Royally Yours

Chapter 17

*This chapter is in Archie's POV*

My relationship with Alena was going so well. We'd been dating for nearly a month and on Friday we were flying to Turks and Caicos to be with her family for Thanksgiving. I'd never been to Turks and Caicos and it had been a while since I'd been on a white sandy beach.

I invited Alena over for a late lunch without my family at the palace. It was just us having a picnic in the sunroom because it was kind of bitter outside.

"I'm excited to go to the beach." I spoke as I ate my sandwich, "It's so cold and gloomy here. I don't know how you moved here after being in Los Angeles."

"Well, I did live in New York for four years." she reminded me, "You know Aubrey is so excited to see you again. I talk about you all the time to her and she thinks you're an amazing boyfriend."

It was so nice to know that her siblings liked me.

I smiled, "That's good. You know, what are we gonna do for Christmas?"

"I'm going back to the states on the twenty-second of December. We could do something before I go or after." she answered my question

"Let's do before and then I might fly out to the states before the New Year." I said in response, "Actually scratch might, I will."

She looked shocked, "Really?

I nodded, "Why not? Maybe we could go somewhere and do something fun."

"Yeah I'd like that." she agreed with me

"Are you finished eating? I wanna show you something." I began. Alena nodded her head and we put on our coats and I took my hand.

I led her through the gardens until we reached one specific one. She looked around at all of the flowers and caught on to why I brought her here.

"These are Amaryllis flowers!" Alena pointed out excitedly. God, she was so cute and pretty.

I grinned, "They are."

"They were my Mother's favorite flower. This is actually her garden." I informed her as we sat down on the bench. "I like to come here to relax and think."

"You know, I think she would have loved you. I see so many similarities between you two and I feel like it's a sign." I started as we held hands

She looked me in the eyes, "Tell me more about her."

I loved that she wanted to know more about my Mom and it wasn't a fake wanting to get to know her either.

"She had long flowy brunette hair, hazel eyes, and she was fairly tall - about 5'10. She was honestly my favorite person. It hurt really bad when she passed." I talked about my Mom. I showed Alena pictures of her and I was the spitting image of my Mum.

There was one picture that she noticed almost immediately. My mother had on the necklace that I gave to her.

Alena zoomed in to the picture, "The necklace."

I looked over at her, "It was her's and I wanted you to have it."

"Really?" she said almost shocked

"I told you that we have something special." I smiled at her, "You're everything I want and everything she would've loved. Plus you're an amazing person."

Alena hugged him, "I love you."

God, Alena, I love you so so so much. It almost seemed crazy how much I loved her and what I would do for her.

"I love you more, Lainey." I said to her

We pulled away as we heard footsteps. We looked over to see guards walking my Dad and Ruth inside of the palace. Apparently they had some kind of luncheon today.