Chapter Twenty-Seven

Later on that night, Evan received a couple of text messages from Michel with some pictures of Luna hanging around in the royal palace, one more adorable than the other.

In the first one, she was sitting in front of the younger prince, she was tending him her paws and Michel was holding the middle of her body —of course, he had to lean on a little bit due to his height compared to Luna's. They were in front of the palace's grand entrance door; apparently, that picture was the first taken of the two of them together.

In the second one, she was laying down at the foot of Michel's bed chewing on what seemed to be a newspaper-themed toy for dogs. She was facing directly at the camera, while it focused her from her side.

In the third one, both Luna and Michel were sitting on the edge of his bed, Luna tending a paw to the prince, the latter one smiling for the picture.

There was a message below the third picture. Michel said:

"She's so smart! She already knows how to give her paw!" The text was followed by a dog face emoji and other ones with hearts of many colors.

Evan noticed that the pictures, although having been taken with a phone camera, were of really high quality, almost as if a professional photographer had taken them.

Evan wondered if Michel was into photography, too, remembering the device he held in his hands when he was dreaming about cruising by a splendid and empty highway with Michel in his Alfa Romeo.

He decided to type, then:

"She really is! Please give her a lot of cuddles and smooches for me!" Complementing the text message with a lot of loving and maybe a bit cheesy heart emojis.

His phone buzzed one more time, receiving another text message from his beloved prince instantly.

"No cuddles or smooches for me, then?" The prince's message read; it was followed by a sad face emoji and one that was crying.

Evan simply chuckled to himself, wondering when he'd be able to smother Michel with kisses again. He texted back quickly:

"For you, I have a lot more in store, so please don't worry about it, cutie pie." He typed and sent, with a rush of excitement and anticipation as he made himself more comfortable in his bed.

Immediately, he received a giant heart-eyed face emoji from Michel. Then, he saw him typing.

"Wanna go to the beach next Saturday? My mother used to own a house by the shore in Île Arrecife. You can bring Belle and Ade if you want to. I'll bring André and Maddie."

Evan read the text message and thought to himself if that would be a good idea, not finding anything bad in it at all, though.

He also wondered what could have happened to Michel's mother. He remembered back in the summer camp he had mentioned that his mother "was in heaven now"; but when Evan asked why, he said he didn't really like to talk about the topic, because it would always make him cry…

Evan thought it would have been too intrusive of him to ask Michel about his mother right now, and the best option would have been asking him in person when they'd meet at the beach.

He wondered if such a topic still managed to make him tear up, or even cry...

Trying to think of a more cheerful topic to discuss, he brought up the question he had kept for himself just a few moments ago.

"I'll be at the beach on Saturday with Belle and Ade, just give me an exact time of the day and the address, please. Thanks for inviting me, hun." He finished this text with a winking face and a sparkling heart emoji.

He hurried again to type something before Michel could do it.

"By the way, I noticed the pictures you took of baby Luna were quite good. Are you into photography by any chance?"

A couple of seconds passed until he saw Michel typing.

"Alright, let me check for the best time to go to the beach and I'll text you the details later. Thank you for coming, babe." He replied, adding a blowing kiss emoji.

Such a loving emoji managed to make Evan's heart throb at a faster pace and he lingered on it, craving to kiss Michel right now so badly...

"And yes, I really like taking pictures of any beautiful thing I can find. A friend from the boarding school in Switzerland taught me how to take them properly, he even taught me how to reveal analogical-taken photos, so I took a liking to it. I can show you some of my favorite ones that I've taken on trips or even here in Avevia."

Evan hurried to type and text something back to him.

"Sure thing, I'd love to see them." He ended his response with a blushing emoji.

"Okay, but sadly I'll need to sleep now. I want to wake up early tomorrow to take baby Luna for a walk by the beach. She'll sleep with me for tonight, or maybe forever, haha. She seems to like my bed a lot." Was Michel's response.

Evan couldn't help but chuckle to himself. Those two were the most adorable beings on earth ever.

"Alright, love, have sweet dreams. Please send baby Lula lots of cuddles and smooches from her papa Evan, and I'll be sending you a lot of cuddles and kisses, too. Don't be jealous of our little girl!" He teased, adding smiley emojis that cried tears of joy and heart-shaped ones.

"Goodnight, honey. I love you lots, and Luna loves you, too!" Michel said his final goodnight message, Evan lingered one more time on the so many loving rows of emojis.

"I love you, too, have sweet dreams." He typed, adding his personal assortment of loving emojis: blushing faces, blowing kisses, sparkles, revolving and sparkly hearts.

With this, Michel went offline and Evan's heart shrunk again.

What was he going to do... ? He'd need to tell Gabrielle about him and Michel very soon. His feelings were growing stronger each day and he could do nothing to stop them. He loved Michel, he loved his gorgeous prince charming and no one else…

He let his head rest on the pillow and turned on his side, facing the grand windows with now closed curtains.

He wondered how sleeping with Michel could have been like. He was taller than him, and certainly had more muscle mass than him, and his shoulders were broader than his...

He wanted to hold him right now and fall asleep on his chest. To hug him, he liked to think of him as an enormous teddy bear, soft, adorable, and affectionate. To spoon him to sleep, or to be his little spoon, maybe. He craved the intimacy that sleeping together involved with it…

With these thoughts of a million possibilities for cuddling before finally giving in to sleep, Evan fell asleep at last.

…

Saturday's afternoon had come already and Evan, Gabrielle, and Adelyn were on their way to Her Majesty Helena's private beach house by the shore of Arrecife Beach, located in the homonym island in the southern area of the Avevian archipelago.

They were dressed in swimwear, although they had packed some informal clothes since the beach used to be chilly in the late evening, and they'd need to head back to the Martí Manor by then.

Evan was sporting ocean blue swimming shorts with a design of star-shaped flowers in a lighter shade of the previously mentioned color. He also had a cream-colored beach shirt with its buttons undone, revealing his almost hairless chest.

He felt a bit insecure about not having a lot of hair, he had Celtic heritage, and everyone knew Celtic men were muscular and hairy. But he barely grew a goatee on his freckled face, his chest hair went from his sternum to his collarbones, forming a 'Y' shape, and he also had a thin line of hair on his navel and belly areas.

Belle, stunning as always, was wearing a vintage ruffled swimsuit with an orange gingham pattern and red ribbons on the top's strings and bottom's sides. Her hair was tied into a low bun, looking almost lazily done.

Adelyn was simply wearing a sports swimsuit with fuchsia, silver, and white designs, the back of it was open. She also put on a pair of frail denim shorts with a cute daisies design on its lower left side. She had tied her cherry-red hair into a French ponytail.

The trip was a bit informative to Evan, both Belle and Adelyn told him about the most interesting places in Île Arrecife, what birds visited the island, and some other activities you could do there.

He wanted to ask them how Queen Helena died as well, but he decided it was better to keep that question for Michel, so he could answer it later on.

They arrived at the beach as Jerome parked in front of the sidewalk next to the stone stairs descending to the sand. The chauffeur got out of the car and opened the backdoor so the trio could get out of it, too.

From a distance, Evan could see a large house by the shore, it was at the foot of the hill that divided the shore from the sidewalk. It boasted a narrow light-colored wooden dock that reached a bit farther than the shallow part of the sea. And, as a final detail, it was surrounded by tall coconut trees and wild pineapple bushes.

The house itself was made of light blue siding walls and had modern A-shaped roofing. The windows were white and he could also make out a balcony with lounge chairs, some umbrellas, and some end tables with what looked like food and drinks on top of them.

A familiar, cheerful bark became audible between the serene sound that the waves in the ocean made.

Luna rushed upstairs and jumped onto Evan's legs one more time, eagerly asking him to pet her. She was wearing a red bandana around her furry neck today. She also had still around her neck her red collar and her star-shaped golden tag with her name carved on it.

"Hey, little girl! I was missing you already!" Evan exclaimed, petting Luna's head and scratching behind her ears as she wiggled her tail with excitement.

"Oh, is this Prince Michel's dog? Hi, little girl!" Belle asked as she offered her hand to Luna so she could sniff it, she did so and then licked Belle's hand enthusiastically. "Aw, she's so adorable!"

Luna then jumped onto Adelyn's legs, wiggling her tail frantically. Apparently, she was also fond of Evan's closest friends. She did act a lot like a little girl eager to know all of her two dads' acquaintances.

"Oh, hi…" Adelyn let out, she seemed to be a bit hesitant about petting Luna.

"I think she's asking you to pet her, go ahead, she's very friendly." A feminine voice said, it sounded clear and melodic, and it was coming closer to the trio.

The two princes, André and Michel, as well as Lady Madeline, were climbing the stairs. A few moments later, they were in front of Evan, Belle, and Adelyn.

Madeline was wearing a fancy dark emerald green bikini, with a strapless top that had a golden ring in the middle of it, serving as a union for both sides of the top. Her bottom matched it, boasting two rings on her hips. A pretty summer crochet coat adorned her small shoulders, it had tiny golden sparkles all around it, they seemed to be stencil diamonds most probably.

She had combed and fixed her bangs backward, while leaving her short platinum blonde wavy locks down, framing her flawless face just perfectly.

André was wearing a pair of silver swimming shorts with red elastic and ties. A light denim beach shirt not revealing his abdomen and part of his chest, but his chest hair was visible as some of them poked out near his collarbone's lower area.

Michel was wearing black swimming shorts with a golden elastic and details on the sides and the bottom of them. Just like his brother, he was wearing a denim beach shirt, but this one was open, revealing his well-trained abdomen and his curly chest hair.

It was almost invisible since it camouflaged with his sun-kissed skin tone, but Evan could see it nonetheless: curly auburn brown chest hair that started in his navel area and grew wild yet neatly up to his pectorals, forming a funny-looking 'T' trail across his masculine and attractive cup-shaped torso.

Evan didn't know how to react, it was either to drool over this heavenly sight or feeling envious of Michel's chest hair...

"She ran away from the house as soon as she heard the limousine parking. I swear, she can smell you from miles away or something..." Michel spoke after Madeline, making use of a certainly amazed and unbelieving tone of voice.

Jerome bowed at the trio from the royal palace politely.

"Your Highnesses, Lady Madeline, it's good to see you again."

"Likewise, Sir Jerome. Many thanks for bringing our friends today." André replied, using the same manners as the Martís' chauffeur.

"There's nothing to thank me for, Your Highness, it's my duty, after all. I'll come back to pick the three of them up at six in the evening." Jerome informed.

With this, Jerome bowed at the three of them one more time and hopped into the car again, leaving the six of them alone at last.

After seeing the car driving farther away, Gabrielle was the one who took the initiative, speaking something first:

"So? What are the plans for today?" She inquired, enthused.

"Well, we didn't make an exact schedule, to be honest. But, how does a swimming race by the ocean sound? The boys can participate, and us girls will be cheering for them from a distance." Madeline suggested, sounding just as excited and thrilled as Gabrielle. "After that, we can play some beach volleyball." She said.

"Maddie, you're a threat at beach volleyball, we don't want anyone here to die today." André replied, snorting a bit.

"I promise to restrain myself!" Madeline exclaimed as she giggled.

"Beach volleyball sounds great, though! Adelyn here used to be the captain of her school's girls volleyball team. Right, Ade?" Belle said, proud of her staff member and close friend.

"Yeah, I was. I might be a bit rusty, though." Adelyn confessed, trying her best to remain modest and calm.

"Don't be shy! We know you'll just rock. What do you say? Girls against boys?" Madeline suggested, overflowing with energy.

"Sounds like a deal. The question here is, are you girls ready to be smashed at your own game? I was the captain of my volleyball team as well, and I'm a bad loser. I won't make it easy for you just because you're girls." Michel added, clasping his hands together and rubbing them with mischief.

"No, Michel, the real question here is if we're ready to get smashed by them. You don't know how competitive Maddie can be at these things. You can even get a deadly hit on your head with the ball because she did it "unintentionally", you've been warned." André tried to warn his brother, his voice sounding solemn and yet somehow seriously concerned.

"Andie speaks the truth, Michi. You always have the option to surrender if you want to avoid accidents." Madeline chuckled.

Michel simply rolled his eyes.

"Let's just go to the ocean and find a good spot for the swimming race. We'll see who ends up as the volleyball game's victor." He said, turning around to make his way to the shore at a slow pace, the other five followed him.

Evan noticed the royal palace trio had indeed pretty good chemistry with each other. It was as if the three of them knew their roles in the group perfectly. They bantered around and even had their inside jokes, too. They seemed to have formed a great and strong bond from a very young age.

They reached the shore and went a bit deeper into the shimmering and calm sea. Madeline went into it without any glimpse of fear and checked the water with her feet, probing the sea soil level carefully.

"This place looks even enough to swim." She announced loudly with more than half of her torso underwater. "Belle, stand on the edge of the dock to shout when to start."

So, the race was going to be from that spot up to the dock. It was around twenty meters. It wasn't that long, actually, but the problem was that Evan was not really the best at swimming...

Belle simply nodded with her head and replied an 'alright' that Madeline probably never heard. Then, she headed to the edge of the wooden dock.

The boys then got rid of their shirts and went into the water. Evan left his glasses on top of the clothes pile just in case.

André positioned himself on the third line. Michel, on the second one. Lastly, Evan made his way to the first line, the one closest to the shore and probably the safest one. Although he knew how to swim, he feared depths, that was a fact.

"Ready… Set… And... Go!" Belle shouted from her place on the dock, cheerful as always.

André and Michel started swimming at a really high speed. Evan was obviously left far behind, even when he wasn't even able to notice it.

Evan was moving his legs ineptly and awkwardly under the water when he suddenly heard Michel yelling something from afar.

"Luna! Stop! Ugh, I can't swim like this!" Michel complained.

Evan stopped swimming and stood still under the water in 'T' position. By then, he was clearly aware he didn't stand a chance against André and Michel, so he decided to give up and watch the hilarious scene a couple of meters ahead of him.

Luna had gone into the water and wanted to play with Michel, but she was also impeding him from advancing farther into the race. The girls laughed at this scene and so did Evan and Michel himself. It was something endearing for Evan to watch.

"Okay, okay! I give up!" Michel yelled while holding Luna in his arms and swimming back to the shore.

Evan decided to do the same as Michel and swam back to the shore as well.

André reached the end of the dock, winning the short race with this final action.

"Seems we have a winner!" Madeline exclaimed, sounding overly enthusiastic.

"Uh… What's my prize again…?" André inquired, he sounded bewildered.

Everyone looked bewildered, in fact. They hadn't set a prize for the winner of the race… They should have checked that one before beginning it.

Suddenly, Madeline smiled cheekily, almost with a bit of mischief.

"A kiss from Lady Gabrielle! Of course!" She replied, enthused.

Everyone crossed stares. Was this girl okay? Gabrielle was engaged with Evan, that wouldn't have been appropriate at all…

"Maddie… I don't think it's a good idea…" Michel uttered.

"Come on, it can be just on the cheek. Don't be killjoys, guys. We're all adults here, we should know how to have fun and don't misunderstand things." She added, sounding a bit upset and looking slightly annoyed by the group's reaction towards her proposition.

"I don't know… Evan… Would you be okay with it?" Belle asked Evan with shyness.

Evan let out a sigh.

"Well, it's me who you will marry, not him. It's just a kiss on the cheek, after all." Evan replied.

Madeline clapped with her hands.

"Cheers for Evan! He'll be a great husband, Belle, that's for sure!" Madeline said, giggling.

Gabrielle stood on tiptoe next to André, and the crown prince leaned in a bit closer. Then, she deposited a small, tender kiss on his cheek.

Madeline cheered on them and applauded one more time. Evan could already see that Michel was right —Madeline wasn't in love with André at all…

"Now, who's ready for a match of beach volleyball?" The noble lady asked, almost exclaiming.

"I am!" Michel sounded enthused about the idea. "I was born ready for some beach volleyball!"