by Holly Rayner
He had asked his parents to fund his business a dozen times, and the answer had always been no. He didn’t want to give them the impression that after everything he had been through, he was going to just ask for their money again.
“We’re not giving you money,” his father said. “We’re making a business investment, and we expect to be treated accordingly. As investment partners, we’ll want regular updates on the progress of the company, and we’ll own a partial stake in it.”
Ahmad hesitated. He wanted this company to be his own. Did they mean to take control of it?
“How much?” he asked.
“Six percent seems reasonable, for a start,” his father said.
Ahmad exhaled. “Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked. “It really wasn’t my intention to ask for money.”
“I can see that it wasn’t,” his father agreed. “But I can also see that you’re a competent businessman with a sound financial plan, and when I see something like that, it makes me want to get involved. If you’re willing to take me on as a partner, then my decision is made.”
Ahmad smiled. “In that case, I’d be honored.”
The food arrived at the table, and his father waved a hand.
“We’ll discuss business no more tonight,” he said. “We’re here to celebrate the newest addition to our family, my little grandson. Does he have a name yet?”
“Not yet,” Ahmad admitted. “It’s the one thing Joanna and I never really discussed. We didn’t know if we were going to have a boy or a girl, and I didn’t know how to raise the subject of whether to give him an Al-Yaran name or an American name. And we’ve been so aligned on every other matter that has come up, always in total agreement. I didn’t want to raise a subject that might give us something to argue about.”
“So, the child goes nameless?” his father said, laughing. “The poor boy. What an inauspicious beginning!”
“He’ll have a name,” Ahmad said. “We just want it to be perfect, so we’re taking our time about it. You’ll know when we decide.”
“And what’s the plan for the three of you now?” his mother asked.
“What do you mean?” Ahmad asked.
He reached into his pocket and fingered the item concealed there. He knew what she was asking, if he was being honest with himself. But was he ready to answer?
“She’s an American,” his mother said. “Will she be going back to America and taking the child with her? And what will your involvement be?”
“Actually…” Ahmad hesitated. “I had planned to discuss this with her before I talked to anyone else about it, but maybe it’s better that I talk to you, first.”
“What is it, son?” his mother asked.
In response, Ahmad pulled out the small box in his pocket and set it on the table before his parents.
His mother reached out, then drew her hand back.
“It’s what I think it is, isn’t it?” she said.
“Go ahead,” he urged her.
She opened the box, revealing the sparkling solitary diamond on the gold ring inside.
“Ahmad,” she whispered. “Oh, this is lovely.”
“I had no idea you were so serious about the girl,” his father said quietly.
“I didn’t know it myself until recently,” Ahmad admitted. “We did plan that she would go back to America, and I would stay here, and we would share custody. That was the original thought, and up until a few weeks ago, I would say it was what we meant to do. But something’s been building between the two of us. Some kind of… shared feeling. I’m almost sure she feels the same way I do. We talked about the possibility of her moving here, and even about her living in the penthouse with me. But it’s not enough. I want to make things official.”
“I never thought I’d see this day,” his father admitted. “Ahmad, a husband and father.”
“How long have you been planning to propose?” his mother asked.
“I’ve been thinking about it for about a week now,” Ahmad said. “But she was getting so close to her delivery that I didn’t want to go ahead with it. I mean, what if she had said no? That would have made for an awkward birth.”
“Do you think she’s going to say no?” his mother asked.
“I hope not,” Ahmad said. “But you can’t really be sure of these things, can you?”
“I suppose not,” she agreed.
“I’m glad I had the opportunity to speak to the two of you before asking her,” Ahmad said. “As much as I’m looking forward to it, I’ll feel better knowing that I have your blessing. I know how important this family is to you, and if I’m going to be bringing someone new into it, I want to have your approval.”
“I wish you had felt you could discuss all this with us sooner,” his father said.
Ahmad nodded.
“I wish I’d done that,, too,” he said. “No doubt it would have been better for everyone involved. Joanna would have been more comfortable here in Al-Yara knowing she was welcomed by the royal family, and even Umar would have benefitted from knowing what was going on.”
“Can we agree to no more secrets?” his father asked.
“I think so,” Ahmad said.
“Because your mother and I want very much to be involved in your life,” he said. “We want to know your wife, if that’s what she is to be. And, of course, we want to know our grandson. We want an opportunity to teach him what it means to be part of Al-Yara’s royal family.”
“Then I have your blessing?” Ahmad asked. “To ask Joanna to marry me, I mean?”
“Of course,” said his mother. “We look forward to getting to know her better, and to throwing a royal wedding, of course.”
Ahmad couldn’t keep the smile from his face. In his wildest dreams, he hadn’t imagined that today might go so well. The birth of his son had been as easy and complication-free as could be expected. Both mother and baby were doing well. And now, not only did it look as though he was going to be able to achieve his dream of starting his own airline, but he was also back on good terms with his family.
He couldn’t have asked for anything more.
He sat with his parents for several hours that evening, enjoying food and wine, toasting the new little addition to their family and the promise of a wedding to come, gaining confidence with every moment that passed that Joanna would accept his proposal. She had agreed to come and live with him in Al-Yara, so there could be little doubt of her feelings toward him now.
After a time, he returned to the hospital and crept into her room, not wanting to disturb her if she was still sleeping.
She was awake, though, and she smiled as he came in.
“How was dinner?” she asked tiredly.
“Wonderful,” Ahmad said. “My family fully supports us.”
“That’s great,” she said, closing her eyes. “So, you’ll be able to inherit the money?”
“We’re making a different arrangement for the money,” he said. “Don’t worry about that right now. I want you to rest. The doctor says you might be able to leave the hospital in the morning.”
She nodded happily, already slipping off to sleep again.
Ahmad settled himself in the chair beside her bed to await whatever would come next.
Chapter 19
Joanna
Joanna cuddled her son to her chest. It was her first time taking him out of the penthouse since they’d brought him home from the hospital, and although she knew this was a struggle for every new mother, she couldn’t deny that it made her nervous.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“It’s a surprise.” Ahmad smiled slyly at her.
“But nowhere too public, right?” she asked anxiously. “I don’t want Khalid exposed to any germs.”
“You don’t need to worry,” he assured her. “I doubt we’ll see anybody at all today.”
Joanna nodded and tried to relax. She knew Ahmad would never put their son in danger. But it was difficult to adjust to the fact tha
t she couldn’t protect him the way she once had. He was no longer contained within her body, no longer shielded by her wherever they went. He was a separate person from her now.
It was scary.
She had swaddled him against the front of her body, so it almost felt the way it had when she had been pregnant, but he faced out now, looking at the world around him with frank and curious eyes. His curiosity—that was one of the things that touched her most about him. Already, she could see his little personality beginning to form, though he was only a couple of weeks old.
The car pulled up in front of a house Joanna didn’t recognize. She peered up at it through the window.
“What is this place?” she asked.
“You don’t know?” Ahmad asked her.
“Should I?”
“You’ve been here before,” he said.
“I don’t think I have.”
He smiled and got out of the car. Joanna followed as he led her around the side of the house.
She gasped in sudden recognition.
It was the beach she had snuck onto the day they had first met. And the house where the car had stopped—of course. That was Ahmad’s beach house. She had seen it from the inside, and she had seen it from this side. But she had never approached it from the front, and so she hadn’t recognized it.
Someone had gone to the effort of setting up a canopy on the beach. Instead of a table full of food this time, there was what looked like a picnic blanket, picnic basket, and a bucket of champagne.
Ahmad led her over.
“I know you can’t really drink yet, since you’re still breastfeeding him,” he said. “But non-alcoholic champagne ought to be all right. Don’t you think so?”
“I think that’s probably fine,” Joanna agreed, smiling. “I can’t believe you brought us back here. This is exactly where I would have wanted to go for our first time out of the house, if I had thought about it.”
“I always think the ocean is one of the most romantic places in the world,” Ahmad agreed, gazing out at it.
“We’ll have to bring Khalid here all the time when he’s a little older,” she said. “I never got to see the ocean, growing up in Missouri. I was in my twenties, the first time I saw it.”
“Joanna,” Ahmad said. “The truth is that I brought you here for a reason. A reason besides just wanting to look at the waves, I mean.”
“You didn’t buy another house on this beach, did you?” she asked.
He laughed.
“No. Not that. Actually, I’m thinking of a different sort of acquisition. And for the first time, I’m going to try to not keep things businesslike.”
“That’s so unlike you,” she said, mystified.
“I’m unlike myself, lately,” he said. “The truth is, everything changed when I met you. Everything I’ve always known about myself began to shift. I’m a better person, a kinder person because you’re in my life. You gave me a child, but you gave me something more than that, something I’ll never forget. You taught me what it means to love another person.”
She had never heard him speak like this before. Ahmad had gradually grown more and more open with her in the time they had known each other, but this was an entirely new level of openness. All she could do was wait to hear what he would say next.
“I’ve discovered a side of myself I never knew existed,” he said. “I’ve found strength I never knew I had. And it’s all thanks to you, Joanna.”
She shook her head. She was beginning to feel tearful.
“Maybe I showed you this side of yourself,” she said, “but it was there all along. You have to take credit for being the person you are. And without you, I would never have learned to go for the things I wanted in life. I would still be alone, convincing myself I was happy enough that way.”
Ahmad reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black box.
Joanna knew right away what she was looking at, and yet it was hard to believe. The word marriage had never been spoken between the two of them.
How could he have known? she wondered. How did he know what was in my fantasies, my wildest dreams? We never even discussed it!
But it was happening. It was manifesting, right now, right before her eyes.
“Stand up, please,” he said quietly. “I want to do this the right way.”
Wordless, dumbstruck, Joanna got to her feet.
He knelt before her. He opened the ring box carefully, and Joanna was momentarily dazzled by the size of the diamond. She wanted to tell him it wasn’t necessary for him to give her something like this. He had already given her the most precious thing in the world. If it hadn’t been for him, she would never have had Khalid.
But she couldn’t find words.
“Marry me, Joanna,” Ahmad said. “I never knew I could feel for someone the things I feel for you, and I never want you to go away. Say you’ll marry me.”
“Of course I will,” she whispered, her throat feeling thick, her eyes full of tears. She felt incapable of speech, incapable of organized thought.
Ahmad removed the ring from the box, took her hand, and slipped it onto her ring finger.
“Perfect fit,” he said, smiling. “And it looks good there, too.”
She looked down at her hand. It looked as if it belonged to someone else, someone in a different life from the one Joanna knew. Could this really be the same hand that had poured a thousand in-flight cocktails and closed a thousand overhead bins? How had she come to be standing on a beautiful private beach in the country of Al-Yara, wearing a ring from a sheikh and holding his baby in her arms?
“When did you decide to do this?” she asked. “I didn’t tell you I was planning to stay in Al-Yara until after the baby was born. Did you put it all together that quickly?”
“Not at all,” he said. “You decided to stay in Al-Yara before you told me it was your intention to do so, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” she admitted.
“Well, I was the same,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. It was abstract at first, and then it was more about creating a stable family for Khalid than anything else. But I thought of it months and months ago. I was shopping for rings when you were about four months along.”
“You couldn’t have been,” she protested. “We were planning to live on different continents back then.”
“I know,” he said. “But if you’d accepted my proposal, I would have brought you to live here. And we did talk about it back then, remember? We just never really resolved the question.”
“You’re making this up,” she said, smiling. “You’re just trying to tell me a story I’ll like.”
“No, it’s the truth,” he insisted. “If you don’t believe me, you can ask your mother.”
“My mother? What would she know about it?”
“Do you remember the day I met her?” Ahmad asked.
“Of course,” Joanna said.
“She was hesitant about me at first, remember?” Ahmad said. “But she warmed up to me quickly.”
“Surprisingly quickly,” Joanna agreed. “More quickly than I expected.”
“Well, that was because I talked to her about the possibility of marrying you,” he said. “Even then, I knew it was an option I wanted to explore, and I wanted to get her blessing. I wanted to make sure she approved of my intentions toward you before I went forward.”
“You mean you asked her?” Joanna said.
“That’s right,” Ahmad said.
“But you couldn’t have,” she protested. “I was there the whole time. You didn’t have a chance to ask her.”
“No,” Ahmad said. “You went out of the room for a few minutes to fix refreshments for everyone. I did it then.”
Joanna thought back. She remembered, suddenly, that she had heard her mother and Ahmad talking, and that she had wondered what the conversation was about. But she had forgotten to ask, and the memory had left her.
“All that time ago?” she asked. “Way ba
ck then, you knew?”
“I hoped,” he said. “I hoped we could find some way to make this arrangement work. But I never dreamed, back then, that I would fall as deeply in love with you as I have.”
He got to his feet and took her in his arms.
“Thank you,” he said. “Thank you for saying yes. You’ve given me everything, Joanna. You’ve given me everything I never knew I was always dreaming of.”
He bent to her, and she stood on her toes to reach him. Their lips met as a wave crashed on the shore, and Joanna felt as if she was being carried out to sea. The ground beneath her feet seemed to shift. Nothing around her was permanent.
But this—the man in her arms and the sleeping baby cradled between them—this was permanent. This was hers, hers forever, and she knew that she would never let it go.
She had been beyond fortunate to find herself in this situation. She had never dreamed it would happen. And now, here she was.
Ahmad bent and picked up the champagne bottle. He uncorked it carefully.
“I’m afraid we don’t have any glasses. I forgot to bring any,” he said. “But we can drink from the bottle.”
She nodded. “We have a habit of doing things the unconventional way,” she said with a laugh.
He offered her the bottle first, and she took a slow, careful sip, letting the bubbles effervesce on her tongue. Ahmad took the bottle from her, took a hearty swallow, and then pulled her to him and kissed her again.
“We should stay here tonight,” he said, his voice low and husky.
“Here? The beach?”
“Not on the beach,” he said. “Up in the house.”
“There’s no one using it right now?”
“No, it’s empty,” he said. “I deliberately left it empty today. I didn’t want anyone to disturb us while we were here.”
She nodded. “Is there a place for Khalid to sleep?” she asked.
“There’s a cradle,” he said. “Some guests bring babies.”
“And food? We have food?”
Ahmad laughed. “Will you stop worrying about the practicalities?” he asked. “I have a full staff up at the house. Remember, I’m trying not to be businesslike today.”