The Prince's Secret Baby. Christine Rimmer

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      Trev peeked, looked away, peeked again. “Wanda who?”

      “Wanda cookie?”

      Slowly, Trev turned and looked straight at Rule. “Cookie! Yes! Please!”

      Rule actually produced an animal cracker from the pocket of his beautifully made lightweight jacket. He slid a questioning glance at Sydney. At her nod, he handed the cookie over.

      “Grrr. Lion!” announced Trev and popped the lion-shaped cookie in his mouth. “Yum.” He chewed and swallowed. “Thank you very much—Orange! Banana! Knock, knock.”

      Rule gamely went through the whole joke with him twice. Trev never got the punch line right, but that didn’t have any effect on his delight in the process.

      “It never ends,” Lani said with a sigh. But then she grinned. “And you know we wouldn’t have it any other way.”

      “All done,” Trev told them. “Get down, Mama. Play trucks!”

      So Sydney wiped his hands and face with a damp cloth and swung him down from his booster seat. He went straight for Rule. “Roo. Come. We play trucks!”

      “It appears you have been summoned,” Sydney said.

      “Nothing could please me more—or almost nothing.” The teasing heat in his glance hinted that whatever it was that pleased him more had something to do with her. Very likely with kissing her, an activity that pleased her a bunch, too.

      He tossed his jacket across the family room sofa and went over and got down on the floor with Trev, who gathered all his trucks together so they could roll them around making vrooming noises and crash them into each other. Sydney and Lani cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher. And soon enough, it was time to head for the neighborhood park. Lani begged off, so it was just the three of them. Since the small park was only a couple of blocks away, they walked, Trev between Sydney and Rule, holding both their hands.

      Trev was an outgoing child, although he was usually pretty reserved around new people. It took him a while to get comfortable with someone. But apparently, with Rule, he was over his shyness after those first few moments at the breakfast table.

      Trev chattered away at him as they strolled past the pretty, gracious homes and the wide, inviting lawns. “I walk fast, Roo. I strong! I happy!”

      Rule agreed that he was very fast, and so strong—and wasn’t it great that he was happy? “I’m happy, too,” Rule said, and shared a speaking glance with Sydney.

      Trev looked up at them, at Rule, then at Sydney, then back at Rule again. “Mama’s happy, too!” he crowed. “Knock, knock!”

      “Who’s there?” asked Rule. And then he went through the endless loop of the joke two more times.

      They stayed at the park for three hours. Sydney watched for a sign that Rule might be getting tired of pushing Trev on the swings, of sitting with him on the spinner, of playing seesaw—Trev and Sydney on one end, Rule on the other.

      But Rule seemed to love every minute of it. He got down and crawled through the concrete tunnels with Trev, heedless of his designer trousers, laughing as Trev scuttled ahead of him calling out, “You can’t catch me, I too fast!” Trev popped out of the tunnel.

      Rule was right behind him. Rule growled, playing it scary. Trev let out a shriek of fear and delight.

      Finally, at a little after eleven, Trev announced, “Okay. All done.” And he was. All the fun had worn him out.

      The walk back to the house took a little longer than the stroll over there. When Trevor was tired, he dragged his feet and kept trying to sit down instead of moving forward.

      But they got him there, eventually. Lani took over, hustling him to the bathroom to change him out of the diaper she’d put on him for the park and back into the lighter-weight training pants he wore most of the time now.

      Alone with Rule for the first time since their kiss at the front door, Sydney said, “You were wonderful with him.”

      His gaze held hers. She did love the way he looked at her—as though he couldn’t get enough of just staring into her eyes. He said, “It wasn’t difficult, not in the least. I enjoyed every minute of it.” And then he added in that charming, formal way of his, “Thank you for inviting me, Sydney.”

      “It was my pleasure—and clearly, Trev’s, too. Had enough?”

      He frowned. “Are you saying you would like for me to go now?”

      She laughed. “No way. I’m just giving you an out, in case you’ve had enough of crashing trucks and knock-knock jokes for one day.”

      “I want to stay, if you don’t mind.”

      “Of course I don’t mind.” Now her heart was doing cartwheels. “Not in the least.”

      Yes, all right. Maybe she should be more cautious. Put the brakes on a little. But she didn’t want to put the brakes on. She was having a great time and if he didn’t want to go, well, why should she feel she should send him away?

      He could stay for lunch if he wanted, stay for dinner. Stay … indefinitely. That would be just fine with her. Every moment she was with him only convinced her that she wanted the next moment with him. And the one after that. Something about him had her throwing all her usual caution to the winds.

      Was she in for a rude awakening? She just didn’t think so. Every moment she was with Rule only made her more certain that he was the real deal: a great guy who liked her—a lot. A great guy who liked children, too, a guy who actually enjoyed spending the morning playing in the park with her and her little boy.

      As long as he gave her no reason to doubt her confidence in him, well, she wouldn’t doubt him. It was as simple as that.

      He said, “Perhaps we could take Trevor and Lani to lunch?”

      “I wish. But no. Trev’s going to need to eat right away, and since he’s been on the go since early this morning, he’s probably going to be fussy. So we’ll get some food down him and then put him to bed. His nap will last at least a couple of hours. You sure you won’t mind just hanging around here for the afternoon?”

      “There’s nothing I would rather do than hang around here with you and your son.” He said it so matter-of-factly, and she knew he was sincere.

      “I’m glad.” They shared a nod of perfect understanding.

      As Sydney had predicted, Trev was cranky during lunch, but he did pack away a big bowl of chicken and rice. He went right to sleep when Sydney put him in bed.

      Then she and Rule raided the refrigerator and carried their lunch of cheese, crackers and grapes out to the backyard. They sat under an oak not far from the pool and he told her more about his family, about how his older brother Max’s wife had tragically drowned in a water-skiing accident two years before, leaving Max with a broken heart and two little children to raise on his own.

      “They were so happy together, Max and Sophia,” Rule said, his eyes full of shadows right then. “They found each other very young, СКАЧАТЬ