The Doctor Takes a Princess / Pregnant with the Prince's Child: The Doctor Takes a Princess / Pregnant with the Prince's Child

Sure enough, the first cry sounded. She raced upstairs and opened the door. Travis was sitting up in his crib wearing a frowny face.

“Hello, sweet boy,” she whispered.

He paused mid-wail and stared at her wide-eyed.

“Hi,” she whispered and smiled.

Travis smiled and lifted his fingers to his mouth.

Bridget changed his diaper. Seconds later, Tyler awakened and began to babble. Tyler was the happier baby. He was a bit more fearful, but when he woke up, he didn’t start crying immediately.

Bridget wound Travis’s mobile and turned her attention to Tyler. She took each baby downstairs ready to put them in their high chairs. Snacks, bottles, books, Baby Einstein and finally Ryder arrived carrying a bottle of wine.

“How’s everybody?” he asked, his gaze skimming over her and the boys, then back to her. “Did they wear you out?”

“Not too much yet,” she said. “It helps to have a plan.”

He nodded. “With alternatives. I ordered Italian, not pizza. It should be delivered soon.”

“Thank you,” she said.

“I’m hoping to lure you into staying the night,” he said.

“Ha, ha,” she said. “The trouble with luring me after an afternoon with the twins is that I’ll be comatose by nine o’clock at the latest. I talked to your part-time sitter and she told me Suzanne will be out for a few more days. Is that true?”

He nodded. “She had laparoscopic surgery, so her recovery should be much easier than if she’d had an open appendectomy.”

“Then I think the next step is to get a list of your backup sitters and inform them of the situation and make a schedule for the children’s care. So if you don’t mind giving me your names and contact information, I can try to get it straight tomorrow.”

He blinked at her in amazement. “You’re deceptively incredible,” he said. “You give this impression of being lighthearted and maybe a little superficial. Then you turn around and volunteer to take care of my boys, recruit doctors for your country and make countless appearances.”

“Oooh, I like that. Deceptively incredible,” she said, a bit embarrassed by his flattery. “Many of us are underestimated. It can be a hindrance and a benefit. I try to find the benefit.”

Ryder leaned toward her, studying her face. “Have you always been underestimated?”

She considered his question for a moment, then nodded. “I think so. I’m number four out of six and female, so I think I got lost in the mix. I’m not sure my father ever really knew my name, and my mother was beginning to realize that her marriage to my father was not going to be a fairy tale.”

“Why not?”

“You must swear to never repeat this,” she said.

“I swear, although I’m not sure anyone I know would be interested,” he said.

“True enough,” she said. “My father was a total philanderer. Heaven knows, my mother tried. I mean, six children? She was a true soldier, though, and gave him two sons. Bless her.”

“So what do you want for yourself?” he asked. “You don’t want the kind of marriage your parents had.”

“Who would?” she said and took a deep breath. “I haven’t thought a lot about it. Whenever Stefan has brought up the idea of my marrying someone, I just start laughing and don’t stop. Infuriates the blazes out of him,” she said, and smiled.

“You didn’t answer my question,” he said.

His eyes felt as if they bored a hole through her brain, and Bridget realized one of the reasons she was drawn to Ryder was because she couldn’t fool him. It was both a source of frustration and relief.

“I’m still figuring it out. For a long time, I’ve enjoyed the notion of being the eccentric princess who lives in Italy most of the year and always has an Italian boyfriend as her escort.”

“Italian boyfriend,” he echoed, clearly not pleased.

“You have to agree, it’s the antithesis of my current life.”

“And I suspect this life wouldn’t include children,” he continued with a frown.

Feeling defensive, she bit her lip. “Admit it. The life you’d planned didn’t include children … at least for a long while, did it?”

He hesitated.

“Be honest. I was,” she said.

“No,” he finally admitted. “But not because I was in Italy with an Italian girlfriend.”

“No, you were planning to do something more important. A career in medicine. Perfectly noble and worthy, but it would be hard to make a child a priority when you have the kind of passion you do for your career. A child would be … inconvenient.”