Princess Ever After

ELEVEN





Determined, focused, Tanner entered the barn, keen on speaking with Regina.

He’d not be deterred. He had a mission. Be on the plane tonight. With the princess.

The car bay was peaceful, empty, except for the ’53 Vet and an older man with tufts of white hair sticking out from under his cap, huffing and grunting as he lifted a red-leather seat from behind the wheel.

“Might I assist you?” Tanner stepped lively to steady the man who tripped sideways, then backward, balancing the seat in his arms.

He glanced at Tanner and righted himself. “Thanks, son. But I got a method to my madness.”

Tanner smiled. “I gather you do.”

“You looking for Reg?” he said, settling the seat against the wall.

“Indeed, I am. How did you know?”

“Spotted you hanging around Friday night.” The chap faced him, panting for a bit of wind, hands on his hips. “You keen on Reg?”

“Keen? No, I’m—”

“Get in line. I think every man from here to kingdom come has a crush on her. Including me.” He moved to the passenger side of the car. “In the purest sense, mind you. But she’s holding to herself. Not like some dames running off after every guy who winks at her.” He leaned toward Tanner with an outstretched hand. “Name’s Wally. And you are . . . ?”

“Tanner Burkhardt.” He slapped his hand into Wally’s.

“Reg is in the office with Al.” Wally pulled a wrench from his hip pocket. “Making plans to move. Seems we got us a new shop.”

A new shop? Hmm . . . she’d not mentioned this Friday night. Tanner made his way to the office and peered inside, knocking lightly on the metal door frame.

Regina glanced up, recognition in her eyes. Perhaps even a bit of a welcome. “Tanner, hey. Come on in.” Dressed in coveralls with her hair wrapped into a loose ponytail, she still managed to spark his heart. “You remember Al?”

“Indeed I do.” Tanner shook the man’s hand, then turned to Regina. “Miss Bes . . . Regina . . . might I have a word?”

“Um, yeah. Sure.” She exchanged a look with Al, then motioned for Tanner to lead the way outside. “We’re all pretty excited around here. Mark—you remember him—is giving us a warehouse. Rent free. It’s three times the size of this place.”

She hopped up on the picnic table and Tanner perched next to her. “This is a good thing for your business.”

“It’s an amazing thing for our business.”

He nodded, a twist of dread between his ribs. Her change of circumstances didn’t change his mission. It just made it more difficult.

“I’ve a bit of news as well.” He leaned forward, rubbing his hands together as if the action might form the perfect words out of thin air. “Since we talked, circumstances have changed for Hessenberg. And me.”

“Wh–what do you mean?” Was that concern in her tone? “How so? Good or bad?”

“Depends on how you choose to look at things. The situation has become more urgent.” Tanner bullet-pointed the facts as King Nathaniel relayed them. Of the petition filed by Seamus with the EU court on behalf of the Hessen people. “The king and prime minister fear unrest and violence among the people. They ask for you to return with me now, take the Oath of the Throne, and establish the royal house. The sooner you are in your rightful place, the less likely we are in for political chaos and anarchy. If you are in Hessenberg, the court might reject even reviewing the petition.”

“And you want me to walk into this mess?” She stared off, away from him, her composure tight and guarded. “I can’t fix this . . . no . . . no way. Did I tell you I hate politics?”

“You mentioned it.”

She gazed at him. “I’m the last person you want leading the charge in Hessenberg, Tanner. I know nothing about your rule of law, your people, or even how to govern.”

“You won’t be alone,” he said, thinking it best not to mention that Seamus, Hessenberg’s governor, was behind this quasi coup. “You’ll have advisors.”

“Like who? People I do not know? How can I trust them?”

He smiled. “Exactly. ’Tis why I think you will do quite well as our sovereign. You will try and test everything and everyone. From what little I’ve seen, you don’t seem keen on merely pleasing people.”

“But isn’t it best if Hessenberg becomes a sovereign state without a monarchy? They can be a republic like America, right?”

“Aha, the question of the ages. The source of political, university think-tank, pundits’ debates.”

“Forget think-tanks. What do you think, Tanner?” She faced him. “Not what you’re being told—I get you have a job to do—but if you could wave a magic wand and poof, create the ideal country, what would you do?”

“Honest?”

“The preferred thing. Honesty over lying, yes.”

“I’d be on the plane tonight”—he swallowed, feeling lost for a moment in her intensity—“with you.”

She jerked around, facing forward with such force her ponytail slipped free. “I’m moving to a new shop.” Jumping off the table, she started for the barn, then whipped right and aimed for the road, then backtracked to the table. “Don’t you see? A shop . . . a new and bigger shop. Why would Mark suddenly offer his warehouse the same time you show up offering me a country?”


“I’ve no idea, I’m sure.”

“I–I have to think on this . . .”

“I’d expect nothing less. But, Regina, I’m not offering you a country in the same way Mark is offering you the warehouse. I’m offering your true inheritance.”

She paced around the picnic table. “I–I can’t, Tanner. I can’t leave Al and the business. I mean, things are looking up. We went into this venture together in good faith.”

“Regina, I understand you have a life. Have plans.” A watery sheen glistened in her blue eyes. “I do. And I’m sorry my mission is disturbing it.”

She glanced away again, touching her fingers to the corners of her eyes. “This is just too . . . crazy.” Regina cruised down the gravel and grass driveway toward the road, talking to herself. Tanner watched her until she disappeared from view between the light and the shadows, bolstering his heart that he’d not failed. Yet.

Removing his phone from his pocket, he tapped the king’s aide, Jonathan, a brief message.





No return 2night