Oh, that’s what he means. “Yeah, um…”
“What?” Briar-Rose cuts me off. “You had to play twice?” And then she laughs, Cindy joining in. “Doesn’t sound like you got a chance for romance then.” Because her husband throws her a questioning look at her words, she feels completely entitled to expose me. “Riley’s on the hunt for true love these days. She’s sick of sticking around barking Jack and having to endure his bites.”
Phillip raises an eyebrow at me, quietly asking, “Sick?”
“Well…tired,” I meekly correct so it sounds a little less mean. I know he and Jack are best friends. And since my wishes are being discussed in front of an outsider anyway, why not tell them all the real story of yesterday afternoon. I would have told Cindy while shopping later, but now works just as well.
“We didn’t actually play out the second tale yesterday,” I explain, walking through the market with all of them following. “Things already started out in a crazy way, so I begged Jack to break out with me and help me find a prince.”
Cindy’s eyes pop wide, and her mouth hangs open. “You did?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“And he came?” Phillip chuckles, but he looks even more surprised than Cindy and his wife combined.
“Er…not straight away.” A little bashful, I concentrate on a box of peaches sitting on a fruit stand, feeling up a couple and then placing them back. “I had to persuade him. Later, he helped me steal a branch from Cupid’s tree so I could make an arrow from it.”
Cindy gives a vendor two doubloons for a new crystal hairclip and asks over her shoulder, “What for?”
“I’m going to shoot me a prince with it.”
“Oh, man,” Phillip groans, a half-torn, half-amused look on his face. He lays an arm around Rory’s shoulders and pulls her to his side, her pink summer dress making his white shirt shine even more in the warm morning sun. “And Jack is fine with that plan?” he inquires.
“Not exactly,” I murmur. “I don’t think he likes being replaced in our story by King Arthur.”
“King Arthur?” Now, Phillip laughs out loud and rakes a hand through his blond hair. “You don’t ever do things by halves, do you, Riley?”
I smile a little. “Not if I can help it.”
“So, what are you going to do if the arrow doesn’t work?” Briar-Rose gives words to justified reason. Then her face turns grave. “I really hope you’re not going to kill Artie with it.”
“I don’t know. Lay a trail of chocolate leading to my house, maybe?” I shrug. “I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”
Her face contemplative, Rory scratches her nose. I love it when she does that because she always comes up with the greatest ideas then. And sure enough, a few seconds later, her expression lights up as she turns to her husband. “You know what? It’s your birthday on Friday, right? So how about we cancel our cruise to Treasure Island this weekend and throw a party instead?”
“A party?” His suspicious gaze wanders from his wife to me, then farther on to Princess Cinderella, and back to Briar-Rose.
“Yes. A really big one. We’ll invite all our royal friends and relatives. Riley could pick a prince from the crowd, and she won’t have to kill him.”
While he mulls over her idea, rubbing the stubble on his chin, I burst out, “Me? In a hall full of princes?” That wouldn’t help my problem a lot.
“Why not?” Rory demands.
Clasping my red cloak and the worn dress underneath to point out the obvious, I explain, “Because I’m the girl from the woods.” That’s what Jack called me anyway. “I don’t look like royal dating material. If they even notice me, they would probably just ask me to serve them a drink.” With a magical arrow and my shooting skills, things could work out. But relying on sheer dumb luck to bump into a prince who’ll fall undyingly in love with me? That’s beyond fairy tale material.
“If you’re going to wear this”—Cindy grabs my cloak and throws me a wry glance—“they just might. But if you come in a beautiful gown and do your hair for once, you’ll look like a real princess.”
“Gown or not, most people around here know me.” I fold my arms. “They’ll recognize me with the first glance.”
“We could make it a masked ball,” Briar-Rose offers. “Everyone wearing those beautiful face masks. You’d be safe.” She beams at her husband. “Wouldn’t it be great if Riley married into the family?”
Cindy claps her hands in elation, and finally, I think this new idea actually has some potential. I do own a very pretty dress from my mother. This might be the perfect occasion to get it out of the chest.
“You chicks are crazy,” Phillip says, laughing. Then he plants a kiss on Rory’s temple. “But if that’s what you want, sweetness, we’ll have a masked ball for your friend.”
She closes her eyes for the length of the kiss and then grins at me brightly, obviously satisfied.
Phillip releases her and gives us all a charming smile. “If you’ll excuse me now. I should go talk to someone and investigate the level of his depression after hearing this news.” He says the last in a joking manner, but there’s a small glint of sincerity in his eyes when his gaze lingers on me for another moment. Hopefully, he can cheer Jack up.
The girls and I stroll off, marveling at the many beautiful items the vendors present on their stands. Rory and Cindy buy some more stuff, while they squeeze all the details of yesterday out of me. When I get to the part where Jack caught me in his arms, and we fell to the ground, me on top of him, my cheeks warm a little, and I lower my gaze. “I think he was going to kiss me.”
“Whoo-hoo!” both my friends holler, high-fiving each other, and I quickly dash an uncomfortable glance around, hoping that no one got big ears at that. Pinocchio winks at me as he passes us, but he seems to be the only one who noticed the girls’ outburst of enthusiasm.
“Shhh!” I shut them down. “This isn’t funny. And he shouldn’t be doing it just because he’s scared to lose our boring story. He’ll just ruin my chances of getting a prince.”
“Forget the prince and stick with the sexy Wolf,” Briar-Rose mocks me, but she understands my problem and sobers quickly.
Cindy loops her arm through mine and explains in a soft, patronizing voice, “Don’t worry, Riley. If you’d kissed him, no prince would hold that against you. It’s not like you gave your virginity to him with a simple kiss.”
“No, but my first kiss should be with my one true love,” I reason. “I want everything to be perfect.”
Rory blows a bubble with the gum she put into her mouth before. After it bursts, she snickers. “Yeah, it would be like a bad joke if, after all these years of being glued to Jack, he was the one snatching the big first.”
After talking so much about Jack, and from Phillip’s words earlier, I start wondering how Jack is really feeling today. Apart from the constant pull of our story, I mean, because that one I can describe pretty well myself. It’s uncomfortable, if not torturous. The hope that some distraction with my friends might ease the nagging sensation has waned by now.
The thought of losing our tale seemed to seriously trouble Jack yesterday. If only he could look at this project with the same enthusiasm I feel. Actually, he should be happy I’m doing the trial run. Because if I fail, nothing bad will happen to him. But if I’m lucky, we can start a second run to set him up with his true love, too.
Gah, boys! Always so blind to awesome new possibilities!