The Prince's Secret Baby

She went willingly, eagerly. Close to him was where she wanted to be. She moved right up, snug and cozy against his broad chest, sharing his strong arms with the red ball and the yellow truck. “What?”

“This.” And he kissed her. A brushing kiss, tender and teasing. Just right for early on a sunny Saturday morning. She felt his smile against her own.

When he lifted his mouth from hers, his eyes were soft as black velvet and full of promise. “May I meet your son now?”

“Right this way.”

Trevor was shy with Rule at first.

Her little boy stared with big, solemn dark eyes as Sydney introduced Rule to Lani.

“And this is Trevor,” Sydney said.

“Hello, Trevor. My name is Rule.”

Trevor only stared some more and stuck a big spoonful of cereal in his mouth.

“Say hello,” Sydney instructed him.

But Trevor turned his head away.

Rule sent her an oblique glance and a slight smile that said he knew about kids, and also knew how to be patient. He put the ball and the truck under the side table against the wall and accepted coffee, taking the empty chair between Lani and Sydney.

Lani served the frittata and they ate. Rule praised the food and said how much he liked the coffee, which Lani prepared to her own exacting tastes, grinding the beans with a top-quality grinder and brewing only with a French press.

He asked Lani about her degree in literature. The two of them seemed to hit it off, Sydney thought. Lani was easy with him, and friendly, from the first. She told him her favorite Shakespeare play was The Tempest. He confessed to a fondness for King Lear, which had Lani groaning that she might love Lear, too. But she had no patience for thickheaded, foolish kings. Sydney didn’t know a lot about Shakespeare, but it did kind of please her, that Rule seemed well-read, that he could carry on a conversation about something other than the Mavericks and the Cowboys.

He turned to her. “And what about you, Sydney? Do you have a favorite Shakespeare play?”

She shrugged. “I saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream once. And I enjoyed it. Everybody falling in love with the wrong person, but then it all worked out in the end.”

“You prefer a happy ending?”

“Absolutely,” she told him. “I like it when it all works out. That doesn’t happen often enough in real life.”

“I like trucks!” Suddenly, Trev was over his shyness and back in the game.

Rule turned to him. “And do you like balls?”

“Red balls! Yes!”

“Good. Because that truck and that ball over there beneath the table? They’re for you.”

Trevor looked away again—too much attention, apparently, from this intriguing stranger.

Sydney said, “Tell Rule ‘thank you.’“

“Thank you, Roo,” Trev parroted obediently, still looking away, the soft curve of his round cheek turned down.

But Rule wasn’t looking away. He seemed honestly taken with her little boy. Her heart did more wild and lovely acrobatics, just to look at the two of them, Rule watching Trev, Trev not quite able to meet this new guy’s eyes.

Then Rule said, “Knock, knock.”

Trev didn’t look, but he did say, “Who’s there?”

“Wanda.”

Trev peeked, looked away, peeked again. “Wanda who?”

“Wanda cookie?”

Slowly, Trev turned and looked straight at Rule. “Cookie! Yes! Please!”

Rule actually produced an animal cracker from the pocket of his beautifully made lightweight jacket. He slid a questioning glance at Sydney. At her nod, he handed the cookie over.

“Grrr. Lion!” announced Trev and popped the lion-shaped cookie in his mouth. “Yum.” He chewed and swallowed. “Thank you very much—Orange! Banana! Knock, knock.”

Rule gamely went through the whole joke with him twice. Trev never got the punch line right, but that didn’t have any effect on his delight in the process.

“It never ends,” Lani said with a sigh. But then she grinned. “And you know we wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“All done,” Trev told them. “Get down, Mama. Play trucks!”

So Sydney wiped his hands and face with a damp cloth and swung him down from his booster seat. He went straight for Rule. “Roo. Come. We play trucks!”

“It appears you have been summoned,” Sydney said.

“Nothing could please me more—or almost nothing.” The teasing heat in his glance hinted that whatever it was that pleased him more had something to do with her. Very likely with kissing her, an activity that pleased her a bunch, too.

He tossed his jacket across the family room sofa and went over and got down on the floor with Trev, who gathered all his trucks together so they could roll them around making vrooming noises and crash them into each other. Sydney and Lani cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher. And soon enough, it was time to head for the neighborhood park. Lani begged off, so it was just the three of them. Since the small park was only a couple of blocks away, they walked, Trev between Sydney and Rule, holding both their hands.

Trev was an outgoing child, although he was usually pretty reserved around new people. It took him a while to get comfortable with someone. But apparently, with Rule, he was over his shyness after those first few moments at the breakfast table.

Trev chattered away at him as they strolled past the pretty, gracious homes and the wide, inviting lawns. “I walk fast, Roo. I strong! I happy!”

Rule agreed that he was very fast, and so strong—and wasn’t it great that he was happy? “I’m happy, too,” Rule said, and shared a speaking glance with Sydney.

Trev looked up at them, at Rule, then at Sydney, then back at Rule again. “Mama’s happy, too!” he crowed. “Knock, knock!”

“Who’s there?” asked Rule. And then he went through the endless loop of the joke two more times.

They stayed at the park for three hours. Sydney watched for a sign that Rule might be getting tired of pushing Trev on the swings, of sitting with him on the spinner, of playing seesaw—Trev and Sydney on one end, Rule on the other.

But Rule seemed to love every minute of it. He got down and crawled through the concrete tunnels with Trev, heedless of his designer trousers, laughing as Trev scuttled ahead of him calling out, “You can’t catch me, I too fast!” Trev popped out of the tunnel.

Rule was right behind him. Rule growled, playing it scary. Trev let out a shriek of fear and delight.

Finally, at a little after eleven, Trev announced, “Okay. All done.” And he was. All the fun had worn him out.