Page 18 of Head Over Heels

“Who’s your daddy dressed as?” I ask Katie.

“Princess Daddy.”

“Princess Daddy,” I repeat. “Oh,my.I’ve got my Facebook caption, then.”

Chase glares.

“Not good for the outdoorsy-guy image?”

He gives me the finger outside of Katie’s line of sight.

Katie gestures at me to crouch down, and she begins draping me with green fabric that I think was once a Peter Pan costume. “Am I Peter Pan?”

“You’re a frog. Hop.”

“Wait, what?”

“You’re a frog,” Katie says patiently. “A really, really, reallyuglyfrog. Hop.”

I sneak a glance at Chase’s face.

He’s trying not to laugh. I raise my eyebrows. He shrugs. “Woman up,” he murmurs.

I glare at him.

I crouch and address Katie face to face. “Maybe I could be something else. Like a queen?”

Chase muffles laughter in the crook of his arm.

“No,” Katie says, Cupid’s-bow mouth set firm. “You’re the frog.Hop.”

“You could be the frog,” I tell Katie. “Don’t you want to be the frog?”

“I’m Elsa.”

Chase coughs. “We’re supposed to be encouraging her to use her imagination, not cramping it. She says I’m the princess and you’re the frog. Sohop.”

I glare, hard, at him, and he smirks back.

“How does Elsa fit into this story?” I ask Katie, trying to buy time.

“After the princess kisses the frog and he turns into a prince, Elsa builds a magic ice castle for the princess and the prince to live in happily ever after.”

“Not all frogs turn into princes when you kiss them,” I can’t help saying. “And not all stories end with happily ever after.”

“Now you’re crushing her innocent dreams,” Chase murmurs so only I can hear him. I elbow him.

“This one does,” says Katie, undaunted.

Even though I’ve clearly lost this particular battle, I silently cheer for Katie’s ability to stand up for herself. And I admit defeat. I hop to the lily pad (pillow) by the stream (where the rug meets the floor). The princess is strolling through the forest.

Actually, the princess is prancing through the forest, clutching what appears to be an invisible parasol.

“I thought yousuckedat princess and frogs,” I say, sotto voce, when he prances my way. “I feel like I’ve been hustled.”

“Just trying to keep standards high, Ugly Frog.”

Snarling, I pull out my phone to video Princess Daddy.

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