Life in the Palace (Prince Harry #5)

Chapter Eighteen

It was a late moving morning for Meredith and Harry. At the crack of dawn, they both startled awake when the screen door shut when her father went down to fish. Both of them had fallen back to sleep. It wasn't that they had a long night or even stayed up that late, but they were catching up on needed sleep.

Harry was up first, and he made breakfast. Waiting for her to awake, he decided to open a book that she brought with her. Half of her books were e-books; it was easier for traveling. Half of her books were paper- or- hardback. She preferred it that way. However, this book was older than even Harry knowing her, and she seemed to take it on every vacation. He knew it was her favorite book that led into her favorite series. She claimed she never knew if she was going to be in the mood for it, so she took it with her. Harry guessed that when she missed home and her old life, she read this book.

The pages of the book were worn and torn. Meredith had absolutely no issue with dog-earring pages. She had gone so far to annotate the book as well, highlighting her favorite and most memorable quotes and underlining her favorite other lines. Paragraphs were circled when she really liked that. Meredith even went so far of writing in the book. It wasn't just correcting the author's grammar, but by the third page, Harry knew how it was going to end.

"I didn't know you were into vampires," Meredith yawned and entered the small living area.

"Around Halloween," he said. "I dressed up as a vampire once."

"Probably one of your more appropriate Halloween costumes," Meredith replied.

Harry gave her a haughty look.

"Sorry." She sat opposite of him, already digging into breakfast. "What page are you on?"

"Five."

"Ugh. That's still the boring part. You got to wait until Dimitri gets there."

"Was he your first crush?"

"No." She giggled at a memory. "But he was a good one."

"Am I like Dimitri?"

"No." Meredith shook her head harshly.

"Is that a bad thing?" Harry asked.

"Not at all. I had different tastes as a girl between the ages of twelve and seventeen. Dimitri is stoic and really tall and Russian."

"What do you mean 'really tall?'"

"A lot taller than you."

Harry wore a smirk. "You settled for someone shorter?" he joked.

"I don't think I settled as much as my tastes changed," she replied, taking a bite. "I had heard of you when I was twelve to seventeen-- in passing-- but I was never that into you."

This was something that Harry already knew. Perhaps, it was for the best that a twelve year old Meredith Rogue was not crushing all over a twenty-five year old Prince Harry. Granted, Harry never thought he was going to be dating-- let alone married-- to someone thirteen years younger than him.

"What are the plans for the day?" Meredith asked. "Unless you plan on reading 'Vampire Academy' for the rest of the day."

Harry immediately put down the book. "Probably not."

She laughed.

An hour or so later, Harry and Meredith packed themselves up into the car and were driving into Park Rapids. It was the largest town closest to where they were staying. It only had a population of a little over four thousand. However, there were restaurants, stores and a hospital. If someone wanted something bigger, then it was almost an hour away. Like anything up here, they took winding roads to get there. Meredith, driving her father's car, didn't like parallel parking in the big thing, so she chose one of the side streets.