“I don’t know. I’m jaded and cynical, I guess. He’s a prince. How on earth can he marry me? Doesn’t his bride need a pedigree and access to really old jewelry?”
“Maybe not. The world is different. It’s a new century.”
“I’d noticed the century part, but Calandria has a monarchy. How different can it be?”
“What are you afraid of? Why don’t you trust him? Is this because you don’t really know him? Are you getting some signal or warning from your gut? Or is this about your unproven belief that you have lousy taste in men?”
Mia turned to Katie. “Excuse me? An unproven belief?”
“You’ve made a couple of bad choices.”
Mia shook her head. “A bad choice is a guy who cheats on you, not someone who kidnaps the president’s daughter. Ian fooled me completely, and Darcy could have died because of that.” She drew in a deep breath. “It’s not just the bad choice thing. I don’t know Rafael.”
“But you’re in love with him.”
“What?”
Katie patted her arm. “Mia, you’ve been in love with him since you got back five years ago. Having Danny only cemented your feelings. Why else would you have avoided any kind of dating situation for so long?”
“I’m busy.”
“Many busy women manage to date. It’s more than that and you know it.”
“I don’t love him,” Mia said flatly.
“Fine. You don’t. But you’re also not willing to let anyone else get close to you and there has to be a reason for that. You might want to figure out what it is.”
Mia nodded. Her sister had a point. About the reason, not the love. No way had she loved Rafael all these years. How crazy was that?
Katie stood. “All right, we’re here to measure the gazebo. Let’s get to work.”
Mia eyed her tailored linen slacks and elegant, sleeveless silk blouse, then glanced down at her own T-shirt and cutoffs. “Somehow I missed the ‘dress well’ gene in this family.”
“It’s summer, you’re off from school. Why would you want to worry about what to wear?”
“I wouldn’t. I’m just saying, I don’t have a closet full of beautiful clothes like you and Mom and Francesca. Brenna and I are misfits.”
“You’re individuals.”
“That’s very polite. My point is, I’m not really princess material.”
Katie frowned. “What? You’d marry him except you don’t know what to wear? I’m going to guess that all princesses have a live-in stylist to worry about that sort of thing for them. Mia, this is a really big decision. Make it for the right reasons.”
“I know. I will. Part of me wants it to be like it was before. When he was Diego.” She bit her lower lip. “Well, not the illegal stuff, but how it was just us and we were nearly regular people.”
“You’d like Rafael better if he wasn’t a prince?”
“Something like that.”
“Sorry. Princely comes with the guy. You’re stuck.” Katie pulled a tape measure out of her purse. “It’s not exactly ruling the world, but it’s being in charge of a small country. That should count.”
Mia grinned. “That’s true. I’ll bet I could even ask Rafael to get my picture on money. Wouldn’t that be thrilling?”
“My sister-the five-dollar bill. We’d all be so proud.”
Mia reached for the tape measure. “So what kind of flowers are they talking about?”
Katie sighed heavily. “Daisies. Lots and lots of daisies.”
Mia listened to the mantel clock chime midnight. The house was quiet and she guessed that everyone was asleep. As she should be. But no matter how tired she felt physically, she couldn’t seem to shut down her mind.
It whirled and swirled and dipped, jumping from past to present, while completely ignoring the future because that was just too big to deal with right now. Which led her to one glaringly obvious conclusion.
The most logical solution to all her problems was to refuse Rafael’s proposal and work out an agreement whereby they had some kind of shared custody. Maybe Danny could summer in Calandria and learn all his princely duties while spending his school year here, living like a normal child.
Except she had a feeling that normal wasn’t possible. Not after the world found out that little Danny Marcelli was really the heir to the Calandrian throne.
Security wasn’t a problem. Sam, Francesca’s husband, was an expert, and Joe had plenty of experience dealing with Darcy’s welfare. But what about school? Could Danny really go to the elementary school down the road and be a regular child? Was Mia kidding herself? And if Danny really was going to rule Calandria someday, shouldn’t he grow up there? Which meant what? That she would move there with him?
And if she did move there with him, what would she do with her life? She had a feeling she wouldn’t be able to practice law. So then what? Being a stay-at-home mom wasn’t really her style. Would she just live in the shadows while Danny became a prince and Rafael married an appropriate future queen?
Thinking about him marrying someone else gave her a tight feeling in her stomach, which she hated, because it was a definite tally in the yes column of Katie’s theory.
“I don’t love him,” Mia said out loud. What kind of idiot stayed in love with a dead man for five years?
So if she didn’t love him, wasn’t not marrying him the right thing to do?
She heard footsteps in the hallway. The door pushed open and Rafael stepped into the quiet of the library.
“You hide here,” he said as he approached.
“I think of it more as a retreat.”
She curled up in a corner of the sofa. He settled in the middle and angled toward her.
“I have news,” he said, handing her an envelope. “It arrived today, but I wished to deliver it to you privately. A most difficult thing in this household.”
She took the paper. “We are a crowd,” she said as she glanced at the return address and saw it was a medical lab. “The DNA results?”
He nodded.
She gave back the envelope. “I already know the results.”
“As do I. Daniel is my son.”
Hardly news to her, but still, hearing him say the words made her tense a little. As if the situation had just gotten more serious.
“You’ll have to tell your father,” she said. “I’m not sure he’ll be pleased.”
“He wants a grandchild and an heir for me. He will come around much quicker than Grandma Tessa. She still resists me.”
Mia laughed. “You’re winning her over. Tonight at dinner she offered you seconds without you having to ask. That’s progress. I’m not sure your father will be as easy as you think. This can’t be what he had planned for your future.”
Rafael shrugged. “He will adjust. At least he’ll stop parading potential brides in front of me.”
“He really does that?”
“It is not a marriage mart, but yes, women are brought to different events and I meet them.” He smiled at her. “So far I have found it very easy to resist their charms.”
“I can relate. If my grandpa Lorenzo had thought he could have gotten away with arranging marriages for his granddaughters, he would have done it in a heartbeat.”
“Would you have said yes?” he asked.
She drew her knees closer to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. “Not my style.”
“Because you are too independent.”
“It’s more than that. I loved my grandfather, but he would have made the best match for the vineyard, not the best match for me. Isn’t that what the king is doing to you? Parading around the grand duchess of Whosits because her father owns shipping rights to Finland or whatever? Does he actually care if you fall in love?”
“Is love so very important?”
“Hello? We’re talking about living with someone the rest of your life. I suppose if the castle is big enough, you could have separate wings. Is that what you want? The right marriage for Calandria rather than the right marriage for you?”
“I think I can make them the same thing,” he told her, his blue eyes claiming hers.