Also, I know my mother-in-law, Paula, will appreciate the compliment on the dress. She spent two full days going with me to every fancy dress store we could find to pick out all the different gowns required for the show, and she insisted on paying for every one. She and my father-in-law, Kurt, don’t have a ton of money, but they’ve gone out of their way to support me and the girls as much as possible, helping me save as much insurance money from Rob’s death as I can for the girls’ college funds and my schooling, as well as seed money for my restaurant.
My own parents have always been mostly uninterested in my life, and much more absorbed in their own. Kurt and Paula are the parents I’d always wanted and the only people who’ve ever really loved and believed in me—outside of my girls, of course.
It wasn’t just fear of being on my own that kept me with Rob; it was also fear of losing the only real family I’ve ever had.
“So you have kids, right?” Preston asks. “And one is deaf?”
“Yeah, two daughters,” I say. “My oldest,Thea, is deaf, and also the most good-hearted and funny and incredibly stubborn kid you’ll ever meet. Rosie is my youngest, and is like this beaming, happy light—except when she’s not, because, well, she’s five.”
He laughs, which I take as an encouraging sign that the kids thing doesn’t freak him out too much.
“What about your family?” I ask. “No kids, I assume, because otherwise the show would have made a huge deal out of ‘single father Prince Preston.’”
“No kids. I’m really close to my family, though. We all try to get together as often as we can. I’ve got three siblings—two sisters and a brother.They’re all married and have kids, so they’re just waiting on me to join them. I’m the baby of the family.”
“Ah, so you’re the little prince. Makes sense.” I gesture at his outfit.
He leans in conspiratorially. “You may not know this, but these aren’t actually my real clothes.”
Okay, so he is kind of charming.That definitely seems like a plus. Even if he doesn’t have the same effect on me as Nate did while sitting much farther away in the carriage. But I’ve spent much more time with Nate. Just because I don’t feel that same spark (um,flame) doesn’t mean I won’t.
Right?
“Well, you definitely have more personality than Prince Charming,” I say. “Then again, most of the Disney princes are seriously lacking on that, so I’m not sure it’s a high bar.”The moment those words come out of my mouth, I inwardly cringe. I was going for flirty, but that was outright insulting. Flirtation doesn’t come naturally to me—for all that Rob would accuse me of cheating, he also made it pretty clear that no one would ever be into me for my conversational skills.
“Hey,” Preston says, and I’m pretty sure he only looks mock-wounded. “I’ve seen some of these movies with my nieces, and not all of the princes lack personality. What about that Hans guy?”
I raise my eyebrow. “You know he turned out to be evil, right?”
Preston grimaces. “Huh. Okay, maybe I didn’t watch the entire thing. But he had personality.”
“He sang about sandwiches,” I concede. “Do you do that?”
“No. Does that make you want to leave?” Before I can answer, he continues on. “I mean, I promise I’m no Eric.That guy was dumb as a rock. Couldn’t tell the difference between the two girls even though they had different hair colors, just because one said ‘AAAAAAAA’ in a similar manner.” Rather than singing, that last part sounds like pitchy yelling, and I laugh.
“You know that’s going in all the promos now.”
“God, I hope so,” he says with a grin.
There’s a nice, funny banter here. It’s no muffin-related back and forth, but how many conversations are? Also, I note that he’s scooted closer at some point during this so I’m sort of tucked into his side without my having moved at all—though I’m not exactly sure when that happened. His arm is slung behind me around the back of the chair. Maybe thiscouldbe a thing. I’m not exactly longing for the conversation to stretch on and on, but I’m not dying to end it, either.
I hear the clicking sound of heels against the stone path, and I figure I’ve got about three more seconds before being interrupted. “By the way,” I say quickly. “Some of the girls are going to try to defame me because I said I was here to make friends. Which is absolutely true. Friends who are all trying to date the same guy are thebest.”
Preston lets out a laugh, just as Addison rounds the corner, her bare midriff somehow gleaming in the lantern light. Did she oil herself at some point? Another cameraman trails behind her.
“There you are!” she says with a huge, pageant-ready smile.
I stand up. “Well, that’s my cue. It was nice talking with you.”
“Yeah, you too,” he says, but Addison has already squeezed herself and her wide skirt between us, so I can’t see him when he says this. She plops herself down right where I was sitting—well, even closer to him, actually—and I walk away, doubts pressing in.
Was that actually good enough of a conversation to be kept around after tonight? Should I have gone in for a kiss? It didn’t feel like a natural move right there, but I’m guessing lots of other girls made it work just fine.
Maybe I really am terrible at this. Maybe Rob had a point about—
No. I can’t let any of this bring me back there.
I walk past the pool again and back in the parlor entrance—
