Page 74 of Once Upon A Royal Christmas
All the sneaking around the past few days was more than worth it to see the tender look exchanged between father and daughter right then. In that sweet moment, King Hans wasn’t a monarch. He was a kid on Christmas morning, and when Alana set Gumdrop gently down on the Kriegs’s wood plank floor, the puppy scrambled straight toward him.
It was a match made in heaven. Not technically speaking, of course. But from where Gracie was standing, San Glacera came awfully close.
Clara caught Gracie’s gaze from across the crowded room and grinned as she snapped pictures of Gumdrop and the king. Her phone had practically been glued to her hand the past few days. It pinged with calls and messages almost nonstop. Demand for princesses had skyrocketed. Gracie wasn’t sure she was prepared for whatever waited for her back in Denver.
Nick gave her hand a squeeze, anchoring her back to this moment, this place she couldn’t quite imagine leaving behind. “Can we talk?”
Gracie smiled, but her mouth felt like it wasn’t cooperating. Her lips trembled, and she almost wanted to press them still with her fingertips. “Sure, although it’s a bit crowded. Advent Night seems to be a hit.”
People poured through the red-wrapped front door. Ingrid and Max waved everyone inside, offering hot cocoa and warm, fragrant treats to their guests as they unwound scarves from their necks and shook off the chill of another snowy December night.
“Nothing gets a party started faster than a puppy with a red satin ribbon around its neck. I’m happy for the Kriegs. So many of the participants in the Advent Tour this year are visitors. This is going to be great for the B&B.” Nick nodded as he scanned the bevy of merrymakers. So many happy faces.
Then he turned back to Gracie, as if he only had eyes for her. “I know the perfect place. Come on.”
He led her through the crowd, never letting go of her hand. Every so often, one of the guests appeared to recognize him and blinked in disbelief. Each and every time, Nick smiled and welcomed them to San Glacera on behalf of the Crown.
Gracie felt a strange emptiness in the pit of her stomach. The Crown. To her, a crown had always been the flashy tiara she pinned to her head for parties, or the smaller, plastic versions she passed out to children to make them feel special and unique. But here, the word meant something different. It was even spelled with a capital C because in the context of real royalty, the Crown wasn’t just an object. It was an idea, a concept. A living, breathing symbol—not just of power or sovereignty. It also stood for strength and the responsibility to always do what was best for the kingdom, to always stand up for the people and use the power of the monarchy for good.
The Crown wasn’t just a word or an adornment. It was a commitment. Gracie would never look at her snowflake tiara the same way again.
“Here.” Nick let go of her hand just long enough to place his palm on the small of her back and guide her toward a cozy nook in the back corner of Ingrid’s kitchen.
The alcove was tucked beneath a stone archway like the ones in the lobby and the dining room, only on a much more diminutive scale. Nick had to duck to fit in the small space, and so did Gracie. Once inside, they sat facing each other on a narrow window seat with cushions and a faux fur throw covering the chiseled stone.
Nick took both of her hands in his, and when he spoke, the window overlooking the towering Christmas tree in the village square fogged over. “Gracie, I know about the donation to the animal shelter.”
Honestly, you couldn’t hide anything from a man with a title on his own turf, could you? It had taken a literal village just to keep a puppy under wraps from a visiting king.
Gracie bit her lip, fully intending on feigning innocence, but Nick ruled that out at once.
“Don’t even think about pretending it wasn’t you. I know for a fact that it was,” he said.
She released a breath she didn’t quite realize she’d been holding. “Who told you?”
“No one told me. I heard about the donation and had a hunch. Once I found out the exact amount, I just knew.” He reached to tuck a stray lock of her hair behind her ear and as soon as his fingertips grazed her cheek, she felt like she was back in the palace courtyard the night of the carriage ride. It had been the first time he’d been tempted to kiss her. She’d seen the longing in his gaze, felt it in the way her lips tingled in anticipation.
It had been too soon then. They’d only been starting to get to know each other, but now…
Now things were different. Now, if Clara had jokingly called Nick her prince, Gracie wouldn’t have protested.
He’d once told Gracie that he wanted to be her friend, not her prince. She knew what he’d been trying to say—he wanted them to be real with each other. He wanted to be able to trust her, and he wanted her to know that he didn’t see her as a commoner or just as a party princess, but as a person. An equal.
It had meant the world to Gracie, especially after the dubious start to their relationship, but even then a part of her had wanted to disagree. It wasn’t his title that she’d cared about, though. It had been that one small word, the one that made her heart beat fast as he’d said it.
Her prince.
Hers.
“Why did you do it?” he asked, eyes glittering in the dim light of the kitchen.
Moonlight streamed through the window, and a delicate pattern of frost had formed along the edge of the glass. It looked almost identical to the silver confetti in Gracie’s magic snow queen dust.
“You need that money for your business. It’s why you came here.” Nick searched her face, as if all the complicated feelings she was experiencing were written across her features.
She hoped with everything she had in her that they weren’t.
“You’re right. The prize money was why I came to San Glacera, but things are different now. I’ve loved my time here, Nick. It’s such a special place.” And she’d experienced it with a special man. More special than she could have imagined. “It didn’t feel right taking such a huge sum home with me when it could do more good here, where it belonged.”
