Page 28 of A Princess for Christmas

It was Dorothy, with Glinda by her side. Hmm.

Gabby stiffened. “Oh, I only had one line. You guys were the ones who were so good!” Her enthusiasm was clearly forced. Marie had no idea precisely what these girls had done to Gabby, but she found herself inclined to dislike them on sight. That inclination was ratified when Glinda outright ogled Leo in a way that was entirely inappropriate for an eighth grader to look at a grown man. “Hi, Leo.”

“Girls,” Leo said, and Marie wondered if he was stressing the word to remind them of the age gap.

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” Dorothy said to Marie, the formal phrase making her sound like a little girl impersonating an adult.

“This is my friend, Marie,” Leo said quickly, and though she appreciated that he was rushing to introduce her like that so her cover wouldn’t be blown, Marie had changed her mind on that front. What was a little unwanted attention if it would earn Gabby some social capital?

So she lifted her chin, tried to channel her mother, and said,“Good afternoon. I am Marie Joséphine Annagret Elena, Princess of Eldovia, and I’m a friend of Gabriella’s.”

Well, eff him. Leo didn’t know whether to laugh or to whoop in victory. The bomb Marie had dropped on Rosie and Allison, aka Dorothy and Glinda, literally struck them dumb, something he would have thought impossible.

Marie took advantage of their silence, waiting only a few beats before turning to him and saying, in that snootily regal tone of hers, “Gabriella, Leonardo, Daniela, shall we be going?”

“Why yes, Your Royal Highness,” he said—no fake honorifics this time—“I think we shall.” He held his arms out wide, intending to encompass all three of the amazing women he had in his charge this afternoon, and gestured toward the exit. He caught a glimpse of each of their faces before they turned to leave. Gabby, with her eyes wide and jaw dropped, looked like the surprised-face emoji. Dani was clearly holding back laughter. Marie had notched her chin even higher and was positively radiating regality.

Neither her face nor her bearing changed as they wound their way through the crowd in the lunchroom, drawing stares. It wasn’t until they were outside on the relatively sparsely populated sidewalk that she became more herself. Dani started outright laughing, and that cracked Marie’s facade. She smiled, and the dimples—the real ones—came out.

“I like you,” Dani said, and Max yapped happily, as if to signal his agreement. “This is Max,” she said, gesturing to the mutt.

“Oh!” Marie exclaimed. “I met him yesterday!” She smiled. “I know a Max. A human one. This one is much cuter.”

Suddenly there were more people. People with phones takingpictures. Leo could see why Marie hadn’t wanted to blow her cover, though he appreciated the hell out of the fact that she had. “All right.” He shooed the women and the beast down the sidewalk toward where he was parked. He needed to get Marie out of here. “Do we need to get Max’s crate?” he asked Dani.

“Nope. Let’s get it later. I think it’s best for us to make our grand exit right now.”

And so once everyone was buckled in, they did.

“I hope I didn’t overstep there,” Marie said. “Those girls just seemed like they could use some...”

“Moral correction?” Dani supplied cheerfully.

Marie laughed. “Yes.”

Leo turned to her. “If you don’t mind, I’ll drop Dani at our building before taking you back to the hotel.”

He thought for a moment that Marie was going to argue, probably something along the lines of she could make her own way back, but he shot her a look that successfully quashed whatever it was she’d been about to say.

They rode in silence a ways until Marie surprised him by twisting around to look at Gabby in the back seat. “Would you like to come to tea at the Plaza Hotel tomorrow afternoon?” Then she gestured to him and to Dani. “All of you. I would love to have you.”

“Oh my gosh, like Eloise!” Gabby said.

“Like who?” Leo asked.

“There’s a famous book set at the Plaza,” Dani said. “About a girl named Eloise.”

Must have been before his time. It was strange sometimes, to be so enmeshed in the minutiae of Gabby’s life now but also to have these big holes in his knowledge of her past. He knew whatshe was reading today—Wonderstruckand that book of fairy tales their mom had given her. She never seemed to grow out of that. But he’d missed Eloise and everything that came before the accident. It wasn’t that he blamed himself for that, particularly. He was fourteen years older than she was and hadn’t lived at home for years by the time of the accident. But the gaps in his Gabby-knowledge felt like shortcomings all the same. He added this one to the list.

“Oh, can we, Leo? Please?”

He sort of felt like he should say no. Would having tea with Marie at the Plaza be like taking charity? He sure as hell was going to feel out of place. He glanced at Dani in the rearview mirror. She always knew what to do.

“I would adore tea at the Plaza,” she said, spearing him with an intense look.

“Sounds great,” Leo said, the fact that he had to clear his throat to get the sentence out torpedoing the casual delivery he was going for.

“If you like, you can invite your... friends,” Marie said to Gabby.

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