Page 24 of Royally Knocked Up (Princes of Passion #1)

ONE YEAR LATER: HAILEY

“ H ow was the interview?” Hailey asked, keeping her voice low as a signal to Enzo that he ought to keep his own voice down.

He picked up the implication. Their nonverbal communication had become better than ever since the birth of their son.

Having Marco had brought them closer together, though Hailey wouldn’t have believed anything could do that — she had thought they were already as close as could be.

But these days, it was as if they shared a single mind.

Enzo sat down at the table, and Hailey put a plate of meats and cheeses in front of him.

She never would have seen herself as someone likely to get dinner on the table for her man, but she had to admit, there was pleasure in these little moments.

Of course, it helped that she was still able to work as well.

She had taken over as Enzo’s public relations manager, a role he was only too happy to see her in, since it meant that he had to submit to her opinion on what he should be doing with himself in front of the rest of Monteverde instead of trusting to his father’s judgment on that question.

It had been Hailey who had arranged the interview with the men’s fashion magazine today.

“I know you think it’s a waste of time,” she’d told Enzo.

“The truth is, it is a silly way to have to endear yourself to the people. But it’s also true that they’ll be more gracious to someone they consider handsome and fashionable — which you are, by the way.

So next month, when you give your foreign policy interview, everyone will go into it remembering how much they liked you in this interview, and even if they don’t agree with the things you have to say, they’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. ”

And Enzo had agreed. He had dressed in the clothes she had picked out for him and had gone to the interview, which Hailey knew had really been more of a photo shoot. There would be a multi-page spread of him in the clothes that had been chosen, giving his charming smile to the camera.

She couldn’t wait to buy several copies of that issue, even though she had the man himself in her arms.

“They wanted a picture of me with my jacket open and no shirt underneath,” Enzo said.

Hailey laughed. “Like you didn’t enjoy that.”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to make you jealous!” he said. “Every woman in Monteverde is going to be looking at my bare chest now.”

“Oh, I’d say a lot of women outside the country will be too,” Hailey said.

“You’re pretty well known, you know. Even in America.

There are lots of little girls who dream that they might find themselves in my shoes someday — dating a prince.

I mean, every little girl dreams about that at some point in her life, but our story has made all those little girls see that it’s actually a possibility. ”

Enzo laughed. “What if Marco someday marries an American girl?”

“Then we’d support him, of course,” Hailey said. “He’d be in luck because his mother is American, so he won’t have to fight against bias the way you did. If he falls for someone who isn’t from Monteverde, we’ll be ready to accept her.”

“I am always going to be the family black sheep,” Enzo said, laughing.

“Your father loves me now.”

“Yeah, he thinks you hung the moon,” Enzo agreed. “Although Marco might have something to do with that. No one can help falling in love with that kid once they see him. How long has he been down?”

“He should be up any minute,” Hailey said. “You can go get him if you want to — we should probably hit the road pretty soon if we want to get up there before dark. Does Isla know we’re coming?”

“Of course she knows. The whole resort is shut down for the next week,” Enzo said. “You and I — and Marco, of course — are going to have the place to ourselves. It’s going to be the best anniversary trip ever.”

“How many anniversary trips have you been on?”

“This will be my first,” Enzo grinned. Hailey knew that perfectly well, of course — it was her first-ever anniversary trip as well.

But he was right that it was going to be epic.

A whole week up at La Fantasia, enjoying the beauty of the resort where they’d first fallen in love — and this time, there would be no need to hide their passion for one another.

This time they would be able to fully enjoy it.

“Are your bags packed?” Hailey asked Enzo.

“You told me to pack last night,” he reminded her.

“I know what I said. I’m asking you if you did it.”

“Oh, please. Would I not do it?”

“You absolutely would, in hopes that I would handle it for you while you were at the interview. Which I did not do, by the way, so if you haven’t packed, we are just going to have to leave later than we wanted to.”

“I packed,” he told her with a smile. “And I packed some of Marco’s things too.”

“I did see that.” She had finished packing Marco’s bags earlier that day while he had bounced in his rocker, and she had been pleased to see that the job had already been started. “Thank you for that.”

“Of course.” He smiled. “Always glad to be part of things. You know, one thing I’ll say for my father is that he was very involved in raising us.

We had staff who helped, and my mother did the lion’s share of the work, but my father was always present, and it didn’t come out of nowhere for me when he expressed concern over the way I was living as I grew older.

I might not have agreed with his opinions, but I never really questioned his right to have them.

I wouldn’t want Marco to feel that way toward us, either. ”

“I don’t think we need to worry about that,” Hailey said with a smile. “I wouldn’t have settled for less than involved parenting, but you’ve never left anything to be desired.”

She moved into his embrace and kissed him.

He grinned down at her. “I hope I haven’t left anything to be desired on this front either,” he murmured, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.

“You haven’t disappointed,” she said softly, beaming up at him. “But that doesn’t mean there isn’t more to be desired. I think that, when it comes to you, Enzo, I will always desire more.”

He kissed her again, and for a moment, Hailey lost track of time altogether.

The trip to La Fantasia was without incident.

Enzo had offered to have Romano drive them up to the resort, but Hailey had declined.

“I love driving around Monteverde,” she’d said.

“I still haven’t gotten used to the beauty of this place.

The mountains, the seaside… Someday I’d like to plan a whole road trip around the country and see as much of it as we can.

Maybe when Marco is a little bit older.”

Enzo smiled. “That sounds great to me.”

They handed off the car to the valet when they arrived and went inside. Isla was waiting to greet them. “The chef has prepared dinner for the two of you,” she said. “And we’ve got the childcare team in place for the baby. It’s so good to meet him!”

“We won’t leave him in your hands too often,” Hailey said. “We still want to spend as much time as possible with Marco, because he’s so new to us too. But I think we’ll take tonight to ourselves — right, Enzo?”

“Definitely,” Enzo agreed, giving her a roguish wink that left her in no doubt as to what he had in mind for her for the rest of the evening.

But first there was dinner to be had — steak with mushrooms and a creamy sauce, flash-fried spinach with cheese, asparagus, potatoes, and a lava cake for dessert.

Determined to enjoy everything as much as possible, Hailey took her time eating, allowing herself plenty of space between bites.

As a consequence, they’d been sitting at the table for about three hours by the time the last of the plates were cleared away.

Enzo let out a sigh. “I’m not sure I have the energy for much else tonight, after all that!”

“Bet you do,” Hailey teased him.

He grinned. “Want to take a walk?” he asked. “Let dinner settle a little bit, see the stars?”

“That sounds great,” she agreed.

They went out through the door that led from the lobby out to the grounds.

Enzo wrapped an arm around her waist, and Hailey leaned into him.

It was just chilly enough outside to make it more comfortable for them to stay close and absorb one another’s body heat, without being actually cold, and Hailey appreciated that fact.

She breathed in the crisp night air and gazed up at the stars, so much brighter here than they were in Luria.

“Hailey?” Enzo said.

“Hmm?”

“There’s a reason I wanted to bring you out here.”

“I know. Our anniversary.”

“Something more.” He cleared his throat and stepped away from her, and Hailey realized to her surprise that he looked a little nervous.

“Are you all right?” she asked him.

“I’m all right,” he said.

“You look unwell.”

“No. I’m fine. I’m good. Let me say what I need to say.”

She nodded and stood back to let him get the words out.

He took a deep breath. “Hailey, the thing is… it took me a while to really understand what I wanted our life to look like,” he said.

“I think that’s because neither one of us planned for this.

Neither one of us saw it coming. And everyone else in my life, when they’ve found themselves in this position, they’ve done a lot of planning to get there.

There’s always been a goal, always an intention.

It wasn’t like that for you and me. We didn’t mean this to happen.

But it was bigger than we were. We got caught up in it, like a wave.

You were a wave — my love for you was a wave — and I got rolled by it. ”

She ached to reach out to him. Where was he going with this? She only knew that he seemed to feel uncomfortable.

Then he looked up at her, and she saw that his eyes were shining.

“Hailey,” he said softly. “It took me a long time. Longer than it should have, I think. But I know what I want now. I know what I want for us. I want you to be my wife.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box. Hailey knew what would be inside before he opened it and revealed the ring, but she still let out a gasp.

He dropped to one knee. “Hailey Jones — will you marry me?”

“Of course.” The words spilled out effortlessly. She hadn’t seen this coming, but it didn’t require so much as a moment’s thought. “Enzo, of course.”

He took her hand and slipped the ring onto her finger. The weight of it was unfamiliar, and yet it felt as though it belonged — as if it was a part of her hand that had always been missing.

He rose to his feet and pulled her close.

“You knew I’d say yes,” she murmured.

“I hoped,” he said softly.

“I could never have said anything else.”

She kissed him, and it felt as if the two of them were the only people under the massive starry sky.

The End

I hope you’ve enjoyed Enzo and Hailey’s story!