“I am,” she said. “There was a period of adjustment—for all of us—but I think we’ve come a long way in a few weeks.”
“The young princess seems very taken with you.”
“I think she’s feeling guilty.”
“That could be part of it,” he admitted.
Hannah sat patiently while he tied off the sutures, thinking about the little girl.
“I still miss my mom sometimes,” she finally admitted.
If her uncle thought it was a strange statement, or one that came from out of nowhere, he gave no indication of it. Instead, he said, “I do, too.”
“But I have a lot of memories of the time we spent together. Good memories.”
“And Riley has none of her mother,” he noted, following her train of thought.
“Do you think that makes it harder for her—because she doesn’t have any memories to hold on to?”
“I’m sure there are times when she’s conscious of a void in her life, but she seems pretty well-adjusted to me.”
“How long do you think someone usually grieves?”
He taped a square of gauze over the sutures. “I’m not sure there’s an answer to that question. Each relationship is different, therefore each grieving process is different.”
She thought about her father’s latest email again—and her own surprise and anger when she read his note. “I thought my dad would love my mom forever.”
“I’m sure he will,” her uncle said gently. “But that doesn’t mean he couldn’t—or shouldn’t—fall in love again.”
She nodded, but her thoughts were no longer on her parents’ relationship or her father’s remarriage. “Do you think Prince Michael could fall in love again?”
“I’m sure he could,” he said with a slight furrow in his brow. “But I wouldn’t want to speculate on when that might happen, and I don’t want you to forget that this is only a summer job.”
“Don’t worry—I have no desire to give up teaching to be a full-time nanny,” she assured him.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“What did you mean?”
“I know you had a crush on the prince when you were younger, and I’m worried that being here may have rekindled those feelings.”
“I did have a crush,” she admitted. “But it was a childhood infatuation. I didn’t know him then, and I didn’t even like him when I first came here—he was so distant and reserved.”
“And now you’ve fallen in love with him,” he guessed.
She shook her head. “No. I have feelings for him—” deeper feelings than she was ready to admit even to herself “—but I’m smart enough to know that falling in love with a prince could never lead to anything but heartache.”
“You’re not nearly as smart as you think if you honestly believe that you can control what is in your heart,” he warned her.
As Phillip finished packing up his bag, Caridad came in to invite him to stay for dinner. He declined the offer politely, insisting that he wanted to get on his way.
Hannah was sorry to see him go—she had missed him over the past several weeks, but she was also relieved by his departure. Apparently he had shrewder observation skills than she would have guessed, and she was very much afraid he was right. And if she was falling in love with the prince, she didn’t want her uncle to be a witness to her folly.
Because she knew that it would be foolish to give her heart to a man who could never love her back because he was still in love with his wife. And she feared that her uncle was right—that loving the prince might not be a matter of choice, and that she already did.
After dinner, Hannah joined the prince and his daughter in the media room to watch a movie. Riley insisted on sitting between them with the bowl of popcorn in her lap, and while the action on the screen kept her riveted for nearly ninety minutes, she did sneak periodic glances at the bandage on Hannah’s head to ensure that it wasn’t bleeding again.
“Bedtime,” the prince told his daughter when the credits began to roll.
“I can’t go to bed,” she protested. “I have to stay up in case Hannah has a concuss.”
“It’s concussion,” Hannah said. “And I don’t.”
“But what if you do?”
“Doctor Phil checked me over very thoroughly.”
“But the medical book says you should be ’specially vigi—” She wrinkled her nose, trying to remember the word.
“Vigilant?” her father suggested.
She nodded. “You should be ’specially vigilant when someone gets hit in the head.”
So that was what she’d been doing while Phillip stitched up Hannah’s wound—reading up on head injuries.
“I appreciate your concern,” she told the little girl. “But I’m really okay—I promise.”
“You’re not going to die?” The little girl’s eyes were wide, her tone worried.
“Not today.”
“Does it hurt very much?” The child didn’t sound worried so much as curious now.
“Not very much,” she said, and it was true now that the acetaminophen her uncle had given her was finally starting to take the edge off of the pain.
“Do you want me to kiss it better?”
Hannah was as surprised as she was touched by the offer. “I think that would make it much better.”
Riley leaned forward and very carefully touched her lips to the square of white gauze that had been taped over the wound.
“Okay?”
She nodded.
“You have to kiss it, too, Daddy.”
Hannah’s panicked gaze met with the prince’s amused one.
“It’s really much better now,” she said to Riley.
“But if one kiss helps, then two should help twice as much,” the little girl said logically.
“You can’t argue with that,” Michael told her.
“I guess not,” she agreed.
“Kiss her, Daddy.”
So he did. He leaned down and touched his lips gently to her forehead, just above the bandage. It was nothing more than a fleeting touch, barely more than a brush against her skin, but it made everything inside of her melt. Oh yeah, she was definitely falling.
He pulled back, looking into her eyes again. All traces of amusement were gone from his expression now, replaced by an intense awareness that rocked her to her very soul.
“Is that twice as much better?” Riley wanted to know.
Hannah forced a smile. “Twice as much.”
“Now that Hannah’s boo-boo has been kissed all better, it’s bedtime for you,” Michael reminded his daughter.
“Will you take me up, Daddy?”
“You bet,” he said, and swept her off of her feet and into his arms.
Hannah let out an unsteady breath as they disappeared through the doorway. She felt the tiniest twinge of guilt knowing that she’d lied to the little girl. Because the truth was that the prince’s kiss hadn’t made anything better, it had only made her desire for him that much harder to ignore.
When Riley was all snug under her covers, Michael kissed her good-night and went back downstairs to find Hannah. He wasn’t happy when he found her in the kitchen.
“You’re supposed to be resting,” he admonished.
“I’m not on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor— I’m just putting a couple of glasses in the dishwasher.”
“Nevertheless—” He took her arm and steered her out of the room. “I don’t want your uncle mad at me because you weren’t following his orders.”
“I can’t imagine he would hold you responsible.”
“And Riley is very concerned about you, too,” he reminded her.
She smiled at that. “If I’d known a little cut above my eye would change her attitude toward me, I’d have let her take a swing at me weeks ago.”
“I’m not sure that’s a strategy I would actually recommend to her next nanny.”
He was only responding to her teasing, but his words were a remin
der to both of them that the summer was almost halfway over. And when it was done, Hannah would go back to her own life, and he and his daughter would go on with theirs.
Not so very long ago he’d been thinking about the two months he’d planned to spend at Cielo del Norte as an interminable amount of time. Now that the first month had nearly passed, it didn’t seem long enough.
Hannah returned to the media room and resumed her place at one end of the oversize leather sofa. He’d been sitting at the other end earlier, with Riley as a buffer between them, but he sat in the middle now.
She looked at him warily. “Don’t you have phone calls to make or projects to complete?”
“It’s almost ten o’clock.”
“That hasn’t seemed to matter on any other night.”
She was right. He was in the habit of disappearing back into his office again as soon as he’d said good-night to his daughter. But what Hannah didn’t know was that he often just sat behind his desk, doing nothing much of anything except ensuring that he kept a safe and careful distance between himself and the far-too-tempting nanny. And if he was smart, he would have done the same thing tonight, except that he’d made his daughter a promise.
“Riley asked me to keep an eye on you.”
“I’m fine,” she insisted.
“She made me pinky-swear,” he told her.
Her lips curved. “It’s sweet of her to worry, but I’m not concussed and I don’t need anyone watching over me.”
“I know it,” he acknowledged. “But Riley seems really concerned.”
“A lot of kids are preoccupied by death and dying,” she said. “I would guess it’s even more usual for a child who’s lost someone close.”
Somehow he knew that she wasn’t just talking about Riley anymore. “How old were you when your mom died?” he asked.
“Eight.”
“What happened?”
“There was a malaria epidemic in the village where we were living at the time. I got sick first, and my mom didn’t trust that the Swazi doctors knew what they were doing, so she called Phillip. By the time he arrived, I was on my way to recovery, but—” Her gaze shifted away, but not before he caught a glimpse of the moisture in her eyes. “But while she’d been taking care of me, she’d ignored her own symptoms. By the time the doctors realized that she’d been infected, too, the disease had progressed too far.”
She tucked her feet up beneath her on the sofa. “I thought my dad blamed me,” she confided. “And that’s why he sent me away after she died.”
“He sent you away?”
“No one admitted that’s what happened. Uncle Phillip said that I would be better off in Tesoro del Mar, that traveling from village to village was no kind of life for a child, and my father agreed. But no one had seemed too concerned about that while my mom was alive, and no one seemed to think about the fact that they were sending me away to live with a man I barely even knew.”
“I’m sorry, Hannah.”
And he was. He couldn’t imagine how traumatic it had been for a child who’d just lost her mother to be taken away from her only other parent.
“I’m not. At the time, I was devastated,” she admitted. “But now I realize it was the best thing that could have happened. My uncle gave me not just a home, but a sense of stability and security I’d never had before. He was—and is—a constant presence in my life, the one person I know I can depend on above all others.”
“Where’s your father now?”
“Botswana, I think. At least, that’s where his last email came from.”
“The one that told you he was getting married again,” he guessed.
“How did you know about that?”
“You once told me that you wanted me to work on my relationship with Riley so that she didn’t get an email from me telling her that she had a new stepmother.”
She winced. “I was upset. The message wasn’t that he was getting married but that he’d already gotten married. He didn’t even think to tell me beforehand. And probably the only reason he thought to share the news at all is that they’re coming to Tesoro del Mar in the fall and he hopes I’ll get a chance to meet her.”
“I can see how that would have pulled the proverbial rug out from under you,” he admitted.
“But it shouldn’t have,” she said now. “Because the truth is, I don’t know him well enough to be surprised by anything he does. In the past eighteen years, since Uncle Phillip brought me here, I’ve only seen my father half a dozen times.
“His work has always been more important to him than anything else. And I guess, when you trust that you’ve been called to a higher mission, it needs to be a priority,” she acknowledged. “And I know he believes in what he’s doing. He goes to the darkest corners of the world, he sees families living in poverty and he sees children struggling to learn, but he never saw me.”
She sighed. “It hurt. For a long time. But I finally realized that he was doing what he needed to do, because the people he helps out need him more than I ever did.”
He didn’t think it was as simple as that, and he was furious with her father for turning a blind eye to the needs of his child and angry with himself because he’d been doing the same thing to Riley. And he was so very grateful to Hannah for making him see it and helping him to be a better father to his daughter.
“So will you go to meet her—your father’s new wife?”
“Probably.” Her lips curved just a little.
He lifted a brow, silently inquiring.
“My friend Karen suggested I show up with a husband in tow,” she explained.
“Getting married just to make a point seems a little extreme, don’t you think?”
“More than a little, but I don’t think she was suggesting an actual legal union.”
“Have you ever been married?” he asked curiously.
“No.”
“Engaged?”
“Haven’t we covered enough of my family history for one night?”
He figured that was a yes, but decided to respect her wish not to talk about it. At least for now. “So what are we going to talk about for the rest of the night?”
“If you’re really determined to hang out here babysitting me, that’s your choice, Your Highness. But I’m going to watch some television.”
“It’s my choice,” he agreed. “And it’s my TV.” And he snapped up the remote before she could.
She narrowed her gaze. “Don’t make me wrestle you for it.”
“Would you really?” He was certainly willing to let her tackle him. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more intrigued he was by the possibility.
“I would, but I’m supposed to be resting.”
Another fantasy ruined, he handed her the remote.
Chapter Twelve
The rain was pouring down when Michael pulled into the drive at Cielo del Norte after a quick trip into town to meet with an old friend. It had been gray and drizzling for the better part of three days, but now the skies had completely opened up.
As he ran through the deluge to the front door, a flash of lightning split the sky, almost immediately followed by a crash of thunder. He winced, knowing how much Riley hated storms. If she was awakened by one in the night, he’d sometimes find her trying to crawl under the covers of his bed, her eyes squeezed tight and her hands pressed against her ears.
Inside, he shook the rain off of his coat and hung it in the closet. From the kitchen, he could smell the mouthwatering scents of roasted pork and sweet potatoes, but it was the music he heard in the distance that drew him down the hall.
Not surprisingly, it was coming from the music room. But it certainly wasn’t Riley practicing piano. In fact, it wasn’t anything he had ever heard before. And when he pushed open the door, he saw something that he was certain he’d never seen before.
Riley was dancing—spinning and twirling, with her arms flying and her legs kicking. Hannah was right into the music with her, hips wriggling a
nd body shimmying. And both of them were singing at the tops of their lungs about…he wasn’t sure if he was unable to decipher the lyrics or if they just didn’t make any sense, but both his daughter and her nanny seemed to know all the words.
He winced at the volume of the music, but he knew there was no way that Riley could hear the thunder over whatever it was that they were listening to—and no way they could have heard him enter the room. So he just leaned back against the wall and enjoyed the show for a few minutes.
One song led into the next, and they continued to sing and laugh and dance, and he continued to watch, marveling at the sheer happiness that radiated from his little girl. He couldn’t remember ever seeing her like this—just being silly and having fun, and he realized that Hannah had been right about this, too. His daughter, despite all of her talents and gifts, needed a chance to simply be a child.
Impossible as it seemed, Riley’s smile grew even wider when she finally spotted him.
“Look, Daddy! We’re dancing!”
While Riley continued to move, Hannah’s steps faltered when she realized that she and the child were no longer alone, and he would have bet that the flush in her cheeks was equal parts embarrassment and exertion.
“Don’t let me interrupt,” he said. “Please.”
But she went to the boom box and lowered the volume, at least a little.
He picked up the CD case, looked at the cover, then lifted his brows.
“Grace let Riley borrow it,” she told him, then grinned. “In exchange, Riley gave her a copy of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.”
He was suprised to learn that his little girl, who had a profound appreciation for the classics, could find such pleasure in jumping up and down and wiggling her hips to something called Yo Gabba Gabba, but he wasn’t at all disappointed by the recent changes in her behavior.
“So what precipitated this dance-a-thon?”
“The precipitation,” Hannah said, and smiled. “The rain made us give up on the idea of going outside, but Riley had a lot of energy to burn off.”
“She’s changed so much in only a few weeks,” he noted.
“You say that in a way that I’m not sure if you approve or disapprove of the changes,” she said uncertainly.
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