“I want to make it up to you.” Felicity raised her eyebrows. “What can I do? How can I make things better for you? Do you need more help—more staff for Hope and Joy? I swear, Felicity. You don’t have to do a thing to prove yourself to me. We can hire more help for you and vet them personally. You can take a break.”
Her cheeks went pink, but even as he spoke she was already shaking her head. “No, that’s—you don’t have to do that, Rafael. What your mother did—”
“It was inexcusable.”
“It was,” she agreed. “But there’s nothing to be done about it now. Anyway, it’s not caring for my family that I want less of. That’s not a responsibility I feel as a burden. I love being with my sister, and I love being with my daughter. They’re my family.” She dropped her voice a little. “We’re all a family.”
He felt honored that she’d included him in her family, and it made him want to do even more. “Then what can I do? Tell me. The sky’s the limit.”
Felicity looked at him for a long moment. “When I was taking care of Hope and Joy at home, I had my day job, which…it was a lot. It was good, because I got to do work I enjoyed, but there was never much time to take a vacation.”
He waited for more—for her to say out loud what she really wanted—until Felicity laughed, and he realized she’d already said it. “A vacation? That’s what you want?”
“Now, instead of a day job, I have press events and wedding planning. Today, I’m getting fitted for my dress.” Felicity glanced at a clock on the wall. “On top of that, I’m learning so many new rules and protocols that it makes my head spin. So, maybe not a full-blown vacation…maybe something like a picnic. Just…a day off, where we could sneak off with Hope and enjoy each other’s company without any reporters, and no appearances. The way families do. Like normal people.”
It sounded like a fantasy to Rafael. He had hardly spent five minutes out of the spotlight in all his life. But the dream was a tempting one. A day away from all the cameras, and the stress of the referendum, just to focus on Felicity and Hope…
“I guess there’s one other thing.” Felicity suddenly looked shy, and no expression had ever intrigued him more. This was a woman who had turned into a tigress on his kitchen counter. There was no need for her to be shy. “I’d like a good night of sleep.”
“That should be easy to come by. I can have an overnight replacement for the nanny, and she can—”
“In your arms,” interjected Felicit
y, her face coloring. “I’d like it if I could stay in your room. Or if you could stay in mine.” She frowned. “It might be easier if I didn’t have to move Hope into one of your guest rooms, but I’d do it if…”
“Consider it done.” He stood up from the table. “We’ll go there now.”
She smiled, and it was like the sun rising in the morning.
Inside of an hour, they’d wound down, changed clothes, and gone into Felicity’s room.
They settled into her bed together and he wrapped his arm around her. Felicity sighed. “This is nice,” she said, and within minutes he could tell she was asleep.
So trusting, he thought. So…
The rest of the thought never materialized, because he was off in dreamland too.
10
“What about a bit of a girls’ night?” Rafael said the next morning, while Felicity watched him climb out of bed and stretch. She hadn’t known until this moment that she wanted to be here for this—all of this.
It had been one thing to move to Stolvenia, to uproot her daughter and sister and leave that little apartment and its relative security behind, but living so close to Rafael and not being with him…well, that had been something else entirely.
She’d spent three years so very sure that she’d never have this. That she’d never see Rafael or Stolvenia again after she left.
She could still remember how furious Rafael’s mother had been. It was a cold, unrelenting fury, and Felicity had known from their first exchange that there would be no debate and no convincing her that Rafael should know. She believed her son should go on to rule the country without any of that kind of baggage, and she’d found plenty of little ways to let Felicity know she was always watching to ensure Felicity didn’t make trouble.
“A girls’ night?” she asked, just in time to save the silence between them from becoming awkward. “What do you mean?”
Rafael rubbed his hands over his face, looking so human it made her heart twist. “I’m not sure I can plan our day off in a timely fashion,” he said. “With the referendum coming up, I’m just not sure that—” He took his hands away from his face and smiled. “I’m not sure that I should be scheduling private days. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a break.”
Excitement fluttered in her chest. “A girls’ night, then?”
“I thought you and Joy could have an evening out. I’ll invite some others, too, make it something of a party.”
Rafael kept his word. Two days later, a car equipped to handle Joy’s wheelchair pulled up in front of the Stolvenian capital’s fanciest restaurant. The sun had set, and the front of the restaurant glowed with gas lamps. A valet stood waiting to take the car—not that it would be needed, with a private driver—and other uniformed staff waited. The velvet ropes lining the entrance were beginning to look rather comforting. Three security guards flanked the ropes.
Joy reached over and squeezed her hand. “This is exciting. Don’t be nervous.”