by Jill Shalvis
Their lives.
“Uh, Princess?” Sally stepped closer. “Unless you’re calling…I don’t know…Siberia or somewhere, you’ve entered too many numbers.”
“Grunberg isn’t Siberia.” Natalia waited, hoping to hear her daddy’s voice. Annie’s or Lili’s voice. Anyone’s voice.
And when Amelia said hello in her cheery British accent, she nearly started crying. “A—A—Amelia?”
“Natalia, honey!”
“I—” Her eyes locked on Tim’s, she swallowed.
“You need me,” came Amelia’s sure voice.
“Yes.”
“I’m close by. I’ll be there in no time.”
Dial tone. Natalia stared down at the phone in her hand. Amelia was close by? How like her to just know. Just like the time Natalia had run away from home on a delivery truck, getting herself good and lost within Grunberg’s capital city of Spitzenstein before calling home collect.
Amelia had come and found her then, within moments, no questions asked.
Maybe Amelia was better than a fairy godmother after all.
Everyone in the barn was staring at her as if she’d lost her mind. Everyone but Tim. Gaze solemn, he came closer, and right in front of everyone, cupped her face in his hands and gave her one of those soft, melting kisses that made her forget her name. His hands slid down, over her shoulders, down her arms to her hands, which he linked in his. “I’m not sure what to say, Natalia.”
Say don’t go. Say stay with me always. Say you love me back, even half as helplessly as I love you. “You could just say goodbye,” she said in such a fake cheeky, breezy voice he narrowed his eyes.
“I don’t like goodbyes.” He brought their joined hands up to his mouth and kissed her palm. “I especially don’t like goodbyes that involve you.”
“Oh. Well.” She shrugged and swallowed, hard. Then smiled brightly. “We always knew it would come to this.”
“Yes, we did,” Sally piped up. “Now we can move Josh back to the kitchen.” She sighed dreamily. “He really knows how to cook.”
Tim pointed at the barn door. “Out. All of you.”
“But this is just getting good,” Pete protested.
“Besides, sounds to me like you’re going to need help talking her into staying,” Red said.
Sally choked on her burrito.
Natalia managed another smile. “Don’t be silly, I can’t stay. Heaven knows, you might all starve to death.”
“Out,” Tim repeated, tugging on Natalia’s hand when she started to file out with the others. “Not you.”
The way he looked at her, with a mixture of frustration and heat and affection and annoyance made her both want to kiss and smack him at the same time.
“So.” He touched her face. “What happens now? You get on a bus? You find another job? What?”
For a moment she just stared at him. “Didn’t you hear me make the phone call?”
“Yes, I heard you. I was just wondering where you’ll be.”
“Why?”
“Why? In case…well, maybe….”
“Why, Tim?”
In the far distance there came a whirling sound. As it drew closer, Natalia recognized it. “Do you have a helicopter delivering supplies today?” she asked.
“No.”
“Any friends who own helicopters, perhaps?”
“No.”
“Then that’s my ride.” And with her throat tight, she walked out of the barn.
TIM WAS IN a state of befuddlement. Nothing new, he’d discovered, when it came to dealing with Natalia. He followed her out of the barn, feeling an assortment of emotions hit him—panic, fear, frustration…but mostly panic.
She was really going. He’d known she would, but he hadn’t expected it to hurt.
It hurt a lot. So much so that he put his hand over his heart and glanced down, checking for blood. Nothing, of course, but damn…
This leaving thing, this wasn’t going to work out for him.
A helicopter with some sort of royal shield on the side had landed in his yard. In a corner, Mrs. Pig and Pickles were oinking and bleating respectively. His sister was standing there, speechless—a rare event.
“I am Amelia Grundy,” came an authoritative voice that managed to carry over the sound of the helicopter, which, probably in reverence, was suddenly shut off. “Keep back.” Then the door opened. “I came as soon as I could, dear.”
This from Mary Poppins—er, Amelia Grundy. Tim could only stare, his mouth hanging open, as the tall and formidable, silver-haired, sharp-blue-eyed woman who’d alighted from the helicopter hugged his Natalia. She was dressed in tweed and carried a leather satchel, from which she’d pulled an umbrella as she’d gotten out of the helicopter, shading both herself and Natalia from the sun.
Natalia looked a little befuddled herself. “How did you know where to find me?”
From her satchel, Amelia pulled a pair of wire-rimmed sunglasses, which she perched on her nose. “Have I ever failed you?”
“Of course not, but—”
“One week in the United States and you’ve forgotten all your manners. ‘Buts’ are better covered and not discussed, dear, remember?”
Natalia bit her bottom lip, looking suspiciously close to smiling. “It’s good to see you, Amelia.” She gave the woman another fierce hug. “So good.”
Amelia’s gaze went straight through her light sunglasses, meeting Tim’s over the top of Natalia’s head, and it was distinctly…not pleasant. No, she leveled him with those razor-sharp eyes and he felt pinned to the spot. Squirming a bit, he squared his shoulders and stepped forward.
“Tim Banning,” he said, thrusting out his hand. “Natalia’s…friend.”
Amelia’s stern face frowned, becoming even more stern. “Are you referring to Her Serene Highness? Because if you are, your manners are atrocious. Don’t you know the correct way in which to address a royal?”
“Uh…”
“Amelia.” Natalia squeezed the woman’s hand, her gaze never leaving Tim’s. “They don’t do royals here in Texas. You’re going to have to give these people a break.”
“Give them a break?” The woman looked aghast. “Oh, dear. You’ve been here too long already, you’re starting to talk like them.”
Two men got out of the helicopter, dressed in black and looking quite commando. At the sight of Natalia, they both bowed.
At that, Mrs. Pig stopped snorting. Pickles went silent. Even Sally stopped sneering cynically and straightened.
But Tim…Tim felt his heart stop. In the back of his mind, he’d known, he’d always known, but he still felt shell-shocked. She was a princess. She was royal. And if he so much as blinked, she was going to pop out of his life as fast as she’d popped into it. Knowing he had to do something to assuage this terrible feeling that nothing was going to be the same ever again, he reached for her, needing to put his hands on her, needing to feel hers on him.
The two men in black blocked him.
Natalia gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head, and they stepped back, but just barely. He and Natalia were completely surrounded. No more being alone.
Which meant anything he wanted to say would have to be said in front of everyone.
“Goodbye,” Natalia said softly, her eyes shining. “I know it didn’t quite work out for you, but I want you to know…it was lovely.”
“Natalia, I’m not ready to say goodbye.”
“Then move out of the way, Ace.” Sally stepped in front of him, and with a sort of bewildered, affectionate smile on her mouth, she looked at Natalia. “So. It’s true. You weren’t crazy after all.”
Natalia looked at Tim and made his heart catch. “I wouldn’t say that.”
“Yeah.” Sally caught the glance between her brother and Natalia. “Look, there’s a few things you should know. I was rough on you, and I’m sorry for that.”
“No, you’re not.” But Natalia smiled.
So did Sally. “Okay, I’m not. I
’m tough on everyone. But I am sorry if I ever hurt your feelings. It’s just the way you looked at my brother.” She lifted a shoulder. “You scared me because I knew you could hurt him. But then you kept trying hard to please us. You kept smiling. You kept working really hard. For us. I like that, Natalia. And even more shocking…I like you.”
“What do you know.” Natalia’s smile went a little shaky. “You’re a big softie, too.”
“Yeah.” Sally cleared her throat. “So here’s the bottom line. Your food is weird. We don’t like it. But as I just mentioned, we like you.” She startled them both when she leaned in and gave Natalia a hug. “Take care of yourself,” she whispered softly.
Tim watched the emotions flicker over Natalia’s face. She looked shocked. Overwhelmed. And near tears. His ranch hands looked the same.
Red jerked his chin toward Natalia and tried to tell Tim something. “Keep her” he mouthed.
Keep her. As if it could ever be that simple.
“Stop eating candy bars and snack food for meals,” Natalia said as she hugged Sally back.
“I will,” Sally promised, stepping aside for her brother.
Tim kept his eyes on Natalia. If she walked away, princess or not, his life would never be the same, not without her smile, her laughter, her constant challenging. She made him a better person, she opened up his heart, and he couldn’t let her go. “Natalia.”
When he stepped closer, the guards did, too. He glanced at them. “Can we have a moment alone?”
“No,” one of them said.
“Fine.” He took Natalia’s hands. “But there’s something I want to say.”
She was already impatient to be gone, glancing back at the helicopter. “Yes?”
“Don’t go.”
Her head whipped back to his, her eyes huge and wide. She shot a quick glance at the two guards, then Amelia, before looking back at him. “What?”
“I said don’t go.”
“But…” She wet her lips with her tongue, then swallowed hard. “The job was temporary. I’ve got a ride. That was your whole thing, making sure I was taken care of, and now, you can see that I will be.”
He didn’t release her hands. “This has nothing to do with any job, or seeing you taken care of.”
“What does it have to do with?”
She wanted to know right here, right now, in front of everyone.
“Do it,” Red said in a stage whisper beneath his breath. “Suck it up and do it.”
There was no sucking it up involved. He wanted to do this.
“Go ahead,” Seth called out. “Tell her.”
Tim tried to block everyone out because they wouldn’t be quiet. “It has to do with us.”
“Yeah, that’s the way to tell her!” Josh pumped his fist in the air. “Take it home, boss!”
“I’m trying.” Tim drew a deep breath. “It has to do with us, and the fact that I love you.”
A chorus of woo-hoos and whistles broke out behind them.
But in the aftermath of the commotion they made, Natalia’s uncompromising silence was like a bomb falling.
13
“YOU LOVE ME,” Natalia repeated in a slow, careful voice she couldn’t believe was hers. So calm. So together. No one could possibly know she’d had to lock her knees together to keep from falling. If she didn’t shut her mouth, the next good wind would surely tip her right over.
“Yes.” Tim smiled rather disarmingly and glanced at their cheering audience. Well, Amelia and the bodyguards weren’t cheering, but everyone else was. “Look, do you think we could go inside to discuss this?”
“Most certainly not, young man.” Amelia shook her umbrella at him. “She wouldn’t be properly chaperoned.”
“Amelia, please.” Natalia smiled apologetically at Tim. “I’ve been with him all week.”
The uptight looking woman straightened to her considerable height and looked…more uptight. “What?”
“Not like that,” Natalia said quickly, and most definitely not meeting Tim’s gaze. “I’ve been working here. Cooking. Helping out. Oh, Amelia…” She hugged the woman again. “I loved it. Working for a wage. Earning my way—”
“You don’t need money.”
“I know, but—”
“Excuse me.” Tim waved a hand in front of them. “Hello? We were in the middle of something here.” To hell with the guards, he took Natalia’s shoulders in his hands and turned her to face him.
Natalia looked into his eyes and everything she’d ever dreamed of were in them. “You love me,” she repeated. “Me, the woman.”
“I love you, the woman. The one who makes me laugh. The woman who brightens up my day. The woman I want to be with when I’m old and gray and can’t find my horse.”
“But I can’t cook American food.”
“No, but there’s always chocolate bars and fast food. Natalia, be mine.”
“What about the princess thing?” She held her breath. At her side, Amelia made a move. Natalia held her back, afraid her beloved companion would close up her umbrella and beat Tim over the head with it before he answered. “Tim? You love me, the woman—but what about me, the princess?”
“She can come along, too.” He cupped her face in his big, warm hands, just the way she loved. “I want all of you, Natalia. The leather, the denim, even the blue lip gloss. I want every part of your life.” He glanced at the men in black. “But them. They won’t come along on the honeymoon, will they?”
Okay now she really couldn’t breathe. “Honeymoon?”
He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, stroked her jaw. “Will you marry me? Make sure I don’t collect too many geriatric animals or eat too much chocolate?”
“I love your geriatric animals,” she said with tears in her voice. “But…”
“There’s a but?” He looked nervous now. “Amelia said no buts, remember?”
“I could never ask you to give up all this,” she whispered. “It means too much. And my home, my family, they mean a lot to me.”
“There has to be a way to compromise,” he said a bit desperately. “I could let Sally run this place half the time. Hell, she does it anyway—”
“Hey,” Sally said in protest.
Natalia gripped his wrist and stared up at him, truly stunned. “You’d leave this ranch? You’d come live with me in a country you’ve never even seen?”
Leaning closer, he kissed her. “Natalia, I’d live on the moon, if that’s where you were. I just want to be with you.”
She couldn’t even blink, for fear this perfect, strong, warm, amazing man would disappear. “I want to live in Texas.”
Amelia cleared her throat.
“I do,” Natalia said without taking her eyes off Tim. “I’m sorry, Amelia. I love him.”
Amelia sniffed, then opened her satchel again and pulled out a purple silk handkerchief, which she brought up to her nose and loudly blew.
Natalia gaped at her. “Amelia?”
Sniff. Sniff.
“Are you…crying?” Natalia had never seen Amelia cry, never.
“Oh, dear.” Amelia blew her nose again, so loudly Mrs. Pig squealed.
Pickles started in, too, but Natalia could only stare at Amelia. “You’re scaring me.”
“You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this event,” Amelia said. “It’s true love. It’s beautiful. You’re going to be so happy.”
“But she hasn’t agreed yet,” Tim said quietly. “Or said…it.”
“No,” Amelia agreed, swiping her eyes. “But she feels it.”
Natalia looked into Tim’s anxious eyes. “I feel it,” she seconded.
“I want to hear you say it.”
She’d never done so before. She’d never even thought it. In fact, before Texas, before Tim, she’d honestly worried about herself, wondering how she’d ever manage to find a man who would love her for her.
That was no longer a fear. In fact, all her fears…gone. “I love you,” she said with the most
conviction she’d ever felt. “I love you, Timothy Banning.”
Amelia beamed at Tim through her tears. “See?”
“A moment ago you were ready to clobber me with your umbrella,” Tim pointed out, looking a little baffled by Amelia’s easy affection.
“She’s fierce, but loyal.” Natalia couldn’t help herself. Everything was perfect, and she cried and laughed at the same time. “And I don’t want you to give up anything for me. I really do want to live here.” She looked at Amelia. “You’ll come often.”
“You know I will.”
Tim looked positively flabbergasted.
“But there’s one thing,” Natalia warned.
“Anything,” Tim promised rashly.
“If I’m not pregnant from the broken condom—”
Amelia gasped, then smacked Tim upside the back of the head.
He held his head. “Hey!”
“It wasn’t his fault, Amelia.” Natalia grinned. “I think he needed a bigger size.”
The hoots and hollers from the gang increased intensely.
Tim, beet red, closed his eyes. “She’s making that part up,” he muttered.
“As I was saying…” Natalia continued. “If I’m not pregnant…” She waited until Tim opened his eyes. “I want to be,” she finished softly. “Is that okay?”
Eyes suspiciously bright, Tim reached out and pulled her close. “Nothing has ever been more okay. I love you, Princess.”
“Her Serene Highness,” Amelia corrected him.
“How about Princess In The Wild, Wild West?” Red called out helpfully.
“How about Pain-In-My-Tushie turned Favorite-Sister-In-Law?” Sally called out, also helpfully.
“How about Mrs. Natalia Banning?” Tim said firmly.
Natalia’s heart squeezed. “I like that one best.”
Her Knight To Remember
Jill Shalvis
“You’re not going to believe this.”
Annie burst into the room, hitting Kyle in the butt with the door as he reached for his pants. Righting himself, he caught a flash of pink satin.
