Prince Pucking Charming

“And you feel protective of her like a parent would with their child?”

“Of course. Kat needs me. She can’t count on our dad for anything.”

“What about your brothers?”

“Austin helped me raise Kat and the twins.”

“Do you resent your father for not being around?”

“Yes,” he growls. “I hate that he left us. Instead of going to parties with my friends in high school, I had to stay home and watch my brothers and sister.”

“Do you resent your siblings for having to give up that part of your life?”

He shakes his head. “No, not at all. My mom didn’t want a stranger raising her kids. I promised her that I would take care of them for her.”

And there it is… The missing piece to the puzzle. Duke’s mom.

“Do you feel like you’ve already raised a family?”

He shrugs. “Maybe. I don’t know. I never thought about it like that.”

Duke’s body relaxes as if he’s relieved by this revelation, but I know there’s much more to his story. We’ve barely even scratched the surface.

“So, your relationships with women last how long… A night, a week, a month?”

He tilts his head to the side, as if thinking it over, and scratches the corner of his jaw. A few minutes pass in silence.

“What’s your longest relationship?”

“Not that long,” he says. “I kept this one girl around for sex until she wouldn’t stop bugging me to get serious with her.”

“Does the thought of having a serious relationship with a woman bother you?”

“It did with her,” he says without hesitation.

“How come?”

“Because she’s not the kind of girl my mom would have liked.”

It all comes down to his mom.

“What kind of woman would your mom have liked?”

“Someone smart. My mom was a lawyer.” He digs his teeth into his bottom lip. “She used to say that intelligence is our greatest asset.”

“So, intelligence is also a quality you admire in people?”

He nods. “My mom was brilliant. Even up until the last few days, she was…” Duke turns away from me, his eyes downcast.

“What else, Duke?”

Duke covers his face with his hands and sighs. “She told me not to settle until I find a woman who challenges me.”

“So, you’re waiting for the right woman?”

He slides his hands to his knees and then glances over at me. His blue eyes hold mine. “Something like that.”

Before I can ask another question, I hear Max’s voice in the waiting room. She’s talking in her usual outdoor voice in the lobby. Duke follows my line of sight toward the door.