“Do you know what they call a turnip in Sweden?” I ask Callum.

He shakes his head, smiling. I swear I can ask this kid anything and he’ll smile. It’s especially disturbing when you’re talking about something horrific.

“They call it a Swede,” I tell him.

“But aren’t you a Swede?”

“I am.”

“Am I going to be a Swede?” he asks.

“That all depends on your sister. If she was here, I would ask her.” I study his face carefully. “Are you sure you don’t know where she is?”

He just grins. That gives me nothing.

It’s my fault, really, for having such flights of fancy and for it to actually lead me on a flight which actually put me back in Tehachapi, looking for Maggie.

After she left, I spent a long time wrestling with what I was going to have to do to win her back. I knew that just because she was scared, just because we had a fight, it didn’t mean that things were over between us. It might have felt like it was over, especially from the way she basically packed up her family and left. They were all gone the next day on the next flight home and I didn’t have any time to even realize what was going on.

That I had lost her.

I had lost them.

I had lost…everything.

With her gone, the media storm didn’t die down either. Rumors started spreading. She had been spotted at the airport, people speculated why she was leaving. People started noticing that we were never seen together, or that she was never seen at all.

I ignored it. That’s all you can do. And I tried to move on.

I did everything that I thought I was supposed to do. I threw myself into my role and tried to become a better public figure. I tried to pretend that my heart wasn’t breaking inside even though it was slowly splintering to pieces until nothing was giving me joy anymore. Maggie had been my joy, my light, my everything. My persika, my Miss America, my mayhem. Oh, her middle name couldn’t have been more fitting because she brought mayhem to my heart, my life, turned my world upside down and I was a better man in the end because of it, because of her.

But putting on a mask only works for so long. I should have known that.

Eventually the mask crumbled away.

Eventually the feelings came pouring back in.

Eventually I realized that if I didn’t have her, I had nothing.

Without her I wasn’t worthy of the crown on my head.

The next thing I knew I was having Freddie find the next possible moment I had a break and we were booking tickets and that was the end of it. The plan was to surprise Maggie like I did last time, to fall to my knees and propose like I should have done before when I lost my nerve. To go and not come back unless I had her with me.

So with my guard and driver Janne waiting in the car outside, I burst into their house hoping I’d run right into Maggie.

What I found instead was Callum, sitting at the kitchen table with a glass of milk and reading a comic book. Rosemary, Thyme and April were at Rosemary’s soccer game while Pike was upstairs napping. Callum says that Pike is too tired to deal with anything these days.

But when I asked where Maggie was, Callum wouldn’t say. I know he knows, but he’s just not saying anything.

“What the fuck.”

I turn to look at Pike standing all groggy in the kitchen doorway, trying to focus his eyes on me.

“Bad word,” Callum scolds him, shaking his head.

“Viktor?” Pike says, blinking hard. “Viktor! What. The fuck. Are you doing here?”

He sounds far more surprised about me being in his kitchen than I thought. It looks like I’m blowing his mind.

“Nice to see you too?”

“He’s a prince, Pike, show him some respect,” Callum says.

“Yeah this coming from herdy schmerdy bork bork over here,” I mutter under my breath. I look at Pike. “Look, I’m sorry to just drop in like this without any warning but I wanted to talk to Maggie. Face to face.”

“Well, I hate to break this to you but a little warning would have been nice.”

I frown. “Why, what’s going on?”

Pike looks at Callum. “You didn’t tell him.”

“Hey,” Callum says, “I get to have secrets too!”

“Tell me what? Where is she?”

“Maggie is in Sweden.”

The planet begins to tilt on its access. “What?” I say, my voice coming out in a hush. “Sweden?”

“She went for you. Suddenly decided she was wrong and couldn’t live without you or whatever and that was that. We drove her to the airport yesterday.”

“Oh my god,” I groan. I bring out my phone but I don’t see any texts from her or from anyone. “She would have texted me right?”

“She wanted to surprise you. Looks like you two both had the same idea. Been watching too many romantic comedies, maybe.”

I look at my phone again and then notice that the data isn’t on.

Helvete.

I toggle it onto airplane mode and back and this time a million texts come in.

One from Maggie saying she’s going to Sweden.

A bunch from Freddie, saying that Maggie is in Sweden and Nick has gone to get her and he doesn’t know if he should tell her where I am.

And then a few from my father. Wanting to know where I am, wanting to know why Maggie is at the palace and I’m not.

And then…

The worst text of them all.

My father saying that he went to the palace and had a long talk with Maggie.

He didn’t say anything else.

Fuck.

That is not good. For all I know he convinced her to leave and that she has no place in the royal family and now she’s on her way back here again.

I send Maggie a text: I’m in Tehachapi! In your kitchen! Don’t go anywhere, I’m coming back for you.

I wait a few minutes to see if she’ll get the message but then I realize with the time difference, it’s late there and she’s probably asleep.

If she’s even there.

“I can’t believe the both of you were in the air at the same time,” Pike muses.

“I can,” I say with a sigh. “This seems like the crazy type of shit that happens to us.”

“Do you want to stay for dinner?” Pike asks. “I was just about to get started. The girls will be back soon.”

“Can you cook for us?” Callum asks me. “Pleeeeease?”

I shake my head. “Next time. I promise.”

“There won’t be a next time.” He pouts.

“There will be if Maggie agrees to marry me.” I eye them both. “You’re all okay with that idea still, right?”

God I hope so.

“Yes, d’uh,” Callum says with an exaggerated roll of his eyes.

Pike nods. “The idea has grown on me. Still can’t say if I would join you out there, I think I’m more of a sunshine and palm trees kind of boy at heart. But you have my blessing. You have all of our blessings.”

“Okay.” I get up out of my seat, leaning against the table, summoning strength to go through this travel shit all over again. “I guess I have a plane to catch.”

---

***

---

Jet lag is a bitch, as they say in America.

After criss-crossing numerous time zones in twenty-four hours, by the time I land back in Stockholm, I barely know what day it is, what time it is and who I am. All I do know is that I have to get to Haga Palace ASAP.

I have to propose to the woman of my dreams.

The future royal highness, future princess, future queen.

Of course being that my brain is so fried, I realize that I don’t have any rings on me. The ring I had chosen for Maggie is tucked away in a drawer in my room. Fuck it, I’ll just have to wing it.

Unless…

I tap Nick on the shoulder as he’s driving. We’re just minutes away from the estate.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a ring, do you?”

Nick shoots me a pensive look. “I have my wedding ring.”

“Can I borrow it?”

Nick’s face scrunches up. “Do you have to?”

“I’ll give it back, I promise.”

“I don’t know.”

“Nick. As the Crown Prince of Sweden, I command you to give me your wedding ring. As a subject of, uh, this royal…order…you must obey. Or face the consequences.”

I can tell Nick really wants to tell me to fuck off.

He sighs and then raises his left hand for me to pry the ring off. It takes a bit though. “When was the last time you took this off?” I ask him, grunting as I finally get it loose.

“I think my wife got it extra small so that I’d never lose it.”

“Or you got fat.”

“I think my wife got me fat so that I’d never lose it.”

“Fair enough.” I twist it around in my fingers. It’s tarnished and plain but it will do for now.

“If you lose it,” he warns me. “Then you have to deal with my wife. And you have to arrange for me and the girls to meet Harry Styles.”

“Done. Hey, now you want me to lose it, don’t you?”

He doesn’t say anything.

I stuff the ring in my pocket, then call Bodi on his cell.

“Viktor!’ he exclaims through the phone. “You’ll never guess who is here!”

“I know,” I tell him. “I’m almost there. I need your help in keeping Maggie away from the front windows.”

“What?”

“Just do it.”

“For how long.”

“Give me ten minutes.”

“Okay but--“

I hang up.

Soon we’re pulling into the back of the house and I immediately grab the cook, Else, and Nick and tell them what to do.

I have no idea if it will turn out or not but after I talked to Magnus before I boarded the plane yesterday, he gave me the idea. Considering all of his knowledge of The Notebook, and now this, I’m starting to think he’s a true romantic at heart. Though lord help the woman who ends up with him.

With Nick running around the front lawn and doing the rough outline with a shovel, Else and I gather sticks and branches from the woodpile and then go about laying them on top of the outline. In theory, when Maggie looks out from the top windows, she should see giant words clearly spelled out on the snow.

Now, I know she knows I’m coming. I had texted her yesterday and though she didn’t text back, probably because what do you say other than, oh shit, how did that happen I made sure via Nick that she was at home.

I also called my father and though I didn’t ask what they talked about, I told him that I was coming home.

I also told him what I was going to do.

I was going to get down on one knee.

And I was going to ask Maggie to be my wife.

And if he had any objections to that, well then he didn’t have to give us his blessing, and he didn’t have to be here.

So far, he’s not here.

Which means what I think it does.

But I refuse to dwell on that right now. My main concern is Maggie.

Is she going to say yes?

Does she want to marry me?

Does she still love me?

I can’t assume any of those things just because she’s here. I’m going to have to see it all with my own eyes, looking into her heart and soul and seeing her truth, feeling her warmth in my hands. Just being near her will give me all the answers.

“I think we’re done, sir,” Else says, dusting off the snow from her coat.

I stare at the words. It’s impossible to read from here so I can only hope Maggie will see it from up there.

“I think it’s time,” Nick says to me with an impish smile.

Else claps her mittens together excitedly.

I go inside the palace.

“Maggie?” I call out into the foyer.

The doors to the study opens and Bodi strolls out, sweating profusely.

Am I hearing a fiddle?

“What were you doing in there?” I frown and then see Maggie coming up behind him, looking both shy at seeing me and confused by Bodi.

“I put on some music and demonstrated our traditional Swedish folk dancing,” Bodi says, breathing hard. “I’m a bit out of practice.”

I bite back a laugh. So this was Bodi’s plan to keep her away from the windows? Poor girl.

I nod at him my thank you and then look at Maggie.

“Hello.”

The sight of her is like a balm on every single wound. She soothes me, heals me, reveals me.

“Hi,” she says.

“Well I’m going to leave you alone,” Bodi says and staggers off to the kitchen. “I need some water.”

“It’s nice to see you here,” I tell her.

“It’s nice to be here,” she says.

Oh, I don’t want this to be awkward at all.

“Listen, I –“ I say at the same time she says, “Look, I’m—“

“I’m sorry,” we both blurt out at once.

“I’m sorry,” I say quickly, grabbing her, pulling her toward me until I know she’s in my hands. She’s here now, she’s solid and she’s real and I need her to be mine. “I am so sorry. I know I should have never…”

“No,” she says quickly. “You have nothing to be sorry for. You did everything right. I knew the risks coming here and bringing the kids and I did it anyway because I wanted a future with you. And somewhere along the line I got scared and I lost sight of that. I lost sight of why I came here in the first place.”

“Please, you didn’t do anything wrong,” I tell her, searching her eyes. “So don’t apologize to me either. You had to put the kids first.”

“But I did it without consulting them. I had no idea that they wanted to live here, that they would have stayed. In some ways, I made all the decisions for them.”

“Like a mother would do.”

“Yes but that’s not what I want to do or want to be. I want to talk to them, value their opinions because I do value their opinions. Treat them like adults.”

“But they aren’t adults. They aren’t your kids either. They are your brothers and sisters. You’re doing the best you can and I promise you I don’t blame you at all for leaving. Not even a little. You protected them.”

“And yet I didn’t realize how strong they were,” she says. “Stronger than I thought.” She rubs her lips together, exhaling through her nose. “I’m sorry I left, Viktor. I know better than to run. I didn’t think I was strong enough and it scared me but I am strong enough. You made me believe that, you did. You made me believe in myself, that I can do anything, and I can’t thank you enough. You mean the world to me. You are my world. Mitt liv, mitt allt.”

“God you’re sexy when you speak Swedish,” I murmur before I kiss her. Her lips to mine light off a thousand explosions inside of me and it takes a lot of energy to remember my plan.

I pull away and she’s blushing. “I almost forgot how you make me feel,” she admits breathlessly.

“How do I make you feel?”

She gives me a sweet smile. “Always more, never less.”

Well fuck me.

I thought this proposal was going to be hard enough but she’s got me all choked up and I haven’t even started.

“I have to show you something.”

I take her hand and I lead her up the stairs all the way to my bedroom – our bedroom.

“Show me something, huh,” she says slyly. “It’s been awhile.”

I laugh. “Yes, that’s later, I promise you,” I tell her pulling her across the room to the windows.

I face her, my back to the window, blocking her view.

“Are you ready?”

“Uh, for what? Please don’t tell me this is some new Swedish adrenaline sport where you jump out of windows into the snow because I’ve seen the Russian versions of that and they never end well.”

“No,” I tell her firmly.

Then I step aside and gesture with flourish to the window.

She walks over to it and peers outside.

I glance over her shoulder to see the letters written in the snow:

Will You Merry Me?

“Ah, helvete,” I swear.

Fucking Nick can’t spell.

Maggie bursts out laughing.

I shake my head, my nerves dancing up a storm in my stomach. I’m so mad at Nick, even though it’s pretty hilarious. Most of all…fuck. How is she going to say yes now?

“Can we start over?” I ask her.

I drop down on one knee and take her hand and suddenly she stops laughing. Maybe she’s realizing just how serious this is.

Because I’ve never been so serious about something in my whole life.

“I had a whole speech planned out,” I tell her. “A speech that was supposed to come before, well, that but you distracted me and I realized, if you don’t know how I already feel then no speech will convince you. All I need to ask of you is if you’ll marry me. If you’ll be my wife. My princess. My future queen. If you’ll stand by my side no matter where we are in the world, as long as we are together. If you’ll take on new family as I take on yours. If you promise to love me as I promise to –“

“Can I say yes now?” she interrupts me, nodding her head and smiling from ear to ear.

I grin at her. “You haven’t let me finish.”

“And you said there would be no speech. So can I say yes?”

“Yes,” I tell her. “Yes you can say yes.”

I don’t think I’ve ever felt happier, luckier, in all my life.

I quickly fish out the ring as if she might change her mind and then I slip it on her finger. It’s way too big and about to fall off.

“Oh,” she says looking down at it. “It’s…classic.”

“It’s Nick’s,” I explain. “I asked if I could borrow it though now I think I should keep it after that typo. Hold on.” I get to my feet and, still holding onto her hand, I shuffle over to my drawer where I fish out the original ring, the one I had bought for her. It’s expensive, with rare lavender-colored stones and a lot of diamonds – it’s the kind of ring a princess would wear.

I take it out of the box with one hand while still holding onto her hand with the other and then drop back down on one knee again.

She gasps loudly, the ring reflected in her wide eyes.

“Miss Maggie Mayhem McPherson,” I tell her, staring up at her. “Will you do me the honor of becoming Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden?” I pause. “I’m not really sure how the last names work with us, I’ll have to get back to you on that,” I add.

She laughs, tears in her eyes. Happy tears. “Again, yes. Yes!”

I quickly take Nick’s ring off and slip the right ring, her ring, on.

It fits perfectly.

Meant to be.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” she cries out.

I get to my feet. “It’s happening,” I tell her, pulling her toward me into a deep, long kiss. “And it was always meant to be.”

“I’m so happy I walked in on you naked,” she says and I laugh.

“I’m so happy you liked what you saw.”

“Ahem.”

A throat clears by the door and Maggie and I whirl around to see my father and mother standing there in the doorway. Judging by their faces, they either clearly just heard what we said about being naked, or they disapprove of this engagement.

Or both.

Then my mother walks in, pressing her palms together.

“Did she say yes?” she asks me, a tremor of excitement in her voice, her eyes brighter than I’ve seen in a long time.

I look at Maggie. “Did you say yes?” I joke. “I can’t remember.”

“I said yes,” Maggie says, proudly showing off her ring. “Always yes, never less.”

“That could be a new motto,” I tell her though I have to admit, having my parents suddenly here in on our moment is bringing a new wave of tension. I have no idea what they’re going to say.

Always more, never less? What if they say more bad things and less good things?

My father strolls in, hands behind his back, going into father lecture mode.

Fuck.

I just hope whatever he says doesn’t dampen the joy we’re both feeling right now. I won’t let it.

“I’ll make this as brief as I did with Miss McPherson yesterday,” my father says in his deep voice. He looks to me. “Viktor, I love you. You’re my son. You’re our son and we want what’s best for you. I know we haven’t been the best parents but we tried the best we could given the roles that we have. We have done what we can to ensure you have a secure and happy life. Sometimes I think we’ve failed you and I know that we failed Alex, on many levels. I know we’ll never forgive ourselves for it and I know that those scars don’t heal.”

He takes in a deep breath. “But the mistakes we made with him, we don’t want to make with you. Maybe it’s too late but it’s never too late to try and be better, is it? It’s never too late to start over again and we just want you to be happy. And with her, you are.” He glances at Maggie who is smiling at him with shining eyes. “I had a talk with Maggie yesterday about this very thing and it turns out your mother and I have more in common with her than we thought. We may come from different backgrounds, different countries, but our desires are all the same and that is the desire to do better and be better for those around us. Maggie is an exceptional young woman and we’re sorry we didn’t grasp that until it was almost too late. Seeing how she was at Christmas, seeing how she handled the situation with April with poise.”

He pauses and manages a small smile. “Well, an attempt at poise. I wanted to hit that man too. But in all of that, I saw a woman who wasn’t after you for your title or your money. She wasn’t after being a princess. She was after love and when she knew she had to protect the others, she left to protect another type of love. I know it was a hard choice and who knows if it was the right choice. But, regardless, the both of you are here together now and that’s all that matter. Viktor, you have our complete blessing on this engagement. You couldn’t have picked a better woman to stand by your side.”

I blink, unable to process this.

I’m so stunned I can hardly move.

The engagement, my father’s words, the way that my mother is looking at the two of us adoringly.

Maggie squeezes my hand. “The king just spoke to you, you should say something.”

My first thought is to kneel. That’s what you do in front of a king, to show your respect. But kneeling is not enough.

I walk over to him, throw my arms around him and hold on tight.

I can’t remember the last time I hugged my father but as he just said, it’s never too late to start again.

He hugs me back, a quick squeeze, but that means more to me than anything else he’s ever done.

“Thank you,” I tell him, my words broken with emotion.

He gives me a wry smile and taps the side of my cheek. “You’re welcome.”

Then he looks to my mother. “We should really leave these two lovebirds alone, Elin.” He holds out his arm to her and she takes it with all the grace of a queen.

They walk out of the room just as he turns to her and says, “We’ll let them get back to their naked talk. I have a feeling we were interrupting something.”

“Oh Arvid,” my mother chides him as the door shuts behind them.

I can’t stop smiling.

I turn to Maggie.

“Speaking of naked,” I say to her, grabbing her hand and leading her to the bed. “How about I make you feel like a queen?”