A Royal Mess and Her Knight To Remember

12

DUMBFOUNDED, Natalia stood there with her mouth open, staring at all of them. “What are you doing?”

Tim, caught in the act of holding out his bowl for Mrs. Pig, who kept turning her head away while making a very clear sound of disgust, straightened. “Natalia.”

“That would be my name.” She looked at Red, who had his bowl out, too, though Mrs. Pig didn’t want anything to do with that one, either.

Peter’s bowl was there, as well, full but also ignored, as he devoured not one but two store-bought, individually wrapped burritos. One for each hand. He put them behind his back and sent her a wavering smile. A wavering smile rimmed with hot sauce, if she wasn’t mistaken.

Sally didn’t try to hide the fact she’d been eating a burrito instead of her chili. She just kept eating. “My jeans are tight, and I believe that’s your fault,” was all she said.

Maybe a large hole could open up in the earth and swallow Natalia in one bite. That would work. Or an alien ship could land and kidnap her. Even being probed would be better than facing this. “I thought this was only a morning ritual.”

“That’s for the candy bars,” Red said, “This burrito thing, it’s actually new.”

“How long have you all been doing this?” Natalia asked.

Pete stared at something fascinating down by his boots. Seth stared at something fascinating on the ceiling. Tim winced, but at least came forward to talk to her, though Sally beat him to the punch.

“Since the beginning,” she said cheerfully.

“Sally,” said Tim.

“Oh, please. I’m tired of saving her feelings.” Sally turned to Natalia. “You know I didn’t like you. I resented the intrusion, I resented how great you looked in your leather clothes and your badass attitude. I really resented the way you stared at my brother when you thought you were alone.”

“Well.” Natalia clasped her hands together. “Why don’t you just tell me how you really feel.”

“Felt. Not feel. Now I think you’re okay. It’s just your cooking that sucks.”

“Don’t listen to her,” Tim said.

“Really?” Natalia asked. “Then tell me what you were doing. No, better yet, I’ll tell you. You were trying to feed the animals what I’d cooked. And even they didn’t want it.” How humiliating was that? “You know what? I’m thinking it’s time to go.” She didn’t have a fairy godmother to pull out her magic wand and wave it, but she had Amelia, the next best thing.

Tim put a hand over her arm, his eyes regretful. “Wait. You know we’d never hurt your feelings on purpose-”

She did know that, which is what made it all the more embarrassing. “You were paying me to waste your food, Tim. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel?”

“Lucky?” Sally guessed.

“I wanted you to stay,” Tim said. Behind him the men cleared their throat. “We wanted you to stay,” he corrected. “And before I knew you were the most capable, strong, incredible woman I’ve ever met, I thought I was helping you. I didn’t want you to go before you were ready.”

Natalia stared at him, knowing this was her fault, not his. “I know I sound like an old record here. But I am a princess. A royal. As in, snap my fingers and have someone come running.”

“Dipping in the cooking sherry again, huh?” Sally asked.

Natalia turned on her. “Do you think I need this headache? Believe me, I have enough of my own.”

Sally looked at Tim and circled a finger near her ear, signifying Natalia was crazy.

“I am crazy,” Natalia confirmed. “To have put up with this.” She whipped out the cell phone in her back pocket and dialed, her eyes on Tim. “I’m done.” With each ring, her heart cracked a little more, shattered a little more, but there was no going back now. She was making the phone call that would change her life.

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.