A Royal Christmas Wish

by Caroline Mickelson

  This wasn't the reaction that he'd hoped for. He searched her expression for a clue as to what she was thinking, but he couldn't read her thoughts. "Christmas is only three days away. I wanted to have a private moment to give you your gift." He held the box out to her but she didn't take it.

  "What are you trying to do, Alejandro?" Her words came out in a rush. "I don't understand. What's changed?"

  He reached up and caressed her cheek with his fingertips. "What's changed is that I've realized that you-" but the rest of his confession, his declaration, was interrupted by the arrival of the head chef and several waiters. He nodded an acknowledgment to them but by the time he turned back to Graciela, she'd already moved a few steps away. He slipped the jeweler's box back into his pocket.

  He took two flutes of champagne from a footman and handed one to Graciela. He tucked a hand under her elbow and gently guided her away from the table where their meal was about to be served. "What shall we drink to?"

  Graciela thought a moment. "To our friendship over the years."

  He lifted his glass. “That and also to our future."

  They touched their flutes and both took a few sips.

  "You certainly seemed to enjoy yourself on the slopes today," Graciela said, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "I'd bet you enjoyed yourself more than Josephine did."

  "I did." He grinned. "Tell me you didn't have just as much fun," he challenged her. "I dare you."

  "Actually, I did."

  "We should do it more often," he said. "Have fun, I mean. I realized that I've grown far too serious ever since my father passed away."

  Her expression was clearly sympathetic. "That's understandable. You're a man with a great many responsibilities."

  "I'm also a man with a very intelligent and hard working younger brother. I haven't allowed Luis to be the help to me that he's wanted to be for a long time. There's so much he can do for Santa Rosa. I'm going to give him as much free rein as he desires." He took a sip of champagne and then a deep breath for courage. "I want to make my personal life my priority."

  The chef's approach kept Graciela from responding. Alejandro groaned inwardly. It was if the fates had orchestrated an interruption at each moment he was ready to tell Graciela that he loved her. Patience, he reminded himself, have patience. He wasn't a lovesick seventeen-year-old boy. He was a man who'd been given the gift of love, and for this, he was grateful.

  As they dined on a six-course meal of Aidinovian delicacies, he made every effort to be gracious and put her at ease. This awkwardness between them was new, but he hoped it was simply a reflection of the fact that their relationship was evolving.

  He pushed away his dessert plate. "I wonder just how hard it would be to convince Chef Jean-Pierre to leave here and move to Santa Rosa?"

  Graciela laughed. "I don't think poaching their majesties head chef is the ideal way to repay their hospitality." She sat back in her chair. "Thank you for arranging this evening. I've enjoyed myself."

  "The pleasure has been all mine, Graciela." He studied her for a long moment. "We haven't had as much time to spend together as I would have liked since we've arrived. Especially not with Mr. Ashton following you around."

  "Oh, Alejandro, be fair. Robert hasn't been following me around. He's been keeping me company."

  "I want to spend more time with you."

  Graciela leaned forward and rested her hands on the table. "There's something I have to tell you, Alejandro."

  He leaned forward and covered her hands with his. "There's something I need to tell you too." He couldn't believe how nervous he felt now that the moment to confess his feelings had arrived. "But ladies first." His smile was tender. "You can tell me anything, Graciela."

  Her eyes grew moist. "Promise me that you'll understand."

  "Anything, I promise you."

  She took a deep breath and then exhaled. "I'm moving to California."

  Chapter 5

  "I knew I'd find you here."

  Prince Alejandro scowled. "Go away."

  Instead, Prince Luis drew up a burgundy leather chair beside his brother. "I thought perhaps my invitation to your pity party got lost in the inter-palace mail." He looked around the deserted library, his eyes lingering a moment on the closed curtains before finally resting on the near empty brandy decanter and single crystal snifter beside it. "I see that all the other invitations must have been misdirected as well."

  "Very funny. Now go away."

  Luis settled himself into the chair and began to drum his fingers on its arms. "I'm good. I'll just wait here."

  Alejandro raised a suspicious eyebrow. "For what, pray tell?"

  His brother gave an elegant shrug. "For you to quit acting like a petulant child. Any idea how long my wait might be?"

  Alejandro knew he was acting ill-tempered, something he wasn't especially proud of, but he was tired. He hadn't slept three straight minutes last night and he didn't hold out much hope for this evening either. 'I'm moving to California'. He could hear Graciela's words play over and over in his mind. Each time it felt as if he was being sucker punched. He wasn't proud of giving in to the misery enveloping him, but it was hard to care about anything else.

  Luis shook his head. "How exactly do you think that sitting in here sulking is going to help you win over Graciela?"

  Alejandro tossed back the last of the brandy in his snifter and then set his glass down with a bit more force than necessary. "I'm not going to try to win her over."

  "What? Why not?"

  "Because she has every right to take that job with Ashton's vineyard. I can see why she's flattered by his offer. And his attentions, for that matter."

  "Of course, she has the right to take the job. But that doesn't mean it's the right thing for her to do. You do realize that she has no romantic interest in Ashton, don't you?" Luis asked.

  Alejandro closed his eyes against a vision in his mind's eye of Graciela in Ashton's arms. The mere thought was like salt on a raw wound. "For now, perhaps not. But in time, she might well fall in love with him. Or one of his rich American friends."

  Luis groaned. "You're either being insanely stupid or...no, wait, that's it. You're being insanely stupid. Graciela is in love with you, Alejandro. I think everyone in Santa Rosa knows that except you. Surely you trust me enough to know that I wouldn't lie to you."

  Alejandro looked up from his empty glass and stared at his brother. "I trust you."

  "But?" Luis prodded him. "If you know she loves you, why aren't you going to be with her right now?"

  Alejandro didn't answer right away. He did trust Luis, and if anyone would understand, it would be his brother. He took a deep breath and then exhaled. "Because Graciela's too good for me."

  Luis stared at him. "You can't really believe that?"

  He looked away. However surprised Luis was to hear it, Alejandro knew what he said was true. He wasn't the man for Graciela. She deserved only the very best. And he wanted her to have it, even if it meant that he had to face the dismal prospect of forever without her by his side. "I do believe it."

  "Surely that's her decision to make?"

  Alejandro searched his brother's eyes. There he saw uncertainty and confusion, not understanding. But it didn't matter. He knew he was right. "Luis, if I were the right man for her, if I were her true love, how could I have lived and worked beside her for years and remained completely clueless as to how she felt? How I felt?" He rubbed a hand over his tired eyes. "If I couldn't see it, I don't deserve it."

  Luis reached over and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Sometimes love rushes in and shakes up your world. But other times, love can grow quietly, gently, and you don't see it until it surrounds you, which is what has happened between you and Graciela. The important thing to know is that one kind of love isn't any less precious than the other."

  Alejandro stood. "Precious is the key-word, you're right."

  Luis got to his feet. His smile was wide and more than a bit relieved. "So you're going
to go find her now and tell her how you feel?"

  "No." Alejandro's heart hurt. If only things were as easy as his brother seemed to think they were, but they weren't. "I love Graciela and I'm going to do right by her, but I don't think that involves a future with me."

  "But why do you have to go?" Josephine frowned at the luggage on Graciela's bed. "Can't you at least stay for Christmas?"

  Graciela smiled indulgently as she folded a cashmere sweater and tucked it into her open suitcase. She sat down on the bed. "Trust me, I wish I could stay, but I can't. Just like here, the palace in Santa Rosa gets very busy and there are some important things going on between Christmas and New Year."

  "Can't Prince Alejandro do without you?"

  Graciela winced. However innocent, the little girl's words were an arrow that hit their mark. "Yes, I rather think he can." In fact, she knew he could. Ultimately, she was dispensable. His life would go on just fine without her. She got to her feet. Packing was far preferable to sitting and thinking. And feeling. She opened the wardrobe doors and pulled out two pairs of slacks. "But even so, there's plenty of work to be done and I've promised to help do it, so I have to go back, don't I?"

  "I guess so."

  Graciela continued packing while Josephine looked through her jewelry box. Their companionable silence was interrupted by a loud knock on the door.

  Josephine jumped off the bed. "I'll get it. It's probably my mom wondering if I'm being a pest."

  But it wasn't the queen. Graciela looked up in surprise when she heard Alejandro's voice.

  "Hello, Josephine." He looked over the little girl's head and met Graciela's eyes. "Graciela."

  She nodded, unable to say anything.

  "I was hoping I might have a word with you." His glance in Josephine's direction was pointed. "Alone."

  Josephine narrowed her eyes. "Unsupervised?"

  Alejandro's eyebrows rose. "Speaking of supervision..." he let his voice trail off but his meaning wasn't lost on Simon's little sister.

  "Okay, I'm going." She ran over and threw her arms around Graciela. "Please don't leave without saying goodbye."

  Graciela hugged her tightly. "I won't, I promise."

  Once they were alone, silence stretched between them for several long minutes. There was so much she longed to say, thoughts that she'd spent the entire night thinking.

  "I'm sorry about last night," Alejandro said. "You caught me so off guard with your news that I couldn't find the words to wish you well."

  Or stop her. Those were the words she desperately wanted to hear, not well wishes. "I understand." But of course, she didn't. Why couldn't he love her the way she loved him?

  He took several steps into the room. "Do you have a moment for me?"

  "Of course." She refolded a blouse that she'd just folded a moment ago so that he wouldn't see her hands shake.

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out the same jeweler's box that he'd offered her last night.

  "Alejandro, I can't-"

  "Please," he interrupted her refusal. "Maybe this will say what I'm unable to." He placed the box in her hands.

  The warmth of his touch sent a shiver through her. She stared down at the leather box because it was easier than looking into his eyes.

  "Open it," he urged her.

  She lifted the lid and gasped. "Oh, Alejandro, it's magnificent." Nestled against the black velvet was a gold pendant encrusted with emeralds and sapphires laid out to represent the world's land formations and oceans. She'd never seen anything like it. "It's beautiful."

  He reached out and covered her hands with his. "I wanted you to know that I'd give you the world if it was mine to give."

  She didn't for a moment doubt the sincerity in his voice, but it wasn't the world she wanted from him. She wanted his love.

  Chapter 6

  Christmas itself was utterly miserable, but little did that prepare Alejandro for the sheer hell that January turned out to be without Graciela around.

  Despite seeing Graciela at every royal event between Christmas and New Years, he'd been unable to spend even a few moments alone with her. But it certainly wasn't for a lack of trying. She'd deliberately avoided him. Luis assured him that she wasn't avoiding him per se, but rather avoiding the awkwardness that existed between them. Which, his brother assured him repeatedly, could be eliminated with a simple declaration of love.

  But Alejandro ignored him. Just as he ignored the fact that her office was empty, that her laughter couldn't be heard in the palace corridors, and that he reached for the phone twenty-five times a day to share a thought with her. But it was too late. She was gone.

  And he was miserable without her.

  His head snapped up when his office door was flung open. "Oh, it's you again," he said. He motioned for his brother to take a seat. "What do you want?"

  Luis shook his head. "The same thing I've been wanting all month, for you to come to your senses." He leaned forward and rested his hands on the desk between them. "Alejandro, go to Graciela. Fly out to California. Talk to her."

  Alejandro looked away. His brother meant well, but his notion that Graciela needed or wanted him was misguided at best.

  “Answer me this. If, theoretically speaking, I told you that Graciela had been in a terrible automobile accident, what would you do?"

  "I would go to her and I wouldn't leave her side."

  "Not even for a moment?" Luis persisted.

  Alejandro didn't hesitate. "Not even for a moment."

  "You know, I don't think that heartache is so very different from a broken bone. In some ways, it's probably worse." Luis sat on the edge of Alejandro's desk. "Well, that settles that then, you've just solved your own problem."

  "I have?"

  Luis nodded. "You have."

  Alejandro pushed his chair away from his desk and went to stand at the window. He stared out unseeingly into the palace garden. It pained him to admit it, even to himself, but he was a coward. He was afraid to face the fact that Graciela might not want him, or that his heart, if he offered it to her, wasn't enough for her.

  But the truth was beginning to dawn in his mind that an even worse fate existed, that of not ever knowing. He whirled around to face his brother. "You're right."

  "There's something I rarely hear." A smile played on Luis' lips. "Tell me that you're going to California."

  "I am." What the end result was going to be, he couldn't predict. But the thought of seeing Graciela one more time, of looking into her warm brown eyes, of hearing her voice again, this he wanted more than anything in the world. If his heart was broken in the process, he'd learn to live with it. Without her.

  But he had to tell her how he felt about her.

  Alejandro glanced down at his desk, suddenly not caring about a single one of the tasks that awaited him. "I don't know how long I'll be gone. Can you take over for me?"

  Luis nodded. "Absolutely. Just don't stay gone forever, I've never envied you your position as crown prince."

  Alejandro crossed to his brother and enveloped him in a crushing hug. "Thank you for being so insistent."

  Luis drew back. "Go. You have forever to be in my debt. Right now, Graciela's waiting for you."

  Graciela looked around the San Francisco Airport’s Elite Level Lounge before she consulted her watch. She had two hours before her overnight flight for Madrid left. She picked up a Wine Today magazine but didn't flip through more than a few pages before she tossed it aside. She was too restless to read.

  How foolish was she to rush back to Santa Rosa with her heart on her sleeve? On a scale of one to ten, about a twenty. She stood, but then sat back down. It wasn't like she was going to change her mind. She'd given her notice to Robert along with effusive apologies for not staying in Napa Valley. Understandable, Robert had said, with characteristic good grace. Right job, wrong time for her, he'd understood.

  Despite the beauty of Northern California, and the warm welcome she'd received, she'd known almost at once that she co
uldn't stay. Her home, her family, her friends, and most importantly, the man she loved was in Santa Rosa.

  Her phone alerted her to an incoming text. She glanced down at the screen, surprised to see that it was from Luis.

  Where are you?! Ashton says you've left Napa Valley.

  Her eyebrows rose. I'm on my way back to Santa Rosa. Please don't say anything to your brother until I see him first.

  No danger of that, his text shot right back, but where are you at this EXACT moment?

  SFO Elite Lounge. She paused. Her instinct was to type out a series of questions but she resisted the urge. Luis probably just wanted to get her opinion on vineyard business but nothing was so urgent that it couldn't wait. She was just about to slip the phone back into her bag before it pinged again. She glanced down at the screen.

  Stay there.

  A protracted conversation with Luis was going to have to wait. This time, she did toss the phone into her carry-on bag.

  She leaned her head back against the seat's headrest, grateful for the luxurious lounge seating. Sleep had evaded her since her arrival in Napa Valley. Her mind was constantly thinking of Alejandro and what might have been. These thoughts were chased by a series of relentless 'what if?' scenarios.

  To put an end to it once and for all, she knew she had to tell Alejandro how she felt. She had to tell him that she loved him. That she always had and always would. And if he didn't, couldn't, love her in return, she could live with that. At least she would be able to put the 'what if?' to rest. Being that honest with him was a gamble, and she wasn't feeling especially lucky, but she had to do it.

  "Graciela."

  Startled, her eyes flew open. Alejandro knelt before her, one of his hands on her knee. "Alejandro?" she finally managed to say, "What are you doing here?"

  His face broke into a wide smile that reached his eyes. "I couldn't wait a moment longer to see you."

  His words, and the tender look in his eyes, gave Graciela's heart wings. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so instead she reached out and gently caressed the side of his face. "Oh, Alejandro."