Page 2 of Once Upon a Royal Summer
Lacey’s face went warm as she reached for her champagne flute. It seemed weird talking about a honeymoon when they weren’t technically engaged yet. Mark wanted to talk to his parents before he officially popped the question, though. He insisted it was just a formality, but every time they discussed it, Lacey felt a little sick to her stomach.
Mark’s parents were lovely people. It wasn’t that Lacey didn’t like them. She did, and as far as she could tell, they were fond of her too. But the waterfront mansion where Mark had grown up in Ft. Lauderdale’s exclusive Las Olas Isles, complete with a yacht docked at the shore, was a world away from the modest Dallas suburb where Lacey grew up. Sunday dinners with Mr. and Mrs. Cooper sometimes seemed almost as fancy as the tea parties Lacey attended every afternoon in the Ever After Castle as Princess Sweet Pea.
“I think I’ll have the coq au vin.” Mark closed his menu. “You?”
Lacey had heard of coq au vin, but still wasn’t altogether sure what it was. “The chicken sounds good.” She took a sip of her champagne and caught herself holding her wrists upturned with her fingertips posed just so—“Cinderella hands,” as the theme park princess handbook called them. Sometimes it was hard to turn off the royal thing. She shoved her hands in her lap.
“I had lunch with my mother today,” Mark said, leaning forward and smiling at her in a way that told her this dinner might be more than just an ordinary date night.
Lacey’s heart thumped hard in her chest. “Oh, really?”
“And she assured me she and Dad would be thrilled if I were to pop the question.” He arched an eyebrow. “We might have even set an appointment at the bank to get Grandmother’s ring out of the safety deposit box.”
Okay, so no engagement tonight, but it was definitely on the horizon.
Lacey could hardly believe it. She’d just always sort of imagined that if she ever did get married, it would feel a bit more romantic. This was beginning to seem more like a business arrangement than an engagement.
Get over yourself. You love Mark, and he loves you. Fairy tales and castles aren’t real, remember?
Maybe she was letting the tiara go to her head.
“Isn’t that wonderful, babe?” Mark searched her face.
Lacey forced her lips into a proper smile. “So wonderful.”
He signaled for the waiter to bring him another martini. “There are still a few details to work out, obviously.”
“Obviously,” she echoed. But wait, what was he talking about? Surely they weren’t going to start planning the wedding before they were actually engaged.
“Mother asked if you’d given any more thought to what you might want to do once this”—he shot a loaded look at the crown on her head—“princess thing is over. I assured her you have big plans.”
“I do?” Lacey’s gaze flitted over Mark’s shoulder. The two sweet children who’d stopped to talk to her earlier were still watching her, eyes dancing, from across the crowded restaurant.
“Come on, babe. Being Princess Sweetheart isn’t exactly a long-term plan. You said so yourself.”
“Princess Sweet Pea,” Lacey corrected. Honestly, had he ever cracked open the leather-bound copy of Classic Fairy Tales she’d given him for Christmas last year, after he’d insisted he wanted to turn his home office into a library?
“Princess Sweet Pea. Of course.” Mark’s second cocktail arrived, and he eyed it like Goldilocks eyeing a bowl full of porridge. “The point is you’re almost twenty-seven years old. Eventually, and probably in the not-so-distant future, you’re going to age out of the princess gig. What are you going to do then? We talked about this, remember?”
They had indeed talked about it. Several times, actually. Lacey knew she was going to have to move on from her job at the theme park, sooner rather than later. She just couldn’t figure out what she wanted to do next. Playing the part of Princess Sweet Pea meant the world to her. Giving it up was proving to be more difficult than she’d thought it would.
“I suppose I could transition into wicked stepmother territory.” Lacey laughed.
Mark, pointedly, did not. Which was fine, because she wasn’t entirely joking. The wicked stepmother role seemed like a total hoot. They were hugely popular with guests at Once Upon A Time.
“Anyway.” A muscle in Mark’s jaw ticked. “I told Mother you’d mentioned getting your teaching certificate. Or that you might want to work at a nonprofit or something. I know what a heart you have for kids. It’s one of the things I love most about you.”
He smiled, and Lacey felt a tiny bit better. She knew she was probably being overly sensitive about the job thing. But once upon a time, she’d been a lonely child in a hospital waiting room, and the theme park princesses who came to visit patients and their family members in the oncology ward had gotten her through the worst part of her childhood…the worst part of her life, really.
This was her dream job. It always had been. She’d never wanted to be anything else.
“Mother said she could help get you on the board of one of those charities you love so much. The children’s hospital, perhaps?”
Lacey brightened for a moment. Working with kids at the children’s hospital was indeed right up her alley.
But board members weren’t typically that hands-on with patients and families, were they? She’d want to spend her time in the actual hospital, not in a conference room or office.
“That’s a really generous offer.” Lacey reached for her champagne flute and then stopped herself. She wasn’t feeling particularly bubbly and sparkly at the moment. If he’d expected her to give up anything but her job, she might’ve considered it. Not this, though…anything but this. “But you know how much I love what I do, Mark. I’m not quite ready.”
