Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 112917 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112917 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Before I could process what she was saying, Noelle appeared out of nowhere and reached for my hand. “There you are, Zee! Ryan asked me to find you and escort you to him.”
I was so surprised to see her there I didn’t know what to say. “Noelle? What are you doing in Amsterdam? How did you get in here?”
She marched through the crowd, keeping one hand on my back while shooing people out of the way with the other. “Sorry for the lie. I haven’t actually talked to Ryan. I’m here consulting with the Ventdestinian team about some upcoming PR stuff, but I saw you without your protection and wanted to help.” She took a breath. “I also wanted to thank you for releasing me as your publicist… but that’s not important right now. Here’s Lou.” She pulled me even with her until I was standing beside Lou again.
My head spun with Noelle’s words as Lou reached for her earpiece to signal Bear. Bodhi approached and put his hand on the back of my neck to pull my head out of the way of the high tray a server rushing by was carrying behind me. “Hey, you okay? Boomer sent me over to keep an eye on you, but it looks like Noelle rescued you first.”
He and Noelle exchanged polite smiles.
I shook Bodhi off and pressed the button on my watch. Suddenly, it felt like everyone was touching me, and Lou was distracted, talking to Ryan on her ear mic. “I’m fine,” I told Bodhi. “It just got a little chaotic there for a second.”
“I know. It’s super crowded, and everyone wants a piece of you. Boomer’s too nice to say so, but I think he’s been really stressed about this.” He gave a little sigh. “Anyway, I’m glad I found you again. I wanted to grab a minute to talk to you about this girl I met in Dublin. I think you need to hear her music, Zane.”
I glanced at him in confusion. “I don’t understand.”
“I know. And I’ll email you the information, if you want, so you can check it out in peace, but she reminds me a lot of you. Grew up like you did, has incredible talent on mandolin, and her voice is like fucking wine, you know? I was hoping you could talk to her. Encourage her to pursue it.”
Bodhi knew me well enough to know I appreciated discovering new voices, but I was too overwhelmed right now to consider what he was saying. “I’ll… I… you can…”
Noelle seemed to pick up on my stress and asked Bodhi to go get me a glass of water. As soon as he walked away, she put her arm around me and murmured reassurances. “Where’s Ryan?” she asked, patting my back gently as she looked around. “Isn’t he your primary?”
I pressed the button on my watch again. I wanted everyone to stop touching me. Bear was right. This was too much.
Where was Bear? How the heck had Noelle gotten approved to be here? Why had Boomer asked Bodhi, of all people, to keep an eye on me? Why was the queen of Ventdestine acting like I was her new best friend?
Lou nudged Noelle away and put her hand on my lower back to steer me toward the door. “I’ve got this. Mr. Barlo needs to get ready for the concert now. Please excuse us.”
“The princes and princess wanted to take a picture,” I said, feeling overwhelmed. “I don’t want to disappoint them.”
Suddenly, I saw Bear hurry into the room, looking around frantically until he spotted me. He was followed by Kasper and the king, who were both talking as if nothing in particular was wrong.
And nothing was wrong. I reminded myself I was at a VIP reception in a room full of well-vetted people. There were cameras everywhere and security personnel from my team and the Ventdestinian royal guard.
It was fine. I was fine.
Bear finally arrived at our small group and slid his arm around me protectively. “Lou, go find Boomer and lock down the route so we’re clear to get to the dressing room.” As Lou left, he turned to me. “We need to go.”
“I want to take a picture with the royal teens first,” I said, forcing myself to seem unaffected. If he knew how not-fine I was, he’d whisk me out of there embarrassingly fast, possibly even causing a scene. “And then we can go. Okay?”
He studied my face. “Did you eat the fish?”
It took me a minute to remember our code word. “No. I didn’t want any. I’m fi—uh, full. I’m full.”
As usual, when I was lying, Bear didn’t look convinced. In fact, he looked like he was two seconds away from spiriting me out of the room, and damn the consequences.
“Oh, Ryan,” King Gerhard said. “One other thing I wanted to mention to you, if you have a minute?”