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“And does she want to? Have you asked her to marry you?”
“You’re in the wrong business, I think,” Henrik said with a smirk. Toothpaste didn’t suit this man at all. He should have been a lawyer. Henrik hurried on. “I haven’t asked officially, but I suggested the matter to her last night.” After the most amazing kiss of his life. Henrik decided not to add that part of things.
“And?”
“She has yet to give me an answer, sir.”
“But you’re still asking me?”
“It’s the right thing to do.”
Mr. Hope nodded, thinking through this aspect. Then he lowered his hands and stood. “She deserves to be safe,” he said. “She deserves to be loved and adored, not used.”
“I would never use her,” Henrik said with so much defensiveness in his tone her father couldn’t mistake it for anything else. How could Mr. Hope think he would? “I will love her, sir. I’m falling in that direction every moment we spend together. I intend to make her my queen, and I’m asking for your blessing.”
“Your queen? My Lily?”
“Yes, sir.” He supposed speaking of kings and queens was different here, where Americans had only governors, senators, and presidents.
“Very well,” Mr. Hope said. “If Lily agrees, I have no objection.”
“Thank you, sir,” Henrik said with relief. He chuckled, not realizing how tense his shoulders and neck were until he was able to relax them again. The muscles in his back shouted. “That was more hard-won than I thought it would be.”
Mr. Hope wove around the desk and clapped a hand on Henrik’s shoulder. Of all things, he was smiling. “I wanted to make sure you were sure. The last man I had a heart-to-heart with about my daughter’s feelings didn’t treat me nearly as respectfully as you just did. I tried to talk her into ending things with him and she—” He shook his head. “Never mind.”
“She told me about all that, sir.”
“Oh, she did?”
Henrik nodded. He didn’t have the full story of what had happened with this ex of Lily’s, but he had enough details to know the man had been an absolute loser. “And I assure you, I will treat her like a woman should be treated. With love and respect. I will listen to and value her opinions. She will have a say, she will have a stand at my side, sir. Not below my feet, but at my side. Lily wouldn’t have it any other way either.”
Mr. Hope gripped Henrik’s shoulder. “Good. I like you better already.”
Henrik wished he could say the same. In a small way, Henrik felt strange trying to prove himself to this man who had cut his daughter off and hadn’t behaved as Henrik believed a father should. Still, he wanted to leave the best impression that he could.
Lily’s father seemed to read his mind. “You know, between you and me, I’m ashamed of how I acted. I tried forcing her to leave the other guy. I threatened something vast, something I never thought I’d have to follow through on.”
“To disinherit her.”
“Exactly.”
“Why did you do it then?” Henrik ventured.
“Because I’m a man of my word,” Mr. Hope said with a sigh. “I’ve always believed in the importance of doing what you say you will. And I made a serious threat that, in my pride, I couldn’t back down on. I know that sounds harsh, but what I’m trying to say is, I hope you’re as strong to your word, Prince Henrik. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. And those promises you do make, keep them as rigidly as you can. A woman needs to know her man is someone she can rely on.”
Henrik understood, and his respect for this man deepened just enough. Mr. Hope wanted to make sure Henrik wasn’t breathing out empty promises just to get what he wanted. “I keep my word, sir.”
“Good.” Another clap on the back. “Good.”
13
They had one more day at Ethan’s. The day after Christmas was spent playing board games and eating too much popcorn and cheesecake. At one point, Lily asked Henrik what he and her dad had talked about for so long when he’d disappeared, but Henrik only told her they were getting to know one another.
Fair enough.
The visit with her parents had been better than she ever thought could happen again. Hope had sprouted from a patch of her heart that had been barren for too long. Maybe Lily didn’t have to pack everything in and leave so no one could find her again.
Then again, she doubted her parents’ newly returned good faith in her would remain long if those emails surfaced. They would know she was the reason things with the celebrity spokesman had fallen through. So she would take what she had, delicate as the reunion between them felt.
