Once Upon a Royal Christmas

by Robin Bielman

  Theo leaned his elbows on the granite countertop of the kitchen island. “She loved to fish with you, too.”

  “Did she tell you she always threw them back?”

  “No.”

  “She hated the idea of any living creature dying before its time. We caught a good fifteen-pound lake trout once. It pained me to toss it back, but when she looked at me with those blue eyes of hers, I was always toast.”

  “She had my father wrapped around her finger, too.”

  “I’m happy to hear that.” His grandfather added a couple of tablespoons of Irish whiskey and a spoonful of brown sugar to each mug, stirred. “What about you? Anyone special waiting back home?”

  He wanted to say Elisabeth was special because if he thought it enough while on this trip, hopefully he’d believe it when he got home. But there would be time to find out what made her special later. Right now, he couldn’t think past their friendship or wrap his head around the idea that sometime next year he’d be married.

  “Actually, as soon as I return home, my father is announcing my engagement.”

  Surprise clouded his grandfather’s gray eyes. “Who’s the lucky girl?” He poured the strong, dark coffee into the mugs.

  “Her name is Elisabeth.”

  A noise sounded from over Theo’s shoulder. He turned to find Rowan hopping on one foot as she entered the kitchen. “Sorry. Just me banging my foot on the corner of the wall.” She looked affectionately at his grandfather. “Did you move the walls? I know you’ve been working out.”

  The older man grinned as he added an enormous dollop of the whipped cream concoction to one of the mugs. “This one’s the double,” he said pushing it toward the edge of the counter.

  Rowan stopped bouncing and stood across the kitchen island. She wrapped her hands around the ceramic cup. “Thank you.” Then she pursed her pink lips together and lightly blew on the hot beverage.

  Theo choked back a groan. Everything this woman did had his body reacting in some way or another.

  She lifted her gaze, her long lashes sweeping up. “So engaged, huh? Congratulations.”

  “I’m not engaged yet, but thank you.” The words were uncomfortable when spoken to Rowan. Not because he didn’t want her to know, but because he would have preferred she hear the news directly from him.

  “Wait. I’m confused.” She rested her elbow atop the counter and cupped her chin in her hand. “You haven’t asked her to marry you yet? I thought I heard you say your dad is making the announcement.”

  “He is. It’s an arranged marriage, so I won’t be getting on bended knee.” The thought bothered him more than he imagined it would. He’d never spent any time thinking about a proposal. Hadn’t pictured the perfect girl. Not yet. But something about a romantic start appealed to his core belief that marriage should be based on love. Admiration. Finding the one person he couldn’t live without.

  “Wow. People still do that? That’s kind of rough.” Rowan said, breaking into his thoughts with genuine curiosity. That she wasn’t teasing him meant a lot. Could she tell this arrangement bothered him?

  Not that there was anything he could do about it. Once his father had made a decision, he didn’t change his mind.

  “Occasionally.”

  “Occasionally what?” his grandmother asked, walking into the kitchen.

  “Theo’s engaged to be engaged,” Rowan said, her tone over-the-top perky. “At his father’s request. Or, rather, insistence, I guess.”

  His grandmother put her hand on his arm. She looked him straight in the eyes. Hers were earnest, searching. The back of his neck tingled as he waited for questions he didn’t want to answer.

  But to his relief, his grandmother turned and said, “Who wants another piece of pie?”

  In that moment, he knew leaving Marietta would be harder than he’d imagined.

  *

  “Thanks for the ride,” Rowan said with a smart-aleck tone. She couldn’t help it. “That walk would have wiped me out.” She hopped out of the passenger side of Theo’s rented SUV thinking she’d say goodbye to him at his window. She found him standing outside the car, instead.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Seeing you to the door.”

  “It’s like fifty feet away.”

  He gave a one-shoulder shrug, put his hand on her lower back, and steered her toward her front door. His manners were ridiculously inconvenient.

  Because you like them.

  Like him.

  He’s engaged! Almost. So no licking allowed. Liking. She meant liking.

  “Rowan, did you hear what I said?”

  “Sorry. What?” The warm feel of his palm on her back had completely distracted her from everything but the uninvited thoughts in her head. This increasing attraction to him had to stop immediately.

  “I asked if you wanted to finish up the questions you started earlier? I’m not very tired, so…”

  “Sure. We could do that.” She could absolutely remain professional around him. Scary clown, she silently repeated over and over again until she sat on her couch, Theo beside her.

  “Can I ask you something?” he said before she had a chance to speak. She nodded. “Why don’t you have any ornaments on your tree?”

  The tiny white lights made the Christmas tree festive, but without any other adornments, it remained lifeless. “I’m waiting,” she said, softer than she’d meant to.

  “For?”

  Openness went both ways and if she wanted Theo to be open with her over the next few weeks, then she needed to give him the same courtesy. “My own family. I’ve always thought decorating a tree for Christmas should be about family and love and so I want to wait until I’m married or at least engaged. Like you, my family decorated the tree together every year, and I’d like to follow the same tradition. I think it will be more special if I wait to start until I’ve got someone important to share it with.”

  “Is your family still here in Marietta?”

  “My mom and dad are. My older brother, Nick, lives in Los Angeles, but visits often.”

  “Will he be home for Christmas?”

  “Yes. He and his fiancée, Cassidy, the best friend I mentioned to you from my childhood, are flying in next week to stay for the holidays.”

  “Your brother’s engaged,” Theo stated. Like he was trying the word out for only the second time, which seemed weird, even if his was an arranged thing.

  “And he’s ridiculously happy about it. He rented a yacht for a week for just the two of them and popped the question one morning by spelling out ‘Marry Me, Sid’ with buoys in the water.”

  “Wow. That’s impressive.”

  “Right? But he was in the Navy, so he had help from some Coast Guard friends. He brought Cass up on deck, led her to the railing, and when she looked out onto the water, he got down on one knee. They’re getting married in May.”

  Theo stayed quiet, his face unreadable.

  “Don’t let his romantic gesture get to you, though. My brother and Cass have something really special. She had a crush on him when we were young, then they didn’t see each other for over ten years. He was here in April for a bachelor auction, and that’s when they reconnected.” She turned her whole body so she faced him, cross-legged, on the couch. “Go.”

  “Go?” he asked with a frown.

  “I’ve monopolized this conversation way too much. It’s your turn. Talk to me, Prince Theodore. Tell me, how long do royal engagements usually last?”

  He rubbed the back of his neck, his attention dropping to the floor. “I suppose as long as is deemed necessary.”

  “Sounds like you can’t wait,” she said gently.

  “Right.” Only he meant wrong and she knew it. Being the polite prince he was, though, he couldn’t share that truth out loud.

  A bunch of new questions stormed through her mind. How well did he know Elisabeth? Did he at least like her? Could they live together before marriage? Was she pretty?

 
“I was engaged once,” she said.

  That grabbed his full attention. Even put a little spark back in his electric-blue eyes. “You were?”

  Rowan sighed, letting her shoulders fall and her lashes flutter. “His name was Gregory Daniels. We sat next to each other in second grade. He was the first boy to write his phone number on my hand.”

  The sexy curve of Theo’s lips almost made Rowan regret sharing this story.

  Almost.

  She focused on the Christmas tree lights. “He asked me to marry him over chocolate milk and peanut butter cookies. I said yes.” Gregory’s eyes had been see-through blue, and she’d been intrigued by them. Not to mention he could draw a horse and cowgirl better than she could. That had been the moment she’d decided to take art more seriously. “The next week, though, he asked Summer Reynolds to marry him. When she said yes, he dumped me.”

  “Idiot.”

  “Thank you.”

  “No. Thank you.”

  “I didn’t do anything.”

  He draped his arm across the back of the couch, his hand landing dangerously close to her shoulder. He seemed to weigh his words carefully before saying, “I like the things that come out of your mouth. They make me…” His finger lightly—and briefly—grazed her shoulder before he pulled his arm back. Her body caught fire. God, she hoped he couldn’t see his influence on her. “We’re friends. Elisabeth and I, so I suppose that’s something.”

  Friends.

  That shouldn’t make her stomach churn like she’d eaten bad fish, but it did. Which made her an awful friend at the moment.

  “That’s good,” she said with a nod. “And you know, everything happens for a reason.” Not that she’d figured out why yet. Some things sucked when they happened. Theo’s nose-diving eyebrows suggested he agreed with her.

  She had a solution for that. Her go-to remedy when a situation bothered her. “Stand up,” she said, getting to her feet and grabbing her phone. “Come on,” she added when Theo was slow on the uptake.

  “Are we going somewhere?” he asked approvingly.

  “Nope. We’re dancing.” She found her Rocky Horror Picture Show playlist. Two seconds later, “The Time Warp” played through the wireless speaker next to her TV. She thought this might be an introduction to the British-American cult classic, given Theo’s royal upbringing, but by the look on his face, she hadn’t initiated him into anything.

  “You’ve heard this?” she asked.

  “Once or twice,” he said with a smile so sexy and warm that her skin tingled.

  “Why do I get the feeling it’s more than that?”

  “I don’t know.” With that darn smile still in place, he stepped around the coffee table so they were only a couple feet apart.

  She turned up the volume, and he proved he knew the song quite well as they danced around the room and sang the lyrics. Then they froze, called out “Let’s do the Time Warp again!” and showed off the steps while facing each other. It was silly. It was fun. The prince let loose with her, and when she sang along to the lyrics at the top of her lungs, he didn’t put his fingers in his ears.

  He moved with skill and grace and confidence that were insanely attractive.

  Song after song played. They lost themselves to the campy, upbeat rhythms, dancing around the room like they didn’t have a care in the world.

  Theo unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt, then pushed his long sleeves up to his elbows. Rowan stared at the hollow of his neck, wondering what it would be like to put her lips there and breathe him in. Her gaze slid down to the light dusting of blond hair that covered his tan, muscular forearms. What would it feel like to have those arms wrapped around her, keeping her warm on snowy nights?

  She spun and gave Theo her back. Staring at the man was not helping to keep her mind off him. And no amount of scary clowns was strong enough to cure her of this crazy prince affliction. It was so easy to be with him, talk to him. Let her guard down with him.

  The music stopped and they both collapsed onto the couch.

  “Can I get you some water?” Rowan asked.

  “That would be great, thanks.”

  In the kitchen and out of view of the prince, Rowan blew out a breath and fanned her sweater away from her stomach. It wasn’t that she got overheated dancing.

  Her problem came in the shape of a man with blue eyes, blond stubble on his jaw, and a body made for indecent positions. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so enamored and carefree with a guy. Theo pressed all her buttons. Something none of her boyfriends had done. But she needed him in order to restore her reputation and gain back the respect she craved. And that meant no more fun and games.

  Because that kind of diversion landed a girl in trouble.

  Chapter Five

  Theo scrubbed a hand down his face. Rowan’s question shouldn’t surprise him. She had done her research. Had brains to go with her beauty. Behind her baby blues lay a one-two punch of curiosity, but also kindness. He studied her from across the coffee table in the sitting room of the Bramble House and decided it would take a very long time to learn everything there was about her. She was a living, breathing adventure wrapped up in a gorgeous feminine package.

  “I take it your silence means you don’t want to answer the question?”

  Wrong. It meant apparently he couldn’t do two things at once—talk and look at her. A problem he’d never had with another woman before.

  “Sorry.”

  “Sorry you zoned out on me, or sorry you have no desire to answer the question?” she asked with sweetness in her tone of voice.

  Oh, he had plenty of desire. Only it had nothing to do with this interview. He’d asked Emmaline for this, though, so he’d follow through with every one of Rowan’s questions even if he could think of a much better way to spend their time together. You cannot think like that.

  “The former.”

  Rowan smiled in encouragement and gratitude. Go on, the small curve of her lips said.

  “You’re right,” Theo continued. “My mother was extremely conscientious when it came to helping others. She raised me to have an understanding of people’s hopes, their insecurities, and their difficulties. And I plan to spend the rest of my life trying to fill the void she’s left behind.”

  “Most people would probably say you already are. Your family’s island vacation for children who have suffered in some way is amazing. And that’s just one of the philanthropic activities you participate in.”

  “My mom taught me that caring is a universal language, and I believe that starts with young people. Kids are the key to the future. All the incredible things that are going to happen ten, twenty, fifty years from now, it’s going to be because of them. They’ve got the know-how, but we need to help them along.”

  “Do you want to have kids of your own?” Rowan brought the tip of her pen to the corner of her mouth as she waited for his reply. The gesture drew his eyes to her heart-shaped lips. In response, her gaze dipped to his mouth.

  Then slowly, with undisguised appreciation, she returned her eyes to his. She no doubt saw the same expression in his fixed regard.

  Everything seemed to come to a standstill as the magnetic pull between them took up all the space in the room.

  Just like it had during last night’s impromptu karaoke. After guzzling an entire glass of water to cool the blood pumping through his veins, he’d walked away from her when it was the very last thing he’d wanted to do.

  She cleared her throat now, broke their connection first. Her eyes might be somewhere over his shoulder, but awareness continued to make his skin warm.

  “I’d love to have children one day,” he said after a beat. Preferably in a couple of years, but nothing about his situation with Elisabeth was his choice. His father wanted heirs to the throne now, not later. If Theo were marrying the love of his life, he’d be right on board with that. But since he wasn’t, he wanted the chance to bond with Elisabeth before they took such a big step.
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  “You look…” Rowan paused. Bit the corner of her lip.

  He had to stop looking at her mouth. “I look?” he prompted.

  “Knock, knock,” Eliza said, even though there was no door. She walked into the sitting room wearing a festive Christmas sweater. She seemed to have several and added to the holiday spirit every time she walked into a room. “Mind if I interrupt for a minute?”

  “Not at all,” Rowan said, sitting taller and pressing her hands into her lap. Theo didn’t miss the fact that her full attention on Eliza took the pressure off his question.

  “I’m not sure if you’ve heard about the Christmas Ball,” Eliza said, taking a spot on the couch next to him. “But I’m on the planning committee and on behalf of the Daughters of Montana, we’d love for you to attend. The ball is to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the courthouse and is on Saturday, the seventeenth. I’ve got a ticket for you right here.”

  He took the offered ticket and read the details.

  “Please say you’ll join us. It would make our night to have a real prince at the ball,” Eliza continued. “Everyone is going to be there.”

  Theo lifted his head and his eyes locked on Rowan’s. “Everyone?”

  Eliza glanced at Rowan. “Most everyone, but I don’t believe you’ve bought a ticket yet, have you, Rowan?”

  “I haven’t. I’m—”

  “Is it all right if I bring a guest?” Theo asked.

  “Of course,” Eliza said, waving her hand in the air. “I’ll get you another ticket and you can bring whoever you’d like. And, of course, Hawk is invited as well. I’ll leave a ticket for him in his room. Your grandparents will be there; I know that.”

  “I’ll definitely be there, then.” His grandparents had put zero pressure or demands on him, letting him set the pace on their time together. This event sounded like a big deal, and he’d like to enjoy it with them. He pictured Bea and David in formal attire, dancing the night away. He’d been cataloging every moment with them since he had no idea when, or even if, he’d make it back to Marietta again. Perhaps they’d visit him one day, to meet Otis and see their homeland. There was a lot Theo would like to show them.