Prince Daddy & the Nanny (17 page)

“It's okay,” the princess said.

“Have you made lots of new friends?”

“A few.”

Hannah swallowed. “And everything's going well…with the new nanny?”

The little girl looked at her daddy, as if deferring the question to him.

“Margaux is…almost perfect,” he said.

“That's great,” she said, and hoped that she sounded sincere.

“Almost,”
Riley repeated.

“Is there a problem?” Hannah asked, genuinely concerned.

“The only problem,” Michael said, “is that she isn't you.”

“We want you to come back,” Riley said.

“This isn't fair,” Hannah said to the prince, glaring at him through the sheen of tears that filled her eyes. “You can't bring your daughter here to—”

“It was Riley's idea,” he told her. “There was no way she was letting me come here without her.”

“Please, Hannah.” The princess looked at her, those big brown eyes beseeching.

Hannah could barely speak around the lump in her throat. “I'm not really a nanny,” she reminded the little girl gently. “I'm a high school teacher.”

“We both understand that,” Michael assured her. “And the thing is, Riley and I had a long talk about it and agreed that, since she's in school now during the week anyway, she probably doesn't need a nanny.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Because I do need a mom,” Riley piped up.

“And I need a wife,” Michael said. “So—” The prince looked at his daughter, she gave him a quick nod, then they spoke in unison: “Will you marry us, Hannah?”

She could only stare at them both, her eyes filling with tears all over again.

Michael nudged his daughter.

“Oh.” The little girl reached into the pocket of her skirt and pulled out a small box. She tried to flip open the lid, but it snapped shut again—catching her finger.

“Ow.” Riley shook her hand free, and the box went flying across the floor, disappearing under the sofa.

Hannah had to laugh through her tears.

“This isn't quite how I imagined the scene playing out,” Michael admitted.

It was a scene she hadn't dared let herself imagine and still wasn't entirely sure was real.

“Can you trust that I have a ring or do I have to dig the box out from under the furniture before you'll answer the question?” he asked.

“I don't care about the ring,” she assured him.

“It's a really pretty ring,” Riley said, making Hannah smile.

“But you're not saying anything,” he prompted.

“I've got it, Daddy.” The princess held up the box she'd
retrieved from beneath the sofa. Then she came over and opened it carefully so that Hannah could see the gorgeous princess-cut diamond solitaire set in a platinum band. “Now you're supposed to say yes.”

She wanted to say yes. More than anything, she wanted to say yes, and it had nothing to do with the ring. It had to do with the fact that the prince was offering her everything she'd ever wanted and more than she'd ever dreamed of, but she felt as if they were both forgetting a couple important issues. “I'm a commoner, Michael.”

“Which only means you don't carry all of the baggage that goes along with a title,” he assured her.

“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.”

ROYAL WEDDING BELLS TOLL AGAIN
by Alex Girard

L
ast 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.