Page 43 of Redemption of a Prince

He watched as Nikki closed the doors of the cabinet without taking another game out.

“I’m going to get some work done. We still have phone service and internet access. I have a lot to do and can’t justify sitting around doing nothing.” She grabbed her attaché case and started for the hallway with the bedrooms. “I’ll be working at the desk in my room.”

Zeke sighed as she shut the door behind her. So much for spending time together.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and texted his assistant. Was there anything he needed to do while he sat here? Or could he find some inane television show on MyBingeFlix to watch?

The reply text message said there wasn’t anything pressing since he was supposed to be on holiday for the next few days anyway. Taking that as permission to be lazy until he was allowed outside, Zeke picked up the remote and checked to see if everything worked.

He scrolled through until one caught his eye. A “reality” show based in the States where they followed a baseball star and his new wife in a sort of meet-at-the-altar kind of wedding.

In the first episode, the woman - a romance author who’d had an HEA TV movie coming out soon - had the option of which men she wanted to date. By the end of the second episode, she’d chosen to date the baseball player, including spending a month in a house together. The show was six months old. He could look up what happened, but he didn’t.

About the time the third episode came to a close, Nikki came back out of the room.

“I just need something to eat,” she told him by way of explanation, though she didn’t look at him.

Zeke paused the show and turned the television off. He followed Nikki into the kitchen. “Do you want to talk about it?”

She kept her back to him. “Talk about what?”

“About what’s bothering you.”

Nikki used her hands to brace herself against the counter. “I knew it would be hard working for the royal family. I knew I’d see pictures and maybe even see her, but I hadn’t planned on working at the palace. I really hadn’t counted on working with you so closely. It’s a lot more difficult than I expected.”

Zeke stood next to her, his back to the counter and a hand on her shoulder. “I know it’s not easy. I’ve gotten more used to it over the years, but I still have my moments, too. I miss what could have been - both as a family and the life we could have had together if you hadn’t gotten pregnant.”

She leaned the side of her head against his arm. “For years, I avoided any news or gossip program that might have pictures. I still saw them occasionally, but it wasn’t until she was almost six that I purposely looked for one. Then I printed a couple of them and hid them behind other pictures in my living room. I knew they were there, but no one else would.”

“I thought about you, all the time. Every time I wanted to call and check on you, I stopped myself. I thought it would make it harder on you if I contacted you. First, it was a year. Then two. Then five. I actually got your number all the way entered in my phone when it had been ten years, but I couldn’t bring myself to hit send.”

He still beat himself up over that. She’d been alone, had almost no one she could count on. His family had taken good care of her while she was pregnant and made sure she had enough to live on for a while so she could get her feet underneath her - and would have given more, much more, if she’d ever reached out and needed it.

The bitterness over the loss of his birthright overrode his common sense for a long time. By then it had been too long. The last thing he’d wanted to do was cause her more pain.

Not calling probably did that, too. There was no way to know which would have been worse.

“The worst part - well, second worst part - was losing my best friend.”

“Really your only friend,” he said softly, the self-flagellation starting again.

“Not quite but close. I lived with a friend’s family for a few months while I found my own place. They knew I’d given a baby up for adoption, but not that your family had been involved at all.” She looked like she was going to say something else but didn’t.

“Do you still talk to her?”

Nikki shook her head. “I run into her about only once a year or so.”

Zeke picked her hand up off the counter and slid in front her. His arms went around her, holding her more closely than he had a few hours earlier.

She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his chest.

This was what he’d been missing. Not companionship.

Nikki.

He’d missedher.

“Your family gave me plenty,” she went on, her voice somewhat muffled. “I never even used all of it before I was making it on my own. I haven’t touched it in years and think it’s grown to the point it’s almost as much as it was to start with. It got me through school, though. I know your parents were the ones who provided the scholarship, but it covered everything else.”

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