by Leanne Banks
“This is Annie Howell. I’d like to speak with Coco Jordan,” the woman said.
Coco sighed. “Speaking.”
“Oh, Your Highness. I’m so happy to talk to you,” the woman gushed. “I’m the president of the Silver City Ladies Society. We would love for you to come and speak to our group next month.”
“Thank you for the kind invitation,” Coco said. “But I must tell you that I’m not any kind of highness and I’m very busy working for the Garner household right now.”
“But you are from royalty,” the woman said. “We’re so excited to have royalty right here among us.”
“But I’m really not royalty. A true royal person is raised to be royal from birth and, trust me, I was not. I’m sorry I can’t help you. Have a good day. Goodbye,” she said before the woman could respond.
“These people really don’t get it,” she murmured.
Emma’s cry vibrated through the baby monitor, interrupting her thoughts.
Coco ran upstairs, scooped up Emma, changed her diaper and returned downstairs just as the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it,” Sarah said. “Might as well be Grand Central Station in here today with all these interruptions.”
Carrying Emma, Coco wandered toward the front room.
Sarah opened the door and looked surprised. “Eunice and Timmy, what brings you here?” she asked, drying her hands on the dish towel she carried.
“May we come in?” the woman outside asked.
“Of course,” Sarah said and stepped aside. “What can I do for you, Eunice?”
An older woman with bright red lipstick and unrealistically black hair and a middle-aged man stood inside the door. The woman carried a fruit basket and the man cleared his throat and pressed down his hair.
“We hear you have a princess living in your house and we wanted to welcome her to the neighborhood,” Eunice said.
Coco took a silent step backward so she wouldn’t be seen.
Sarah paused a half beat then sighed and reached for the basket. “That’s nice of you. I’ll be sure and tell Coco you dropped by.”
“Oh, we were hoping to meet the princess,” Eunice said.
“Well, she’s busy with the baby right now,” Sarah said.
Emma looked down at the dog and made a loud gurgling sound.
“Oh, is that them?”
Emma let out another loud gurgle.
“Coco,” Sarah called as if she realized it was no use trying to hide Coco any longer. “You have guests.”
Coco entered the room and smiled. “Hello,” she said.
“Coco, this is Eunice Chittum and her son, Timmy.”
“Tim,” the man corrected and cleared his throat.
“Tim,” Sarah repeated. “Well, the Chittums have brought you a fruit basket. I’ll take it into the kitchen for you.”
“Thank you very much,” Coco said. “What a nice gift. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Oh, our pleasure,” Eunice gushed and dipped in a curtsey. “Your royalness.”
Frustration rippled through Coco. “Oh, no, please don’t do that. I’m just Coco Jordan. Really.”
“There’s no need to be so humble with us. We’re very honored to meet you. I especially wanted you to meet Timmy.”
“Tim,” the man corrected.
“He would be a perfect escort and you should know that he is eligible.”
“Mother,” Timmy said, rubbing at his hair self-consciously.
Coco covered her dismay by shifting Emma to her left hip and extending her hand. “It’s nice to meet both of you and so friendly of you to stop by. I wish I could invite you to stay longer, but I need to bathe the baby.”
“Oh, of course. We wouldn’t dream of imposing, but I do want to leave you with my phone number and Timmy’s,” the woman said with a bob of her head and handed Coco a floral card with several phone numbers on it. “That last one is Timmy’s cell and he always answers. Please call us for anything you might need. Anything at all.”
Coco nodded and murmured her thanks again as she closed the door behind them. As soon as they left, she walked to the kitchen where Sarah was cooking. “Just tell me this won’t last long,” she said over Emma’s babbling. Emma was turning into quite the chatty baby. Coco just wished she understood the baby’s language.
Sarah shot her a look of sympathy. “Oh, sweetheart, it’s just getting started, but maybe if we ask Benjamin to keep it to no visitors for a while, it’ll die down faster.”
“I hate to be unfriendly,” Coco said.
“It’s about survival,” Sarah said. “We have to survive the incoming.”
The phone rang.
“I’ll get it,” Coco said as Emma continued to babble.
“I’ll let you,” Sarah said and turned back to stirring her pot.
Coco scooted around the corner to grab the phone in the den and almost collided with Benjamin. “Oh, I didn’t know you were here,” she said.
Emma stared at Benjamin’s hat and immediately stopped babbling. “She really doesn’t like that hat,” Sarah muttered.
Rolling his eyes, Benjamin removed it. “I’ll get the phone,” he said, picking up the receiver.
Coco went after him. “You might not want to do—”
“Garner Ranch,” he said and listened. He wrinkled his brow and his face became more and more perturbed. “Wait a minute. Wait, wait a minute. You say you’re a DJ at a radio station, and you want to interview Princess Coco Jordan?”
Benjamin glanced at her. She cringed and shook her head.
“She doesn’t want to be interviewed,” he said and opened his mouth as if he were going to say goodbye. He listened a moment longer and his eyes grew wide with disbelief. “You want to have a reality competition for men who want to marry a princess? That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard in my life—” He broke off and shook his head. “You say you’ve already got fifty men signed up? I don’t care if you’ve got a million. It’s not gonna happen. Ever. Got it? Goodbye.”
He hung up the phone and turned to her. “We’re gonna need a different strategy.”
* * *
That night after she put Emma to bed, Coco returned to her bedroom, pulled on a sweatshirt and crept downstairs and out the back door. Her mind whirling a mile a minute, she circled the house. She started out at a fast jog. What was her blood brother like? Were any of those royals worth knowing? Would any of them consider her worth knowing?
Coco had always dreamed of having brothers and sisters, but her parents had told her she was their everything. In retrospect, she’d felt more than a little pressure from that. She’d always wanted to be the best student, the best artist, the best singer, the best fisher, the best athlete, but in truth, she’d been mostly average.
Oh, she’d been a good speller and her grades had spiked into Dean’s List territory every now and then, but along the way, she’d learned that she couldn’t be Miss Perfect. And she’d felt a little guilty about it, especially when she’d overheard her parents arguing about money and learned that her parents had spent their life savings to adopt her.
After a time, she’d seen that her requests for a sibling had pained her mother and father, so she’d stopped voicing them. But she’d never stopped wanting a brother or sister or both. And now, she technically had brothers and sisters, all for the taking. Yet she felt as if it were all a bad joke, because she sensed they would regard her as a complication, perhaps a threat.
Which was so ridiculous, because she wasn’t a nasty person.
Why couldn’t she put this craziness out of her mind? The onslaught of the press didn’t help, but she just wished she could turn it all off at night when she went to bed. So far, no luck.
Suddenly, Benjamin appeared by her side, walking w
ith her. “Something bothering you?” he asked in his low drawl.
“It’s been a strange day,” she said a little breathlessly. She inhaled quickly, superaware of his height and muscular frame.
“I’ll say,” he said. “Which bothered you most?” he asked. “Eunice and Timmy? Or the reality competition for your hand in marriage?”
She shot him a dirty look. Ordinarily, she would have been more careful with her reaction to her boss.
He chuckled and gave her a quick elbow. “Looks like you’ve got some extra energy. You need to run,” he said and started to jog.
She couldn’t not accept his dare, so she quickened her stride. Coco noticed that Benjamin wasn’t breathing hard. “Were you a football player when you were in high school?”
“And college,” he said. “Why do you ask?”
She shrugged and upped her speed a bit. “Just curious. You’re big, but fit,” she said.
“Big?” he echoed. “I was one of the little guys on the team. But thanks for the compliment. It helps to move around a lot during the day. You should know with all the moving you do for Emma.”
She nodded, concentrating on her pace and breathing.
“You still didn’t answer my question about why we’re running,” he said.
“I don’t know why you are running,” she said.
“Okay, I can settle that. I’m running to keep up with you. Why are you running?”
She ran several more steps. “I don’t want to have to deal with all this right now. I just started taking care of Emma. Sarah has been a good sport, but it’s not fair to her to have to answer all these crazy phone calls.”
“Yeah,” he said. “What else?”
She continued jogging then slowed. Then walked. “I don’t want to want to meet them,” she said, her heart pounding in her chest. “I don’t want to care if I ever see one of them face-to-face.”
“But you do want to meet them. I would want to,” he said, walking beside her.
“You said that before,” she said, looking at him.
“Sure. I’ve got brothers, but I’ve always known them,” he said.
She nodded, taking a deep breath. “The trouble is I don’t want to go by myself, and I can’t think of anyone to go with me.”
“Hmm,” he said.
Her heart twisted. “And it’s such bad timing.”
He rubbed his chin. “It could be worse.”
“How?” she asked.
“It’s not calving season,” he said and met her gaze. “How would you feel about having Emma and me tag along for your trip to Chantaine?”
She gaped at him in amazement. “Are you joking?”
“Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not doing this out of the goodness of my heart,” he said. “You’re the best one for Emma, and I’ll do whatever I have to do to keep you.”
Coco blinked while his words sank in. Allrighty. She was totally confused for an entire moment, until she realized that Benjamin was still desperate to keep Emma happy, even though his daughter had stopped screaming at the very sight of him.
Chapter Five
The next day, numerous bouquets of flowers, invitations and fruit baskets arrived. The arrivals kept Boomer busy as he tried to greet each deliveryman. Benjamin made a new message for the voice mail and no one was required to pick up the house phone. His men kept all visitors at bay.
Coco breathed a sigh of relief several times throughout the day. Sarah was more relaxed. Even the baby seemed more at ease. The conversation she’d had with Benjamin made her feel alternately uneasy and anxious. Was she really going to Chantaine to meet her half siblings? Had Benjamin really agreed to go with her? And take Emma?
Coco wondered if she’d dreamed it.
“There’s no way we can use all this fruit,” Sarah said. “Even if we give it to the men.”
“Is there someone in the community who could use it?” Coco asked as she slid Emma into her high chair for dinner.
“I could call the church. They might know someone who could take it,” Sarah said as she stirred stew on the stove. She gave a slight smile. “It sure has been nice ignoring the phone today, hasn’t it?”
“Yes, it has,” Coco said as she began to feed Emma. The baby kicked her feet in anticipation of her green beans.
Coco smiled at the baby’s puckered lips. “Compared to yesterday, it’s been heaven.”
“I’m thinking after word of Benjamin’s message gets around, the phone won’t be ringing near as much tomorrow,” Sarah said.
“Why is that?” Coco asked, giving Emma another spoonful of beans.
Sarah chuckled. “It’s not exactly a welcoming message.”
“I haven’t listened to it,” Coco said and decided to do that as soon as she finished feeding Emma. “I can’t imagine what he said.”
“Something along the lines of how you wouldn’t be back in touch until after the turn of the next century and trespassers would be prosecuted to the full extent of Texas law,” Sarah said, then chuckled. “It’s fun when Benjamin gets a little huffy. He’s usually not the pushy type. Like his father, he doesn’t get riled unless the occasion calls for it.”
Sarah made Coco curious. “What was his father like?” Coco asked.
“He was a good, solid man. The ranch was his life. Except for Benjamin, his boys went in different directions. I think Benjamin fought it for a while, but once his father died, he knew his destiny. Except for that crazy affair with Brooke Hastings.” Sarah rolled her eyes. “But we all have our foolish moments. This one turned out pretty good when you look at that baby.”
Coco smiled at Emma, and Emma gave her a toothless smile in return. Sheer delight rushed through her. “She is adorable, isn’t she?”
“When she isn’t screaming bloody murder,” Sarah said.
“She’s still adjusting,” Coco said, feeding Emma another spoonful. “What about Benjamin’s mother? I haven’t heard much about her.”
“Well, that’s another story,” Sarah said as she adjusted the temperature on the burner. “Georgia is her name and you’ve probably heard she lives in Costa Rica. At the moment, anyway,” Sarah said. “Georgia wanted to travel. Benjamin’s father, Howard, couldn’t and wouldn’t. I’m not sure which of those were first.”
“It does seem that ranch life is very absorbing.”
“It is,” Sarah said. “A rancher is married to his ranch and his wife needs to understand that. Georgia went along with it for a long time, but as she and Howard grew older, she wanted them to take vacations. He was resistant. Sometimes, she went on her own. Don’t dare repeat this, but their marriage was turbulent because of it.”
Coco frowned. “It must have been difficult for both of them if she wanted to travel and he didn’t.”
Sarah nodded. “Yep. It was. Some people thought she was flighty, but she hung around until her boys were grown.”
“What do you think?” Coco asked, knowing Sarah had been employed by the Garners for a long time.
“It’s not my place to comment one way or another, but when I saw her, she was a good mother and a good wife. She just got a little wanderlust and some empty-nest syndrome. I know she’s grieving now. Traveling won’t fill the loss, but it might provide a distraction. Sometimes we all need a distraction.”
Coco absorbed Sarah’s words. “Very true. You’re a wise woman, Sarah.”
Sarah smiled, her face creasing in a thousand wrinkles. “Well, thank you very much, your royalness.”
Coco laughed. “You know I’ll be changing a dirty diaper within thirty minutes.”
Sarah nodded. “You’re a good girl. You’re better than any princess—I’ll tell you that much. And you work magic with that baby. It’s no wonder Benjamin is willing to do almost anything to protect you. If yo
u ever meet those royal people, you remember they’re not better than you. Hear me?”
Coco’s heart twisted and her throat swelled with emotion. “I hear you.”
“Good, and don’t forget what I said,” Sarah said.
* * *
Later that evening, Benjamin found Coco wading through the flowers and messages she’d received during the day. She pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear and shook her head in frustration. “This is ridiculous,” she muttered.
He took a drink of water from his glass. “Long day? You didn’t have any visitors, did you?”
She shook her head and looked up at him. “No visitors. Just deliveries and the phone ringing off the hook. It’s these crazy requests. These men don’t even know me, but they’re asking for dates, offering to take me on trips. I feel like I need to put out a press release saying, I’m broke. You can stop calling now.”
Benjamin chuckled at her, but at the same time, he felt sorry for her. She hadn’t asked for any of this. He admired her for keeping her feet on the ground. Many women would have been demanding a tiara and breakfast in bed if they’d learned they had royal blood in them. But not Coco.
“You don’t have to answer them,” he said. “These offers you’re getting are completely unsolicited.”
“I know,” she said. “I just wish I wasn’t getting them at all.” She shrugged. “If I were engaged or married, these men wouldn’t be making all these offers.”
“True,” he said and his mind wandered to his assistant foreman, Jace. Jace would be more than happy to act as Coco’s love interest. He scowled at the thought.
“Why are you frowning?” she asked.
“Just thinking,” he said and took another drink of water. He walked to the other side of the room then walked back. It wouldn’t be a bad idea if Coco had someone looking out for her. She was a smart girl, but probably too sweet and trusting for her own good. If people knew they would have to deal with a protective man in her life, they might be less likely to try to take advantage of her.
He watched as Coco opened another card. She sighed.
