I never had a chance to tell Viktor I was coming.
Actually that’s not true.
I wanted to just show up and surprise him like he did to me but I realized you can’t really do that with royalty. I mean, I can’t go throw rocks at his window. I’m not athletic enough to scale the fence, nor throw rocks at a three-story window. So I sent him a text just before my plane took off.
Hey we need to talk. I’m coming to Sweden today. Will text when I land.
But by the time I put the phone in airplane mode, it hadn’t shown his text as delivered.
And when the plane lands and I frantically switch my phone back on, it’s still not delivered.
Shit!
I get my carry-on and go into the airport, checking my phone every minute.
Nothing, nothing, nothing.
I go through passport control with no problem.
I get to the arrivals and expect to see Nick there with a sign, thinking maybe Viktor somehow got the text and contacted Pike or something and got the details about my flight.
But there’s no one.
I’m standing here in the airport looking like an utter fool and I swear to god there’s a few people here who already recognize me.
Double shit.
What does Viktor say?
Helvete!
I don’t have much choice. I go into a bathroom stall and call Freddie, whose number I’ve always had for emergencies.
He’s surprised to hear from me, of course.
“I don’t know what to say,” he stammers. “His Highness isn’t here.”
My heart sinks.
“Isn’t here? Where is he?”
“Uh, he’s on a trip.”
“Well when will he back?”
“Uh. Not sure. Look, stay where you are and I’ll have Nick come get you, okay?”
“I haven’t booked a hotel,” I say feebly. “I haven’t…I haven’t thought any of this through.”
“I’m glad you didn’t because then you probably wouldn’t have come,” Freddie says wryly. “And the palace will always be your home. Just sit tight.”
Half an hour later, Nick comes striding through the terminal looking for me. I’ve been hiding in the corner at a coffee shop with a book over my face and giant sunglasses.
“Are you trying to look…what is the word in English? Inconspicuous?” Nick asks as he looks me over.
“Not working, is it?”
“No,” he says, looking around at the people watching us with interest. “But you’re here now. I’m so very glad to see you.”
“You too, Nick,” I tell him.
He was starting to feel like family to me and when I’m in the back of the town car on the way to Haga Palace, I realize that Bodi and Freddie felt like family as well. It was like while I was here, I was gaining more family than the family I had lost. It’s like the palace in the end wasn’t some strange and stuffy and formal royal life that I couldn’t relate to, it was something warm, with so much love and laughter in the walls. I told myself – and Viktor – there was no way I could be a princess and live that life because I couldn’t be farther from one but the truth is…I don’t think a title like that defines you. I think you define the title.
The palace is still covered by layers of snow but the moment I walk in those doors, I feel warm and relieved. Is this my home?
Could this be my home?
Will he take me back?
“Make yourself at home,” Nick says to me just as Bodi appears around the corner.
“Maggie!” he cries out, throwing his arms out to me and enveloping me in a big hug until my feet aren’t even touching the ground. You’d think that I’d been gone for months, not a few weeks.
“Hey Bodi,” I tell him after he puts me down. “What is this, a beard?” I reach out and tug the end of his red scruff.
“Going for the Viking look,” he says, mugging for me. “What brings you back here? We hoped we’d see you again but we weren’t sure. You all left so fast, so soon.”
I wince, wishing I hadn’t been so hasty. “Viktor and I…”
“Yes, I know. You had a fight. I can’t blame you for leaving Maggie, Viktor is not an easy person to be with.”
“It’s not that he’s not easy. It’s just…this lifestyle.”
“It takes some getting used to,” he says with a solemn nod.
“I just didn’t think I was strong enough to get used to it,” I tell him.
“Glad to see you’re coming around then,” he says, patting me on the shoulder. “Because you’re stronger than you think. Come on, I’ll put your suitcase in Viktor’s room.”
“Oh, please don’t,” I tell him as he hauls it up and starts carrying it up the stairs. “I don’t want to assume anything. The guest room that Magnus normally uses is fine.”
Bodi nods. “As you wish. Why don’t you make yourself comfortable in the lounge and I’ll bring you some coffee. You must be exhausted.”
I nod and head to the lounge while he runs the bag upstairs. You think I would be tired since I didn’t sleep on the plane at all but I am so wired that it feels like I couldn’t close my eyes even if I tried. I must look like such a freak.
Bodi brings me a cup of coffee and we sit and chat about everything except Viktor. I want to ask him about where he is since Freddie was so vague but I don’t dare. It’s not their place to tell me and if it turns out he’s visiting a girl or something, then I would just die on the spot.
There’s a knock at the front door and my heart starts to race. Is it Viktor? I look at Bodi and he looks surprised more than anything.
“Pardon me,” he says to me and gets up, leaving the lounge.
I hear the door open and then Bodi exclaim, “Your majesty!”
Majesty?
Majesty?!
Holy fuck it’s the king.
Seconds later The King of Sweden appears in the doorway, looking down at me with a look on his face that makes me want to shrink in my seat.
But that would be uncouth, I know that much, so I scramble to get up to my feet, to curtsey. He quickly motions with his hand for me to stay put.
“Please, stay seated,” he says, striding over to the chair across from me. He sits down, folding his hands over his lap, and looks me sternly in the eyes. “The two of us, we need to have a talk.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Viktor
“Do you know what they call a turnip in Sweden?” I ask Callum.
He shakes his head, smiling. I swear I can ask this kid anything and he’ll smile. It’s especially disturbing when you’re talking about something horrific.
“They call it a Swede,” I tell him.
“But aren’t you a Swede?”
“I am.”
“Am I going to be a Swede?” he asks.
“That all depends on your sister. If she was here, I would ask her.” I study his face carefully. “Are you sure you don’t know where she is?”
He just grins. That gives me nothing.
It’s my fault, really, for having such flights of fancy and for it to actually lead me on a flight which actually put me back in Tehachapi, looking for Maggie.
After she left, I spent a long time wrestling with what I was going to have to do to win her back. I knew that just because she was scared, just because we had a fight, it didn’t mean that things were over between us. It might have felt like it was over, especially from the way she basically packed up her family and left. They were all gone the next day on the next flight home and I didn’t have any time to even realize what was going on.
That I had lost her.
I had lost them.
I had lost…everything.
With her gone, the media storm didn’t die down either. Rumors started spreading. She had been spotted at the airport, people speculated why she was leaving. People started noticing that we were never seen together, or that she was never seen at all.
I ignored it. That’s all you can do. And I tried to move on.
I did everything that I thought I was supposed to do. I threw myself into my role and tried to become a better public figure. I tried to pretend that my heart wasn’t breaking inside even though it was slowly splintering to pieces until nothing was giving me joy anymore. Maggie had been my joy, my light, my everything. My persika, my Miss America, my mayhem. Oh, her middle name couldn’t have been more fitting because she brought mayhem to my heart, my life, turned my world upside down and I was a better man in the end because of it, because of her.
But putting on a mask only works for so long. I should have known that.
Eventually the mask crumbled away.
Eventually the feelings came pouring back in.
Eventually I realized that if I didn’t have her, I had nothing.
Without her I wasn’t worthy of the crown on my head.
The next thing I knew I was having Freddie find the next possible moment I had a break and we were booking tickets and that was the end of it. The plan was to surprise Maggie like I did last time, to fall to my knees and propose like I should have done before when I lost my nerve. To go and not come back unless I had her with me.
So with my guard and driver Janne waiting in the car outside, I burst into their house hoping I’d run right into Maggie.
What I found instead was Callum, sitting at the kitchen table with a glass of milk and reading a comic book. Rosemary, Thyme and April were at Rosemary’s soccer game while Pike was upstairs napping. Callum says that Pike is too tired to deal with anything these days.
But when I asked where Maggie was, Callum wouldn’t say. I know he knows, but he’s just not saying anything.
“What the fuck.”
I turn to look at Pike standing all groggy in the kitchen doorway, trying to focus his eyes on me.
“Bad word,” Callum scolds him, shaking his head.
“Viktor?” Pike says, blinking hard. “Viktor! What. The fuck. Are you doing here?”
He sounds far more surprised about me being in his kitchen than I thought. It looks like I’m blowing his mind.