“Are you sure you’re okay with this? I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable—especially not with me.”

I glanced down at Lacie. It was the fifth time I’d asked her since she’d admitted that she was afraid of large bodies of water.

“No.”

It was the first honest answer she’d given me so far.

With a resigned sigh, I took her hand.

“What do you want me to do?”

She took a deep breath, then gave a determined look, which wasn’t very convincing.

“Pick me up and plop me in there. And don’t, under any circumstances, let me fall out.”

When I glanced at her again, she looked terrified, but there was a glimmer of excitement there, too. So, all there was left to do was pick her up, carefully set her down in the back of the gondola, and get in myself.

The scene around us was stunning, and truly romantic. Central Park’s lake reflected our images along with the verdant trees behind us perfectly on its serene surface. Birds chirped in the branches high above the dock, and the sky shone a blue as bright as Lacie’s eyes. The gondolier began paddling, and I turned my attention back to the beautiful woman in the boat with me.

“So, let me get this straight—you’ve never swum in your life?”

She shook her head, keeping her eyes locked on mine. “Never.”

“And this is because…?”

“Something I will tell you in the future as we go through the motions of getting to know each other, like any normal couple.”

She blushed, and it was clear that neither of us had missed her referring to us as a couple, but I let it go, not wanting to stress her out more than she already was due to being in the boat.

“All right, fair enough. But you still like beaches, right?”

She grinned. “Is that a rhetorical question?”

Throwing my arm around her, I squeezed her. “Okay, maybe we can get along, after all.”

I reached into my suit jacket pocket and took out the box that had been nestled in there since that morning.

“I got you something.”

Her eyes widened as they settled on the little jewelry box.

“Well, go on. Open it.”

So, slowly, she lifted the lid. Seeing what was inside, she gave a sweet little gasp.

“Rashid, it’s…wow. It’s beautiful.”

“Try it on,” I urged her.

As soon as she had the necklace on, it was clear that I’d made the right choice. The sparkling, teardrop-shaped sapphire set off her sky-blue eyes perfectly, while the silver chain twined around her neck as if it had been designed with her very body in mind.

Turning the stone in her hand, her happy gaze settled on me.

“Are you trying to bribe me?”

I nodded. “Is it working?”

She took my hand. “Maybe.”

With my arm around her, I directed her gaze out to the lake.

“Does it ever get old—the beauty of it?” she asked the gondolier.

He shook his head, causing wisps of grey curls to escape from his baseball cap.

“Every night it’s different, and more exquisite. Like getting closer to a diamond with a microscope.”

He went on to tell us how he had been a jeweler, how he had worked with diamonds, what kind of customers he’d had—celebrities, wealthy, demanding businessman and regular people alike. Then, he told us how this was where he’d taken his first wife before he’d proposed, and then met his second wife, years later.

“With relationships, what do you think makes them work?”

Lacie’s face wore a pensive look. The man smiled, though it was a sad one, stretching his wrinkles into a series of horizontal and vertical lines over his face.

“I’m in the process of divorcing my third wife, so I can’t tell you that.”

He sighed and gave one big nod, making more hair wisps tumble out.

“Though I can tell you what makes a relationship not work. Holding part of yourself back, not being true, not letting yourself be vulnerable. Doing those things will always hinder your sense of trust and intimacy with your partner.”

His gaze wasn’t on us anymore; instead, he looked out towards the sun, which had begun its descent. It looked far away, almost like a misplaced part of the city, some streetlight that had moved.

My gaze went to Lacie, but hers was back on the flickering city’s reflection on the lake, which we had started to float over.

“When I was six, my dog drowned in a lake when we vacationing up north. I’ve never gone in the water since.”

My hand found hers, and my voice found words. “I’m so sorry, Lacie.” After a moment, I spoke again. “I’m almost as afraid of this—us—working, as I am of it not. I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready to be a king—or a husband.”

When she turned to face me, her eyes were teary as she spoke. “I’m absolutely terrified.”

I pressed her head against my chest and stroked her silky hair. “I know. But we can and we will make it work. I truly believe that.”

And then, as the tiny waves lapped at the gondola and the gondola glided atop the reflection of the sunset, we sat there, us and the gondolier, quiet as the still water. Far-off birds sang of the coming shore, but we didn’t listen. No, we listened only when the gondola started heaving. The gondolier cursed.

“Too close to the rocks.”

I turned to him.

“What’s that?”

“You’ll have to get out; we’re too close to the rocks. If we all stay in, the boat’ll sink.”

As the import of what he’d said settled into my fuzzy brain, I shook my head.

“Could I get out, and you and Lacie stay?”

He shook his head.

“I’m sorry. Either you both go or the whole boat does.”

Lacie’s body was now rigid.

“Lacie, I…”

“It’s okay.” Her voice was cold, tense, her body shivering.

“We can do this.”

Her harried gaze sought out mine. “Don’t let me drown.”

I wrapped my arms around her. “I won’t, I promise. I’m a good swimmer.”

And then we were lowering ourselves into the icy-cold water, and I was proving the truth of my words.

Her whole body was a rigid sinking machine, one which took all of my strength to keep upright. Silently thanking God for those many hours spent doing laps in the palace pool, I made my way to shore, all the while keeping an iron-tight grip on Lacie.

It was only once she was safely on the sand, and I was seated beside her, that I let the exhausted exhale of relief explode from my lips.

Lacie was hunched over, her teeth chattering. I wrapped her in my arms.

“We did it, did you see that? We did it!”

And, amidst her deathly white face, a smile trembled up and she nodded weakly. “We did it.”

She let out a half-hysterical laugh of relief. Once again I hugged her, holding her tightly her until the trembling stopped, until her breaths were no longer gasps. And, when I released her, she lifted her head to give me a grateful smile.

“Oh, God, I was out-of-my-mind scared. You saved me. Thank you.”

“Anything for my—"

At her poke, I jerked backwards.

“Hey…”

“I told you, I haven’t made up my mind yet.

“How did you know I wasn’t going to say ‘my very favorite Lacie in the whole wide world,’ hmm?”

Under the scorch of her glare, I sighed.

“Okay, okay. Though, really, I don’t know what’s holding you back, I mean, any girl would kill for the opportunity to nearly drown in a lake with me.”

We laughed as we made our way back to the lake’s dock. Once the gondolier reached us, he apologized profusely, before handing us a coupon to a bubble tea shop down the road.

“What do you say about drowning in some bubble tea for our next adventure?” I asked Lacie.

By now, the wind had blown both our clothes to a semblance of dryness, and she nodded. “Today wouldn’t be complete without some tea drowning, too.”

So, on to the bubble tea shop we went.

It was small but empty, with cheery bubblegum-pink walls and marmalade colored tables. We choose a booth at the back and cozied up, side by side. There, Lacie gulped down the big-bubbled fruit tea she’d chosen and I slurped my chocolate one. We toasted teas and drank and talked and talked. We talked about little things, our favorite smells—mine being the ocean, and hers, fresh vanilla—and big things, like what we wanted in a marriage, if we wanted kids.

“What will you do if I say no?” Lacie asked.

I scoffed. “Don’t speak of things that aren’t going to happen.”

But her gaze on me was steady, intense. “What will you do?”

I set my now empty cup down and met her gaze.

“I won’t be king. I don’t know…I’d go back and try to make the council change its mind, to make my family understand my choice. Then, I’d come back, maybe bother you some more, ask you on a date or something—try things out the normal way.”

Her face crinkled with skeptical amusement.

“So, you’d basically go home, give up the crown and position you’ve been hounding me to marry you for, and then come back to try to have some kind of normal relationship with me?”

I shrugged. “Yeah, I suppose you could put it that way.”

“Why?” Her bright blue eyes met mine, and it felt like she was looking into my soul.

“I like you, Lacie. Not because you’re a virgin, not even because you might be crazy enough to marry me with less than two weeks’ notice, but because you’re you. Because you’re funny and sassy and charming. And maybe I don’t really know you, maybe when I really get to know you, we wouldn’t work together, but I don’t think that would happen. No, if the real you is anything like the girl I’ve known for the past two days, then I know we’ll get along just fine. We’d be perfect for each other.”

I took her hand, then released it. “Though the money’s off the table if you won’t marry me ASAP.”

There was a glint of mirth in her eyes as they scanned me. “Are you trying to bribe me?”

I assumed an innocent expression.

“Maybe.” I shrugged at her frown. “I’m going to need at least half that money to get a lawyer or police force good enough to get my family and me out of the country. You don’t know Zayed-Kharan. Current rulers aren’t always so gentle with the former ones.”

Behind the counter, the two girls working in the shop were putting everything away, and one of them flipped the ‘Open’ sign on the door to ‘Closed’. That was our cue to go.

Even as we left the little shop, I was unable to let go of Lacie’s hand, and I launched into a half-talk, half-rant about nothing at all, only so she’d stay close, so she wouldn’t have to go.

“Rashid,” she finally said gently, squeezing my hand. “I have to go.” Seeing my disappointed face, she continued, “I may have a long day tomorrow.”

I nodded, released her hand, and hugged her.

“Good night, Lacie. I…”

I couldn’t find the words and yet, she understood. Nodding, she gave me something between a smile and a grimace.

“I know, I know.”

And then she was gone, and I was flooded with the words. The ones I was going to say, should have said. The ones that would’ve made her stay all night and leave with me in the morning. The words that would’ve made everything all right.