don’t eat dinner with her, then?”
“No.”
Oh. Poor Zoe. “You say she was attending a preschool until two weeks ago?”
“Yes. The sessions went in two-hour segments, three times a week. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. But lately I haven’t insisted for the obvious reasons.”
“When does she play with friends?”
“You mean outside her school?”
“Yes. Does she have friends here at the palace?”
“No, but we normally live on Aurum where she has several.”
“I see. Thank you for giving me that information. Would it be all right with you if I test her out on your patio? I believe she’ll be more responsive in a place where she’s truly happy and at ease. If you’re there, too, it will make her more comfortable. But with your full schedule I don’t suppose that’s poss—”
“I’ll make time for it,” he declared, cutting her off.
No matter how she said things, she seemed to be in the wrong. It wasn’t her intention to push his buttons, but she was doing a good job of it anyway. “That would be ideal. It’s important I watch her interaction with you. Before you come, I’d like to set up out there with a few things I’ve brought.”
His brows lifted. “How much time do you need?”
“A few minutes.”
He nodded. “I’ll send a maid to escort you at eight. Zoe and I will join you at eight-twenty. Does that meet with your approval?”
Eight-twenty? Not eight-twenty-one? Stop it, Dottie. You’re in a different world now. “Only if it meets with yours, Your Highness.”
This close to him, she could see a tiny nerve throbbing at the corner of his compelling mouth. His lips had grown taut. “If I haven’t made it clear before, let me say this again. My daughter is my life. That makes her my top priority.” She believed him.
“I know,” Dottie murmured. “While I’m here, she’s mine, too.”
A long silence ensued before he stepped away. “I’ve instructed Hector to make certain you’re comfortable while you’re here. Your dinner can be served in the small guest dining room on the second floor, or he’ll have it brought to your room. Whatever you prefer. Anything you want or need, you have only to pick up the phone and ask him and he’ll see to it.”
“Thank you. He’s been so perfect, I can hardly believe he’s real.”
“My brother and I have been saying the same thing about him for years.” The first glimmer of an unexpected smile reached his black eyes. He did have his human moments. The proof of it set off waves of sensation through her body she hadn’t expected or wanted to feel.
“If you’ll eat your eggs, I have a surprise for you.” Zoe jerked her head around and eyed Alex in excitement. “I’m going to spend time with you this morning and thought we’d play out on my patio. That’s why I told Sofia to let you wear pants.”
She made a sound of delight and promptly took several bites. The queen sent him a private glance that said she hoped this testing session with the new speech therapist wasn’t going to be a waste of time. Alex hoped not, too. No one wanted constructive feedback more than he did.
After Zoe finished off her juice, she wiggled down from the chair and started to dart away. Alex called her back. “You must ask to be excused.”
She turned to her grandmother. “Can I go with daddy, Yiayia?”
The queen nodded. “Have a good time.”
Alex groaned in silence, remembering the way his daughter had flown out of his office yesterday after one look at Dottie.
Zoe slipped her hand into his and they left for his suite. She skipped along part of the way. When he saw how thrilled she was to be with him, he found himself even more put out with Stasio.
As soon as his brother got back from Vallader, Alex planned to take more time off to be with his daughter. While he’d had to be here at the palace doing his brother’s work plus his own, he’d hardly had a minute to spend time with her. Maybe they’d go on a mini vacation together.
The curtains to the patio had been opened. Zoe ran through the bedroom ahead of him, then suddenly stopped at the sight of the woman sitting on the patio tiles in jeans and a pale orange, short-sleeved cotton top.
“Hi, Zoe,” she spoke in English with a smile. Dottie had put on sneakers and her hair was loose in a kind of disheveled bob that revealed the light honey tones among the darker swaths. “Do you think your daddy can catch this?” She threw a Ping-Pong ball at him.
When he caught it with his right hand, Zoe cried out in surprise. He threw it back to Dottie who caught it in her left. Their first volley of the day. For no particular reason his pulse rate picked up at the thought of what else awaited him in her presence.
“Good catch. Come on, Daddy.” Her dancing blue gaze shot to his. “You and Zoe sit down and spread your legs apart like this and we’ll roll some balls to each other.” She pulled a larger multicolored plastic ball from a big bag and opened those long, fabulous legs of hers.
Alex could tell his daughter was so shocked by what was going on, she forgot to be scared and sat down to imitate Dottie once he’d complied. Dottie rolled the ball to Zoe, who rolled it back to her. Then it was his turn. They went in a round, drawing Zoe in. Pretty soon their guest pulled out a rubber ball and rolled it to his daughter right after she’d sent her the plastic ball.
Zoe laughed as she hurried to keep both balls going. His clever little girl used her right and left hand at the same time and sent one ball to Dottie and one to him. “Good thinking!” she praised her. “Shall we try three balls?”
“Yes,” his daughter said excitedly. Their guest produced the Ping-Pong ball and fired all three balls at both of them, one after the other, until Zoe was giggling hysterically.
“You’re so good at this, I think we’ll try something else. Shall we see who’s better at jumping?” She whipped out a jump rope with red handles and got to her feet. “Come on, Zoe. You take this end and I’ll hold on to the other. Your daddy’s going to jump first. You’ll have to make big circles like I’m doing or the rope will hit him in the head.”
“Oh, no—” Zoe cried.
“Don’t worry,” Dottie inserted. “Your daddy is a big boy. It won’t hurt him.”
So their visitor had noticed. Was that a negative in her eyes, too?
Zoe scrutinized him. “You’re a boy?”
“Yes. He’s a very big one,” Dottie answered for him and his daughter laughed. Soon Zoe was using all her powers of concentration to turn the rope correctly and was doing an amazing job of it. After four times to get it right he heard, “You can jump in anytime now, Daddy.”
Alex crouched down and managed to do two jumps
