She just shook her head.
“I spoke to the counselor and she believes that having you and Mishka move in with me here in Santa Fe, letting us get used to being around each other as people who live in the same home while he still has the consistency of his preschool, would be good for our son.”
“You spoke to the counselor about it? Before me?”
“Only to get her opinion. Naturally, it is your decision entirely.”
Not really. Not anymore.
While Emma had no plans to give up majority custody of their son, so long as he continued to make Mickey’s welfare a priority, she expected Konstantin to have a say in Mickey’s present and future. While she would not allow him to dictate decisions about their son, she would take Konstantin’s viewpoint into consideration.
Even if she didn’t feel so strongly about allowing him to fulfill his role as father, so long as he did so with Mickey’s best interests always at the forefront, the simple truth was Konstantin knew the intricacies of royal life in a way Emma did not.
Mickey needed his dad looking out for him and Konstantin was doing his best to do that very thing.
Emma needed to remember that.
“I don’t want to move out of my home,” she admitted baldly. “I know I have to, but I worked so hard for Mickey and me to have our own place.”
“Would it be easier for you if I moved in there for a couple of weeks?” Konstantin offered.
Like that was practical, but she did appreciate his offering. “Where would you sleep? The kitchen?” she asked facetiously.
“We could put a travel bed in your bedroom with a standing divider between us.”
It was a generous offer. They would be crowded beyond belief, but he was willing to do that so she had time to get used to moving from their home, not just Mickey. Only she wasn’t a four-nearly-five-year-old. Emma was an adult and she could deal with the hard things in life.
She’d already proved that to herself many times over.
“I think it would be good if you stayed with us for a couple of days before we made the move to your mansion,” she said, giving oblique acceptance to the move to his mansion and by extrapolation to a shared home in Seattle.
“I never said it was a mansion.”
She gave him a look. “Is it?”
“Yes.” His teasing smile invited her to share his amusement.
She returned it. “I know you better than you think.”
“I don’t mind that.”
“Can we get an RV to park in my driveway for the security people?” Then she would have some semblance of having her home back again.
“That is an excellent idea. I should have thought of it already.”
“You’ve been busy.” She knew he had.
Konstantin worked late into the night most nights just so he had time every afternoon and evening to spend with Mickey. She joined them for most of that time because Mickey needed that sense of security.
However, Emma had continued to do her job and paint her commissions for the gallery as well.
Which meant as soon as Mickey went to bed both she and Konstantin began work on their computers. He’d surprised her by staying to work in her living room until she went to bed some nights. She wasn’t sure why he did it, but Emma acknowledged, if only to herself, that she liked it.
Konstantin brought his things from the hotel and Emma made room in her closet for his suits.
The prince planned to sleep on the travel bed they’d brought in for the night security man.
She gave the single bed a considering look. “Have you ever slept on a single bed?”