Rafael was mortified. It was such a babyish gesture. What had he been thinking? But before he could pull his hand back, Hope reached out and wrapped her own fingers around it.
He kept perfectly still.
Hope wriggled against her mother. “Up,” she said. “Up.”
The little girl reached for Rafael.
He took her in his arms. What else could he do? She had asked, and he obliged, and he was rewarded with her little face beaming at him, a dimple in one cheek.
“Hi,” she said again, softly, and then she rested her head against his shoulder.
One breath, he was a man. The next, he was a father. It was almost as if he’d known her all along.
2
“Tent,” Hope commanded, pointing back into the living room toward her small play tent. She leaned away from Rafael, and though he wanted to keep holding her, he set her gently on the ground. She ran for the tent. “Go in my tent!” she said, gleefully, happily, as if the rest of the world didn’t matter. To her, it didn’t.
Felicity made a sound behind him, and he turned back.
“I’ll stay with her,” said Joy. “If you two want a minute to talk.”
It was a good idea. They needed to formulate a plan. With every moment that went by, Rafael felt the presence of the crowd outside more sharply, pressing in on his consciousness. There were simply too many people out there for a security team of six, especially now that he was with Felicity and Hope, along with Joy. He followed Felicity into the kitchen area. It wasn’t truly separated from the living room, but a happy squeal from Hope told him she wasn’t paying attention to them any longer. She was so changeable, going from one thing to the next so quickly. How was that going to fit in with his plan, with his life?
Felicity faced him, blue eyes worried. “Rafael, I’m—I’m sorry about all of this.” She bit her lip, and he was struck by how quickly his attention could zero in on such a small thing about her. She had the most luscious lips he’d ever seen on a woman. “This whole thing is a mess, and I feel responsible.”
He steadied himself with a breath. “My people are still gathering the evidence about the situation.” He couldn’t quite bring himself to name what his mother had allegedly done, but he did add, “Knowing my mother, I’m sure she was…forceful in convincing you to leave. But why didn’t you come to me?” Anger flashed. “All you had to do was reach out to me, and you didn’t.”
Felicity covered her face with her hands. “I know, Rafael. It just seemed simpler to…go along with it. She implied that she’d discussed it all with you—that you were on board with everything she said. I wasn’t sure if she was telling the truth, but…” She trailed off, then steadied herself. “I didn’t think it would come to this.”
“You don’t have to explain right now,” he said, though everything in him was aching for Felicity to give him an explanation that made the pain of the last few years lessen. “In fact, I think we should set all this aside for later. There are more pressing concerns.”
“Like what?” Felicity glanced toward the front window.
“Things back in Stolvenia are not exactly…settled.”
Felicity frowned. “I’ve read a bit about it in the news, but—”
“There’s going to be a referendum. The people are going to decide whether to remove the monarchy from power. Now that the opposition has seized on my secret family—and the payments from the monarchy to keep it quiet—they’re trying to frame this as proof that the monarchy can’t be trusted. We need to redirect the narrative.”
Felicity was shaking her head. “What are we supposed to do? What am I supposed to do—”
“There’s also the matter of Hope.”
She went silent, looking up at him levelly. “What about her?”
“She’s going to need security.” That was the part that Felicity didn’t seem to understand—not yet, anyway. He could feel the anxious energy coming off her in waves, but he imagined that like most people, she expected for all this to blow over. “As my daughter, she’s the next heir to Stolvenia. She has to have appropriate housing, a team of people ensuring her safety—”
Felicity took in a deep breath and leaned against the counter. “There’s no way, Rafael. I can’t afford anything more than this apartment—where would I put a security team? How could I pay them? How will I ever—”
He wanted to reach out and smooth a hand over her hair, but he resisted. “I have a plan,” he said quietly. “It will make everything easier and safer—for us and for Hope.”
She looked up at him like he was a life preserver and she was drowning. “What is that plan? Please, tell me.”
“You’ll all come with me to Stolvenia.”
“My sister—” Felicity started to say, but Rafael didn’t stop.
“Joy w