Courting Royal

Chapter Twenty-Seven

At the airport, I do my best to act normal despite the fact that I'm wearing nondescript jeans, a black tee, and a university baseball cap – something I ordinarily would never wear – and am doing my best not to bring any attention to myself at all.

Which means that I'm installing apps on my new phone. If I were standing stock still that would definitely draw attention.

I know the security guards are lurking somewhere nearby, and they do actually give me a sense of peace, even if I think it's insane that someone would recognize me in public already.

My dad should be landing any minute now. I send him a text from my new number so that he has it.

Hey Dad, it's Maggie. I have a new number because, well, some drama went down while you were in transit. I'll fill you in on all of it shortly. Can't wait to see you!

After that, I open my texts, which I've been avoiding even though I know the only people who have this number are ones I want to hear from. Even so, I haven't felt ready to deal with other people yet, but I know that I'll need to do it before my dad arrives, otherwise I never will. But when I look at them, I can't help but smile: there's Haley demanding that I call her, Hyacinth sending a sweet note punctuated with "xx", Daphne texting emoji-expressed disbelief and then a request for a girl's night soon, and Georgiana sending a gif of a glass of wine being poured.

I may not have a big circle of friends, but knowing that I have these four, Oliver, my dad, and the younger Davenports, makes me feel pretty good right now.

Though I won't lie, I have been ultra-curious to know what shape my blog and social media are in at the moment. I know followers of my website aren't the same as in real life friends, but some of my followers sure feel that way, even if we only communicate online. I know the answer that it's better that I don't know open up Twitter or Instagram right now, but... I can't help but wonder.

My phone dings and I see a message from Natalie, letting me know that my dad's plane has landed.

I really hope she and Ava have gotten a raise for handling my schedule in addition to Emilia's.

Soon, people start heading down the escalators and my eyes scan the crowd for my dad. I know getting through immigrations and customs can take awhile, but I wouldn't put it past the palace to have put in a call to someone to speed my dad through the process.

I hear a voice from behind me say, "Ms. Rhodes?"

I start to turn and the voice says, "Keep looking forward and just listen. Your dad should be coming through in just a couple minutes. We're pulling the car around and will be outside the third door from the left."

I'm not sure if I should nod or verbally acknowledge the security guard, and it takes me long enough to decide that when I finally look over my shoulder, he's gone. I feel both impressed and kind of creeped out. How is this my life?

But sure enough, just a couple minutes later, I see my head step onto the escalator and I rush toward it.

"Maggie!" he shouts when he sees me and I wave at him, a huge smile on my face. When he finally reaches the bottom, we run toward each other and he gives me a huge hug.

"Hello, my darling girl," he says, pressing a kiss to my temple.

"Hi, Dad," I say, squeezing him harder.

When we let go he says, "How are you holding up?"

"You already know?" I ask.

"There was Wi-Fi on the plane and a very excited group of young women were in the row behind me. And when I turned my phone off airplane mode, so many texts came in from friends and colleagues that I just turned airplane mode back on."