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“Good.” He dished up her plate. “Our son told me your favorites.”
Emma took the plate of eggs ranchero and crispy hash browns with a polite thank-you. The food smelled so good, her mouth watered. And then her stomach rumbled.
Mickey laughed. “You’re hungry, huh, Mom? It’s good you don’t have to wait to cook your food, right, Mom?”
“Yes, Mickey.” She leaned down and kissed her son’s head. “Very good, especially since we need to leave very soon to get you to school on time.”
The first hour at Mickey’s day care preschool was free time so children could be dropped off at different times before the morning preschool session started.
Mickey’s mouth set in a mutinous frown that was becoming all too familiar. “I don’t want to go to school. I want to stay with Dad.”
“If it is all right with your mother, I can pick you up right after school so you don’t have to go into day care,” Konstantin offered, obviously intent on heading off a confrontation with their son. “But I too need to get some work done today.”
Emma didn’t know how she felt about the Prince’s offer.
So far, all of Mickey’s time with Konstantin had been under Emma’s supervision. But a man didn’t go to the trouble of setting up a mansion to live in if he planned to run off with her son, did he?
It all boiled down to whether, or not, she trusted Konstantin at his word that he would not try to take Mickey from her.
“Say yes, Mom, please!” Mickey pleaded.
Emma looked at Konstantin, and his chocolate brown gaze so like their son’s snagged hers. His eyes asked her to trust him. “I...”
She didn’t know what to say. Could she take Konstantin at his word?
He was right when he claimed he’d never verbally lied to her. Would he start now?
He had to know that if he tried to take Mickey she could make such an ugly scandal, his little country would be in all the wrong papers for months to come. Would he risk that?
She closed her eyes for a moment, centering herself, and sought the truth of her own emotions and beliefs.
“Don’t worry, Dad. She does that sometimes. It helps her focus on what’s real.” Mickey sounded so grown-up repeating her words for Konstantin.
Emma opened her eyes and smiled at Mickey. “Okay, but you call me at work as soon as your dad picks you up.” She looked at Konstantin. “If you want to take him to the park or something, you need to call and let me know you aren’t going to be at home.”
It would be only for a couple of hours, she reminded herself. He needed just the one to disappear with their son, but she wasn’t going to think like that.
“Of course,” Konstantin replied, his expression filled with a vulnerable gratitude she did her best to trust. “And thank you, Emma.”
“For what?” But she knew. They both knew she was showing more trust than he probably deserved right now.
But she realized she was trusting her own judgment more than she implicitly trusted him.
“Trusting me with our son.”
Emma just nodded.
CHAPTER SIX
KONSTANTIN PICKED UP Mikhail from his preschool, impressed by the security employed by the staff.
Despite traveling with an entourage and his obvious wealth, as well as being greeted by the bodyguard that had been watching over his son since Konstantin came into Mikhail’s life, Konstantin was still required to show photo identification.
He also heard one of the staff calling Emma to tell her that Mikhail was being picked up. Though he knew that she’d taken time to go into Mikhail’s preschool and arrange things so the Prince could pick up his son.
“You must be Mikhail’s father. We’ve heard a lot about you in the last two weeks.” The dark-haired man speaking looked to be a couple of years younger than Emma’s age of twenty-five. He extended his hand. “I’m Jerome Leeds, Mikhail’s teacher.”
Now, Konstantin understood his son’s insistence on being called by his given name. It’s what the teacher he admired so much used.
