Autumn loved the castle tour. Afterwards, she’d taken a short nap in a guest bedroom, citing jetlag. Now we were in the library, and Gretchen had just departed, leaving us with tea and cookies.

“Cara, this is all so lovely, so amazing…” My sister was sitting across from me at a table by the window. “The palace, those adorable children—hell, the whole country looks like a postcard. Thank you so much for inviting me here.”

“You’re welcome. I’m glad so you could come. And thank you for all those books! The twins loved them.”

Autumn chuckled. “The people at customs seemed to think I was starting an illegal book-exporting business.”

“You’re the best sister ever.” I reached over and squeezed her hand.

“No, you are,” she said, squeezing back. “And now that we’ve got the small talk out of the way, tell me what the hell is going on between you and Nico.”

My heart did a little flip-flop before settling into its normal rhythm. “What do you mean?” I asked, trying to sound puzzled. She didn’t bother to answer. Instead, she gave me the kind of look that only a big sister could pull off. It was a look that clearly said: Do I look like I was born yesterday? and I know something’s going on so spill the beans.

I fought the urge to stick my tongue out at her. It had been my go-to response when I was younger and she was being maddening. But I was too happy for that kind of thing today. “We’re… umm… getting along really well now.”

Autumn raised an eyebrow. “How well?”

That was a bit harder to answer.

“Are you… dating?” The expression on her face showed that she knew it was a ridiculous term to apply to the circumstances, too.

“I guess you’d call it that if this were a normal situation.”

“This situation is so far from normal that they’re not even on the same planet.” Autumn’s tone was dry.

“I know.”

“Let’s put it this way. Are you happy?”

“God, yes. He’s amazing, Autumn. I never knew I could like a man this much.”

“Just ‘like’?”

I knew what she was asking. Did I love the prince? I could, quite easily, if I let myself. But I was holding back, and I suspect Nico was too. The only way our current alliance worked was if we didn’t let ourselves think too much about the future.

Though I had anyway.

Autumn sighed. “You can’t lose your heart or you’re going to get hurt. You both will.”

“I know it’s complicated…”

She scoffed. “That’s about as much of an understatement as you can make. Remember how after I met Ford, we found out about all that stuff that happened in the past? That was complicated. This situation with Nico, it’s…” She trailed off. “I hate to say it, but it might be impossible.”

The word hit me hard, but I refused to believe it. Hope was all I had now. “You know me… never say never.” It was a struggle to keep my tone light.

My sister’s face was sympathetic, but she was determined to make her point. “You’re American, and he’s European royalty. He’s going to be king someday. And you said it yourself—he’s never setting foot in the US again. Even if you two could somehow work something out, could you give up your entire country? What would you do? You can’t be a nanny forever.”

“I wouldn’t be. I can do stuff from here. Like helping Von with his play. I told you that Professor Adams liked it, right? He sent some feedback for us to incorporate.”

Autumn dismissed Von with an irritated wave of her hand much the way Nico did whenever I brought him up. “What about graduate school?”

“I can take classes online.”

“What about teaching?”

“That doesn’t matter. I’m not a teacher anymore, remember?”

Her eyes flashed, and I knew she wanted to argue that point, but apparently she decided there were bigger fish to fry.

“I can make it work, Autumn. I know I can. If Nico even wants us to stay together, that is.”

“Have you talked about it?”

“Not much,” I admitted. “Things are just so good between us right now that neither one of us wants to mess that up.”

“How good of a relationship can it be if you’re afraid to talk about the future?”

“Please, Autumn, can’t you be happy for me? I’ve never met a man like him. He’s the most amazing person I know, and he feels the same way about me. I just… I don’t want to do anything jeopardize that right now.”

Autumn sighed. “I guess he is a pretty special guy if he recognizes how awesome you are.”

I smiled, appreciating her attempt to lighten the mood. “It’ll work out. You’ll see. I can fly in for visits a couple of times a year. You guys can fly out here. We can talk on Skype every day if we want. It would almost be like being together in person.”

My sister was quiet for a moment. “There are some things that you can’t do over long distance.” She paused and then added, “Like babysitting.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not babysitting, I’m a nanny. It’s entirely diff—” I broke off, examining my sister closely: the small smile on her face; the light in her eyes; the way one hand rested lightly on her abdomen. My words got caught in my throat for a moment before I could get them out. “Autumn… are you going to have a baby?”

“Yes.”

“Oh my god!” I threw myself at her, wrapping my arms around her but being careful not to press against her stomach. “How long have you known?”

“A few weeks. I wanted to tell you in person.”

“Congratulations!” I wiped the back of my hand across my eyes. “This is so amazing. How did Ford react?”

“He’s thrilled. He went all out, of course. He pretty much bought the entire contents of a baby store. And he’s being overprotective as hell. He won’t let me do anything—he waits on me hand and foot.”

“That sounds like him,” I said with a laugh. He’d always been crazy about my sister. “Just enjoy letting him take care of you.”

“I am, for now, but I can already tell it’ll get old soon. Fortunately, when the baby arrives, he can expend all that energy on her.”

“It’s a girl?” My tears intensified.

“It’s too soon to tell, but for some reason I keep thinking of her as a girl.”

“I guess we’ll find out.” I took Autumn’s hand and squeezed it. But then my I paused, tilting my head to the side. If I stayed here, I’d be nine time zones away when the baby was born. Of course I could fly back for that—but there would be a lot of other things I’d miss out on, everything from seeing my sister’s stomach grow big to making sure Ford didn’t turn the nursery into a miniature toy store.

Autumn scooted closer and put her arm around my shoulders. We’d sat like this many times when I was younger and needed her support. Now that she was pregnant, she’d need my support.

But the children and Nico needed my support, too.

Why were the people I cared about located on opposite sides of the world?