by Leslie North
Damn him. Her life was so much simpler before he came along.
But you weren’t happy.
The silent accusation surprised her. Of course, she’d been happy. She had Arella, and she had the farm. What else did she need?
She needed Kashif. Shaking her head, she pushed that thought aside wondering if what he had told her was true. If it was, she didn’t understand how someone who was destined to lead his own country wouldn’t know that she had been trying to reach him. Why would his family push so hard to keep them apart? Was Arella really that much of a hindrance to his future position? If she was, then maybe it was best that she not tell him so as not to force him to choose.
Pushing her nagging thoughts away, she hurriedly dressed and went to check on Arella. The little girl was already up and playing with the dogs in the middle of the floor.
“Good morning, baby.”
“Is the prince still here?” Arella asked with rounded eyes in anticipation.
“Probably,” Kristy said with a frown. She didn’t want her daughter to get attached to Kashif. “But he’s only going to be here for a few days. Do you want to help Henry work with the pups today or would you rather help me with the horses?”
Arella narrowed her eyes as if she were deep in thought. Finally, she shook her head. “I want to cook!” she declared loudly.
Julia would love that. Kirsty picked out Arella’s favorite pink shirt with the matching purple pants and helped her daughter get dressed. “Why don’t we have breakfast, and you can help Aunt Julia around in the kitchen while I get started on the morning chores. Does that sound like fun?”
“Can Dusty and Jane help?”
“Sweetie, you know they’re not allowed in the kitchen. You sneak them treats, and then they start trying to steal them. “
“I only give them treats if they’re good,” the girl promised solemnly.
Laughing, Kristy kissed Arella’s forehead. “Sorry, sweetheart. You’ll have to sneak them treats after lunch. Come on!”
Arella scurried from the room as hard and fast as her little legs could carry her, and the dogs were right there with her. When Arella had first started walking and insisted on going up and down the stairs herself, Kristy had installed a lower railing so she would have something to hold on to, but it had been unnecessary. Even now, one dog was always in front of her, and one was always next to her. They kept her upright and prevented her from moving too quickly.
Gathering her hair up in a messy bun, Kristy slipped a few pins in before hurriedly heading to the front room. The phone was already ringing.
“Mistywood Farm,” she said breathlessly as she picked up.
“Hi, yes. I’d like some more information on the Mistywood Hot Springs tour?” a nasally, female voice asked.
Kristy blinked. “The what?”
“The tours of the hot springs. I saw a flyer in the bakery this morning.”
Just then, Kristy focused on the neon green slip of paper propped up on the table. Snatching it, she turned it over and widened her eyes in horror. “I’m sorry, ma’am, I’m afraid we aren’t giving out information quite yet. Please call back later.”
Hanging up before the woman could ask any more questions, she stared at the flyer. It announced one tour a day to the newly discovered Mistywood Forest Hot Springs. Come for hiking, picnicking, exploring, and soaking. Details to follow.
“Aunt Julia?” she shouted in panic. Bursting into the kitchen, she stopped short when she saw Kashif sitting at the table. Although she was pissed, she couldn’t help but stop and admire how good the man looked in the morning. She subconsciously tucked some of her loose strands of hair back in her bun. From the way he was dressed, it was clear that he’d been up early. And shopping judging from the bakery boxes sitting on the counter and what looked to be a new cream-colored wool sweater pulled taut across his muscular frame. His hair still looked a bit tousled and she fisted her hand to keep from reaching out to push the wayward strands back in place.
“You,” she growled at him tossing the flyer down in front of him. “What is this?”
“An advertisement?” he answered innocently.
“Kashif, are you out of your mind? We have no idea if the springs are safe, and I certainly don’t have a tour guide. Nor do I have the manpower to do picnics!”
“That’s why the tours don’t start until after the New Year,” he said easily. “So you have time to get ready. I bet people are already making reservations online.”
“Online? You set it up online?”
“I sure did. Let’s go check it out.” Taking another bite of his muffin, he pushed the open pastry box toward Arella and Julia before getting up from the table. As he walked past her, he leaned over and whispered in her ear. “You look beautiful this morning.”
Immediately, her cheeks flushed, and she caught Julia watching them in amusement. “Go away,” she grumbled softly.
Kashif chuckled and walked over to the computer. After several clicks of the mouse, he straightened and grinned. “Look at that. You’re already filled up for the first day of the tour.”
“We are?” Perplexed, Kristy stared down at the website. Sure enough, there were five reservations totaling ten people on the first day.
“I think you owe me an apology,” he said with a grin.
“I think I need to remind you that this is my farm, and you will not do something like this again without my approval,” she snapped. Then, she took a deep breath. “However, having said that, I should probably thank you.”
“Saying that you should thank me isn’t the same as actually thanking me,” he reminded her gently.
Tucking her hair behind her ear, she glanced away. “Maybe we could go to dinner tonight, as a way of me thanking you.”
“Ms. Cohen, are you asking me out on a date?”
“No,” she said quickly. “Not a date. Weren’t you listening? A business dinner. I’d like your input on some other changes I could make to the farm. Plus, Arella will be with us; since, um, her cough seems to be so much better.”
“Kristy, I’d love to go on a date with you,” he said as he leaned down and brushed his lips across the corner of her mouth. Looking up at him in surprise, she caught his smirk and guessed it had to do with her excuse last night.
“For God’s sakes,” she muttered as she pushed him away. Glancing out the window, she groaned. Uncle Darren’s blue pick-up truck drove up the long drive.
“Aunt Julia,” she called out. “Your husband is here.”
“Oh, good. I really wanted to try my hand at this new casserole dish tonight, and I needed some ingredients,” she said as she rounded the corner and brushed her hands on her apron. Staring at how close Kashif and Kristy were standing, a smile spread across her face.
Pushing Kashif gently away, she immediately turned to head back to work. Julia barred her way with a frown. “You’re not going to greet your uncle?” she asked disapprovingly.
Her aunt was well aware that Kristy and Darren didn’t get along, and she always tried to push them together.
“Sorry,” Kristy muttered contritely. “Arella, sweetheart. Come say hi to your uncle.”
“Uncle!” Arella shrieked from the other room. Kristy could hear the tapping of dog nails on the floor and knew that Arella and her entourage were headed their way. Arella loved her uncle, and Kristy could honestly say that the feeling was mutual.
Uncle Darren doted on her like she was his own.
The large man burst through the door and set down several grocery bags. Sweeping an arm around Arella, he tossed her easily up in the air. “There’s my sweet girl! Where are my kisses?”
Arella planted loud and messy kisses to the man’s cheek, and Kristy couldn’t help but grin. Maybe in time, she and Darren could learn to get along.
“Hello,” Darren said as he stretched out his hand to Kashif. “You must be the handsome man my wife can’t stop talking about. I thought I’d maybe have to come down with a shotgun until Julia t
old me that you only have eyes for my niece.”
“Darren!” Kristy’s eyes widened in embarrassment. She really needed to have a talk with Julia to straighten a few things out.
“It’s true, although Julia could seduce any man with her cooking,” Kashif answered as he clasped the larger man’s hand.
“Ah, that she could. That she could. So, I hear you’re the only guest here.”
Great. Here they go. Darren was going to start berating her about how she ran the lodge. Stiffening her back, she narrowed her eyes, but Kashif quickly stepped in.
“I am, but it’s peaceful, and I know Kristy is grateful. She’s able to catch up on some of the things around the farm, and I’m more than happy to help her out,” Kashif said quickly. The last sentence hung in the air unspoken, but they all heard.
Since there’s no one else here to do it.
Darren eyed the man suspiciously for a few seconds before nodding his head. “I think that I like you. How about you and I take a few turns around the track and then see if we can’t mend that fence that Kristy has been complaining about.”
“I’m sure the Sheikh has better things to do than indulge in some manual labor, no matter how much fun that sounds,” she interrupted hastily.
“I’d love to help. I am capable of being helpful,” he said with a wry smile.
Knowing that she wasn’t going to win the argument, and praying that Kashif and Darren’s help didn’t mean more work for her, she finally nodded her head and relented.
“All right, Arella. I reckon you’re old enough now to be on a sled. What do you say?” Darren asked, looking down at the child.
“Yeah!” Arella jumped up and down excitedly, but Kristy’s eyes widened in horror.
“No. No, she is not old enough,” Kristy stepped in quickly. “She isn’t old enough until I say that she’s old enough and you know that. I wish you wouldn’t insist on putting those thoughts in her head.”
Kashif watched her in surprise, but Darren shook his head and sighed. “You coddle that girl, Kristy. When are you going to let her have some fun?”
“She’s a toddler, Darren. She has fun twirling in circles in the middle of the room, and the worst that can happen to her is that she gets dizzy and falls two feet to the floor,” Kristy snapped. “We’ve had this conversation, and we are not having it again. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some things to do.”
Aware that everyone was watching her, she took Arella’s hand and pulled her firmly from the room. She was so angry that she was shaking inside.
Darren knew how she felt about Arella being on the sled, and yet he still pushed. Arella could play with the dogs all day long, but when it came to being on a dog sled, it would be a cold day in hell before Kristy would let that happen.
11
The small diner up the street was the closest restaurant to the farm. It was also the center of the town’s gossip, so Kristy was hesitant to take Kashif there, but Arella was fussy by the end of the day, and she didn’t want to travel far.
“There’s my favorite girl!” Gloria cried as they walked in the door. Knowing that the large-busted woman wasn’t talking about her, she pushed Arella slightly forward as the older woman bent down and picked her up.
Arella, always fascinated by Gloria’s cleavage, immediately started pushing on it with her finger. Kristy long ago stopped trying to apologize. Gloria seemed to love it.
“Who’s the handsome fella with you?” she demanded. The diner wasn’t really the place for polite customer service. She, Stu, and Ellie said what they wanted, when they wanted.
“Gloria, this is a guest at the lodge. His name is Kashif Shadid.” Kristy was sure it wasn’t proper to announce the prince without his title, but she didn’t really want news to spread that royalty was staying at her lodge.
Apparently, it was too late. “The Sheikh?” Ellie yelled from across the diner. “Same sexy man who stayed here a few years ago?”
“Sexy man?” Kashif teased. “That definitely sounds like me.”
“Oh, sit down,” Kristy growled. “Gloria, could we get a high chair and a coloring mat for Arella?”
“Of course, sugar. Anything for this little sweetheart.” As Gloria carted Arella off, Kristy pushed through the tables and found an empty booth near the back. Although the roads were slick, most of the people in the diner lived close enough to walk, and as they watched Kashif closely, Kristy had a sinking feeling that they weren’t planning on leaving anytime soon.
She was too besotted last time to care about the gossip, but remembered it all too well when she was pregnant. The town speculated that Kashif was the father, but she’d hotly denied it. Now, she was glad that she did.
“I forgot how charming this place is,” Kashif said as he looked around. Kristy couldn’t even begin to imagine what he found charming. The yellow vinyl booths were faded and torn with fluff sticking out everywhere. It had been that way for as long as Kristy could remember. When she was a kid, she used to pick at the seams and pull out the strings.
The horrendous multi-colored lamps hanging from the ceilings were dusty, and the wooden tables were unpolished and cracked. The only thing Kristy never got tired of were the old black and white photos on the wall of the race winners from years past. Some of them featured her grandfather when he first started racing as he posed with his first round of sled dogs. Some of the dogs she had today were descendants of that first line.
“Arella, do you want chicken fingers, grilled cheese, or mac and cheese?”
The little girl was already scribbling all over the coloring mat that Gloria had given her. “Grilled cheese please,” the girl muttered without looking up. Kristy didn’t even know why she bothered to ask. Arella only ever got grilled cheese at the diner. She claimed that it was her favorite, and no matter how hard Kristy tried, she couldn’t seem to make it exactly right, and Gloria wasn’t giving up the secret.
After ordering, Kashif leaned over and picked up a crayon. “Can I color with you?” he asked Arella.
Kristy was about to remind him of their agreement, but Arella handed him the green crayon, her favorite color, and Kristy watched, astonished, as the two of them worked on her masterpiece.
Was there some kind of father-daughter bond that was instantaneous that she didn’t know about? Arella loved almost everybody, but she was fiercely protective over her green crayons. Kristy could use them, but that was it.
“Why don’t you want Arella to go dog sledding?” Kashif asked without looking up.
“It’s too dangerous. There are so many dog-sledding accidents, and there’s too much to focus on without the added burden of a toddler on the sled. Darren knows that, but he still insists on trying to take her out every time he comes to visit. He gets Arella all worked up, and then I have to be the bad guy for telling her no.”
“I’m sure he’d go slowly. I can’t believe he’d ever put Arella in danger.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said stubbornly as she thought back to her own dog sledding accident when she was a kid. She’d been much older than Arella, and she’d gone out on her own, but she and her dog had nearly died that day. If her father hadn’t heard her screams and pulled her out of the water in time, they would have frozen to death. “Things happen.”
“You know, I can’t help but see a pattern here,” he said as he lifted his head to watch her intently. “You don’t like to deviate from the norm.”
“If you’re talking about the hot springs tours, I told you that I’d give it a shot.”
“Yes, you did, but you weren’t happy about it.”
“You don’t understand because you view this place as a vacation. For me, it’s home. I used to play in that forest for hours as a child. It’s my sanctuary. It’s my peace. I start inviting strangers to come out and tour it, and I could destroy its natural beauty. I want Arella to have the same love of it as I do, but once she’s old enough to appreciate it; it might be teaming with tourists.”
Kashif seem
ed to consider her point of view and nodded. “But that’s easy to fix, Kristy. Limit the tours and make it very clear that trespassers will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Sure, you might get a few teenagers wandering in to sneak a little naughty time in the springs, but I doubt that they could do any serious damage.”
“That’s the problem with you,” she sighed. “You never see the consequences of actions. You just want to enjoy the moment.”
“I am thinking of the consequences, Kristy. I’m thinking of what’s going to happen to Mistywood Farm if you don’t do something about it.”
Swallowing hard, she leaned back as their food arrived. They were like two different people, and it was so hard to find common ground. He thrived off risks and adventures, and she needed stability, but in the back of her head, she knew that he was right.
Maybe it was time to make some changes. Maybe, just this once, she’d indulge in something a little risky.
Start small. Start with tonight.
After dinner, Kashif sat heavily on the bed and shook his head. There was a shift in Kristy at dinner, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. She’d been watching him quietly when they sat down and ordered, but by the time the food arrived, there was a flush in her cheeks, and she shifted around nervously
If only he had some idea what was going on in that head of hers.
He’d called the palace only to find that Melka was with Samir, and the two of them were holed up in a safe house because of what would probably turn out to be a jealous husband. As much as he itched to get the guard fired for what had transpired all those years ago, he wasn’t about to do it if his youngest brother’s life was truly in danger.
Kashif would deal with it when he got back, and the consequences would be swift and severe.
Since there was nothing he could do about it now, he bent down and untied his boots. Although he normally went to bed much later, he had hoped to get up early tomorrow and spend some time with the dogs and Henry. He could sense that it was a good team, and he could practically taste victory. There would be more experienced sledders in the race, and although Kashif wanted to place, he mostly wanted to race. He needed to feel that rush of exhilaration.