Page 22 of Once Upon a Royal Summer
“No, it’s okay,” Henry said. “Let her go.”
And then he watched as his sweet daughter removed her own plastic crown and gently sat it atop the other child’s head.
CHAPTER SEVEN
What’s the Opposite of Royal?
“Tell me everything.” Ava pumped her arms as she strode beside Lacey on the walking path at Fort Lauderdale Beach Park after work.
Since they couldn’t exactly afford an apartment right on the water, Lacey and Ava tried to get out to the public park a few evenings every week. Sometimes they sipped iced frosés in fancy coup glasses at their favorite sidewalk café overlooking the ocean, and sometimes they made a picnic dinner to enjoy on a blanket in the sand. But when one of them had a problem or just a surplus of nervous energy to burn off, they liked to hit the brick path that ran along the shoreline for a power walk.
Currently, Lacey had both—a problem and plenty of nervous energy fizzing through her veins. Usually, simply taking a few deep breaths of salty sea air and listening to the waves crash against the shore was enough to bring her a sense of peace. So far, she and Ava had walked nearly a mile along the white wave wall that separated the walking path from the sandy shore, dotted with tall palm trees, and Lacey still felt all jumbled up inside.
“There’s nothing to tell, really,” she said, squinting into the sunset.
Ribbons of pink and lavender stretched across the blue Florida sky, and the sea glittered with bits of gold. Lacey wondered if the sunsets in Bella-Moritz were anywhere near as glorious as the ones in south Florida.
Probably. In fact, Henry could probably summon them on command, given his royal status.
“Lacey, please. You just spent an entire day with a real-life prince and his adorable daughter. There’s got to be something to tell.” Ava gave her a sideways glance. “Wolf said he saw you and the prince riding together in one of the sleighs at Snow Queen Mountain. Is that true?”
“Of course it’s true. It’s my job at the moment. I’m the personal park guide for his group.” How insane was this situation? She still couldn’t wrap her head around it.
“Well, what’s he like? The prince?”
Lacey picked up her pace, even though Ava was already struggling a bit to keep up with her. “He’s very…um…”
Charming.
She couldn’t say it. True as it might be, it was just too cliché.
“He’s nice,” she finally said.
“Nice? That’s an awfully bland description for a royal prince.” Ava pulled a face.
How exactly was Lacey supposed to elaborate?
I can’t stop thinking about our waltz.
When his fingertips brush against mine, I get butterflies.
I told him my name.
She wasn’t about to admit any of those problematic facts out loud—not even to her best friend. Especially the part about telling Prince Henry her real name. Ava would think it meant something, which it didn’t. He’d asked Lacey to call him by his first name. It seemed only fair to reciprocate.
But reciprocity didn’t have anything to do with the butterflies. Or the waltz that kept spinning on an endless loop in her head. Which summed up Lacey’s royally huge problem—the reason she’d stepped out of her glass slippers and into her favorite pair of running shoes and dragged Ava to the beach—in a nutshell: Lacey’s feelings toward Prince Henry were beginning to thaw. After spending the day with Grumpy Baseball Cap, she’d realized he wasn’t very grumpy at all.
“He seems like a really good dad,” Lacey finally said as the palm trees swayed overhead. “The reason he’s here is to give Rose a chance to have a normal birthday. And she did the sweetest thing this afternoon.”
Lacey gave Ava a play-by-play of her interaction with Molly, the little girl who’d been dressed up as Princess Sweet Pea in her wheelchair, including the moment when Rose had removed her plastic crown from her head and offered it to the other child.
In her tenure as Princess Sweet Pea, Lacey had been privy to many encounters that tugged on her heartstrings. Children and adults alike often shared private struggles with her, and she regularly visited with people who were grieving a loved one or dealing with heartbreaking medical diagnoses. Those encounters were Lacey’s favorites—the very reason she’d wanted to become a theme park princess to begin with.
Lacey was used to keeping her composure during such bittersweet interactions with guests at Once Upon A Time. So many people she met at the park had an emotional connection to her character or to fairy-tale princesses in general, and she never wanted to let anyone down. Lacey had always seen her job as an opportunity to bring peace, light, and comfort to people who needed it most. So she always kept things positive and never cried—ever.
But she’d almost had to blink back tears as she’d watched Rose and Molly become friends. She wasn’t sure what had gotten into her lately.
“It sounds like Rose will make a wonderful working royal when she gets older,” Ava said, panting as they slowed to a stop in front of the wave wall to watch the sun dip lower on the horizon.
