Page 34 of Once Upon A Royal Christmas
Jaron’s eyebrows lifted. “If you say so.”
Nick narrowed his gaze at his friend. “I do say so. Everything is fine. We just need to move on and forget this unfortunate mistake ever happened.”
“How did it happen, exactly? If you don’t mind my asking.”
“We spent the afternoon together at the Christmas market. I took her to all the best food booths.” Nick’s heart seemed to turn over in his chest as he remembered the delighted sparkle in her eyes as she’d spotted the kiss at the bottom of her cup of cocoa.
For a moment, he’d imagined what it might be like to give her a real kiss, right there on the snowy sidewalk. But princes didn’t go around kissing strangers, unless it was to wake them up from an enchanted nap in a fairy tale forest. Even then it was borderline creepy.
Since when do you have so many opinions about fairy tales?
Nick’s head hurt. He should have never come back from the trip to the Matterhorn. “Anyway, just as we were about to part, she asked me if I could keep a secret. Then she told me she was the princess.”
“And you told her you were the prince. She must have thought you were the actor we hired to play Prince Charming. He’s only scheduled to appear with her on Christmas Eve when we unveil the ice ballroom. We wanted to keep the focus on her this week, since she’s the contest winner.” Jaron drew in a long breath. “This is a rather strange turn of events.”
“One I’d like to forget.” Nick looked up at the snowflakes floating overhead. He’d always loved a good Christmas snowfall. Snow made everything so peaceful and pure. He wondered why Gracie had chosen to be a snow princess, of all things.
Then he reminded himself he didn’t care.
“After you left my office, I got an update from the royal staff in Vernina. Due to inclement weather, the plane carrying the king, queen, and princess still hasn’t been able to take off. They’re going to have to postpone their trip for a day or two. You’ll be escorting Princess Alana to another Christmas event later in the week. I pressed to make certain that she couldn’t have arrived on her own, and they assured me she hadn’t left the country, so I knew there had to be some sort of mistake. I got here as soon as I could,” Jaron said.
“I appreciate it,” Nick said, even if Jaron had arrived too late to prevent him from making a fool out of himself.
“Where did you say Miss Clark has gone?”
Good question.
Nick was as clueless as the befuddled prince in Cinderella. At least that poor guy had a glass slipper to go on. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
CHAPTER NINE
Snowflake Made of Steel
“What are you doing here?” Clara’s eyes went wide when Gracie burst through the door of their room. “I thought you were meeting—”
“Don’t say it.” Gracie held up her hand. “Do not say Prince Charming. I never want to hear that name again.”
Clara blinked. “Hon, Prince Charming isn’t a real person. He’s a storybook character.”
“You said it,” Gracie groaned and collapsed face-down onto her bed. A cloud of tulle puffed up around her.
Clara sat down gingerly on the edge of the mattress. “Gracie, what’s going on? And what are you doing? You have an appearance in less than half an hour and your dress is getting wrinkled.”
“He wasn’t Prince Charming. He was the real prince of San Glacera.” Gracie still couldn’t believe it. She felt like the girl who’d kissed the frog, only instead of kissing a lowly amphibian and turning him into a prince, she’d kissed a prince and he’d turned into a horrible, warty toad.
Also, there’d been no kissing, much to Gracie’s disappointment.
Her heart clenched. Her stupid, stupid heart.
“The real prince?” Clara shoved her, and she nearly fell off the bed. “Get. Out. Are you kidding me?”
“You don’t understand.” Gracie sat up to meet her friend’s gaze. “He’s awful. Way worse than Ingrid made him sound.”
“How on earth could you mistake him for Prince Charming? I don’t understand how this happened.”
“He shaved.” Gracie could barely wrap her head around it herself. “And got a haircut.”
Clara nodded knowingly. “The classic royal makeover.”
