Long Live

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Mason quickly led Adele out to the edge of the pier. She gasped taking in the gorgeous sight of the sun dipping below the horizon and the light breeze causing the leaves to sway. She noticed the family of ducks floating on the water or the little canoe boat Mason had his things stored in.

Grabbing her small hand he helped her descend the steps and carefully climb into the boat. Then he balanced himself sitting directly in front of Adele to keep the boat afloat. Adele caught his eye smiling at how peaceful she felt right now.

No she wasn't completely attracted to Mason but he seemed like a sweet enough guy. Taking the oars Mason slowly pushed them out into the lake looking around to watch where he was going. Adele giggled feeling like she was in that small children's movie, the little mermaid, there was a scene exactly like this.

Right in the middle of the lake Mason stopped mounting the oars up to let them float in circles. He spun around taking hold of a basket to place it in between them. Mason let Adele open the basket revealing all the fruit in it.

Grabbing a strawberry Adele felt him press it against her lips as she giggled taking it from him. "Are you enjoying this princess?" He asked with that thick Spanish accent, she kind of felt bad but at times she had no clue what he was saying.

"Yes" she smiled placing her small hand on his large one.

Mason smiled dropping to his knees in front of her to inch himself closer. "You know I was worried about this" he chuckled staring up into her blue eyes. Adele tilted her head waiting for him to continue, why was he worried? "I remember that boating accident you were in"

Oh the boating accident, that day played in her mind so clearly. Unfortunately the entire kingdom witnessed that day with her and no one would let her forget it. "Its fine" she responded shrugging her shoulders, she didn't trust anyone to let them know the details.

"Are you sure? I can go back and we can just sit on the grass"

"No" she said feeling his hand grip hers a little tighter as the boat rocked. "Why don't you tell me something about yourself?"

Mason didn't seem convinced but he sat on the ball of his heels taking her other hand in his. "Well I haven't lived in this country very long, my grandparents visited a while back on a vacation and fell in love with this place. They passed away a few years back so my mother decided to carry on their heritage we needed to completely move away. I was only eighteen and had to haul my parents and seven siblings across the ocean"

Adele just focused on his eyes seeing them stare directly into hers. "Do you miss Spain?"

"I do" he sighed, "Most of my family still lives there but I've learned to love it here. There's so much beauty in this country that everyone overlooks, especially the heart of the royal family. Sure in Spain we had the monarchy type of government so I'm used to that but seeing how much you and your parents truly care makes me feel like all the people living here are the luckiest human beings on the planet"

She sighed choking back her tears, to know that someone actually believed that made everything she had been through worth it. "Well thank you Mason, that truly means a lot to me"

Mason smiled lifting himself back up to the small bench in the boat. Adele wasn't sure what to think of him, she couldn't tell if he was genuine or using a fake story to make her feel sympathy for him. She was sure that his culture and thoughts were completely different from hers so that might not be an advantage.

Adele grabbed a grape quickly popping it into her mouth to avoid the awkward silence, it almost seemed like he was waiting for her to freak out for being on a boat. "Is it hard managing the military?" He asked rubbing his thumb across her knuckles.

"No it's not" she replied, she was starting to figure out she liked Mason as a person but sadly she didn't see anything between them. "I enjoy it actually, knowing I can support the men that fight for my life and my country means the world to me"

He nodded, "You know I actually thought of joining the military"

"Really?"

"Yeah, I still am"

Adele nodded trying to keep her gaze away from his, she just wasn't enjoying this date. She felt awkward and felt like Mason was only there to find out more information from her. For some reason she didn't feel safe with him, Adele had no reason to feel that way but her mother always told her to trust her instinct.

Right now her instinct was not sitting well with Mason, she just didn't feel comfortable with him. Adele slumped on the small bench willing to do anything to make this night end. Up until now she never felt like this, except for Owen but she just ran out on him.

Mason gathered up the strawberries in his hand shoving some towards her but she had quickly lost her appetite. All Mason did was dwell on the bad things of life, not live in the moment they were in. She was upset he brought up the boating accident, even though she was the princess that was no ones personal business.

"Ready to leave?" Mason asked running circles across her hand. She quickly nodded taking her hands from his grasp as he picked up the oars to start rowing back.

Now she couldn't wait to see Shawn's little car sitting in the trees, she would much rather be with him than Mason. Thankfully when Mason neared the pier she saw the headlights glistening in the lake. When Mason tied up the boat he jumped up holding out his hand to get her up on the pier.

She let him hoist her up as he chuckled wrapping his arms around her waist. Adele let out a small laugh from the slight impact. Mason quickly planted a kiss on her cheek as she turned so he could only kiss her there. For some crazy reason she just wasn't attached to him.

"Thank you for tonight Mason" she whispered into his ear as she hugged him.

He wrapped his arms tighter around her and she could feel him rest his chin on her head. "My pleasure princess"

Adele smiled pulling herself away as she heard Shawn's horn go off. "Well I guess I better go, goodnight Mason"

She untangled herself completely away from him when he grabbed her hand. "Goodnight Adele" he whispered planting his lips on her hand. She smiled taking her wrist from his grasp.

Thankfully Shawn was on time as usual as he held out his arm for her to take. Adele gladly slipped her hand through his arm while he led her out to the car. She sighed so happy this date was over when Shawn opened up the door for her.