The King's Unbreakable Wife-Chapter 38: Feelings (3)

Tobias started to choke on the food he placed in his mouth with a fork. What Hazel said was something he joked around about with Edgar, but hearing it from her lips didn’t sound right. "I am not into men, Hazel. Why would you think that? Because we are close?"

"I don’t think I have seen you smile brighter than when you are with him. Forgive me for saying that you would have feelings for him. It isn’t something a man would want to hear," Hazel replied, looking down at her plate. She had been curious and foolishly allowed her curiosity to get the best of her. Now she knew that they were just friends.

"It’s not that I don’t want to hear it. I just don’t want to hear it from you. I tell Edgar all the time jokingly that he should be a woman so I could marry him. He has enough men trying to court him. I am not one of them," Tobias answered.

"He does?!" Hazel exclaimed, wanting to hear more. She never heard about a man popular with male suitors.

"Look at the way your eyes light up. They weren’t this way when I picked you to go on a walk with me or now for dinner. It’s starting to annoy me how all of you get excited about anything that concerns him. Smile because of me," Tobias said, wanting to see a genuine smile.

"It wasn’t because of your friend. I was merely surprised. I recall laughing at the things you said today and smiling as we walked together. Maybe you weren’t looking," Hazel replied.

Nothing about her smiles when they were alone today had been fake.

"Perhaps I wasn’t paying attention. That means I must choose you again tomorrow to see those smiles again," Tobias said, grinning ear to ear as he had trapped her.

Hazel could do nothing but stare at Tobias. He was more childish than she expected, but for some reason, she preferred it this way. "I wonder how life would be now if we had spent more time around each other in our youth. It might have been awkward for two friends to be sitting here, trying to court each other to lead to marriage. It might have been best if we disliked each other."

Tobias agreed with Hazel that it was better this way. Had she spent a lot of time around him then his mother would have shown more interest in Hazel and turned her into one of her little followers. Then Hazel would have been moulded into another version of his mother for this selection. That was something Tobias would not be able to endure.

"We weren’t friends for a good reason. If you were anything like your sister, we would not be sitting here alone. No offence," Tobias added since Hazel was an overprotective sister who might kick him again for speaking about her sister. "Have you told her that she was my second option at the ball?"

"How could I? I don’t want to speak about my sister right now. I have a headache to look forward to when I return to my room. We should use this time to get to know more about each other. Ask me anything you wish to know," Hazel said, picking up her knife and fork to join Tobias in eating.

"Did you have feelings for me in the past? Somewhere in the middle of hating me. Be honest," said Tobias.

"Very well. I thought that you were interesting because you were the prince. Curious about what you were like. There was a moment when I might have had a crush on you, but then you said something stupid and I moved on. Before you ask, I have always thought that you were handsome. I have no problem admitting it, but this is the last I shall say it before it gets to your head," Hazel said, followed by a pause as she stared at Tobias.

"It has already gotten to your head and you are twisting it around, aren’t you?" She asked, having a good feeling Tobias heard something differently.

"I don’t normally write down special moments, but I think it is needed for me to write down on paper that today, Hazel Wallace said she had a crush on me. If only there was something to let us watch over this moment so you couldn’t lie about it. I will get someone on it right away and have you repeat it," said Tobias.

"I will not be repeating. Now it is your turn to tell me if you have ever had feelings for me. I believe your answer should be yes because there is more to why you picked me twice. Be honest," Hazel said, repeating his earlier words.

Tobias thought about what Edgar said about him becoming distracted when Hazel walked by in the past and him trying to get a better look at her. He didn’t recall ever doing something like that. Still, aside from his past arguments with Hazel, she was beautiful. He always thought about it but never dared to say it.

"I always thought you were beautiful. I cannot remember having feelings for you, but others say otherwise. You were in the palace when I started to have an interest in girls so I might have stared at you as you walked by but never thought to approach you because I knew you would have glared at me and told me to get out of the way. It is funny now that I look back on it," Tobias chuckled.

Hazel was so bold back then to say the things she said to him. Now that he looked back at those moments, he realised that he had enjoyed bickering with Hazel. He enjoyed it now that they had grown up.

Tobias leaned back in his chair and watched Hazel gracefully eat her food, smiling most likely because of what he said. The vibrant flowers behind her and the lanterns added something to Hazel’s beauty.

He saw now why the garden was so special. Why it wasn’t as plain as he thought and why he shouldn’t fall into it, squashing the flowers whenever he sneaked out of his bedroom to eventually run out of the palace.

"What? Is there something on my face?" Hazel questioned, putting down her fork to feel around her face. She hoped after years of eating properly she had not made a mistake whilst sitting in front of Tobias. "Can you please say something?"

"Let me get it for you," Tobias said, leaning forward before Hazel could object.

Tobias used his thumb to rub away at a nonexistent piece of food Hazel had gotten on her cheek. He couldn’t miss the opportunity to tease her and ended up pinching her cheek before pulling away.

"Oh," Hazel groaned, shooing his hand away from her face. She soothed the spot where he pinched her and thought of repaying him with a good pinch, but before she could try, her eyes met with a maid standing on the sidelines, so she refrained from pinching Tobias. "You should hope that we are never alone because I will see to it you are in pain."

"Oh, sweet Hazel. You should hope that we aren’t alone," Tobias replied, enjoying the look she gave him.