you up and paid for it too. Happy Birthday.”

  I just laugh, shaking my head. “Making sure I would follow through, huh?”

  “Yep.”

  “How’s yours going? I counted one so far.”

  “Uh, well, I bought myself a little counter, and I click it every time I say it so I can measure my progress.”

  “Very smart. What’s the count so far?”

  “You do not want to know.”

  “Yes, I do.”

  I hear a long sigh. “Twenty-two. Plus one.”

  “Fallyn! You’ve said the F word twenty-three times today already?” I glance at my clock. “It’s ten in the morning, for god’s sake.”

  “I know. I had a rough morning.”

  “Seriously?”

  “I added in a few variations of the word too, you know, just to keep it authentic.”

  “I would literally have to sit here and just repeat the word over and over to get to that number.”

  “I’m working on it. I need a less offensive replacement.”

  “You need something. Like baby Jesus.”

  “Oh, come on. It’s not that bad.”

  “No? I probably haven’t said it that much in the past year.”

  “That’s because you’re proper as fu—” she cuts herself off, just as the word is about to escape again. “You’re proper.”

  I laugh. “Good catch.”

  “I don’t even get it. How’d you grow up in Boston and not inherit the swearing gene?”

  “You forget my puritanical mother beat it out of me at a young age.”

  “Ah, yeah, but I spent enough time around Julia, you think it would’ve worked on me too.”

  “The force is strong in you.”

  Fallyn laughs. “Good one. Anyway, I’m working on it. My goal is less every day until it’s gone.”

  “The clock’s ticking.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I’ll email you the details for your cooking class. I can’t wait for you to make me something good.”

  “You said it’s an intro class, right?”

  “Yeah, Cooking Basics, it’s called.”

  “Alrighty. It starts this week?”

  “Thursday night.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  “Can’t wait to hear all about it.”

  “Can’t wait to hear your total count for the day.” I laugh. “Hey, that’s what you should do. Report to me daily.”

  “Fair enough. More accountability. I got this. It’s not that fu—” she pauses, sighing. “Actually, it’s wicked hard.”

  I laugh. “I can tell.” My attention shifts to one of my employees coming toward me. “Hey, I gotta go.”

  “Okay, talk to you later.”

  “Bye.”

  I hang up and go back to doing my job. Hopefully, Fallyn picked a good class for me, and I’ll actually learn something.

  Sitting in my living room with my laptop, drinking coffee, I read through all the ‘new year, new me’ bullshit articles. I think it’s shit, yet here I am reading the same motivational crap everyone else is reading. I need something to do, something meaningful. This life is so utterly boring.

  Taking another gulp of this dreaded American coffee, I contemplate my life. I came here for adventure, but I’ve been keeping to myself too much lately. It’s time I jumped in feet first, but doing what?

  I scroll through a few more articles, and then one catches my eye. I click on it and read the details, smiling as I do. It’s perfect, really. I look for the contact information and then pick up my phone to dial the number.

  “Hello?” a man with an English accent answers.

  “Hello, is this Chef Robert?”

  “It is.”

  “I was wondering if you still had an opening in the cooking class that starts this evening?”

  “Oh, well, you’re in luck. We were full, but someone canceled last minute, so I can add you if you’d like.”

  “Yes, please.”

  “Great. I’ll get your information and then we’ll see you tonight.”

  “Perfect.” I provide my name and credit card info.

  “Okay, it’s at six and I start promptly.”

  “I’ll be ther
e. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  I hang up and lean against the couch. If my father could see me now. Cooking! Wonders never cease. I chuckle as I get up to pour another cup of coffee. It’ll be good for me. I’m tired of eating out, and since I have no one else to do it for me, I might as well learn the basics.

  In the two years I’ve lived in America, I’ve learned to drive, to launder my own clothing, and now how to cook. Tristan will die laughing.

  I check the time before deciding to ring my best friend. Dialing, I wait while it rings several times, and when he finally answers, his voice is groggy with sleep.

  “What in the hell time is it in America?” he answers.

  I laugh. “Hello to you too.”

  “Bloody hell.”

  “Why are you sleeping anyway?”

  “Baby kept us up all night. It’s my turn to catch a bit of sleep. I let Abigail nap for a few hours first since she gets the worst of it.”

  “Smart of you. All is well?”

  “Yes, very well. What about with you? It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve heard from you.”

  “Things are fine here. I thought I’d give you a good chuckle and tell you that I signed up for a cookery class.”

  “Cookery? Are you shitting me?”

  “Not at all. I did it and it starts tonight.”

  “That has to be a sight to see.” He laughs. “Have you told your parents yet?”

  “No, no, I think I’ll save it for a visit home.”

  “And when will that be?” he asks, his voice suddenly serious. “You’re missed here.”

  “I know. Last talk with my mother revealed my father is still steaming mad at me. Rightfully so, I suppose.”

  “But that was ages ago. Certainly he’s gotten over it.”

  “Apparently not.” I sigh, running my fingers through my hair. “Any news of Arlan?”

  “I haven’t seen him in a while, but Gemma has news.”

  I cringe when I hear her name. I wonder if I’ll ever not have a reaction to it. “I’m not interested in news of her.”

  “You’ll like this. She’s found a new man to drive mad.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Yes, some fellow from South Africa. Just moved here for work.”

  “Well, sorry for him.”

  Tristan laughs. “Poor fellow. He’ll fall for the face long before he realizes what a handful she is.”

  I laugh too. “Indeed. At least I won’t have to worry about Gemma when and if I return home.”