Dating the Duke (The Aristocrat Diaries 2)

Girls were being left behind, and that was why it’d taken Alexander this long to get her diagnosis. He’d been fighting for five years for someone to listen to him, and I hoped they’d get their answer by the end of the summer.

I found a few calming exercises including an app that had meditative music on. That was touch and go with Olympia’s sensitivity to noise, but it was gentle and soft enough that she might just find it helpful.

Besides, I wasn’t sure her sensitivity applied to music.

The girl was always listening to music, but she couldn’t do that during lessons. We’d tried. We’d ended up having an impromptu dance party.

When the app downloaded to my phone, I took to my lesson plan to work on that for the remainder of the week. It was hard to make things like reading and writing exciting, but I hoped I was doing it.

“Oh, you’re here.”

I jolted at the sound of Alexander’s voice and pressed my hand to my chest. “Goodness, you scared me.”

He chuckled and walked into the living room. “Sorry. Am I interrupting you?”

“No, I’m just planning out some things for our lessons.” I saved what I was working on and closed my laptop down. “How was your meeting?”

“About as exciting as a bout of haemorrhoids,” he replied dryly. “I did get a call from the psychologist, though. About Olympia.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Good news?”

“Yes. They’re visiting next week to conduct the assessment.” He wrung his hands together. “It’s a very strange feeling.”

“I imagine it is after so long, but it’ll help her so much, Alex.”

Sitting down, he nodded slowly. “I know. You’re doing a wonderful job with her. You have no idea how much I appreciate it.”

I smiled. “Well, you’re not paying me to do a shoddy one.”

“That’s true.” That put a smile back on his face. “Where is she, by the way? How was your lesson today? Did she behave herself?”

“That’s a lot of questions.” I laughed, tucking my feet beneath my butt on the sofa.

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” I bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself laughing. “Yes, she was perfectly behaved. Our lesson went very well—she did great with her writing, and she actually finished a chapter of a book despite stopping halfway through and having a moment.”

“She went back to it?”

“Of her own accord. She isn’t a fan of the book, though, so we did take a gratuitous five minutes to find her something she was more interested in.”

“Well, if she went back to a book she wasn’t enjoying, can you imagine what she might do with one she is?”

“Exactly. Although I do rather suspect we’ll be hearing about fairies and talking rabbits for the next two weeks.”

His lips curled up. “We hear enough about baby bunnies as it is. I doubt ones that can talk are that much of a stretch.”

That was very true. The baby bunnies she loved so much were a happy accident in that both rabbits Alexander rescued for her were supposed to be female.

Evidently, one was not female.

Poor Annie the male rabbit. She wouldn’t change his name, either.

“So where is she?”

“Oh. Believe it or not, she was enjoying writing so much she did an extra page when Mrs. Berry arrived, so she took her for cake for lunch as a treat,” I said.

Alexander tilted his head to the side. “That seems like a dangerous precedent to be setting.”

My thoughts exactly.

“What are your plans for the rest of the day?”

“Mine?” I asked.

“Is there anyone else here?” He smirked.

“I suppose not.” I snorted. “Nothing. I was considering taking myself for dinner, but it seems like a lot of work.”

He leaned back on the sofa, his lips still curved up into that annoying little smirk. Honestly, the man was far too bloody handsome for his own good, and I was going to need him to stop wearing white shirts with rolled up sleeves.

It was affecting my sleep.

There were only so many times one could dream about ripping them off him before it became quite improper.

“Olympia wanted to go to the aquarium. Why don’t you join us?” Alexander offered, undoing the top button of his shirt. “She’s been begging me for days, and since my meeting got done earlier, I think today is as good a time as any.”

“Oh. I’ve never been to the aquarium here.”

“It’s been a while for us, but she likes the jellyfish. She asked for some for Christmas last year and it took some explaining that Santa can’t bring those on his sleigh.”

“What was her response to that?”

“That me and Granny buy her gifts, too, so why can’t we get her some?”

I bit my lower lip and held in a laugh. That was exactly what I’d expected him to say. “And what did you say?”

“Pet shops didn’t sell them but she could have a goldfish.”