What a Man's Gotta Do by Karen Templeton

muzzle in her lap. “I know it seems a bit precipitous, but Alek’s quite keen to introduce Luanne to Steven and your parents. I think he hopes it will relieve her mind somewhat about marrying into a royal family.”
    â€œIf it doesn’t frighten her off completely,” Mala said wryly.
    But then, the circumstances surrounding the reunion of Sophie’s older brother, Prince Aleksander Vlastos, and the Texan born-and-bred Luanne Evans Henderson was the stuff of soap operas, involving a secret baby and a marriage-of-convenience gone wrong, a tragic race-car crash that had taken Luanne’s husband’s life, a love denied for more than a decade. Due to the delicacy of the situation, Mala knew the couple weren’t planning on a wedding for some time. But just a few weeks ago they’d agreed, for both their son’s sake and the simple fact that they couldn’t stand the thought of being separated a minute longer, to live under the same palace roof with Sophie’s and Alek’s octogenerian grandmother and Carpathia’s reigning monarch, Princess Ivana.
    Next to all that, Mala’s family seemed excrutiatingly dull.
    Then Mala caught Sophie’s concerned frown. “But what about you?”
    Mala started. “What about me?”
    â€œYou look ready to drop.”
    A shrug hiked up her armor another inch or two. “Just been busy, that’s all. Got a new client this week. Owns a ballroom dance studio in Ann Arbor. Man’s been keeping his books by hand, which means transcribing everything to the computer. Which wouldn’t be so bad except the turkey couldn’t see the sense in dealing with ‘those pesky pennies’ as he put it, so he’s been rounding off all his figures.”
    The princess’s brows dipped, even though a smile twitched around her wide mouth. “Oh, dear.”
    â€œOh, hell, is more like it,” Mala said, and Sophie laughed. A tiny, dark-haired girl wandered into the kitchen, a much-loved baby quilt in tow, and crawled up on Sophie’s lap. “Fortunately—or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it,” Mala continued, “he’s also a pack rat, which means he’s kept every single piece of paper the studio’s generated for the past ten years. So I now have to reconstruct everything from scratch. Plus handle all my other accounts—”
    â€œThere you are, you little stinker.” Mala looked up as her brother Steve popped through the door, his short, pale blond hair gleaming in the overhead light. He bent down and scoopedthe little girl into his enormous arms, but not before planting a kiss on his new wife’s forehead.
    Sophie rewarded Steve with a new-love look that only further rocked Mala’s tenuous composure. “I was just working up to putting her to bed—”
    â€œForget it. You’ve been on your feet all day. By the way, Mal, your two are begging to stay over. We thought we’d take the little ones into Detroit to go see Santa tomorrow. You okay with that?”
    She snatched at a breath, then smiled. “Please. Twist my arm.”
    Her brother laughed, and it warmed Mala’s heart to see how genuinely happy he was. So much had happened to him within the past year—becoming guardian to the five children after their parents’ deaths, a princess hiding out from her royal duties by becoming his temporary housekeeper…their marriage. They were perfect for each other, despite the differences in their backgrounds. Still, none of the Koleskis—who’d probably been peasants back in the old country, once upon a time—had quite reconciled themselves to being part of a royal family, even though they all adored Sophie.
    She watched her brother and sister-in-law as they exchanged a laugh, a look, the ordinary, effortless communication that was the foundation of a good marriage. From the living room, she heard her mother good-naturedly