“I realize it’s not a big deal to you, but maybe it should be. And your mother—”
“Has absolutely no say in any of this,” he said firmly.
“Daddy told Grandmama that if she can’t accept you, then she can’t be part of our family,” Riley told her.
“You talked to your mother…about me?”
“I wanted her to know that I won’t tolerate any more interference in my life,” he said.
“I don’t want to be the cause of any dissension in your relationship,” she said, both surprised and humbled that he would take such a stand for her.
“You’re not,” Michael assured her. “If anything, confronting my mother about her attitude toward you gave me the opportunity to clear the air about a lot of things. I’m not naïve enough to believe that we came to any kind of understanding, but I am confident that she won’t cause any problems for us ever again.”
He spoke with such certainty, she couldn’t help but believe him. But she had other—and even bigger—concerns than the princess royal.
“Needing a wife—and a mother for Riley—aren’t the best reasons to get married,” she said softly.
He smiled as he took both of her hands in his. “Did I gloss over the I-love-you-more-than-I-ever-thought-it-was-possible-to-love-somebody part?”
Her heart swelled so much in response to his words that her chest actually ached with the effort to contain it. “Actually, you skipped it altogether.”
“It’s true,” he told her. “I didn’t plan to ever fall in love again. Truthfully, I didn’t want to ever fall in love again.”
“Because you still love Sam,” she guessed.
“Sam will always have a place in my heart,” he admitted, “because she was the first woman I ever loved and Riley’s mother. But the rest of my heart is yours, for now and forever. So now the question I need answered is: do you love me?”
“You know I do.”
“Is that a yes?” Riley wanted to know.
Hannah laughed. “That is very definitely a yes.”
The princess clapped her hands together. “Now you have to put the ring on her finger, Daddy.”
So he did.
“And kiss her.”
And he did that, too.
He kissed her very tenderly and very thoroughly, until all of the loneliness and anguish of the past few weeks was forgotten because her heart was too full of love to feel anything else.
And still he continued to kiss her—until Riley pushed her way in between them.
“Are we married now?” she asked.
“Not quite yet,” the prince said.
Riley sighed. “Can Hannah come home with us tonight anyway?”
“What do you say?” he asked, drawing her to her feet. “Will you come home with us tonight?”
Home.
She looked around at the apartment that had been her residence for almost three years and felt absolutely no regret about leaving. It was only a collection of rooms—cold and empty without the man and the little girl she loved.
“There is nowhere else I want to be,” she said truthfully.
“Just one more thing,” Michael said.
“What’s that?”
“If you ever retell the story of my proposal, will you edit out the awkward parts?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Absolutely not. I’m going to remember each tiny detail forever, because this moment—with you and Riley—is my every dream come true.”
Epilogue
ROYAL WEDDING BELLS TOLL AGAIN
by Alex Girard
Last summer, Prince Michael Leandres was looking for a nanny for his young daughter and hired a high school teacher instead. At the time, it might have seemed that he’d made an error in judgment, but the lucky guests in attendance when the prince married Hannah Castillo at the Cathedral of Christ the King on Friday night would definitely disagree.
The ceremony began with four-and-a-half-year-old Princess Riley tossing white rose petals as she made her way down the aisle and toward the front of the church where her father, immaculately attired in a classic Armani tuxedo, was waiting. Then came the bride, in a strapless silk crepe sheath by Vera Wang, carrying a bouquet of calla lilies and freesia, proudly escorted by her uncle, Doctor Phillip Marotta.
Despite the more than two hundred people in the church, the bride and the groom seemed to have eyes only for each other as they spoke traditional vows and exchanged rings. The couple then veered from convention by each reaching a hand to Princess Riley and drawing her into their circle, and the bride made a public promise to the groom’s daughter that she would always be there for her, too, to guide her through good times and bad. The little girl chimed in to assert that they would all be good times, now that they were finally a family.
And when the bride and groom and his daughter lit the unity candle together, there wasn’t anyone in the church who doubted that the young princess’s words were true.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-1427-9
PRINCE DADDY & THE NANNY
Copyright © 2011 by Brenda Harlen
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† Reigning Men
~ Montana Mavericks: Thunder Canyon Cowboys
* Family Business
** Logan’s Legacy Revisited
‡ The Foleys and the McCords
‡‡ Brides and Babies
Prince Daddy & the Nanny Page 20