Page 54 of Once Upon A Royal Christmas
Happiness sparkled inside her.
Why only sometimes, though?
Gracie didn’t need to ask. She knew. Nick didn’t show his true self to just anyone. If he did, the whole world would know about Mittens. Something—or someone—had made him approach his public life with caution. Gracie knew that particular brand of self-preservation all too well.
“The shelter has always struggled. We’re a small kingdom with limited public resources for pet rescue. Most shelters rely heavily on things like foster families and donations for the care and feeding of the animals. Tourism is such a vital part of San Glacera’s economy. I’m worried the downward trend of our biggest industry could affect San Glacera Animal Friends.” Nick’s smile hardened in place. “My grizzly face in the news probably isn’t doing them any favors. It’s the exact opposite sort of attention I should be bringing to their cause.”
That hardly seemed fair. They were only pictures, and from what Gracie had read, they’d been taken after he’d been on an extended climbing trip with wounded veterans.
Okay, so maybe she’d spent more time on Google than she was ready to admit. She’d also learned that an ex-girlfriend had given a tell-all interview to San Glacera’s biggest tabloid, painting Nick as cold and unable to say the words I love you. Frankly, Gracie felt like betraying Nick’s trust in such a way said a lot more about the girlfriend than it did about Nick.
“I wish there was something I could do to help,” she said.
Everything had gone so quiet all of a sudden. So still. The only things Gracie could hear besides the jingle bells on the carriage were the swish of the wheels through snow and the calm, contemplative breath of the man sitting beside her.
The prince sitting beside her.
“You’re already helping, just by being here. That’s what this whole week is about.” Nick shrugged one shoulder. “And apparently, it’s working, because here we are.”
“Here we are,” Gracie said, and her smile wobbled ever so slightly.
For a minute, she’d forgotten that neither one of them wanted to be sitting in this carriage together. This wasn’t a date. It was duty.
“My turn to ask a question now.” Nick slid his gaze toward her. The jagged peaks of the Alps rose up behind him, silvery-blue in the moonlight. “What did you mean the other day when you said that winning this contest would change things for you? I know what we’re getting out of it, but what about you?”
“The prize money, of course.” Gracie swallowed. She felt a little bit strange about taking money from Nick’s family all of sudden, even though the cash prize had always been part of the terms of the contest, and she was earning it fair and square. “I’ve been wanting to expand the party princess business—make the other princesses employees with full benefits. Maybe get a real office instead of running our operations out of the house that Clara and I rent together. The prize money from the contest will allow me to accomplish some of those goals.”
“I see.” He nodded.
She searched his gaze for signs of judgment, like the disapproval that had been rolling off of him the other night when he’d been expecting a real princess and ended up with a knockoff royal instead. Try as she might, she couldn’t find any.
“Winning the contest was kind of a lifesaver. I’ve been trying to get a business loan for a while, but no one seems to want to lend money to a woman playing dress-up.” She glanced down at her gown, filling every square inch of the space around them in the carriage. Then she looked back up at Nick, expecting a laugh. Or at the very least, a smile.
Instead, his expression turned serious. Gentle. “I shouldn’t have said what I did in the Christmas tree maze, Princess. You do a lot more than simply playing dress-up.”
The cool winter air felt different somehow. Enchanted, almost.
“There you go, turning on the charm again,” Gracie said, trying her best to hide the giddy smile on her lips.
He winked. “Just part of the job description.”
Maybe, just maybe, she’d met a Prince Charming, after all.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Like Being in a Snow Globe
It was late when Gracie returned to the Kriegs’s after the carriage ride. A fire glowed in the hearth, but the lights in the lobby were dim and the overstuffed chairs facing the fireplace stood empty. The handmade quilts the guests used as throws in the comfy sitting area had been neatly folded and stacked on an antique chest near the Christmas tree.
Gracie took a deep inhale, hoping to breathe in some of the serenity in the peaceful room. Today had been…unexpected. If she went straight up to her room, she knew she’d immediately spill every detail of the carriage ride to Clara. And she just wasn’t ready to share the experience yet—not when she was still trying to wrap her head around it herself. If she wasn’t careful, Clara was going to think she was starting to fall for Nick, which was silly. Of course she wasn’t.
Was she?
“Get your head out of the clouds. This is business,” she whispered to herself, tearing her gaze away from the gold lights twinkling among the branches of the Christmas tree.
But Nick wanted to be her friend, and there’d been nothing businesslike about the shiver that had gone up and down her spine when he’d called her Princess again. Gracie smiled to herself as she gathered her fluffy skirt and began climbing the stairs. She couldn’t quite help it, and she was still all starry-eyed and distracted when, halfway up the steps, she nearly crashed into Princess Alana.
Even at this late hour, she didn’t have a hair out of place. In fact, the princess looked like she’d just stepped out of a blow-out bar, dressed in a luxe, ivory-colored cashmere sweater and skinny jeans. An oversized Louis Vuitton tote was slung over her shoulder.
