Page 32 of One Night With The Nanny

“And things are going well with Reid?” she asked casually, but Max could tell she was testing him again.

He understood why she was so protective of her friend and brother-in-law and smiled as he nodded. “I think they are. I’m hoping they are,” he added suggestively.

She answered with a wince. “He won’t make this easy. You’re not on your own, though. Fin says that Gavin approves and that’s half the battle right there,” she advised.

“That’s good,” Max murmured, suddenly nervous.

He had never really dated anyone before so all of this was new to him. And Max hadn’t realized until then how important it was that Gavin and the rest of Reid’s friends and family approve of him as a potential suitor. It would have been refreshingly ironic for Max if there weren’t so many people on Reid’s side to impress.

“Don’t worry. Everyone’s on board,” Agnes had said before ducking into her limo, leaving Max to ponder his next move with Reid.

He hadn’t made much progress, thanks to a series of irritating phone calls and an emergency meeting with his lawyers to settle a property dispute between Ella and Leo’s team. She wanted to move to and renovate a summer house that Max had already turned over to Leo as part of their negotiations in regards to the title and his responsibilities in Austria.

It didn’t make sense to Max to hold onto his title until they were both old men. Max had firm assurances from both of his girls that neither had any desire to succeed him and perform their duties as princess. And Leo was ten years younger and had the aptitude and desire, which Max no longer felt.

Help came when Max was least expecting it.

He had just enough time to hang up his coat and retrieve the thick stack of pamphlets from Parsons from his briefcase before Mia came charging into the living room.

“Look at what Banks found for us to look at!” he said excitedly, but she took the whole pile and dumped them on the coffee table.

“Awesome. We can look at those later. What happened? Why haven’t you asked Reid out again?”

“I tried!” Max leaned around her to make sure Mary wasn’t eavesdropping. She was prone to meddling and sharing her opinions and Max didn’t want the two of them teaming up against him. “Maybe I do?” he wondered out loud, his neck craning thoughtfully.

“Remember: the plan was for you to ask the naughty hottie out again,” she said, causing Max to jump and hush her loudly.

“Keep it down and he’s…” Max wasn’t about to deny that Reid was a hottie. “Why would you—? He’s not naughty,” he managed and she smirked and pointed up at Max’s nose.

“You know how I can tell he is? You’re turning red and I saw that kiss. It wasn’t an ‘I’ll see you around’ kind of a kiss. It was more of a ‘spank me and pull my hair’ kind of kiss.”

Max covered his face. “Mia!” He counted down from ten, then kept his eyes on the rug between their feet as he took her hand. “I am so sorry and I promise you will never see me do anything—”

“Don’t you dare promise you won’t kiss Reid again, because you have to! He’s perfect, Dad!”

“I think so too. I might not be able to change his mind, though,” he warned with an apologetic smile. Max intended to do whatever it took, but he didn’t want to get Mia’s hopes up. He didn’t want her mad at him for blowing things with Reid when she was only just talking to him again.

She laughed and made a sympathetic sound as she patted his cheek. “Aww! You really like him. I’d run too if I found out you were some kind of prince and you had two bratty daughters. But we can fool him into thinking you’re cool and I’ll be out of here soon.”

“I wish you wouldn’t say that,” Max said, clutching his stomach as it sank. “He likes you,” he added and widened his eyes at her. “He thinks we should spend more time together.”

“That’s how we get him to come back!” She clapped and giggled. “Sophia and I think that if—”

“Sophia wants me to date Reid too?” he asked, making her gasp.

“Are you kidding? Do you know how relieved she is that at least one of our parents is human? We weren’t even sure you had emotions, so this is totally blowing us away.”

“Blowing you away?” He couldn’t believe that. “There was already so much gossip after the divorce. I didn’t think that Sophia wanted me in the papers as well. And for that…” he argued gently, but she pulled a face and groaned.

“We get it now. And for what it’s worth, it wouldn’t have been the same as Ella and we wouldn’t have been ashamed of you, but it doesn’t matter. We’re talking about you and Reid and you act almost like a normal person with him. I think we can fool him into thinking you’re a catch if you take him on a real date.”

Max shook his head slowly. “That matters more than you know and I don’t think Reid’s an easy man to fool. What do you mean by a ‘real’ date?”

She wiggled her brows at him. “You know what I mean. Take him someplace romantic and super fancy and private. Not the kind of place you’d ever take a friend or someone you weren’t hoping to see naked.”

“Mia!” he protested. “That is…highly inappropriate.”

“I’m not a kid anymore!” She gave his arm a hard swat. “And we’re both glad he’s older than Sophia. We used to worry that you were hiding something really scary and way worse than the messes Ella would get into.”

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