Page 37 of Redemption of a Prince

“That’s as it should be. Once the weather clears up, if there was a dire need, a helicopter could come get us, but I can’t see why we’d need that.”

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line. “They have a match,” his father said quietly. “One of the palace employees.”

“That’s good news, right?” Was there more to the story than his father was sharing? Was he in worse shape than he’d let on?

“It is. It’s still scary, though. And I’ll be unable to serve for at least several hours. The surgery is expected to last about three hours, plus however long I’m under the effects of anesthesia.”

“Do I need to be home? I know the answer should the worst happen, but no one else does.”

“Not yet. I’ll be on light duty for a while though. I’ll need you here for that.”

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else,” Zeke told his father honestly. They’d been fairly close up until he’d told his father that Nikki was pregnant and all of the implications settled in. Then his father’s attention had been more on Gideon. “I want to be home for the surgery, too.”

“We’ll see how it goes. Right now, there’s no reason to rush you home, or really a way to as long as the weather continues.”

“True. But I won’t stay here longer than I have to if you have a donor.” He paused as an idea occurred to him. “I wonder if I could take a snow machine to the resort, going the back way, and get home from there.”

“Unlikely. Not if there are that many trees down that we can see. I don’t want you heading out only to get stopped and not make it back for some reason.”

His father had a good point, but Zeke didn’t like it much.

“I won’t go,” he promised.

Zeke looked up at a noise. Nikki walked out of the hallway wearing black leggings and a long flannel shirt that hung to her mid-thighs. Her hair was still mussed, and she stifled a yawn as she walked toward him, still weaving a bit as she tried to wake up.

“Nikki just came out,” he told his father. “I’m going to catch her up. Please let me know if something changes.”

“I will.” His father hesitated again. “Zeekie, I haven’t said much about your love life, or lack of one, in a very long time. But I will say one thing. Nicolette is an amazing young woman. You saw something in her once. Are you sure that something isn’t still there?”

Before Zeke could answer, his father hung up.

His father hadn’t called him Zeekie since he was a little tyke, except in jest a time or two.

His father thought Nikki could still be a potential love interest? Even after giving birth to Zeke’s child as a teenager?

The night before, there had been a moment between them. When she looked up at him as she went into her room, Zeke had wondered what it would be like to kiss her again.

To mean it in a way he hadn’t understood as a teenager.

But he’d brushed it off as impossible.

Given his father’s question a moment earlier, maybe it wasn’t as crazy as it sounded. The king’s blessing would go a long way to overcoming any objections anyone else might have.

Maybe it was time to find out.

* * *

Uncertain about what tomake of the look on Ezekiel’s face, Nikki took a mental inventory of herself.

She certainly wasn’t ready to appear at court - did they even do that anymore? - but she should be semi-presentable.

“What?” she finally asked when he set his phone down.

“Nothing.” He gave a slight shake of his head, which also served to change his expression a bit. “You look adorable first thing in the morning.”

What wasthatsupposed to mean? “Thanks? I think.”

“We’re stuck here for a few days. Limbs and trees are down all over the place. The road to town is blocked in a number of places. A helicopter can’t get in with the ice still coming down.” He motioned to the lounge across from him.

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