She clinked her wineglass with his, aglow with happiness, knowing that she had to be the most fortunate woman in all of Texas. After a couple of sips, she set her glass down and didn’t pick it up again. Might as well be cautious. Just in case she really was pregnant.
Not that she thought she was. Uh-uh. She wasn’t going there. Not yet.
Four days later, on the first Friday in May, Sydney said goodbye to Teale, Gayle and Prosser.
She left her desk clean and neat and her clients effectively shifted to other attorneys in the firm. She also departed on good terms with her former partners, all thanks to her strict dedication to doing th
ings right—and her new husband’s willingness to share his connections.
The next week was all about packing for the move. Lani, one of the most organized human beings on the planet, had already gotten a good head start on that. But there was more to do. Sydney got to work on the rest of the job with her usual enthusiasm. They were leaving the house furnished and in the hands of an excellent Realtor.
Their passports were current. Even Trevor’s. Sydney had gotten his for him months before, when she’d been thinking of taking a vacation in Ireland.
On the second Friday in May, they boarded the private jet for Montedoro. Lani’s brother, Carlos, and her parents, Iris and Jorge, came to the airport to see them off. There were also reporters. They snapped lots of pictures and asked an endless number of way-too-personal questions.
Rule told them he had no comment at this time and Joseph herded them up the ramp and into the plane.
The flight was a long one and there was a seven-hour time difference between Dallas and their destination. They took off from Love Field at two in the afternoon and arrived at the airport in Nice at eight the next morning. A limo was waiting to whisk them to Montedoro and the Prince’s Palace. So were more paparazzi. Again, they hurried to get into the car and away from the questions and cameras.
The first sight of the palace stole Sydney’s breath. White as a dove’s wing against the clear blue sky, it was a sprawling edifice of crenellated towers and paladin windows and balconies and arches. It stood on a rocky promontory overlooking the sapphire-colored sea.
The driver took them around to a private entrance. By a little after nine, they were filing into Rule’s apartment.
After the grandeur of the arched, marble-floored hallways decorated in gorgeous mosaics, Sydney was relieved that Rule’s private space was more low-key. The furniture was simple, plush and inviting, the walls were of stucco or something similar, with tall, curving ceilings and dark wood floors covered with beautiful old rugs woven in intricate patterns, most of them deep reds and vivid blues. Balconies in the large sitting room and in the master suite opened onto stunning views of the main courtyard and the crowns of the palms and mimosas, the olive and oak trees that covered the hillside below. Farther out, the Mediterranean, dotted here and there with pretty sailboats and giant cruise ships, shone in the afternoon sun.
The palace staff set right to work unpacking and putting everything away. In no time, that job was done and the soft-spoken, efficient maids had vanished. Lani retreated to her room at one end of the apartment, probably to work on her novel or jot down her first impressions of Montedoro in her journal. Trev sat on a glorious red rug in the sitting room playing with his plastic blocks, and Rule was off somewhere conferring with his private secretary, Caroline.
For a while, Sydney leaned on the carved stone balcony railing, the doors to the sitting room wide open behind her, and stared out at the boats floating on the impossibly blue sea. There was a soft breeze, like the lightest brush of silk against her skin. She felt tempted to pinch herself. It almost seemed like a dream that they were actually here, in Montedoro, at last.
And it got even better. Her period was now almost three weeks late. She had no morning sickness, but she’d had none with Trev, either. What she did have were breasts.
They weren’t huge or anything, but they were definitely fuller, and more sensitive than usual. That was the same as with Trev, too.
Another baby. She put her hand against her flat stomach, the way mothers had been doing since the beginning of time. Another baby. When she’d had Trevor, she’d told herself to be grateful for one. And she had been. So very grateful.
But now, well, she was pretty much positive she would be having her second. Incredible. Talk about impossible dreams coming true.
She’d bought a home test the week before. And today, as she leaned on the stone railing and admired the sea, she was thinking it was about time to take the test.
And about time to tell Rule that their family was growing.
“Mama! Come. Play …”
She turned to smile at her son, who had stacked several brightly colored blocks into a rickety tower and waved two more at her, one in each chubby hand. “All right, sweetheart. Let’s play.” She went and sat on the rug with him.
“Here, Mama.” He handed her a drool-covered block. Lately, as his back teeth came in, anything he got his little hands on ended up with drool on it.
“Thank you.” She wiped the drool off on her jeans and hooked the block at the base of his tower. As long as she was helping, she might as well improve the stability a tad.
A few moments later, Rule appeared. Trev cried his name in sheer delight, “Roo!” And he came right over and scooped him high into his big arms. “Roo, we play blocks!”
“I can see that. Quite a fine tower you have there.”
“Mama helps.”
“Oh, yes, she does.” Rule gave her a smile. Her heart did a couple of somersaults. “My parents are impatient to meet you.”
“I’m eager to meet them.” She gazed up at him from her cross-legged seat on the red rug and wondered if there was a woman alive as fortunate as she. At the same time, she was just a little nervous to be meeting his mom and dad, aka Their Highnesses, for the first time. “But maybe I need a few tips on palace protocol first….”