Pregnant with the Secret Prince's Babies
Auteur
Deanne Anders
Lezers
18,6K
Hoofdstukken
14
CHAPTER ONE
“THE KING IS not happy.”
Though thousands of miles away, his brother’s booming voice ricocheted inside his pounding head like it was a pinball machine.
After spending over twelve hours on a plane, Dr. Alex Leonelli had finally made it home to Key West, leaving behind his life as Alexandro Michael Leonelli, best friend and secret half brother of Crown Prince Nicholas of Soura. The last thing he wanted was to listen to his brother try to lay a guilt trip on him. He’d more than done his duty for his brother. It was only right for Nicholas to get stuck with their father’s bad temper after all the trouble he’d been the last five months.
He punched in the code on the front door to Heli-Care’s headquarters. He was glad they hadn’t changed the code. He was even luckier that he still had a job.
“Sounds like a personal problem,” Alex said as he looked up at the clear sky overhead. The moon and stars were still putting on an early morning show for all the tourists who’d soon be heading home after their night of partying in downtown Key West.
It was so good to be back. He’d missed everything about the small island. Because while the palm trees reminded him of where he had grown up in California and the local beaches reminded him of the Mediterranean ones of his father’s small country, Key West was his home. Here he was just Dr. Alex, ER doc and medical chief of Heli-Care’s local medevac unit. He liked who he was able to be here.
“You stole out in the middle of the night like you were some common thief,” his brother said.
“And whose fault is that? Every time I mentioned heading home you suddenly had a supposed relapse. And don’t get me started on all the ways our father tried to keep me there.” He didn’t have time for this. He only had a few hours before jet lag brought him to a crashing halt. He’d been away for too long and he was ready to get back to work. It was his friend Dylan’s hard work covering for him that had helped him keep his job and he knew his crew had been in good hands. But Dylan now had a new wife and needed to get on with his own life. Just like Alex needed to get on with his.
Which was why he’d headed to Heli-Care’s base, instead of heading home, or at least that was what he was telling himself. It had absolutely nothing to do with the petite blond registered nurse who, according to the crew schedule, was on an overnight shift right now.
Summer. What was going on with her? With them? And how was he going to fix it?
“It’s that girl, isn’t it?” his brother said, as if he had just read Alex’s mind.
“Just because you bounce between one woman to another doesn’t mean that everyone is happy with that life.” Alex had never understood his brother’s insistence on playing the bad-boy crown prince when he could do so much more with his life.
“You could be if you’d let yourself. And I think she made it pretty clear that she has moved on even if you haven’t. How many times does a woman have to refuse your calls for you to get a hint?”
“Shouldn’t you be working on your rehab instead of worrying about my love life?” His brother was right, but Alex wasn’t ready to admit it. Not yet. Summer had cut all contact between them the moment he had left Key West. When she’d refused his calls and hadn’t returned any of his texts, he’d been surprised. Summer wasn’t someone who liked a lot of drama in her life. If she was angry, she told you. Her not returning his calls didn’t make sense. But he’d had to put aside all of that until his brother’s life was out of danger.
“I just hope she’s worth making our father angry. You have to know that he’s looking for a reason to out you.”
“What?” Alex’s hand froze on the door handle.
“He wants to acknowledge you as his son, Alex.” His brother’s voice gave no hint about how he personally felt about his father’s plan.
“Isn’t it a little late for that? I’ve played the game of hiding who I am too long to change my life now.” And he didn’t want to change. Living in Key West as a simple doctor was the life he had dreamed of. No cameras, no reporters, no paparazzi. No one wanting to highlight and criticize everything he did. It was the perfect life for him.
“Besides, we both know the scandal would be bad for all of us,” Alex said. If he could only get his brother on his side, maybe they could get his father to see reason.
“Maybe for our father and your mother. But for us? I’d say the benefits will balance out the burden of the media attention,” his brother said with his usual nonchalance.
“And what benefit would that be?” His father and brother had never understood his life. Bringing media attention into his life would have direct consequences for his job. How could he work out in the open if he constantly had to be worrying about the paparazzi showing up?
He stepped into the building and entered the multiuse room, where he’d spent many an hour with his crew watching movies and gaming. It was empty—not surprising at this time of the morning. The overnight crew would be catching some downtime before being dispatched to the next call, or the morning crew came in.
The thought of giving up this place, these people, was impossible to consider.
This was where he belonged. Not stashed in some palace with his only patient being a grouchy royal. He rubbed his temples as the aching in his head seemed to magnify with that thought. Leaving the palace when he had had been the right thing for him. He would have lost his mind if he’d stayed another day.
And his timing was perfect. He would have enough time to catch up on some emails before shift change. Then he could see his staff and let them know he was back.
And then there was Summer. He needed her to see that he had returned, just like he’d promised all those months ago. He could only hope that her seeing he had kept his promise to return would help make things right between them.
And if she wanted the details on why he had been gone so long? How would he answer her questions? He’d wanted to tell her about his other life for months before he’d left, but he’d always hesitated, afraid that it would change things between them.
“It’s time, Alex,” his brother said, startling him. The pounding in his head doubled.
“For what exactly?” He couldn’t keep the irritation out of his voice. All of this was his brother’s fault. The Crown Prince of Soura should have been taking care of his royal duties instead of chasing his latest daring thrill.
Which was why he had ended up in a critical-care unit with half of his ribs broken, a punctured lung and both his femurs fractured, and as a result, Alex had left Key West without any notice. His lack of explanation meant that Summer had cut all communication between the two of them.
Alex couldn’t blame his father for calling him and demanding that he come to his tiny Mediterranean kingdom of Soura immediately. His brother had needed him.
But so had Summer.
And he didn’t understand that. Not really. Summer had always been so independent and so understanding about his job and the crazy hours he worked. He couldn’t understand why she had reacted so differently that day. His father’s phone call had left no doubt of how urgent it was for him to get to his brother. He’d had no choice. Jeopardizing his job and running out on his crew was not something that he would have ever dreamed of doing. She’d known that. Just like she’d had to have known that he wouldn’t have left her if it hadn’t been urgent. If he’d only had more time to figure out what had been going on with her. But he’d panicked. He could see that now. After working in an emergency room and with a flight crew, he’d imagined the worst. And he’d been right to.
While the public knew that Nicholas had been involved in an accident, the king had left out the details. Only the medical staff and Alex’s father knew that it was touch and go right after the accident.
But that would all end soon. As soon as the crew got up, Summer would be able to see with her own eyes that he had returned just like he had promised her. Then he could explain everything to her, and they could get back to their normal lives together.
After months of living in a palace, he craved his normal life. He needed his normal life.
A dramatic sigh reminded him that his brother was still on the phone. It made Alex want to roll his eyes like a teenager as he made his way down the hall to his office. Both his brother and his father had a flair for drama. “You know the local media has been asking questions about our friendship for years,” Nicholas said. “And that little man from the local tabloid, the one that ran all the old headlines about your mother and my father—security caught him sneaking around the service entrance yesterday questioning the staff.”
Alex knew the man he was talking about. He’d tried to corner Alex more than once. But Soura and the journalist were far away now. No one would have followed him back to Key West.
“How’s the new nurse?” Alex asked. They’d both said everything there was to say on the subject of the king claiming him as his son. They would never agree.
And they didn’t need to. It was Alex’s life, something he had reminded his father and brother a thousand times in the last few months.
“The woman is a tyrant. Telling me what to eat. When to sleep,” Nicholas complained. “Did you really give her an order that I couldn’t stay up past midnight?”
“No. I told her you were to get plenty of sleep while you recuperated. I left the rest up to her.” Alex had known the moment he’d met the woman that she would be capable of keeping Nicholas in line with the regimen that was needed for his full recovery.
His phone went off with an alert. The crew was being activated.
“Tell the king that I will call soon and don’t give Ellie a hard time.” Alex could still hear his brother grumbling as he ended the call and took his seat behind his desk only a second before people began to emerge from the sleep rooms that opened into the hallway.
“Boss, you finally found your way home. It’s about time,” Casey, the first to see him, said, giving him a big smile and wave before he hurried off down the hall.
It was then that he saw her. Standing in the hallway, Summer went from half-asleep to fully awake in a nanosecond. Her eyes met his for only a second before she turned away from him. In that brief moment, he’d seen none of the pleasure he’d hoped for. Instead, there’d been nothing. Not even anger. He could deal with anger. They could talk their way through that. But nothing? He would rather she had yelled at him.
Of course, she was working. It wasn’t like she would want to get into things here at work. Especially before she went on a call.
He rubbed his aching head again. He needed sleep, but he needed to talk to Summer more. He turned on his computer and opened up his emails. He might as well get some work done while he waited for her to return.
She’d run. She’d run like a little kid caught with a hand in the cookie jar.
No. More like a scared, embarrassed teenager caught stealing a prom dress at the local department store. Her face heated with the memory.
“You know you’re going to have to talk to him at some point,” Casey said as they buckled into their seats as their pilot, Roy, started the helicopter rotors. Her queasy stomach did a small somersault as they rose into the air and headed for their small island hospital.
Choosing to ignore him, Summer opened the respiratory supply box. All the adult-size emergency equipment needed to be changed to pediatric size for the little girl they would be transporting to the children’s hospital in Miami. “Can you hand me a pediatric IV start kit?”
Casey pulled open the drawer holding the intravenous supplies. “You can’t put it off. It’s not like he’s not going to notice. He’s not blind. The two of you just need to talk it out.”
She wanted to tell the man that he was not one to give love advice, since he couldn’t see what was right in front of his own eyes. But that would mean betraying her friend Jo’s confidence and she wouldn’t do that, though it was a big temptation. She knew Casey wasn’t going to quit dogging her about Alex.
“ETA, two minutes,” Roy’s voice said over their headphones.
“I’m just saying, Alex will do the right thing,” Casey said, handing the supplies over to her.
The right thing? The right thing like her father had done by marrying her mother when he’d found out she was pregnant with her? Would he be doing “the right thing” like her father had done when he’d then left her mother when things got hard? She didn’t need anyone else to do the right thing for her. She’d learned at an early age that the only person she could count on was herself. She’d forgotten that for a short period of time while she’d been with Alex. She wouldn’t forget it again.
Her hand went protectively to her stomach. No, she wasn’t going to let history repeat itself with her. The only thing she needed was to finish this shift and get home before she had to confront Alex at the office. That wasn’t the place, and today, when she was worn out from working, wasn’t the time.
Casey was right. They would have to talk, but she knew she needed to prepare herself. Just that one look at Alex had made her want to forget the last five months. But that sounded just like something her mother would have done.
She had never been like her mother and she wouldn’t let herself become like her. Summer was responsible for more than just herself now. She would continue her relationship with Alex, but it would be with her in the lead. Alex could choose to follow or not. That was up to him.
Today, she had a job to do, and that job was what she needed to concentrate on, not the fact that Alex had finally returned.
Upon arrival, the trauma room they were directed to was buzzing with activity as nurses and the emergency doctor surrounded their patient. Casey moved to talk to the respiratory tech, who was standing by the ventilator that the small child had been attached to.
“What happened?” Summer asked the charge nurse, who was busy filling out the transport paperwork.
“It appears to have been a freak accident. The Fraziers...” The woman motioned to a corner, where a woman and man stood staring at the small, still body of the little girl lying on the oversize trauma stretcher. It was clear that the two of them were in shock. “The Fraziers,” she began again, “just arrived from Texas last night. They’re staying at a small bungalow with a loft, which is where Emma was sleeping. They think she was trying to get down the stairs and tripped on one of the steps. They called 911 as soon as it happened.”
“How bad is it?” Summer asked, having no doubt that the injury had to be more than a broken arm or leg, since Emma had been intubated and needed to be flown off the island.
“Head bleed, fractured skull with a subdural hematoma. Dr. Wade has spoken with a pediatric neurologist in Miami and it was suggested that we go ahead and intubate her before transport. You’ll be taking her to the emergency room before she heads to surgery.”
Summer saw that Casey and the staff were about to transfer the child to their own transport stretcher, so she thanked the nurse and moved over to the child’s parents.
“My name is Summer, and that,” she said, pointing to her blond coworker, “is Casey. We’ll be transporting Emma to the emergency room of the children’s hospital in Miami. The staff here will give you directions and provide the address. If you give me your number, I’ll call you as soon as we arrive and I’ll pass your number to the emergency-room staff. Do you have any questions for me?”
“I... W-we don’t...” the girl’s mother stammered. Her husband wrapped his arm around the woman, who had begun to shake.
“We’ll find our way,” he said, then pulled a business card out of his wallet, “but if you could please keep us informed?”
Summer nodded, took the card and then stuck it into one of the many pockets of her flight suit. A small hand grabbed her sleeve.
“Please—please take care of my baby,” Emma’s mother begged as her eyes filled with tears. “And if she wakes up, please tell her Mommy and Daddy love her.”
Summer stared into the heartbroken woman’s eyes. She couldn’t imagine a parent entrusting their child, their world, into the care of someone else. Summer covered the woman’s hand with her own and held it tight. “I promise, we’ll take the best of care of your daughter.”
Summer grabbed the back of the stretcher and followed Casey out of the emergency room, never taking her eyes off the little girl until she was loaded, and the doors were closed.
“Roy, let’s make this a fast one,” Summer told their pilot, though she knew he always made their trips to Miami as fast and safe as possible.
“Vital signs stable,” Casey said as he removed the Ambu bag he’d been using to help the little girl breathe and changed her to their portable in-flight ventilator. “Cute kid.”
Summer applied monitor pads and checked the little girl’s heart rhythm. “She’s still in a sinus rhythm.”
“The parents looked freaked out. I hope they make it to the hospital okay,” Casey said as he picked up the computer pad to record the events of the transfer.
“Emma’s father seems to have a cool head. He’ll get them there.” The man had impressed her as someone who would do whatever it took to take care of his family.
“It really sucks that something like this happened when they’re so far away from home, where they don’t know anyone.” Casey said.
“It does,” Summer agreed as she carefully brushed the little girl’s dark hair from her face. She’d spent most of her own life not having anyone she could depend on to help her when she needed someone. “I’ll see what we can do to help when I call them from the hospital.”
“That sounds like a good plan. I know some of the staff at the hospital will want to help, too. If you can find out the address where they were staying, I can work on getting their things packed up and sent to the hospital. They’re not going to leave the hospital long enough to drive back to Key West,” Casey said.
“I’ll check with them, but I’m sure you’re right,” Summer said. Casey might be an interfering busybody, but Summer had never met anyone more willing to help someone out when they were down.
“ETA, five minutes,” Roy called over the radio.
As Casey used the radio system to call his report into the Miami hospital, Summer checked all the monitors. Emma’s vital signs had remained stable throughout the transfer. It was a good sign.
As the helicopter started descending, Summer bent down to the little girl and whispered into her ear, “It’s going to be okay, Emma. You’re a very lucky girl who has a mommy and daddy that love you very much, and when you wake up, they’re going to be right there waiting for you. You just hang on.”
The sun was up by the time they made the return trip to the island and a fresh-looking crew met them at the door. Summer was glad to see that Alex’s office door was shut when she grabbed her bag from the sleep room.
She was too tired and confused to process all the emotions that Alex’s return had brought. Relief? Fear? Pain? Excitement?
No. It wasn’t excitement. It was just that she was anxious now that she knew she’d have to face him. She needed to rest and think about exactly what she wanted to do next. There was a time when she would have been happy just to empty out everything she was feeling on Alex. How angry she was. How much he had hurt her. Everything. But that was before. Now her life with Alex would always be divided into two parts. The old part of their life, before he’d left, and the new part of their life, when he had returned. Right now, she wasn’t up to dealing with either one. All she wanted to do was go home and climb into her bed.
And if she shed a few tears for that old part of their life, at least there wouldn’t be anyone there to see them. Just like there hadn’t been anyone to see them the day her worse nightmare had come true. How a day could take you from hope to despair so quickly, she had never understood.
She’d been so excited that morning. Scared, yes, but still excited. She’d known something was wrong for a few weeks. She’d had queasy mornings and her appetite had been off, but she’d blamed it on a stomach bug and gone on with her busy life. It wasn’t until she’d begun counting out weeks on her calendar that she’d realized it could be something a lot more serious. One home pregnancy test later and her life had changed.
She’d started to panic. Pregnancy had not been in her plans. Not yet. And Alex? They’d never discussed having children. Only the knowledge that she wouldn’t be alone, that Alex would be there with her, had helped calm her fears and bring her hope.
She’d rushed over to Alex’s house to tell him, wanting to share the news with him, praying that he would be just as excited as she was, only to find him packing to leave.
“I have to go. A friend needs me,” he’d said when she’d questioned him, trying to understand what was happening.
But she could still remember the way he’d pushed past her as he’d headed to his front door, still refusing to explain where or why he had to leave that very minute. Even when she’d known there was something wrong with his excuses, she’d tried to tell him her news. Their news. But he wouldn’t stop. He couldn’t even give her a moment of his time.
“It’s going to be okay. I’ll call once I get settled. You can tell me whatever it is then,” he’d said, brushing her off as a car horn honked in the driveway. He’d turned and walked away from her carrying a lone duffel bag, leaving her alone and confused.
Until that day she had thought the pain of her father walking away from her had been the worst moment of her life. She’d been wrong.
Alex watched as Summer’s car pulled from the parking lot. He’d stayed at the office so that he could see her, and she’d still managed to slip away.
“You know we’ll do everything here that we can do. We’re family here. This is our home. We have a great relationship with this community. I’m sure the county board will take that into consideration.” Over the phone, the voice of his boss droned on about the importance of Alex’s crew at Key West keeping their contract as the door to the office opened.
“I’ll send out an email to all the staff,” Alex said as he nodded to Casey to come in and take a seat. “Let me know if there is anything I can do to help from here. I’d be happy to meet with the board and answer any questions.”
Finally, the phone call ended. If the pain in Alex’s head got any worse, he was sure his skull would explode like a volcano erupting. He’d not made a dent in his emails before his phone rang with the call from his boss. This was really turning out to be some welcome-home party.
“What’s up?” Casey asked.
Alex pushed away from the desk, stood and walked over to where a picture of their crew, all dressed in their flight suits, hung. They were a great group of caring and hard-working professionals that helped save lives daily. And now they would have to depend on some corporate suits to negotiate to keep their jobs.
“I might as well tell you—I’ll be sending out an email today informing everyone that another company is vying for the county emergency-services contract, which will include emergency-helicopter services,” Alex said.
Alex’s eyes rested on the woman standing beside him in the picture. Standing just barely past his shoulders, her blue eyes sparkled, and her smile shone brightly as she’d posed with the crew for the picture. It hadn’t been long after it was taken that he had finally gotten up the nerve to ask her out. Never would he have imagined that things between the two of them could have become this broken.
He’d planned on talking to her the moment she had returned from Miami, but it seemed like phone calls were always coming between the two of them.
First, it had been the call he’d received from his father. Then there’d been those phone calls that Summer had refused to answer. And now, when he had finally made it home, he’d been stopped from speaking to her by another phone call.
“Do you know where Summer was rushing off to?” he asked, hoping maybe she’d said something to Casey concerning her plans.
“I’m pretty sure she was headed home. She worked extra this week and was tired,” Casey said. “Should we be worried about this contract business?”
Alex turned away from the picture. He needed to concentrate on his job, not his relationship with Summer. They’d work things out now that he was back.
“Heli-Care was the first medevac company here in the Florida Keys and we have a great relationship with the community, but the corporate office is taking it seriously. That’s their job. We just need to keep giving the best care possible. That’s our job.”
“And we do it well,” Casey said as he stood. “It’s a good thing you came back when you did.”
“She’s pretty mad, I guess?” Alex asked as they both stared at the picture.
“It’ll be okay. You both just need to talk,” Casey said as he moved toward the door. “I’ve got faith in you. Just be yourself. You’ll know what to do.”
Be himself? If only people knew how hard that was for him.
As soon as Casey exited, Alex pulled out his phone and called Summer. If he was lucky, he’d be able to catch her before she went to bed. When the call went to voice mail, he left the same message he’d left for the past five months. “Hey, Summer. Please call me back. We need to talk.”
He’d give her some time—she’d had a busy shift and she would need to recover—but eventually she would have to stop avoiding him. They would talk and it would be soon.
