A Royal Mess and Her Knight To Remember

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.”