Page 10 of Once Upon A Royal Christmas
He managed a curt nod. “Good, a real royal visit.”
As opposed to the absurdity of bringing a pretend princess all the way from America in the hopes that a glorified cartoon character could breathe new life into San Glacera’s most treasured holiday traditions.
Impossible, was it not? Things had been fine when King Noël was still alive. They should be trying to bring back that same sense of grace and nobility to the holidays—the way things used to be before the kingdom was reading about Nick’s imaginary, neatly pressed boxer briefs. Tossing a make-believe royal into the mix hardly seemed like the way to go about doing so.
Nick was far from convinced, despite the hopeful bar graphs, but he didn’t want to fully rain on his sister’s parade. The matter had already been decided, anyway. It no longer mattered if he thought the idea was, in a word…
Abominable.
CHAPTER THREE
Santa Would Never
“We’re so glad you could fill in at the last minute.” A zookeeper clad in head-to-toe khaki grinned as he looked Gracie up and down. His smile widened as he shook hands with both Gracie and Clara. “I’m Brian, senior deer keeper. We didn’t know what we were going to do when Santa cancelled this morning. But you’re perfect. The kids are going to love you.”
Twinkle lights formed a colorful halo around Brian’s khaki baseball cap. The massive wooden giraffe sculptures standing just inside the Denver Zoo’s entrance glowed in shimmering shades of neon pink and green, as they always did during the holidays.
Every December, the Denver Zoo transformed into a glittering world of whimsical light installations that ran along the paths between animal habitats. The trees overhead sparkled with so many tiny gold bulbs that it looked like all the stars in the sky had fallen and settled among their branches. The annual Zoolights never failed to take Gracie’s breath away, and today, she was officially going to be a part of it.
Thanks to Santa Claus’s head cold.
“Thank you. I’m happy we could help.” Gracie picked up her billowing skirt to keep it from dragging on the ground as she walked alongside the zookeeper and Clara.
When she’d gotten the call from the zoo, she’d been stepping out to the parking lot of yet another bank. Since her disastrous meeting with Mr. Curtis at Denver First, she’d gone to her three subsequent appointments like she was on autopilot. So long as she didn’t get her hopes up, she couldn’t be crushed again. The rejections had come as no surprise whatsoever.
At least she’d been wearing a suit this time. And at least one loan officer had said she’d sleep on things and get back to Gracie.
A tiger made from hundreds of orange and pink holiday lights peered at them from behind a tree trunk as they passed. Two little girls standing near the tiger, their faces lit rosy pink, went wide-eyed when they noticed Gracie. She waved at the children with a flourish, and the rhinestone snowflake rings on her fingers glittered like tiny, wintry kaleidoscopes in the glow of the lights. Both little girls squealed.
The days were notoriously short in Colorado during December. It wasn’t quite four o’clock in the afternoon yet, and already the sky had grown dark enough for the Christmas lights to be flicked on. Gracie—rather, Princess Snowflake—would be on duty until the zoo closed at ten o’clock, wrapped snugly in her heavy velvet princess cape, while Santa stayed home, presumably eating chicken soup and watching Hallmark Christmas movies.
“These gals are going to love you too,” the zookeeper said as they rounded a corner and a three-sided, red mini-barn came into view. Alternating red and white lights lined the roof in a candy cane pattern. “Princess Snowflake, meet Jingle and Belle.”
“Oh my gosh, look how sweet they are.” Clara whipped her phone out of her pocket and immediately began snapping pictures of the two reindeer huddled near the back of the structure.
The animals turned their heads in unison and trotted toward the railing on the open side of the barn. When they reached the fenceposts, they poked their heads over the railing with their huge brown eyes trained on the red plastic bucket in the zookeeper’s hand.
“Brian, they’re precious. I’ve never worked with real live reindeer before,” Gracie said.
“They’re surprisingly laid-back. We do twenty-minute reindeer encounters for small groups of kids during Zoo-lights. I’ll teach the kids some facts about the animals, and then they’ll get a chance to hand-feed the reindeer some grain.” Brian jiggled the bucket, and Jingle pawed at the ground with one of her large hooves.
Gracie held out a hand. “Can I try?”
“Of course.” Brian scooped a handful of grain from the bucket and spilled it into Gracie’s hand. “Just hold it out to them with a flat palm, and they’ll eat it right up.”
Gracie laughed. “It tickles.” Clara snapped photo after photo.
“At the end of each encounter, we’ll give the kids a chance to pose for pictures with you and the reindeer. Then we’ll take a ten-minute break and invite the next group in.” Brian glanced back and forth between Gracie and Clara. “Does that sound good?”
“Sounds great.” Gracie felt something brush against her cheek and tipped her face toward the sky. “And look—it’s starting to snow! Perfect timing.”
Brian opened the gate and the two of them stepped inside the little barn while Clara stayed on the other side, ready to capture snapshots and video.
The zookeeper attached leads to Jingle and Belle’s harnesses and then handed the lead ropes to Gracie. “If you want to start things off by greeting the children, that would be super. Sometimes they’re nervous around the animals, so an icebreaker is helpful.”
“No problem at all. I’ve got this,” Gracie said as Belle poked at her tulle skirt with a quivering nose.
Princessing never failed to be an adventure. Gracie wondered if Kate Middleton had ever needed to navigate a royal engagement while simultaneously avoiding curious reindeer. Somehow, she doubted it.
