I groaned, but Axel just squeezed my leg under the table and answered her without hesitation. “When I get to that point in my life, I’m sure we can find a house or condo near the palace, but for now, it’s a lot easier this way. Plus, it allows me to put most of my salary in savings. Precisely for the day I have a family to take care of.”
Well, that shut my mother up.
After a few days of working with Jonas, I knew my way around the computers at the school and he left me there setting up the database for all the students who’d registered so far. Shannon and Elen were both there today as well, working on the résumés that had come pouring in. They only had about a third of the staff they needed and were getting desperate to ramp up the hiring.
“Do you think you could do internet searches on these two people?” Elen asked, putting two files in front of me. “Nothing official like the security team does, just some generic information and if they have social media?”
“I can try.” I took them from her and started searching. This kind of thing was right up my alley. I’d never had to search for people for professional reasons, but I’d done a lot of searching for vendors and suppliers who could save the café money, and I’d gotten good at navigating the internet.
I was so lost in what I was doing, I didn’t hear Xander come up behind me. Since he was married to Elen, he usually protected her when she went to Parliament House or came here to the school, so we’d all driven in together, but I hadn’t seen him all day.
“Hey, Solange.”
“Hi.” I glanced up with a smile.
“What are you up to?”
“Doing some research for Elen. Did you bring lunch?” He’d said he would order for us.
“It’ll be here in a few minutes,” he said. He perched on the edge of the desk and peered down at my monitor. “Oh, you’re doing a search on Harlow’s social media. That’s probably been a good time.”
“Haven’t found anything interesting,” I admitted. “Who is she?”
“Lennox’s half-sister. She’s just finished her master’s degree and wants to teach here at the school. We’ve already vetted her as far as ties to terrorist organizations and the big stuff, but we’re trying to ascertain whether or not she’s a good fit with us.”
“She’s fresh out of college and going to teach at a school like this?” I asked in surprise.
“She’s actually been teaching for two years, while simultaneously getting her master’s. She has to learn somewhere, and we don’t have that many kids enrolled. We believe she can handle it, especially some of the lower grades.”
“Well, I don’t know what she’s doing in private, but on her social media, it’s all about running 5K’s and makeup. Even her profile on this dating website is pretty boring.”
“She’s on a dating website?” he asked, frowning. “She’s smart, pretty and young. Why would she need one of those?”
“Well, obviously I don’t know her, but if she’s smart and independent, she’s probably intimidating and men don’t seem to like that.”
“I love a woman who can give me a run for my money. In fact, I married one.”
“Well, most men are not you,” I told him.
“Thanks. I think.” He chuckled.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“What does it take to be a Royal Protector?”
“You mean, in general? Or specifics?”
“Both?”
“Well…the number one requirement is being willing to devote your life to protecting the royal family. From the perspective of skills, it’s a bit trickier.”
“Like?”
“All the Protectors have military experience, most coupled with either military intelligence or CIA. All of us have college degrees and at least five years real-world experience in military, security or espionage.”
“Oh.” That was more disappointing than I’d been expecting.
“Why do you look sad?” he asked. “Were you thinking about signing up?”
“Actually, I was.”
20
Axel
Sandor and Lennox got back from their honeymoon on Sunday. They were both tan and wind-tousled, bright smiles on their faces as they joined us for a late afternoon briefing. We’d planned to wait until tomorrow, but Sandor had been itching to catch up on everything and he and Lennox walked into the conference room holding hands.
“You two are so stinkin’ cute,” Xander said, shaking his head at them.
“And so tan,” Joe added. “Was it wonderful?”
“It was pretty wonderful,” Lennox said with a grin, dropping into a chair.
“Who started the pool?” Sandor asked lightly, sitting beside her.
“Pool?” Lennox asked him, frowning.
“You think they didn’t start a pool trying to guess exactly which day you got pregnant?”
“We’ve been having unprotected sex for two damn weeks!” Lennox protested, throwing up her hands. “And anyway, how the fuck will anyone be able to guess the day we actually conceived? We had sex like a hundred times a day every day.”
Joe shook his head. “Did we get called up here for a honeymoon play-by-play? I could be online watching the 49ers’ preseason game.”
“Oh, slow your roll,” Daniil said.
“And the way we guess the date of conception is based on an online due date calculator,” Xander said. “So I guessed you hit pay dirt on the thirty-first of July. If I’m right, you’ll be due on the twenty-third of April.”
Lennox looked at all of us and then turned to Sandor. “You knew about this?”
“Well, not the method, but I had a feeling.” He pretended to be disinterested, rifling through some papers, but Lennox punched him in the arm.
“Hey!”
“Yes, dear?” He looked up, a twinkle in his eye.
“You’re not funny.”
“I’m not,” he agreed. “But they are.” He couldn’t contain his laughter at that point and Lennox sighed heavily before joining him.
“You all suck,” she said, snatching the papers out of Sandor’s hand.
“I didn’t participate,” I told her.
“Suck up,” Joe murmured out of the corner of his mouth.
“Good man.” Lennox nodded at me.
She wasn’t really mad. We were all extremely close and no one would have done something like this if we’d thought it would upset Sandor or Lennox. She was a woman, but she was one of the guys, in almost every way. And we’d eventually pay for this bit of ribbing, probably in a big way. Not me, of course. I hadn’t participated. Only because I’d forgotten about it, but she didn’t know that.
“So what did we miss?” Sandor asked after kissing his bride, even though she playfully swatted at him.
“Well, Axel has a girlfriend,” Daniil said with a straight face.
I groaned.
“Yeah?” Lennox turned to me with a smile. “You and that pretty Solange?”