The Prince's Cinderella Bride. Christine Rimmer

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СКАЧАТЬ her head up to the afternoon sun. “Did I tell you that Nicholas is all grown up? He’s too old for his nanny. He told me so this morning before school. ‘Only babies have nannies,’ he said.”

      Lani, on the garden bench beside her with Ellie in her lap, caught the butterfly rattle the toddler had dropped before it hit the ground. “He’s exercising his independence.”

      “Me!” Ellie demanded, exercising a little independence of her own.

      Lani kissed the top of her head and gave her back the rattle, which she gleefully began shaking again. “Is he still throwing fits when it’s time to do his homework?”

      Gerta’s broad, ruddy face wore a self-satisfied expression. “For the past week, he’s been getting right to it and getting it done. I took your advice and had his father talk to him about it.”

      Lani’s pulse accelerated at the mere mention of Max. Honestly, she was hopeless, telling him no over and over—and then kissing him last night.

      She needed a large dose of therapy. Or a backbone. Or both.

      Gerta was watching her. “What’s the matter?”

      “Not a thing,” Lani answered too quickly. Gerta frowned but didn’t press her. And Lani asked, “So the homework is getting done?”

      Gerta turned her head up to the sky again. “Yes, the homework is getting done.”

      Ellie giggled and said, “Uh-oh. Poopy.”

      She definitely had.

      Gerta laughed, waved her freckled hand in front of her face at the smell and offered, “You could change her right here on the bench....”

      But Lani was already shouldering the baby bag and lifting Ellie into her arms as she stood. “No. It’s a little chilly out here.” Ellie dropped the rattle again. Lani caught it as it fell and tucked it in the bag. “Plus I doubt a few baby wipes are going to cut it.”

      Ellie giggled some more and pecked a baby kiss on Lani’s chin. “Nani, Nani...” The weak winter sunlight made her hair shine like polished copper. Even with a loaded diaper, she was the sweetest thing. Lani felt the old familiar ache inside as she gently freed her hair from the perfect, plump little fist. It was an ache of love for this particular child, Syd’s baby girl, all mixed up with a bone-deep sorrow for what might have been, if only she’d been a little wiser and not nearly so selfish way back when.

      Gerta held up a key. “Use our apartment. It’s much closer.” She meant the palace apartment she lived in with Nick and Connie. And Max.

      Lani’s thoroughly shameless heart thumped faster. Would Max be there?

      Not that it mattered. It didn’t, not at all. No big deal. She knew the apartment’s layout. She and Gerta sometimes filled in for each other, so Lani had been there to help out with Nick and Connie more than once. Once she’d let herself in the door, she would go straight to the children’s bathroom, clean Ellie up and get out. Fast.

      She took the key. “Keep an eye on Trev?”

      “Will do.”

      * * *

      The apartment was quiet when she let herself in. The maids had been and gone for the day, leaving a faint scent of lemon polish detectable when she pushed the door open, but quickly overpowered by what Ellie had in her diaper.

      No sign of Max. Lani breathed a quick sigh of relief.

      In the children’s bathroom, she hoisted the diaper bag onto one of the long white quartz counters, shifting Ellie onto her hip as she grabbed a few washcloths from the linen shelves by the big tub. Returning to the counter, she pulled the changing pad from its side pocket and opened it up. Ellie giggled and waved her arms, trying to grab Lani’s hair as Lani laid her down.

      “You need a toy.” Lani gave her the butterfly rattle, which she promptly threw on the floor. Lani played stern. “If I give you another toy, you have to promise not to throw it.”

      Ellie imitated her serious face. “K,” she replied with a quick nod of her tiny chin.

      There was an apple-shaped teething ring in the bag. Lani gave her that. She promptly started chewing on it, making happy little cooing sounds.

      Lani flipped the water on and set to work. She had the diaper off and rolled up nice and tight and was busy using up the stack of cloths, wiping and rinsing and wiping some more, when her phone in the diaper bag started playing “Radioactive.” It was the ringtone she’d assigned to her agent, Marie.

      Her heart rate instantly rocketed into high gear.

      Okay, it could be nothing.

      But what if it wasn’t nothing?

      What if this was her moment, the moment every wannabe author dreamed of, the moment she got the call, the one that meant there was an actual publisher out there who wanted to buy her book?

      She let out a moan of frustration and wiped faster. Not a big deal, she promised herself. She could call Marie back in just a few minutes. If there was an offer, it wouldn’t evaporate while she finished mopping Ellie’s bottom.

      “Let me help,” said the wonderful deep voice that haunted her dreams.

      Slowly, her heart galloping faster than ever, she turned her head enough to see him lounging in the doorway wearing gray slacks and a light blue shirt.

      The phone stopped ringing and she scowled at him. “How long have you been standing there?”

      “Only a minute or two.” He straightened and came toward her, all confidence and easy male grace. “I was in my study and I heard your voice and Ellie’s laughter....” He stopped beside her at the counter. His niece giggled up at him as she drooled on her teething ring. “Give me the washcloth.”

      “I... What?”

      “The washcloth.” He reached out and took the smelly wet cloth in his long-fingered, elegant hand. “Return your call.”

      “No, really. I’ll do this. It’s fine.” She tried to grab it back.

      He held it away. “I have two children. I know how to diaper a baby.” Ellie uttered a string of nonsense syllables, followed by a goofy little giggle. “See? Ellie knows I can handle it.” On cue, Ellie babbled some more. “Make your call,” he commanded a second time as he stuck the washcloth under the water. He wrung it out and got to work.

      Lani washed her hands, grabbed her phone and called Marie back. She watched Max diaper Ellie while Marie Garabondi, the agent she’d been working with for just over a month now, talked fast in her ear.

      Somewhere in the third or fourth sentence, Marie said the longed-for word: “offer.” And everything spun away. Lani listened from a distance, watching Max, so manly and tender, bending over Ellie, doing a stinky job gently and efficiently.

      And Marie kept on talking. Lani held the phone to her ear, hardly believing, understanding everything Marie was telling her, only somehow feeling detached, not fully present.

      She held up her СКАЧАТЬ