“Well—” I straighten, bracing myself on my hands behind me in the grass as I try to swallow the uncomfortable feeling in my chest without her noticing. “You’ve got it all covered then, don’t you?”
“What do you mean?” This time, she looks at me for a bit longer. The daisy is only a stem with a yellow cup in her fingers now. I don’t know the outcome of her game.
“The prince hunt. Plan A was the arrow. It failed.” My right shoulder jerks in a casual shrug. “Plan B is the ball?”
She giggles, throwing stones into the water again while the bravest of the frogs climb back on land, and even a couple of swans return. “You know what, Jack? It’s probably for the best that my arrow missed King Arthur. I mean, I don’t know him at all, do I?” She tilts her head to me, her forehead creasing helplessly. “What if he’s weird? He would have been eternally in love with me without an out-clause.” She shudders and shakes her head. “It could have been quite exhausting.”
I picture it for a moment and, frankly, I don’t like the image. If she’s going to get stuck with someone that she’s not happy with for the rest of her life, we might as well stay Red Riding Hood and the Wolf.
“Better to get to know the prince before binding him to me, right?” she asks. “Like Briar-Rose and Phillip did. And all my other friends.” And then she adds in a much lower, softer voice, sounding almost insecure, “Who knows, maybe there’s even someone who really likes me. Not because of a spelled arrow but simply for who I am.”
“Any guy who doesn’t notice the beauty in you is an idiot.” The words fly out of my mouth before I even realize what I’m saying.
Riley eyes me in wonder for a second. “That’s sweet of you to say,” she whispers before she drops to her back and dreamily sighs as she studies the blue sky. “Maybe that special prince will even like hunting as much as I do. And reading. And jumping from roofs into haystacks. And raspberry cake.” Her head tilts to my side. “Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”
My eyebrows lift in amazement. “You jump into haystacks?” I haven’t done that since I moved from a farm into my apartment above Geppetto’s workshop years ago. Boy, do I miss it sometimes.
“Whenever I see one,” she tells me gleefully. The skin around her eyes crinkles slightly as she gives me a secretive smile. “There’s one right behind the old mill by the Timeless Brook in the forest.”
I laugh and lay back beside her. “Ah, you better not let any prince see you do that. You know, it’s very unprincesslike.”
“But that’s the whole point.” Riley smacks me on the shoulder, then she rolls to her front, braces herself on her elbows, and excitedly peers down into my eyes. A silky lock lands across my face and tickles my upper lip. “My perfect prince wouldn’t be stiff, wearing funny robes and sticking to etiquette twenty-four hours a day.”
I blow the lock away. “He wouldn’t?”
“No. He’d be funny and adventurous—”
“Not to mention extremely wealthy if he owns his own castle,” I add flatly.
She giggles, but soon, her face straightens again. “He’d be friendly, too. And considerate. And very handsome, of course. Tall and muscular. His eyes would sparkle like sapphires, and his hair would be a perfect shade of gold…” Her gaze trails off toward the sky as her thoughts obviously do in her mind.
“Hey!” Playfully, I push against her shoulder just hard enough so she tips to the side and comes down from her castle in the air. “Would you please stop slobbering over Prince If-Only-You-Were-Real in front of me? You’re doing a fine job of castrating my ego here.”
Riley rips a handful of grass out of the ground and tosses it at my head, laughing hard. “As if that’s even possible!”
I catch her wrist and pull her back to me. She lands on my chest, her nose touching mine. It coaxes a soft gasp from her, which sounds really cute. I wrap my arms around her and drawl, “Maybe I should keep you locked up in Rapunzel’s tower until you drop the idea of this pimped version of a happily ever after.”
For an extended moment, Riley lets me gaze into her stunned honey-hued eyes before her expression softens to something that almost looks like pleading. “But you’re supposed to help me find it. Don’t you want to anymore?”
This particular look reminds me a lot of Briar-Rose and Phillip.
Fuck.
I expel a deep breath and help her off me. As we both sit upright again, I run my knuckles across her cheekbone, skimming a few wisps of hair back and tucking them behind her ear. “Only joking. Of course, I’m going to help you.”
Slowly, she blinks a couple of times, tilting her head slightly to one side. And there it is—the smile no guy in this world can say no to. “So, will you come with me to the ball and help me look for a prince?”
“No!”
Her perfectly wing-shaped eyebrows crinkle into a dumbfounded V as she pulls her head back. “Why not?”
We can stop playing our tale if it makes her happy, but hell if I’m going to stand back and watch her replace me with some royal douche. That’s why! “I’m not a prince.”
“And I’m no princess. But that’s the whole point.” Her gaze keeps me captured. “You could find a princess there.”
“I don’t want a princess. Anyway, I’ve got other plans for Friday night.”
“Really? What?” Her disappointment vanishes, and an impish waggle of her eyebrows takes over. “Do you have a date?”
Lips compressed, I let a frustrated snort out through my nose as I hang my head and slide a scowl her way.
“What?”
“I think you need to stop going to the regular princess meetings. They must be adding something to the tea there. Completely clouding your brain with too much romance.”
Riley sticks out her tongue at me and then grabs her cloak, loosely draping it around her shoulders because the button at the collar is now gone. She smirks. “You’re just jealous because I’m going to find my prince on Friday, and you probably have something like laundry to do.”
Irritated, I pull the hood up over her head again, but deeper over her face this time. It’s easier to stay angry with her when those cute eyes and smile are covered. Or…maybe not. “I’ll do the laundry tonight to be free for an adventure on Friday.”
She brushes the hood back so she can turn her bright gaze on me again. “A masked ball could be an adventure.”
“Nope.”
“Oh, come on. You need to go, too. It’ll be fun.”
“Maybe for you.”
“There’ll be a band. Good music and nice food.”
“I’ll have a cheeseburger down at the pub.”
“We could dance.”
“I don’t dance,” I growl with an intense look into her eyes.
Riley gasps, covering her mouth with her hand. “Is that it? You don’t want to go because you can’t dance?”
Rolling my eyes, I can barely hold back a laugh. “Yes, Red Riding Hood. That’s exactly the reason.”
“Hey!” She shoves my shoulder, making a mean face—and terribly shipwrecks it. “Don’t use your sarcasm on me.”
I lean close to her ear and drawl, “Sorry, there’s no one else but you here. Bear it.” The scent of morning dew and wood strawberries catches me unaware, momentarily dazzling my mind. It wipes the grin off my face. With my lips so close to her neck, I want to press them gently against her skin, run my tongue over it, and find out if she only smells of this addictive odor or tastes of it, too. Instinctively, I jerk back, taking a second to shake myself out of the crazy stupor that has overtaken me.
Riley, searching my face with narrowed eyes, doesn’t miss my discomfort. “Are you all right?”
“Mm-hmm.” A sigh wants out, but I don’t let it. “Your hair just tickled my nose. I thought I needed to sneeze.” Yep, king of excuses. She should marry me.
A group of frogs climbs out of the water. The little green guys plant themselves in the sun next to our feet to warm up. My mind still racing with thoughts that will get me into trouble, they just might be the right distraction. I fight to get my shit together and playfully tug at one of Riley’s soft locks. “You know what? Maybe you should squeeze plan F in between A and B.”