Page 76 of Redemption of a Prince

“You’re going to be amazing.”

“I need to have a meeting with my brothers, their wives, and Lydia this afternoon.” He sighed. “So much to do and so little time to do it. I don’t even know if I want to stay awake until midnight. Or if I have to so I can sign paperwork at 12:01. Could I sleep if I tried to?”

He kissed her softly. “I am very glad you’ll be at my side through all of it, even if it’s not official or legal yet.”

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.” She hesitated. “I do have one concern though. I mean, probably more than one, but one big one at the moment.”

Zeke held her close and kissed the top of her head. “What’s that?”

“My job. If you’re king, and we get married, I don’t know that the queen can really be the head of the Trilunium resort planning. It’s potentially a conflict of interest, but knowing how busy your mother is, I don’t know that there would be time.”

His hand rubbed up and down her back. “Why don’t we take it one step at a time? Keep the job for now, reevaluate later, as needed.”

Her head rested comfortably on his chest. “That sounds like a good idea.”

In his arms, her arms around him, felt like a place she hadn’t had in so many years.

It felt like home.

There was nowhere else she’d rather be.

Epilogue

Three weeks before Christmas and Nikki was more nervous than she’d been in her life.

Not even when it had been time to tell the former king and queen she was going to give birth to their grandchild.

Lydia flounced into the room in her silver dress. “Do we really have another hour to wait?” Lydia wasn’t known for her patience.

“Not quite that long.” But close enough. Nikki had discovered Lydia’s lack of patience as they worked together to train Lottie. Zeke had been right about the little dog bringing the two of them together. They’d bonded over Lottie, and it led to a much deeper relationship over the last six months.

For the first month or so, every time she left Lydia, Nikki would find herself in Zeke’s quarters, curled in his arms as she cried over everything she’d missed with her daughter.

Since then, she’d reveled in the developing relationship. She’d never be Lydia’s mother, but she would settle for being her favorite sister-in-law.

That would happen in less than an hour.

Kari had confided that none of the others knew the truth. Caleb and Joshua never questioned Lydia’s arrival or the official story that the queen had sequestered herself for months to avoid public judgment if she were to have another miscarriage.

The king and queen had even explained the lack of photos and why the boys didn’t know they were getting a new sibling the same way. Zeke told her that their mother always held pillows on the sofa or had them come see her in her room where she was in bed, not feeling well, for those months.

Nikki loathed that.

For the last three or four months before Lydia was born, the boys had seen their mother only a couple of times a week. Nikki absolutely hated she’d been the cause of that.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem to have affected their long-term relationship with their mother, and for that, Nikki was grateful.

“You guys are gonna live in Zeke’s apartment?” Lydia asked, picking at an imaginary piece of lint on her skirt.

“For now,” Nikki confirmed. Despite Zeke’s ascension to the throne, he hadn’t moved to the monarch’s quarters and wasn’t planning to any time soon. Possibly after the coronation in eight months, but even that wasn’t certain.

The people had accepted him as the new monarch with open arms, while still expressing their support for his father and his recovery. It had been a tough few months, but Zeke was coming into his own.

Anyone could see that.

It meant they didn’t get as much time together as they’d like, though that was about to change. Zeke was getting into a routine with his daily, weekly, and monthly briefings. The initial ones mandated with any new monarch were finally over. New contracts and treaties were signed - except with Auverignon.

Auverignon mandated new treaties with each new monarch. Zeke had refused to negotiate with the old one. It was well-known that he’d flaunted not only his marriage vows but the law and spent more than two years fighting it in the courts.

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