neighbors to teach you how to care for Owen.”
Lucy peered at Madelyn. “Seth’s neighbors?”
“The way I see this, you can’t let Seth know you can’t care for this baby or he’s going to get a nanny and then you probably won’t get the experience you’ll need to convince your dad you can care for Owen alone.”
Lucy nodded.
“But I can’t come here every day and help you. Seth would get suspicious.”
Lucy nodded again.
“But, every day while Seth is at Bryant Development, one of my mother’s friends could drop by under the guise of meeting the newest member of Seth’s family. And while she was here, she could give you baby lessons.”
Lucy pressed her hand to her chest. “It sounds perfect.”
“It’s close to perfect, but there is one potential glitch. To get the time you’ll need, you can’t have too much interaction with Seth or you’ll come to terms on visitation too quickly and the next thing you know you’ll be going home when you’re not ready.”
Lucy took a quick breath. “I can handle Seth.”
She’d stayed away for eight long months and she could most certainly keep her distance for a few days.
The second the kitchen door swung closed behind Madelyn and Lucy, Seth faced his older brother. “We have got to get a nanny. I don’t know a thing about caring for a baby.”
Ty shrugged. “I’ll send over my list.”
Seth shook his head. “It is not going to be that easy. Did you see the look on Lucy’s face when she said she didn’t want someone helping her care for Owen? She’ll fight tooth and nail before she’ll let me get a nanny, but I need a nanny if I’m going to get custody.”
“Custody? You’re going to try to wrestle custody from a king?”
“Not from a king. From Lucy. When I called Pete last night before I went to the hospital, I only wanted visitation. But this morning I called him again and told him I want out-and-out custody and he told me that meant I had to change the way I was looking at this. We can’t go at this from the perspective of Bryant Development against the monarchy. It’s just me and Lucy deciding what’s best for our son.”
“I don’t know, Seth…” Ty paused when there was a knock at Seth’s back door. “That’s probably Madelyn’s parents,” he said, grinning and shaking his head.
But when Seth pulled open the door, Pete Hauser stood on the threshold. Carrying about twenty extra pounds and going bald, Pete looked much older than his forty years.
“You have something already?” Seth asked, directing him into the kitchen.
“Not a precedent that gets you custody of your son,” Pete said. “But I had two legal assistants from the firm’s main office in Little Rock go online. They found virtually nothing on your princess or her country.”
“It’s a small island. I’m not surprised they found nothing—”
“I said virtually nothing.” He handed Seth some papers. “This is a printout of the interview with Princess Lucy of Xavier Island from Sophistication magazine’s Royal Issue. Did you know she didn’t like growing up as a princess?”
“No,” Seth said, slowly, embarrassed to admit in front of his older brother that he didn’t know much about his ex-wife.
“Read the article. She talks about being raised by nannies and missing things like close girlfriends because she was educated at the palace. She laughs about never getting sent to the principal’s office or having a chance to be a ‘bad girl,’ but if you read between the lines what she’s saying is that her childhood was hard. Maybe too hard. She may not want her son to live that life, and while she’s here you might be able to prove to her that with a ‘commoner’ for a father, Owen doesn’t have to.”
Seth glanced up sharply. “You think that if I play my cards right, she’ll give me custody?”
“Not forever, but maybe until Owen is fourteen or so. Her childhood was what she missed. She didn’t mind being royal once she got old enough to have a sense of responsibility.”
Seth snorted. “Oh, she has a sense of responsibilities, all right. King Dad snapped his fingers and she went running home.”
“That works in your favor, Seth,” Pete insisted. “She knows how committed Owen will have to be when he gets old enough to assume his royal duties. So you need to show her that you could give Owen the normal life she didn’t have in the only space of time in which he can have it. While he’s a child.”
Seth glanced over at Ty. “What do you think?”
“He may never join the family business, but at least we’ll keep him out of purple tights and a fur-trimmed velvet robe until he’s fourteen.”
Seth laughed, but Pete said, “And when he’s fourteen, we don’t have to give him up easily. We can still file for custody. The trick will be getting the time right now to convince the princess that Porter, Arkansas, is the best place for Owen to have a real childhood. And that means you can’t settle your visitation discussions until you’ve proved to Lucy that you will raise Owen in an absolutely normal environment.”
Seth snickered. “Right. I wouldn’t know a normal environment if it bit me in the butt. Once our parents died, Ty, Cooper and I lost our normal environment.”
Ty shrugged. “Compared to Lucy’s life, yours is normal.”
Pete said, “Ty’s right, Seth. Compared to her life, yours isn’t that odd. You might have money, and your house might be big, but it’s still in a quiet, safe small town where Princess Lucy’s son probably wouldn’t need a bodyguard.”
“She hates her bodyguards.”
“Exactly! So while she’s living here, all you have to do is show her Owen would have a very normal life if he lived with you.” He nodded toward the article in Seth’s hands. “And whatever you do, don’t even breathe the word nanny…”
“He already did,” Ty said, “and she shot him down.”
“Let the idea stay down, Seth. She talks in the article about not knowing her mother because she was raised by nannies, and I think that’s your key. She does not want this kid raised by a nanny. So you have to learn how to change a diaper, take your turn getting up with Owen at night, feed him when he cries. And when you’re not doing those things, make dinner, keep the house clean and do laundry.”
Seth’s eyes widened. “I have a maid…”
“Give her a paid leave.” Pete turned to the kitchen door. “Your assignment for the next few weeks is to pretend you are just an average guy in an average town, who will raise his son in an average home so he can be an average boy.”
“Great,” Seth said sarcastically. “Should be a piece of cake.”
Chapter
