Page 56 of Redemption of a Prince

“You’re right. I’ll be praying the whole time, but we should do something to keep my mind off it.” He sucked in a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “What do you want to do?”

“We could wrap our presents and exchange them?”

“Sir?”

Zeke dropped his arms, and they turned to see Henry standing by the door. “Yes?”

“Power has been restored to the building.”

Nikki felt her shoulders relax.

“Thank you for letting us know.”

Henry went back outside, leaving Nikki alone with Zeke again.

“Come on.” Nikki grabbed his hand and led him out of the flat and to the elevator.

“Where are we going?” Zeke asked.

Nikki just grinned at him. “You’ll see.”

* * *

When they reachedthe fourth floor, Zeke allowed himself to be dragged from the elevator, but Nikki stopped abruptly.

“I don’t know where I’m going.”

“Neither do I.” Despite everything going on, Zeke couldn’t stop a smirk from crossing his face.

“The living area of your parents’ quarters. I want to see it, even if we’re not going to put up a giant tree.”

Zeke chuckled. Despite everything going on, Nikki could still make him laugh. “This way.”

The room was in the opposite corner from the one Nikki had occupied prior to the ice storm so it took a couple of minutes to get there.

Opening the door for her, Zeke swept his arm across the view. “Here it is. High ceilings. Nice furniture. Amazing views.”

Nikki looked around. “It’s gorgeous,andlooks comfortable.” She stared down at the table with the chess set on it. “Except I don’t know how to play.”

“I’d offer to teach you but I don’t think I can concentrate right now.”

“Maybe another time.” She headed for the window. Zeke knew the view by heart but followed her.

Closer to the building, you could look straight down and see the gardens. Looking out, the forest grew nearby. Evergreens that seemed to go on forever.

“What’s your favorite memory in this room?”

Zeke closed his eyes and thought back over the different times he’d been here over the years. “I think it was probably around my parents’ twentieth anniversary, but don’t hold me to that. It was while we were broken up.”

Nikki didn’t look at him but remained silent for a moment. “What were you doing here?”

“I have no idea what the official reason was, but I wondered if our break up was part of it. I don’t know where my siblings were, but I happened to walk into the room and my parents were in here. Dancing. There was music coming from somewhere. Just something soft. They weren’t overly demonstrative at the time, even in private, so it was a little weird.”

He wrapped his arms around Nikki’s waist and pulled her back to him. “My father wasn’t always an active and involved father. He tended to be pretty distant most of the time, though he’s gotten a lot better. I was closer to him than anyone except maybe Lydia, later on. I tend to think I thought we were closer than we probably were. Idealized the relationship and all. They didn’t see me, at least as far as I know, but they kept dancing. He was obviously smitten with her. I’d always known she was with him, but he didn’t show it nearly as much.”

“That’s a sweet memory.”

Zeke pulled his phone out of his pocket and found an appropriate playlist. The music started as he stepped back, away from Nikki.

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