“Where on earth are you taking me?”

“You’ll see,” Nico said as he confidently drove down the freeway. The man hadn’t even been back in the US for six weeks, and already he was better at navigating California highways than I was.

“If we don’t get there by lunch, Derrick and Elyse will be so disappointed.”

“Are you kidding? They love spending time with Blake and Penny and the kids. I think Elyse would adopt baby Christopher if she could.”

“Probably,” I agreed. “And Zoe has a crush on Derrick.”

“Really?” Nico glanced over at me and winked. “He takes after his old man.”

“Eyes on the road, Romeo.”

Nico did as I asked… returning his gaze to the road ahead of us, but his hand snaked out and stroked my thigh. I rolled my eyes. He was incorrigible, but he sure as hell made life exciting. I grabbed his hand and held it with my own before he could be tempted to do anything more than just rub my leg.

“Hey, you’re going the wrong way.” I protested as Nico took an exit ramp.

“How can you know that if you don’t know where we’re going?” he asked with as much sincerity as he could muster—which wasn’t a whole lot. In the time since he’d returned to the US, he’d become more playful, more teasing, more flirty… more everything. It seemed to me—and to Penny and Blake, too—that he was becoming more like the person he’d been before the accident.

But unlike the slightly reckless man he’d been before, safety came first. He never did anything that might endanger me or the twins. Already today, he’d pulled over twice to check his texts. Normally, he’d have me do that while he was driving, but apparently, he didn’t want to ruin the surprise.

“Are we going to Long Beach?” The overhead road signs were a lot more forthcoming than the man next to me.

“Near there, yes.”

I stared out the window and wondered if I’d be dressed appropriately for whatever we were doing. Though it was a Saturday in late October, the weather was in the eighties. I’d worn a soft white shirt with a scooped, lacy neckline. My flouncy skirt was blue and came to just above my knees. It wasn’t the fanciest of outfits, but I’d noted before that Nico seemed to really like how my legs looked in this skirt.

Nico pulled off the freeway and made a series of turns. Finally, he pulled up at a coffee shop. I looked from him to the rather nondescript storefront and then back again. “You know, they had coffee when were left a couple of hours ago.”

“Did they now?” Nico’s voice was full of humor, but his eyes were on his phone again. “Okay, we can go in.”

Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I waited for Nico to come around and open my door. He insisted on doing that kind of thing. As far as I could tell, European princes were a lot more chivalrous that the average boyfriend. Of course, I didn’t have a very large a sample size.

I took off my sunglasses as I entered and looked around. The place seemed clean enough though the décor left something to be desired.

Nico took my arm and led me to the far side of the room. Three of the tables by the window were empty. However, he seemed to be headed for the only occupied one.

A teenager looked up as we approached. She looked to be about seventeen. Her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and she wore jeans and a T-shirt. She stood up and it wasn’t until I was a few feet away that I realized who she was: Teresa.

I stared at my former student in shock, my mind whirling. Why was she here? How had Nico arranged this? Before I could get over my shock, she was hugging me. I pressed her head against my shoulder, astonished that she was here. I’d tried to find her and I hadn’t been able to.

“Please sit down, Miss Andrews.” She smiled as she pointed to the spot opposite her. Nico held my chair as I sat but made no move to sit down himself. “Please stay,” Teresa added to him.

He shook his head. “You two catch up and I’ll get some drinks. What would you like, Teresa?”

“Could I have a Mocha Frappuccino?”

“Sure. Cara? Tea for you?”

“Yes, thank you.” I still didn’t know what was going on, but I did realize that Nico was tactfully giving us some time to talk. A bizarre thought floated in my head: did Teresa know that a genuine prince had just taken her drink order?

And how did she even know Nico? Or more importantly, how had he found her? I couldn’t even begin to imagine. It was like a dream. A very good one. I studied Teresa as she smiled at me. She looked different. A little taller than I remembered. And her hair was longer—it had been a year after all. The dark circles were still under her eyes, but on the whole, she looked better than before.

The memory of that day I’d last seen her came back. That horrible day after the principal had shut down the reading of our play. It had been the only thing I’d done all semester that had truly captured the students’ interest, and he’d shut it down like it was nothing. “I’m so sorry—” I began, but she cut me off.

“It wasn’t your fault.” There was no doubt she knew exactly what I meant.

“I should have stood up to the school.”

“You did,” Teresa said. “We all knew you did. Not just about that, but about other things.”

“It wasn’t enough.” Tears sprang to my eyes. “It wasn’t enough because it drove you away.”

“Yeah,” she said uncomfortably. “I know that was dumb, but it was just the last straw, you know? That place was horrible.” I nodded, and she continued. “I guess you do know, since you left it too.”

“He told you that?”

“Yes.”

I glanced up at the counter. Nico was still second in line. This place didn’t seem very fast. “How did you meet him?”

“It was a couple of weeks ago. Some lawyer contacted my family. I don’t know how he found us, we’ve moved twice in the past year, but the lawyer said that some rich dude wanted to set up a scholarship for me to go to college.”

“A scholarship?” My heart pounded almost painfully in my chest with love for Nico. He’d done all that to make things right—even though it wasn’t his fight. He’d wanted to make things better for Teresa and for me.

“Who is he?” Teresa said in a low voice. “Is he your boyfriend?”

“Yes,” I said, somewhat relieved that she didn’t seem to know about his royal status. Probably Nico wouldn’t want to attract attention to his generosity. “What kind of scholarship is it?”

“A full ride,” Teresa said, shaking her head as if she still couldn’t believe it. “But there are conditions.” She looked at Nico, and I did too. He was next in line.

“What kind of conditions?”

“I have to finish high school. I enrolled in one here the day after we met with his lawyer.”

That was smart of Nico to require her to complete high school. She had a lot of catching up to do before being ready for higher education. But still, I was concerned for Teresa. She was smart enough, no question, but she’d missed so much. Plus, many of her absences had been family-related. I asked her about it.

“It’s still hard,” she said. “But we have extended family down here. There are more people to watch my little brothers and to help with my grandparents. Also, everyone is excited. No one in my family has ever gotten a university degree, so everyone wants me to succeed and earn the scholarship.”

“How’s it going?”

“Okay,” Teresa said, her face tightening a little. “It’s a good school—much better than the other one. But I’m really far behind. I talked with the counselor there, and she thought I could join the junior class instead of repeating my sophomore year. It’s been kind of difficult to catch up.”

“You can do it. I know you can. It’s not going to be easy, but I know you can do this.”

Teresa studied me. “You’re the only teacher who’s ever thought that. Everyone else didn’t expect much of me.”

“So prove them wrong.”

“I’m trying,” she said. “I mean, I will. But so far it hasn’t been easy.” She hesitated. “Do you think maybe… maybe we could talk on the phone sometimes? So I can tell you how it’s going and, well, so you could…”

“Encourage you? Be a cheerleader?”

“Something like that. A cheerleader-slash-academic advisor. Or maybe that’s all just part of being a teacher.”

Her words made me smile. “I’d love to. How about a weekly check-in session on Skype or Facetime?”

“That would be great.” She broke into a lovely smile.

With impeccable timing, Nico appeared, joining us at the table. As we sipped our drinks, waves of gratitude all but overwhelmed me. He’d made this happen. He’d helped this stranger just because she was important to me.

We chatted for a while. Teresa asked about my new teaching position, and I inquired about her family. I would’ve liked to stay longer, but I explained that were meeting up with Nico’s children.

Teresa understood. She fished for something in her bag and then pulled out a card. “This is for you.” She handed the card to Nico. “It’s not much, but my whole family is just so thankful. Do you speak Spanish? Some of them can’t write much English.”

Nico shook his head, taking the card. He spoke a smattering of a half dozen different languages, but Spanish wasn’t one of them.

“I can translate for him,” I said.

Teresa smiled at me as we all stood to leave. Nico gestured for her to go first, and she walked past us toward the front door. Before Nico could follow, I reached up and grabbed hold of the collar of his gray shirt. Pulling his head down, I gave him a brief, fierce kiss. “I can’t thank you enough,” I whispered in his ear.

He winked, his smile wide as he took my hand and escorted me out of the restaurant.

Once outside, Teresa gave me a big hug and shook Nico’s hand. “Thank you so much to you both.”

“It was all Nico,” I said, but she shook her head.

“It was both of you. I’m going to work very hard and won’t let you or my family down. Or myself,” she added.

Nico put his arm around me as we watched Teresa leave. But she’d only gotten five or six feet away when she turned back to me with an impish smile. She glanced at Nico and then spoke to me in rapid Spanish. I put my hand over my mouth and chuckled as she walked away.

“What did she say?” Nico asked.

I waited until Teresa was out of sight, and then I smirked up at him. “She said my boyfriend is really hot.”

For a moment, Nico’s jaw hung open. Finally it snapped shut and his face turned red. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen him at a loss for words. I couldn’t stop giggling until we were back on the freeway.

“Cara!” the twins cried as we spotted our people standing in front of the castle wall. Not Nico’s castle, but Cinderella’s. Derrick and Elyse had been thrilled when Nico had suggested a trip to Disneyland.

“Daddy!” Elyse added, when we walked up.

“Why do I always get second billing?” Nico grumbled as he shook Blake’s hand. “Thanks for doing double parenting duty this morning.”

“No problem. Did you have a good morning?” I could tell that Blake knew about the detour we’d taken before arriving here.

“Excellent,” Nico said.

Penny bustled up with Christopher in her arms. “Gimme,” I said, eager to hold the cute little guy.

“Oh sure… now that I’ve changed his diaper, you get the fun part.” She kissed me on the cheek when she handed over the adorable baby.

“Oof, he’s getting heavy,” I said as I cuddled him to my cheek. His fine hair smelled so good.

“Did you eat lunch?” Nico asked.

“Yes,” Derrick answered for everyone. “Can we go on some more rides now? We’ve already been on the teacups and the Jungle Cruise and Minnie’s House. I wanted to go to Mickey’s House, but they outvoted me.” He indicated his sister and Zoe.

“Just wait until Christopher’s old enough to vote,” Blake said with a grin. “Then we’ll have even numbers.”

We shepherded the children through the castle. Zoe tugged on Nico’s sleeve until he stopped and bend down to hear her. Whatever she said made him grin. He whispered something back and patted her on the back.

When I caught up with him, I asked him what she said.

He grinned. “She said that my castle is nicer.”

The afternoon passed quickly if not orderly. Elyse and Zoe wanted pictures with every Disney Princess they spotted. Derrick had a list of rides he was dying to try. At one point, Blake and Nico stated they wanted to get coffee and catch up on a little business, but we later spotted them in the FastPass line for Space Mountain.

It was a fun and exhausting day.

“It’s too bad your sister couldn’t come,” Penny told me as we handed out ice cream bars to the children.

“I know, but she’s getting so big.”

“When’s she due?” Penny had met Autumn once. She and Blake and Nico and I had joined my sister and brother-in-law for dinner the week before last.

“December. It’s a girl.” I would’ve been happy with either a niece or a nephew, but I couldn’t help the extra thrill it gave me that she was having a daughter—especially since Autumn was going to name her after our late mother.

“Dad?” The men were back, and Elyse lost no time in petitioning them. “Can we go to It’s a Small World next?”

I would’ve thought grown men would shy away from a ride with hundreds of singing dolls, but Nico grinned, ruffled her hair. “Sure.”

We used our passes, but when were near the front of the line, Penny whispered that Zoe needed the restroom. Blake, who had Christopher on top of his shoulders, decided to go with them.

“Why do you need to go?” Nico inquired.

“Because dancing dolls seems like more your kind of thing than mine. Cara told me you have a royal puppeteer back home.”

“He’s not a royal puppeteer,” Nico said with a huff. “He just came for the twins’ birthday party.”

“Nevertheless, you got this. We’ll meet you over by those benches when you’re done.” He clapped Nico on the shoulder.

The line was moving again, so I grabbed Nico’s arm, pulling him away. Sometimes, when he and Blake got in joking mode, they regressed right back to the incorrigible frat boys they once were.

Derrick and Elyse were thrilled to get the front seat of the ride to themselves. Nico and I were in the row behind them. We floated down the stream and soon were surrounded by singing dolls from various nations all over the world. “Falkenberg is grossly unrepresented,” Nico grumbled when we were about halfway through.

“Shh.” I elbowed him. “Try to enjoy the lyrics that we’re going to be hearing in our heads for the rest of the day.”

“I think you mean the rest of the month. But the lyrics are a lie.”

“Be good,” I whispered.

“They are. It’s not a small world, it’s a big one. It was far too big when you were here in California and we were in Europe.”

Aww… that was sweet. I took his hand and snuggled against his side.

“And it’s far too big when we’re in our house and you’re in your room in the residence halls.”

I frowned, wondering what had brought that up. “We see each other nearly every day, and I’m over at your place all the time.”

“It’s not enough,” Nico said. “You’re still too far away.”

My pulse quickened with excitement. “Are you asking me to move in? I’m not sure they’d approve of that since you live on school grounds, but I suppose we could ask—”

“No,” Nico interrupted and my heart sank. “I’m not asking you to move in with me. I’m asking you to marry me.”

I gaped up at him, my eyes wide. My heart stuttered in my chest before resuming at twice its normal speed. My voice was low and uncertain. “What?”

“Marry me,” Nico said, and from out of nowhere, he produced a small velvet box. I stared in shock at the ring and then back up at him. “The world is too small—and life is too short—for us to ever be apart again. It’s not enough to be coworkers here. It’s not enough to be nanny and employer back home. I want to spend every day of the rest of my life with you as husband and wife. Will you marry me, Cara Andrews?”

There was only one answer I could possibly say, yet the joy in my heart made it hard to get the word out. “Yes.”

Nico slid the beautiful diamond ring on my finger. Even in the dim light, it put the fake one I’d worn in London to shame. As I stared at it, and then back into his eyes, I realized that cheers had drowned out the incessant singing.

Derrick and Elyse were shouting excitedly from the row in front of us. They looked thrilled but not surprised—they must’ve been in on this. The people behind us were congratulating us as well.

I reached forward to wrap my arms around the twins, kissing the tops of their heads. Nico laughed, and pulled me back. “Stay in your seat until the ride has come to a full and complete stop, future wife,” he said with a smirk.

“Okay, then I’ll just do this.” I grabbed the back of his head, pulling him toward me. Our lips met and everything else disappeared. All I could feel was his arm around my back, his mouth on mine, and his ring on my finger. For a long moment nothing else mattered.

And then I broke away, reaching for my phone. “I have to call Autumn!”

He shook his head. “Did you just prematurely end our first kiss as an engaged couple to call your sister?”

“Yes,” I said, smacking him lightly across his hard abs—ouch. “This is big news. Oh, but there’s no signal. Couldn’t you have done this at Cinderella’s castle?”

“It seemed rather cliché.”

I grinned at that. I loved this man so much. He never ceased to amaze me… his kindness like with Teresa today… his ability as a father… the way he protected me and the twins and pretty much his entire country. This was a man worthy of my love, and I would never, ever take for granted the miracle that he loved me, too. Loved me enough to fight tradition and his mother and many obstacles for us to be together.

When it was time to disembark, Nico got out first. I held out my hand for support but instead he grasped me by the waist, lifted me up, and twirled me around. “Stay right there,” he whispered and then turned back to help the kids.

“There’s Autumn!” Elyse exclaimed as we exited the ride. Sure enough, she and Ford were waiting about thirty feet away along with Blake, Penny, and the kids.

Blake cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted, “Well?”

Nico looked at me and smiled. I held up my left hand to show them I was wearing the ring, and everyone cheered. Elyse and Derrick ran ahead while Nico and I walked more slowly.

“I didn’t think Autumn could come,” I marveled. “She it was too far to travel now that she’s seven months along.”

“It was too far to travel for the Dumbo ride, but not too far to celebrate our engagement. She and Ford are taking us out to dinner. All of us. It’ll be our first engagement celebration.”

“Engaged,” I repeated as if it were a foreign word. “Good god, we’re engaged.”

Nico stared at me for a moment and then pulled me to the side of the path, letting the people behind us go ahead. There was a large tree that provided shade, and it was a little quieter than the ride had been. “Are you sure this is what you want, Cara? I admit it’s all happening fast.”

“Of course. It’s just… wow. Engaged.” It was still a bit hard to take in. But it was what I wanted—more than anything.

Nico frowned. “I should’ve taken you out to a nice restaurant and proposed. It’s all too messy here, too many people and those weird singing dolls…”

His dismay focused me. I took both his hands and looked up into his eyes. “No, it was perfect. It was fitting, really, to do that there on the ride.”

“Why? You’re not going to start collecting those creepy little things, are you?”

I laughed, smiling up at the man I loved. “No, I’m not. But I was talking about the messy part. Our lives are going to be messy, at least for a while. The four of us have to figure out how to function as a family—in two different countries. And then there’s those guys…” I gestured toward the gang waiting for us. “They’re part of our family, too. And the people in Falkenberg including my future mother-in-law who doesn’t really like me very much. It’s a lot to deal with, but it’s what I want more than anything. But what about you?”

“Of course it’s what I want. I proposed to you, remember?”

“I know. But before, like after London you seemed to be fighting what you wanted.”

“Because I feared losing it. I feared losing you,” Nico said.

“And now?”

He squeezed my hands. “Now I’ve come to realize that if there isn’t anything in your life that you fear losing, then you aren’t really living. A person with nothing to lose is a person with nothing. You were right back then—if we stick together, we can make this work. And you’re right today, too. It will be messy. But that doesn’t sound so bad to me.”

“Me either. And Derrick and Elyse? Did you talk to them about this?”

“They’re on board. I think if I hadn’t proposed to you, one of them would have.”

I beamed. “I love them so much.”

“I know you do. I think they’re planning to ask you if they can call you mom.”

Tears formed rapidly along my lower lids and I blinked them back. “I’d love that—but are you okay with it?”

“Yes,” he said, staring off in the distance. “They had a wonder mother, but she can’t be with them anymore. Now they’re lucky enough to have another wonderful woman who cares very much for them. I’m so grateful for that.”

“Me too,” I said, and Nico leaned down to kiss me.

There was a smattering of applause from our friends, and I smiled as Nico hugged me so tightly, he picked me up off the ground again. Then he set me down with a wink and a quick kiss on my forehead. “We’d probably better not make the pregnant lady wait anymore,” he said.

“Probably not.”

Hand in hand, we walked to our friends and family who greeted us warmly. Autumn gave me a huge hug, or as huge as possible with her sizeable belly in between us. Ford shook Nico’s hand, and Blake gave him a one-armed hug, congratulating him. Penny embraced me too, as did the children.

Surrounded by such wonderful people—and engaged to such an amazing man—I felt my life couldn’t get any better. Ford summed it up succinctly when it was his turn to congratulate me. “Welcome to the happily ever after club, kiddo.”

I smiled at him and all our friends as we walked back to the park entrance. Nico had his arm around me, and Elyse took his free hand while Derrick held mine.

Finally, we were a family. A unit. A team. Whether it was California or Falkenberg, no matter where we went, we’d be together.

Any place where Nico, Derrick, Elyse and I were together seemed like a pretty magical kingdom to me.

Thank you so much for reading Dashing! It would mean a lot to me if you’d leave a review at Amazon.

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