The Billionaire Prince’s Surprise Son by Leslie North

20

“Iam so sorry, Your Highness,” the brunette woman behind the information counter said, looking flustered. “We’re not really supposed to give out information on passengers; it breaks confidentiality.”

Nic was well aware that he was on the verge of causing a scene. He’d left Felix at the curb and rushed into the airport, suddenly struck with the fact that, while he knew Summer and Harry would be leaving, he didn’t know any specific details. And while he wasn’t wearing anything special—he was still in his old T-shirt and jeans—he was attracting a lot of attention as people started recognizing their Crown Prince in their midst. He could hear the escalating murmurs, see people pointing and staring, both surreptitiously and openly. A woman walked up to him, flanked by a teenage girl.

“Hi! I’m from the U.S.,” she said, with a broad smile. “I’m sorry, are you Prince Nicolas? You are even hotter than online!”

“Oh my God, Mom,” the teenager said, eyes wide. “You can’t just call a Crown Prince hot!”

“Can I get your autograph? Or a selfie?” the mom pushed on, ignoring her.

Nic sighed, looking over at the women scrambling behind the information counter. He quickly let the woman get a picture and nodded at the embarrassed teen. He was afraid that the crowd would get bolder, though, and he didn’t have a bodyguard or publicist or anyone to run interference for him. And right now, being swarmed by autograph hounds and selfie-seekers was the last thing he needed.

“They’re headed to Los Angeles,” he said quickly to the information counter worker. Her coworker, a man in his twenties with flame red hair, seemed to pick up on his desperation.

“We’ve got two flights going to Los Angeles, on two different airlines,” he said. “If you knew the time, maybe we could figure something out…?”

“We really can’t,” the woman countered, looking concerned. “Unless it’s an emergency.”

“What are their names, again?” the red-haired man asked.

“Her name is Summer Rand,” Nic said, knowing he was blowing any sort of anonymity for her, but not caring at this point. He needed to connect with her before he lost her and Harry forever.

“Let me see what I can do,” the man said, typing away on his computer, even as his coworker frowned.

“Can’t you just call her?” the woman asked.

Nic sighed. “I think she’s shut her phone off. She hasn’t answered.”

The woman’s eyebrows furrowed, then she nodded. “Hold on,” she said, picking up the phone. Suddenly, her voice broadcast over the loudspeakers. “Summer Rand, please meet your party at the information counter, terminal A. Summer Rand? Please come to information counter, terminal A. Thank you.”

She hung up, and Nic stared. That could work. Summer might still ignore it—she might put together that “her party” was Nic and want no part of whatever he had to say. But he still had to try.

“Would it be all right if I used the announcement system?” he asked.

The red-haired man goggled. “You’re the prince,” he said, as if that made it possible for Nic to do whatever he wanted. “Of course you can!”

The woman nodded, hitting the button and handing Nic the receiver. Nic cleared his throat, feeling nerves punch him in the gut. Then he started talking, with no clear plan, but with emotions welling inside him like a volcano.

“This is Nicolas Frederick Hansen, Crown Prince of the Isle of Mynia. Known as Nic to my friends,” he tacked on, because he was starting to feel pretentious. “I am making a brief, personal announcement. I have been, in short, a royal fool. Summer, if you’re listening—I’m sorry. I am so, so sorry for all the blunders I’ve made, and the way I’ve treated you. I know apologies aren’t enough after what I’ve done. I’ve disappointed you and Harry, and in the process, I’ve disappointed myself. I wasn’t aware of what I was doing, or why I was doing it, until you basically smacked some sense into me. Now, I’m not only seeing what I’ve avoided, I’m seeing what I will lose if I don’t get this together. I can’t keep living the way I have, and more to the point, I don’t want to. I want to share my life with you, if you’ll let me. I want to prove to you that I can, and will, make changes. It would mean the world to—”

“Dude,” Summer said, interrupting him, obviously out of breath. Her cheeks were pink, and she’d obviously rushed over with Harry on her hip, a baby seat and roller bag in one hand. “You are killing me here. Get off the loudspeaker!”

He quickly grinned, handing the handset to the counter worker. “You came,” he said, stating the obvious, cautiously letting hope bubble up in his chest.

“And it was no small feat, let me tell you,” Summer pointed out. “Do you know how hard it is to power-walk across a terminal with a toddler and luggage? Hint: it’s really hard!”

“I’m sorry,” he said. He immediately reached his hands out for Harry, taking him and balancing him on a hip as he took her roller bag. Harry babbled at him conversationally, and Nic smiled, kissing the boy on one chubby cheek.

“Yeah, well, you said you wanted to talk, and I figured it’s better not to have this conversation in front of all the tourists and Mynians in the airport,” Summer muttered. “Really? You couldn’t have waited two minutes before jumping on the announcement system?”

He looked. The crowd that had started to assemble when he first arrived had grown exponentially and now were taking photos and videos with their cell phones. The American mother was shouting encouragement as her daughter covered her face with her hands. He sighed.

“Your Highness,” the red-haired counter worker said, “perhaps I can accompany you and your guests to a private VIP lounge? We have a waiting area for our private flights, that might be more conducive to a conversation without onlookers.”

“That sounds perfect,” Nic said, looking at Summer. She nodded, taking Harry from Nic and shifting Harry on her hip. Nic took the luggage and car seat. “We’ll follow you.”

* * *

Summer followed the man and Nic, Harry in tow. She couldn’t believe that Nic had made such a public announcement. He looked like the Nic that she remembered from their days together in L.A., with his hair mussed and wearing a soft, worn T-shirt and jeans. He looked amazing, even though she could see the exhaustion and sadness in his face. It just made her want to cuddle him and take care of him.

No. Be strong. This is how you got into this mess in the first place.She tried to steel her heart against the sheer irresistibleness of Nic, but it was hard.

Why, oh why, did he have to be the one her heart responded to?

The airport worker locked the door behind him, leaving them in privacy. She put Harry down and gave him a toy car, where he quickly became entranced with running it over their luggage. “So what did you want to say, Nic?”

Nic took a deep breath, looking like a man who was getting ready to jump out of an airplane. “I love you, Summer. You and Harry both.”

Her eyes widened, even as she felt her resolve starting to crumble. “I love you, too,” she admitted. “But that’s not enough. You can’t love us and treat us like a last priority, Nic. That’s not how it works.”

Nic took her hand in his, cupping her face with his other hand and stroking her cheek. “I have come to learn that I have been making some poor choices, thinking they were the only choices I had.”

She frowned, not comprehending.

“I never told you how my brother died.”

She studied him, quietly, watching as sorrow glowed softly in his blue eyes.

“Tom died, at eighteen, after a long battle with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.”

She gasped. The boys that got Duchenne MD rarely made it to adulthood, and whatever years he’d survived had to have been an ongoing and worsening struggle. For Nic to be close to his brother, to watch that… “That must have been very hard.”

“I loved my brother so much,” Nic admitted. “The worst part about it wasn’t the physical effects of the disease, although they were bad enough. It was the fact that he was so brilliant, and so loving, and could have had such an amazing future. He wanted to be a doctor, from the time he was a five-year-old, it seemed. It was his obsession.”

Not yours, Summer quickly realized.

“I told him, just before he died, that I’d be a doctor for him,” Nic said, releasing her face and brushing at the tears that clung to his thick, coal-black lashes. “I chose to be a pediatrician because it’d be helping kids like Tom. I wasn’t going to let anything happen to anyone else, ever again.”

She swallowed hard as her own sorrow moved forward, more bittersweet and accepting. “I never wanted to lose my parents,” she said softly. “But I couldn’t stop it, and it wasn’t my fault. Losing Tom wasn’t your fault. And you’re not going to be able to save the whole world, Nic.”

“I’m learning that. Now.” He sighed. “I’m stepping down as Head of Pediatrics and giving up medicine.”

Summer felt an icy slap of surprise. “What? Are you sure? You’re… you’re an amazing doctor!”

“I’ve been pushing too hard, for too long,” he said. “It was my mania, not my dream. I can help more people in my role as the Crown Prince—making sure that it’s easier for our subjects to get health care, making sure that children have better resources as they grow, not just medicine but schools and food, and even foster care, if need be.”

Summer melted. Foster care. He’d listened to her—recognized how important that was. He was still pursuing the care of children, like he’d wanted to when Tom died. He was just obviously fitting into a better role to do that, one that wasn’t so painful, or fraught with the immediacy of life-and-death and personal trauma.

Then Nic smiled.

“The good thing about just being a Crown Prince,” he said, his voice gentle, “is that it will give me a lot more time to spend with my family.” He looked fondly at Harry, who was now gripping his leg, giving him a broad, sunshiny smile. Then he turned his attention back to Summer.

She smiled slowly, as love and hope slowly radiated through her. She made one last ditch effort to keep a shield up. “I’m going to hold you to this, Nic,” she said. “I’m not going to get my heart broken again. And I’m not going to let you push Harry and me away.”

“I’m going to do everything I can to keep you close, and to show you just how much you’re loved,” he said, kissing her jawline, stroking her hair. “And Harry is never going to feel slighted or alone. He’s had you. Now, he’s going to see just how much his father loves him—and how much I love his Mom.”

Summer closed her eyes, resting her forehead against Nic’s chest. It was what she’d always wanted… exactly what she’d always wanted. It was waiting there for her. All she had to do was trust it—and reach out for it.

“All right,” she said softly, then tilted her head up, looking into Nic’s eyes. “I believe you.”

Nic’s eyes gleamed with happiness. “So can we go home now?”

She nodded.

“Absolutely,” she said. “Let’s go home.”