known anything like it until she’d come to the palace ten days ago. After a delicious lunch, it was sheer bliss to lie in the sun on the lounger around the palace pool enjoying an icy fruit drink.
Zoe’s morning lesson with her daddy had gone well. Her B and G sounds were coming along, but she struggled with the W. It might be one of the last sounds she mastered on her long journey to intelligible speech.
Dottie was glad to have the pool to herself. While they were changing into their swimsuits, she was trying to get a grip on her emotions. She’d been doing a lot of thinking, and Alex had been right about one thing. If she’d been the one killed and Cory had been left with his speech problem, then she would have wanted Neil to stop at nothing to find the right person to help their son. At the moment, Dottie was the right person for Zoe.
Deep in her own thoughts, she heard a tremendous splash followed by Zoe’s shriek of laughter. Dottie turned her head in time to see Zoe running around the rim of the pool in her red bathing suit, shouting with glee. She was following a giant black whale maybe five feet long skimming the top of the water with a human torpedo propelling it.
Suddenly Alex’s dark head emerged, splashing more water everywhere. Zoe got soaked and came flying toward Dottie, who grabbed her own towel and wiped off her shoulders. “You need some sunscreen. Stand still and I’ll put it on you.” Zoe did her bidding. “I didn’t know a whale lived in your pool.”
The child giggled. “Come with me.” She tugged on Dottie’s arm.
“I think I’d rather stay here and watch.”
Alex stared at Dottie with a look she couldn’t decipher, but didn’t say anything. By now Zoe had joined him and was riding on top of the whale while he helped her hold on. The darling little girl was so happy, she seemed to burst with it.
Dottie threw her beach wrap around her to cover her emerald-colored bikini and got up from the lounger. She walked over to the side of the pool and sat down to dangle her legs in the water while she watched their antics.
All of a sudden it occurred to her she was having real fun for the first time in years. This was different than watching from the sidelines of other people’s lives. Because of Alex she was an actual participant and was feeling a part of life again. The overpowering sense of oneness with him shook her to the core. So did the desire she felt being near him. That’s why she didn’t dare get in the water. Her need to touch him was overcoming her good sense.
“I think we need to name Zoe’s whale,” he called to her.
Dottie nodded. “Preferably a two syllable word starting with W.”
Both she and Alex suggested a lot of names, laughing into each other’s eyes at some of their absurd suggestions. Zoe clapped her hands the minute she heard her daddy say Wally. Though it wasn’t a name that started with Wh like whale, it was the name his daughter wanted. When Zoe pronounced it, the sound came out like Oye-ee.
Dottie was secretly impressed when he came up with the idea of Zoe pretending she was a grouper fish. Evidently his daughter knew what one looked like and she formed her mouth in an O shape, opening and closing it. After a half hour of playing and practice, the wa was starting to make an appearance.
“Well done, Your Highness.” Dottie smiled at him. “She wouldn’t have made that sound this fast without your help.”
He reciprocated with a slow, lazy smile, making jelly of her insides. The afternoon was exhilarating for Dottie, a divine moment out of time. Anyone watching would think they were a happy family. Before she knew it, dinner was served beneath the umbrella of the table on the sun deck. Zoe displayed a healthy appetite, pleasing her father and Dottie.
Toward the end of their meal he said, “Attention, everyone. I have an announcement to make.” He looked at Zoe. “Guess who came home today?”
She stopped drinking her juice. “Uncle Stasi?”
“Yes. Your one and only favorite uncle.”
“Goody!” she blurted. “He’s funny.”
“I’ve missed him, too. Tonight there’s going to be a party to welcome him back. I’m going to take you two ladies with me.”
Zoe squealed in delight.
“After we finish dinner, I want you to go upstairs and get ready. Put on your prettiest dresses, because there’s going to be dancing. When it’s time, I’ll come by for you.”
Dancing?
Adrenalin surged through Dottie’s body at the thought of getting that close to him. Heat poured off her, but she couldn’t attribute all of it to the sun. She suspected his announcement had caused a spike in her temperature.
Her mind went through a mental search of her wardrobe. The only thing possibly presentable for such an affair was her simple black dress with her black high heels.
“Will it be a large party, Your Highness?”
He darted her a curious glance. “Thirty or so guests, mostly family friends. If you’re both finished with dinner, let’s go upstairs.”
After gathering their things, Dottie said she’d see them later and she hurried back to her bedroom for a long shower and shampoo. She blowdried her hair and left it loose with a side part, then put on her black dress with the cap sleeves and round neck.
While she was applying her coral-frost lipstick, she thought she heard a noise in the other room. When she went to investigate, she saw Zoe looking like a vision in a long white dress with ruffles and a big yellow sash. But her face was awash in tears. She came running to her.
Without conscious thought, Dottie knelt down and drew her into her arms. It was the first hug she’d given her, but she could no longer hold back. Zoe clung to her while she wept, exactly the way Cory had done so many hundreds of times when he’d needed comfort.
“What’s wrong, darling?”
“Daddy’s going to get married.”
Dottie was trying to understand. “Don’t you mean your uncle?”
“No—I heard Yiayia tell Sofia. My daddy’s going to marry Princess Genevieve. But I want you to be my new mommy. When I kissed Yiayia good-night, she told me Princess Genevieve will be at the party and I had to be good.”
A stabbing pain attacked Dottie until she could hardly breathe. “I see. Zoe, this is something you need to talk to your daddy about, but not until you go to bed. Does he know you’re here with me?”
“No.”
Dottie stood up. “I need to phone Hector so he can tell your daddy you ran to my room.”
When that was done, she took Zoe in the bathroom. After wetting a washcloth, she wiped the tears off her face. “There. Now we’re ready. When we get to the party, I want you to smile and keep smiling. Can you do that for me?”
After a slight hesitation, Zoe nodded.
Dottie clasped her hand and walked her back in the other room. “Have I told you how pretty you look in your new dress?”
