ZANDER counted the minutes till he could free himself from yet another dull breakfast with a man whom he had no interest in making bilingual small talk with. Events like this only reminded him really didn’t desire to one day be in charge of all this hoo-ha. He was perfectly content to go about his business, get into the occasional kerfuffle, and never have to worry about a real royal schedule like his brother Adrian had. Just as soon as he could slip out, he’d get hold of Andi.
Only when he finally tried to reach Pippa, there was no answer.
He called repeatedly but only got his friend’s voice mail. He was tempted to return to her villa, but just in case Andi hadn’t disclosed what had happened, he thought it best not to do that.
His phone rang, and he hoped it was who he hoped it was, but instead it was Lorenzo.
“Ciao, Lorenzo, what’s up?”
“Just checking in with you, making sure you’re staying out of trouble.”
Zander laughed. “Would you really rather I simply followed protocol and died a slow, painful death from boredom?’
“What if I said yes?”
“Well, I wouldn’t believe you. Besides, you don’t have to worry about it regardless. I’ve been trouble-free purely by accident.”
“Miracles do happen.”
“Speaking of miracles,” Zander said. “I found her.”
“Her?”
“The blonde.”
“Ohhhh. Her?”
“Indeed.”
“Did she hit you over the head with a cricket bat this time?”
Zander laughed. “Let’s say I put my cricket bat to good use.”
“Wait a second. You’re telling me the two of you hooked up?”
“Lorenzo, you make it sound so sordid. It was way more than a hookup.”
“Aha! I knew it. This one is the one to tame you. What did you call her—the wildcat? So fitting: we have the wildcat taming the wild child.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Zander said. “But I also wouldn’t say no to making this a more frequent occurrence.”
Zander explained how the night had unfolded, to his friend’s rapt attention.
“So what’s your plan?” Lorenzo said.
“My plan was to get hold of Pippa, but she’s not answering. I can’t let Andi stew on this or she’ll think I treated her like a one-night stand. But shy of showing up at Pippa’s doorstep, how do I reach her?”
“Have you learned nothing from me?” Lorenzo said.
“Yeah. I’ve learned that I’d better stop getting into trouble or my mother will kill me. And you.”
“Use your powers of deduction,” he said. “When we were together and spying on her phone, did you not text yourself the infamous Vegas picture?”
“Yeah. So?”
“So is that not in your text messages with a phone number attached to it?”
Zander hit his head with the palm of his hand. “My God, Lorenzo. You’re a damned genius. Of course! How could I not have remembered that?”
“Because all your brain power is most often drained into that second head of yours. The one that causes you all the trouble.”
“Gotta run, Lorenzo. Time to use that brain of mine in the hopes that it’ll earn me more time using the much more important head.”