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His phone rang. Gabriel. The first in line to the throne sounded relaxed and a touch smug as he passed along the message Nic had been dreading.
“Mother is sending the jet to pick you up the day after tomorrow and wants to know what time you can be at the airport.”
“What’s so urgent? I thought I had over a week until your wedding.”
“She has a series of parties and events leading up to the big day that you and Christian will be expected to attend. From what I understand she has compiled quite a list of potential brides for you two to fight over.”
And so it began. Nic’s thoughts turned toward the woman napping in the guesthouse. His heart wrenched at the thought of being parted from her so soon after reconnecting. She would be disappointed to find out their time would be cut short, but he had warned her.
“Are any of these women...?” What was he trying to ask? Without meeting any of them, he’d already decided they were unacceptable. None of them were Brooke.
“Beautiful? Smart? Wealthy? What?”
“Am I going to like any of them?” As soon as the question was out Nic felt foolish.
“I’m sure you’re going to like all of them. You just have to figure out which one you can see yourself spending the rest of your life with.” Gabriel’s words and tone were matter-of-fact.
“Is that how you felt when you first started poring over the candidates?”
Gabriel paused before answering. “Not exactly. I had Olivia in mind from the first.”
“But you spent a year considering and meeting possible matches. Why do that if you already knew who you wanted?”
“Two reasons. Because Mother would not have accepted that I had already met the perfect girl and at the time only my subconscious realized Olivia was the one.”
Nic wished he was having this conversation face-to-face because his brother’s expression would provide clues mere words lacked. “You’ve lost me.”
“As I worked my way through the list, I realized I compared each woman I met to Olivia.”
“She was your ideal.”
“She was the one I wanted.”
The conviction throbbing in Gabriel’s low voice spurred Nic to envy his brother for the first time since they were kids. Before Nic had discovered his passion for science and engineering, he’d wondered what contribution he could make to the country. Gabriel would rule. All Christian cared about was having fun and shirking responsibility. Nic had wanted to have a positive effect on the world. A lofty ambition for an eight-year-old.
Gabriel continued speaking, “Only I resented my duty to marry and didn’t know how perfect Olivia was for me. Even when I proposed to her I was blind to my heart’s true desire. Thank goodness my instincts weren’t hampered by my hardheadedness.”
“At what point did you figure out you’d selected the perfect woman?”
“The night my girls came to stay at the palace. Olivia took them under her wing and zealously guarded them from anyone she believed might upset them. Me included.” He chuckled. “And she never wavered in her love for them, not even when she thought I was still in love with their mother.”
“And speaking of Karina and Bethany, how are your girls?”
“Growing more beautiful and more terrifying by the week. Thank goodness they adore Olivia or they’d be terrorizing the palace staff a lot more than they do. Somehow she guides their energy into positive channels and makes the whole process look effortless. No one else can manage them without being ready to pull their hair out.”
“Not even Mother?”
“At first, but now they realize she is too fond of them to scold. Father indulges their appetite for sweets and Ariana has shown them every good hiding place the palace has to offer.”
“It’s not called the terrible twos for nothing.”
“You’ll see soon enough. I’ll have the plane pick you up tomorrow around noon.”
“Fine.” That should give him time to make sure Brooke was safely on a plane heading for home.
“See that you’re there on time.”
“Where else would I be? I have nowhere to go but home.”
Nic ended the call with a weary sigh and mulled what Gabriel had said about his search for a wife. That his brother had settled on the perfect woman before his quest had even begun didn’t lessen Nic’s unease over what was to come. Already his mind and body had chosen the woman for him. She was currently stretched out on the bed in the guesthouse. If he was anything like Gabriel, he was going to have an impossible time finding anyone who could match her perfect imperfection.
Several hours later, he was opening a bottle of Sherdana’s best Pinot Negro to let it breathe when Brooke sailed into the living room. She’d changed clothes again. The tail of her pastel tied-dyed kimono fluttered behind her as she walked, exposing a mint-green crocheted tank and the ruffled hem of her leg-baring floral shorts.
