Thanksgiving together as a couple. Ed and Verity were flying in and they would all spend the day with Carol, her husband, Mathias, baby Devon, and Ed’s brother Ted. Dinner would be at Carol and Mathias’s house, with Koda getting a special invitation to join them.
For once, there were no Thanksgiving weekend weddings, so he and Renee would have several days together. They wanted to trade in her car for something with all-wheel drive, then spend the rest of the time together, just the two of them. Well, the five of them, if he counted the pets.
He had a special dinner planned for the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Not just the meal and the bottle of champagne he’d put aside, but also the ring he planned to give her when he asked her to marry him.
“You sure I can’t help?” he asked.
She smiled at him as she carefully put folded sweaters on a shelf. “With my heart and my life, but not with my clothes.”
He grinned. “Just asking.”
“I appreciate that, but I’m good.” She pointed to the door. “Go write. I know you’re dying to get back to your new serial killer.” She grinned. “Pun intended.”
He crossed to her and kissed her. “I’m setting my timer for two hours. I want to spend the evening with you.” And the night and tomorrow and all the tomorrows, but he didn’t say that.
“I will start dinner at six and be waiting breathlessly for your return.”
He and Koda started for the office. Fred and Lucille raced past, playing some chase game only they understood. He walked through the kitchen, where Renee’s purse sat on the counter and her shoes in the middle of the floor. She had a messy streak he wouldn’t have guessed.
Everything was different, he thought happily. Everything had changed and very much for the better. He was one lucky guy and later, he was going to be the guy who got the girl. It was his own happy ending—and it was the best one yet.
* * *
A Very Merry Princess
Celebrate the season with this warmhearted charmer from #1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery
When Princess Bethany’s father, the king, sells one of his best stallions, she insists the animal get the royal treatment. Disguised as Beth Smith, a mere stable hand, she takes him to Happily Inc, California, a quaint wedding destination that’s especially sparkly over the holidays.
Rich women have no place on Cade Saunders’s ranch. He wants a down-to-earth girl-next-door type—like Beth Smith. After a few cocoa-flavored kisses by the Christmas tree, Bethany begins to fall for her irresistibly handsome host. But will Cade still want her when he discovers she’s more familiar with a crown than a cowboy hat?
Enjoy A Very Merry Princess!
To Hazel, who kept asking for Bethany’s story. At long last!
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ONE
DE-PRINCESSING ONE’S LIFE wasn’t the easiest thing in the world. There were the obvious items to leave home—tiaras, scepters, ladies-in-waiting. But there were also actual problems. For Bethany Archer, otherwise known as Princess Bethany of El Bahar, the complications included her passport. As in, which one to take on her trip.
She had her American passport by virtue of being born in California and spending the first nine years of her life there. But once she and her mom had moved to El Bahar and her mother married Crown Prince Malik, who two years ago had become the king, Bethany had become an honest-to-goodness princess, with an El Baharian passport. One that under Occupation actually said Princess.
She looked at the two official booklets on her bed, then groaned and shoved both in her backpack. She would enter and exit the United States with her American passport, but have the El Baharian one with her just in case. Because where she went, complications followed.
If only her mother had fallen in love with an ordinary man. Someone as wonderful and loving as King Malik, but less...royal. Not that Bethany hated living at the famed El Baharian pink palace. Or working in the royal stables, or being with her three younger brothers, or her mother, Queen Liana. As for her adoptive father, the king, Bethany had loved him from their very first meeting when she’d been nine years old. But the monarchy thing really, really sucked.
Bethany’s late biological father had raced cars for a living. Looking back, she had no idea how her parents had ever thought they could make their marriage work. After their divorce,