“I approve,” he assured her. “I guess I’m still just getting used to it. I would never have said that she was unhappy before—but I’ve also never seen her as obviously happy as she is now. And to hear her laugh—the sound is so pure and full of joy.”
“She’s a wonderful little girl,” Hannah assured him.
He had to smile, remembering that it hadn’t been so long ago that she’d warned him that his daughter was turning into a spoiled brat. But then she’d taken Riley out of the familiar, structured world that she knew and changed all of the rules.
And while there had been a few growing pains in the beginning—and he was sure there would be more to come—he couldn’t deny that he was impressed by the results.
“With a real passion for dance,” the nanny continued.
Watching his daughter move, he couldn’t deny that it was true. She might not have a natural talent, but she certainly had enthusiasm.
“My sister has a friend who—”
“No,” Hannah interrupted quickly, then softened her refusal with a smile.
He frowned. “How do you even know what I was going to say?”
“Because I know how your mind works. And Riley doesn’t need any more lessons. At least, not yet. Just let her have some fun for a while. And then, if she does want more formal training, enroll her in a class where she can learn along with other kids.”
When the current song came to an end, Hannah snapped the music off.
“It’s not done,” Riley protested. “There’s still three more songs.”
“How many times has she listened to this CD?” Michael wondered.
“I’ve lost count,” Hannah admitted. Then to Riley she said, “It’s almost time for dinner, so you need to go wash up.”
The little girl collapsed into a heap on the floor. “I’m too tired.”
Michael had to smile. “If you’re not too tired to keep dancing, you can’t be too tired to twist the taps on a faucet,” he said, picking her up off of the floor to set her on her feet. “Go on.”
With a weary sigh, the princess headed off.
Hannah took the CD out of the machine and returned it to its case.
“Did you have any formal dance training?” he asked curiously.
She nodded, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “Ballet, because my uncle Phillip was a lot like you in that he wanted to give me every possible opportunity. But after two years, my teacher told him that she couldn’t in good conscience continue to take his money when it was obvious that I had less than zero talent.”
“She did not say that,” Michael protested.
“She did,” Hannah insisted. “And truthfully, I was relieved.”
“You looked pretty good to me when you were spinning around with Riley.”
“We were just having fun.”
“Will you dance with me?” he asked her.
She looked up, surprise and wariness in her eyes. “Wh-what?”
He moved to the CD player, pressed the button for the satellite radio—and jumped back when heavy metal screamed out at him. Hannah laughed while he adjusted the volume and scrolled through the preset channels until he found a familiar song.
“This one was at the top of the charts in my first year of college,” he told her, and offered his hand.
“I don’t recognize it,” she admitted.
“Then I won’t have to worry about you trying to lead,” he teased.
Though she still looked hesitant, she finally put her hand in his.
“You really don’t know this song?” he asked, after they’d been dancing for about half a minute.
She shook her head.
“Okay, now I have to ask—how old are you, Hannah?”
“Twenty-six.”
Which meant that she was a dozen years younger than he, and while he’d been in college, she’d still been in grade school. But that was a long time ago, and there was no doubt that she was now all grown up. And soft and feminine and undeniably sexy.
He drew in a breath and the scent of her invaded his senses and clouded his mind.
“Hannah—”
She tipped her head back to meet his gaze, and whatever words he’d intended to say flew out of his mind when he looked into those blue-gray eyes and saw the desire he felt reflected back at him.
He’d been fighting his feelings for her from the beginning, and to what effect? He still wanted her, now more than ever. And if she wanted him, too—and the look in her eyes made him believe that she did—then what was the harm in letting the attraction between them follow through to its natural conclusion?
They were, after all, both adults…but the little girl peeking around the corner was definitely not.
“Caridad said to tell you that it’s dinnertime,” Riley announced.
Hannah wanted to scream with frustration.
For just a minute, she’d been sure that the prince was going to kiss her again. And his gaze, when it flickered back to her now, was filled with sincere regret.
Regret that they’d been interrupted?
Or regret that he’d almost repeated the “mistake” of a few weeks earlier?
“Thank you for the dance, Hannah,” he said formally.
“It was my pleasure, Your Highness.”
He lifted her hand to kiss it.
She wanted a real kiss—not some lame fairy-tale facsimile. But then his lips brushed the back of her hand, and she felt the tingles all the way down to her toes.
It wasn’t the passionate lip-lock with full frontal contact that she craved, but it wasn’t exactly lame, either. And that made her wonder: if a casual touch could wield such an impact, what would happen if the man ever really touched her?
She was almost afraid to find out—and more afraid that she never would.
The next day, the sun shone clear and bright in the sky. After being cooped up for the better part of three days, Riley was thrilled to get outside and run around. In the morning, Hannah took her for a long walk on the beach. Michael watched from his office as they fed the gulls and wrote messages in the sand, and he wished he was with them.
He tore his attention from the window and back to his work. He was putting the final touches on a project for the upcoming National Diabetes Awareness Campaign, and if he finished it up this morning, then he could spend the whole afternoon with Riley and Hannah.
He wasn’t sure when he’d started thinking of Hannah as Hannah and not “Miss Castillo” or his daughter’s nanny—or when he’d started looking forward to spending time with her, too. In the beginning, when every step in his relationship with Riley seemed both awkward and tentative, he’d been grateful for her guidance. But somewhere along the line, he’d begun to enjoy her company and thought they might actually be friends. Except that he was still fighting against his body’s desire to get her naked.
He pushed that idea from his mind and forced himself to get back to work.
He did finish the project by lunch, and afterward Riley invited him down to the beach to build castles in the sand. It was an offer he couldn’t refuse, and he wasn’t just surprised but disappointed when Hannah begged off. She claimed to want to catch up on some emails, but he knew that she was really trying to give him some one-on-one time with his daughter.
He appreciated her efforts. After all, she was only going to be with them until the end of the summer, at which time he and Riley were going to have to muddle through on their own—or muddle through the adjustment period with another new nanny. The thought made him uneasy, but he refused to delve too deeply into the reasons why. It was easier to believe that he was concerned about his daughter than to acknowledge that he might actually miss Hannah when she was gone.
After castle-building, they went swimming to wash the sand off, then Riley talked him into whacking some balls around the court with her. Hannah had told him that Riley was learning a lot from Kevin, and he was pleased to see that it was true. By the time they were finished on the court, he notice
d that Hannah had come outside and was sitting on one of the lounge chairs on the terrace.
Riley spotted her at almost the same moment, and she went racing ahead. By the time Michael had reached the bottom step, his daughter was already at the top. Then she climbed right up into her nanny’s lap and rested her head against her shoulder.
“It looks like you wore her out on the tennis court,” Hannah said to him.
“She’s had a busy day,” he noted, dropping down onto the edge of the other chair.
Riley nodded her head, her eyes already starting to drift shut. “I’m ready for quiet time now.”
Hannah smiled at his daughter’s code word for “nap.” “Quiet time’s okay,” she agreed. “But you can’t fall asleep because it’s going to be time for dinner soon.”
The little girl yawned. “I’m not hungry.”
“Caridad was making lasagna,” Michael reminded her. “And that’s one of your favorites.”
“Is Hannah going to burn the garlic bread again?”
The nanny sighed. “I’m never going to live that down, am I?”
His daughter giggled.
“Well, in answer to your question, I can promise you that I am not going to burn the garlic bread because Caridad won’t let me in the kitchen while she’s cooking anymore.”
“I’m glad,” Riley said. “Because if you were helping her cook, you couldn’t be here with me.”
Hannah’s lips curved as the little girl snuggled against her, but the smile faltered as she caught Michael’s gaze.
“Is something wrong?” she asked quietly.
“What?” He realized he was scowling, shook his head. “No.”
But he could tell that she was unconvinced, and he couldn’t blame her. Because the truth was, everything about this situation was wrong.
She shouldn’t be there. She shouldn’t be on that chair on this deck cuddling with his daughter. That was Sam’s chair—he’d painted it that particularly garish shade of lime green because Sam had thought it was a fun color. And this was their special place—where they used to come to escape the craziness of the world together. And Riley was their little girl—the child that his wife had given her life to bring into the world.
He felt a pang in his chest. Caridad was right—Riley needed more than a nanny, she needed her mother. But that was something he couldn’t give her. Sam was gone. Forever.
He thought he’d accepted that fact. After almost four years, he should have accepted it. During that entire time, while he’d gone through the motions of living, he’d been confident that Riley was in good hands with Brigitte, and he’d been comfortable with his daughter’s relationship with her nanny.
So why did it seem so different when that nanny was someone else? Why did seeing his daughter with Hannah seem so wrong? Or was the problem maybe that it seemed so right?
How was it possible that after only one month, Hannah had become such an integral part of his daughter’s life—and his, too? It was hard to believe that it had been four weeks already, that it was already the beginning of August, almost…
The third of August.
The pain was like a dagger through his heart. The stab of accompanying guilt equally swift and strong. He reached for the railing, his fingers gripping so tight that his knuckles were white.
Dios—he’d almost forgotten.
How had he let that happen? How had the events of the past few weeks so thoroughly occupied his mind and his heart that the date had very nearly escaped him?
He drew in a deep breath, exhaled it slowly.
“I just remembered that there are some files I need from the office,” he announced abruptly. “I’ll have to go back to Port Augustine.”
“Tonight?” Hannah asked incredulously.
“Can we go, too, Daddy?” Riley asked.
Not I but we, he realized, and felt another pang. Already she was so attached to Hannah, maybe too attached. Because at the end of the summer, Riley would have to say goodbye to someone else she cared about.
“Not this time,” he told her, stroking a finger over the soft curve of her cheek. “It would be too far past your bedtime before we got into town.”
“When are you coming back?” Riley asked.
“Tomorrow,” he promised.
Riley nodded, her head still pillowed on Hannah’s shoulder. “Okay.”
“Are you sure everything’s all right?” Hannah asked.
Concern was evident in her blue-gray gaze, and as Michael looked into her eyes, he suddenly couldn’t even remember what color Sam’s had been.
“I’m sure,” he lied.
He’d loved his wife—he still loved his wife—but the memories were starting to fade. She’d been the center of his world for so many years, and it had taken him a long time to put his life back together after she was gone. Losing her had absolutely devastated him, and that was something he wouldn’t ever let himself forget. And that was why he wouldn’t ever risk loving someone else.
Chapter Thirteen
Michael didn’t remember many of the details of Sam’s funeral. He didn’t even remember picking out the plot where she was buried, and he wasn’t entirely sure that he had. It was probably Marissa, who had stepped in to take care of all of the details—and his baby girl—who made the decision.
Thinking back to that time now, he knew that Sam would have been disappointed in him. She would have expected him to be there for their daughter, and he hadn’t been. Not for a long time.
But he was trying to be there for her now, trying to be the father his little girl needed, and he thought he’d been making some progress. There was no awkwardness with Riley anymore. Not that everything was always smooth sailing, but they were learning to navigate the stormy seas together.
Hannah was a big part of that, of course. There was no denying the role she’d played in bringing him and Riley together. And sitting here now, on the little wrought-iron bench by his wife’s grave as he’d done so many times before, he knew that Sam would be okay with that.
He caught a flicker of movement in the corner of his eye and, glancing up, saw his sister climbing the hill. She laid the bouquet of flowers she carried in front of Sam’s stone.
“Are you doing okay?” she asked gently.
“You know, I really think I am.”
She nodded at that, then took a seat beside him.
They sat in silence for a few more minutes, before he asked, “Why did you come?”
“Did you want to be alone?”
“No, I just wondered why you were here. Why you always seem to be there when I need you—and even when I don’t realize that I do.”
“Because you’re my big brother and I love you.”
He slipped his arm across her shoulders. “I’m the luckiest brother in the world.”
She tipped her head back and smiled.
“It would have been our sixteenth anniversary today,” he said.
“I know.”
“I thought we would have sixty years together.” He swallowed around the lump in his throat. “She was more than my wife, she was my best friend—and the best part of my life. And then she was gone.”
“But now you have Riley,” his sister reminded him.
He nodded. “The best part of both of us.”
Marissa smiled again. “I heard she’s learning to play tennis.”
“Dr. Marotta told you, I’ll bet.”
She nodded. “How’s Hannah?”
“The stitches should come out in a couple of days, and she’s learned to keep a distance from Riley’s backhand.” He waited a beat, then said, “She canceled almost all of Riley’s lessons for the summer.”
“Good for her.”
He hadn’t expected such unequivocal support of the decision. “You were the one who encouraged me to find a piano instructor for Riley,” he reminded her.
“Because she has an obvious talent that should be nurtured. But you went from music lessons twice a week to five days a week,
then added language instruction and art classes. And I know the deportment classes were Mother’s idea, but you could have said no. Instead, the poor child barely had time to catch her breath.”
Which was almost exactly what Hannah had said. And while Riley never complained about her schedule, he should have seen that it was too much. He should have seen a lot of things he’d been oblivious to until recently.
“So other than tennis, what is Riley doing with her spare time?” his sister wanted to know.
“She’s…having fun.”
“You sound surprised.”
“I’d almost forgotten what it sounded like to hear her laugh,” he admitted. “It’s…magic.”
Marissa smiled again. “Maybe I was wrong.”
“About what?”
“To worry about you. Maybe you are beginning to heal.”
He knew that he was. And yet, he had to admit, “I still miss her.”
“Of course,” she agreed. “But you’ve got to move on. You’re too young to be alone for the rest of your life.”
“I can’t imagine being with anyone other than Sam,” Michael told her, but even as he spoke the words, he knew that they weren’t entirely true. The truth was, he’d never loved anyone but Sam, and it seemed disloyal to even think that he ever could.
But that didn’t stop him from wanting Hannah.
Hannah had sensed that something was wrong when the prince suddenly insisted that he needed to go to Port Augustine the night before. It seemed apparent to her that what he really needed was to get away from Cielo del Norte, though she couldn’t figure out why.
Over the past few weeks, as Michael and Riley had spent more time together and grown closer, she’d thought that she and the prince were growing closer, too. But his abrupt withdrawal suggested otherwise.
She wasn’t surprised that he was gone overnight. It didn’t make sense to make the drive back when he had a house in town. She was surprised when he stayed away through all of the next day. But Caridad seemed unconcerned about his whereabouts. In fact, the housekeeper didn’t comment on his absence at all, leading Hannah to suspect that she might know where the prince was.
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