She pressed her hands to her hips. What was it with the men in her life bossing her around? She’d been hoping Grayson would be different. “I’m not leaving here until I do what I intended.”
His hard gaze met hers. For a moment, there was a mental tug of war, but she refused to give in. She had a plan and she was going to see it through to the end. She owed her mother that much.
“Okay.” Grayson conceded with a frown. “But we have to hurry up.”
That was good enough for her. She turned and counted out the rocks, but when she went to remove the stone, it wouldn’t budge. The tips of her fingers clenched as tight as possible and she pulled, but it wouldn’t move.
“Come help me. This rock is stuck.”
Grayson glanced around. “You know if we’re not careful, we’ll be going before that judge for our own crimes.”
“What crime? All I’m doing is moving a stone. And I promise to put it right back.”
Grayson sighed but he moved next to her and wiggled the stone out of its spot in the wall. “See. Nothing to it.”
She glared at him. “That’s because I loosened it for you.”
“Uh-huh. Sure.”
Any other time, she’d have continued the disagreement, but not today. The important thing was solving this clue. They looked at the stone, but they didn’t see anything suspicious about it. It looked like your basic stone. So what now?
Annabelle wasn’t about to give up. She moved to the wall and in the dark, she ran her hand around the hole in the wall until her fingers felt something smooth in a groove. The more she ran her fingers over it, the more she realized that it was plastic. She pulled it out.
“It’s here!”
“Shh... Do you want us to get caught?”
“Sorry.” Annabelle glanced around but there was no one in this part of the park.
Grayson replaced the stone in the wall and joined her on the sidewalk. “Let’s go.”
“Don’t you want to see what it says?”
“It’s too dark here. Let’s go back to the palace and read it there.”
There was no way Annabelle was waiting any longer. Just then her phone buzzed again. She figured she’d better get it before her uncle called out every police officer on the island to search for her. She withdrew her phone. She didn’t get a word out before Berto started shouting at her. She could hear the worry in his voice. She apologized profusely and promised it wouldn’t happen again.
“So how much trouble are you in?” Grayson asked as she disconnected the call.
“I’m not.” When she met the disbelief reflected in Grayson’s eyes, she said, “Okay. Maybe just a little.”
“And I’m sure your father will hear about it. What will you tell him?”
She grinned at him. “The truth.”
“The truth? I didn’t think you wanted your father to know about the note.”
“Who said I was going to mention that? I was going to tell them that I wanted some alone time with you.”
“Oh. Good idea. That will make him happy,” Grayson said sarcastically.
And then without any warning, Grayson leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. At first, Annabelle didn’t respond. Where had that come from? She’d thought he didn’t want this. Perhaps all day he’d been trying to tell her that he’d changed his mind.
Annabelle had no idea what was up with him but she wasn’t going to complain. She enjoyed feeling his lips move over hers. And soon she was kissing him back. Her heart thump-thumped in her chest.
Perhaps he truly did regret what had happened the other night. Maybe it was a lot to compute for both of them. And the evening had been beautiful...in a way. A walk in the royal gardens. Dinner in one of the local restaurants. And now a walk through the park beneath the stars.