Flustered, the prince paced around the kitchen and bit the head off a gingerbread cookie. “I don’t know what happened.”
“What happened is you almost kissed Kaylie.” Chef Jake slapped him on the back. “Good for you!”
The prince, stressed, raked his fingers through his hair. “No, not good for me. And there’s nothing to be happy about. That would have been a disaster.”
“Why?” Chef Jake asked, confused. “You like her. Admit it. I haven’t seen you like this with anyone since Sophia, and you know she wanted you to be happy. She would have liked Kaylie.”
“None of that matters,” the prince said, looking tortured. “I’m the Prince of Tolvania. I have a daughter who is a princess. My life is here. My responsibility is to my family.”
“And Anna thinks Kaylie is great and your mother invited her here and they seem to get along, too, so I don’t see what the problem is.”
The prince snapped his cookie in two. “The problem is Kaylie lives in New York City. That’s where her life is. She’s a journalist. She is everything I’ve fought my whole life against. We have a ban against journalists here in Tolvania. She shouldn’t even be here.”
“But she’s not here as a journalist, she’s here as a writer, writing the fairy tale for Anna,” Chef Jake said as he put some mini-quiches for the Christmas tea on a cookie sheet. “And writers can write from anywhere. I’m just saying, before you shut the door and create all these scenarios and get in your head about how this would never work, I think you should at least talk to her.”
The prince shook his head. “No. There’s no point. She probably doesn’t even feel the same. We were both probably just caught up in the moment. I’m not going to embarrass this family.”
Chef Jake gave him a knowing look. “Embarrass the family, or you?”
“It’s the same thing,” the prince said.
“You know, you’re allowed to have a life,” Chef Jake insisted. “And that includes falling in love again.”
The prince laughed. “I’m not falling in love.”
“Aren’t you?” Chef Jake said, not backing down. “Because I think that’s why you’re stressing out so much. If you didn’t care about Kaylie, none of this would be a big deal. I think you’re just getting in your own way and making this a lot harder than it has to be.”
The prince gave Chef Jake an incredulous look. “I’m a prince and a single father that’s hard enough already.”
“I’m just saying, talk to Kaylie, tell her how you feel. If she’s not interested and your lives are too different to bridge the gap, fine, but at least you tried and will have no regrets. The Alex I know doesn’t just give up so easily. You owe it to yourself to try. What do you have to lose?”
The prince stared back at him. “Everything. I have everything to lose.”
Chef Jake sighed and shook his head.
“And what about you? When are you going to start taking your own advice and finally ask Elsa out?” the prince asked. “Talk about someone getting in their own way. You’ve had a thing for her since you got here.”
“We’re just friends,” Chef Jake answered quickly.
“And that’s the way it’s going to stay, unless you do something,” the prince said. “But you know she’s like a sister to me. Don’t mess it up.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Chef Jake said. “There’s nothing to mess up.”
“I’m just telling you, don’t wait too long,” the prince warned. “She’s a catch and someone else is going to swoop in…”
“Who?!” Chef Jake demanded.
“I knew it!” the prince said with a laugh. “You’ve really got it bad, don’t you?”
For an answer, Chef Jake threw a potholder at him.
Kaylie, upset, was pacing back and forth in her room, wearing her new fluffy white bathrobe the prince had gotten her to replace her drenched one from the bathtub incident. She was on her phone talking to Rachel.
“I still can’t believe I almost kissed him!” Kaylie shook her head in disbelief.
Rachel had a grin a mile wide. “I think this is fantastic! You and the prince. I get to be in the wedding, right? Will you get to wear a crown? Will I get to wear a crown?!” Rachel’s voice was bubbling over with excitement.
“Stop,” Kaylie said, getting frustrated. “Haven’t you been listening to me? That almost-kiss was just part of some silly Christmas mistletoe tradition—nothing more than that.”
“But it meant something more to you,” Rachel said. “You’ve fallen for this guy. I’ve never seen you like this with any other guy before. You really like him.”
Kaylie groaned as she fell back onto her bed. “I do, I really do and I’m so mad at myself because this is a disaster waiting to happen. This is a horror story, not a fairy tale.”
Rachel laughed. “Stop being so dramatic. Just tell the prince how you feel.”
Kaylie sat back up. “Never! I’d get kicked out of here so fast it would make my head spin. He’s already suspicious of me because I’m a reporter. He can never know how I feel. I just need to get a grip, give myself a reality check and get over this silly crush.”
Rachel shook her head. “I don’t think it’s silly and I don’t think it’s just a crush. If you don’t want to tell him the truth, at least be honest with yourself.”
“I am being honest with myself,” Kaylie insisted. “Nothing can come of this, regardless of how I feel. He’s a prince. I’m a reporter, a profession he hates, end of story. There’s no ‘happily ever after’ that’s going to happen here for me. I just need to concentrate on doing my job, writing this fairy tale, and the Tolvania Christmas feature story, and getting that investigative reporter job and getting my life back on track. That’s all I want.”
“Are you sure about that?” Rachel asked.
Kaylie stared into her phone. “I’m sure,” she said with conviction, even though her heart was telling her a different story. “And I gotta go. For Christmas Eve tomorrow, my schedule is packed with the tea, the Christmas Crown event, the ball, and everything in between, and I still have to write the Tolvania feature and the fairy tale. I have enough to worry about and just need to put the prince out of my mind…”
“Good luck with that,” Rachel said with a laugh. “The putting the prince out of your mind part. For the feature story, don’t forget Gerry needs it by tomorrow night your time. I already gave him the basic outline you sent me, so he’s good with everything, and this gives you time to find out more about the Christmas Crown. As soon as you can, send me the pictures and videos so I can help pick the best stuff to send Gerry for promotions.”
Kaylie breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Rachel. I don’t know what I’d do without you. I can send you all the pictures and video I have right now and then I’ll call you in the morning. Let me know when the pictures come through. The internet can be iffy.”
“Sound great,” Rachel said. “I’m standing by.”
As soon as Kaylie hung up, she started scrolling through all the amazing Christmas pictures she’d taken in the village and quickly sent the best ones to Rachel. When she got to the videos of the carolers and the tree lighting, she was relieved to hear the audio was great. You could hear the carolers clearly and could feel the joy from all the villagers who were singing along.
In her last video, she smiled when she saw the prince come into frame. He was standing with his back to the camera, between his mother and daughter, and had his arms around each of them and they had their arms around him. They looked just like all the other families singing who were having a wonderful time.
Even though she knew she could never use the video of the royal family in her story, she liked having it as her own personal memory of the night that had been so special. Leaving this video out, she highlighted all the other videos and sent them to Rachel.
She waited for Rachel to respond and a few seconds later, she got a thumbs-up emoji and then happily went to work writing her feature story. She had so many Christmas traditions she wanted to include about Tolvania. She was also excited to learn even more with all that was coming up tomorrow on Christmas Eve.
She refused to let her complicated feelings for the prince get in her way of doing a great job on the Christmas feature and the princess’s fairy tale. She always prided herself on being a professional and never letting anything that was going on in her personal life interfere with the quality of her work. Granted, she hadn’t had much of a personal life up to this point to get in the way of her career, but still, she was confident she could compartmentalize her feelings and channel all her energy into her assignments.
She knew the time was running out fast, but she’d never missed a deadline yet, and she wasn’t planning to start now. She had just started typing when she heard a bark outside her door. She waited, thinking Blixen must have been going by, but when she heard the bark again, she got up to see what was going on.
As she opened the door, he trotted in, wagging his tail.
“Blixen, what are you doing here?” Kaylie asked as he stared up at her with his soulful big brown eyes. “Coming to check on me?” She laughed.
For an answer, Blixen headed back to the door.
“Okay, bye, nice seeing you,” Kaylie said as she waved at Blixen. She waited for him to go so she could shut the door, but he didn’t move. Instead, he sat down and barked again.
“Shhhh,” Kaylie whispered. “You’re going to wake everyone up.”
Blixen stood up and turned around in a circle and stared back at her.
“I don’t know what you want,” Kaylie said.
Blixen ran into the room, grabbed her fuzzy white slipper that went with her bathrobe, and then raced out the door.
“Wait! Not my slipper.” Kaylie ran after him and found him standing at the end of the hall with the slipper in his mouth.
Kaylie pulled her robe closer around her. She walked slowly toward him, talking in a soothing, coaxing voice. “Blixen, you’re a good boy, aren’t you?”
Blixen wagged his tail.
Kaylie was getting closer. “And you’re going to give me that slipper back, right?”
Blixen wagged his tail even more.
“Fantastic,” Kaylie said with a smile. “So, you can drop the slipper right there. Just drop it. That’s right, drop the slipper…”
Blixen tilted his head like he was listening. He dropped the slipper.
Kaylie breathed a sigh of relief. “You’re a good boy.” But just as she leaned down to get the slipper, Blixen grabbed it again and took off down the stairs.
“No… Come back here!” Kaylie called after him in a whisper. When she got to the top of the stairs, she looked down and saw the slipper abandoned at the bottom. Blixen was nowhere in sight. She grumbled as she went to retrieve it. “Crazy dog.” But just as she got to the last step, Blixen ran up, stole the slipper again, and took off around the corner.
“Seriously, Blixen?” Kaylie called out after him. “I’m going to tell Santa about this. He’s not going to be pleased.”
The next thing she knew, she was chasing Blixen into the kitchen. “Okay, now I have you trapped!” she said as she burst into the room. “You can’t get away from me now…” She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the prince in a crimson bathrobe pouring some hot chocolate into a giant Santa mug.
He was just as surprised to see her.
Embarrassed, she pointed at Blixen, who had dropped her slipper and was sitting in the middle of the kitchen staring at them both. “He stole my slipper, or your slipper, the slippers from my room.”
“Ah, yes.” The prince nodded, not acting a bit surprised. “He likes to do that. He always goes on the hunt for someone to play with after Anna goes to bed. Apparently, tonight he found you and your unfortunate slipper.”
Kaylie put her hands on her hips and stared at Blixen. “Well, you’re definitely on Santa’s naughty list now.”
Blixen just wagged his tail and laid down and start chewing on the slipper.
The prince held up his Santa mug. “I don’t think you’re getting that slipper back, but I can offer you some hot chocolate.”
Kaylie inhaled, savoring the rich chocolate scent in the air. “Is this Jean Pierre’s famous Christmas chocolate that I had with your mother when I first arrived?”
The prince picked up the gold canister Jean Pierre gave him when they’d visited his shop. “Actually, this is another flavor, mine and Anna’s favorite.”
“Let me guess,” Kaylie said. “Gingerbread is involved.”
The prince looked impressed. “Very good guess, yes, gingerbread is involved and so is cinnamon and vanilla and all sorts of other delicious ingredients that somehow make it rich but not too sweet.”
“I’d love to try it,” Kaylie said. “I can take it back upstairs and not bother you. I have a lot of work to do.”
“You’re not bothering me,” the prince said, surprising Kaylie as he poured her hot chocolate into another adorable Santa mug and handed it to her. For a moment their eyes met and they shared a smile.
“Thank you,” Kaylie said and took a sip of her chocolate. Her eyes grew huge.
“It’s great, right?” the prince said.
“Delicious,” Kaylie agreed. “You’re turning me into a gingerbread fan.”
For a moment they sipped their hot chocolate in silence, then they both started talking at once.
“About earlier,” the prince said.
“About the mistletoe,” Kaylie said at the same time.
“Please, you go ahead,” the prince said.
But suddenly, Kaylie didn’t know what to say. She’d promised herself to let it go and not think about the kiss that almost happened and just concentrate on work, but Rachel’s voice was also in her head, encouraging her to tell the prince how she really felt. But right now, what she felt was confused. Nervous, she walked over to a plate of gingerbread biscuits and, without thinking, picked one up and took a bite.
“Oh, now you’ve done it,” the prince said.
Kaylie turned around, surprised. “Done what?”
“Those are for the Christmas tea tomorrow, and we never have enough. They’re very popular.”
“So, I hear,” Kaylie said. “I’m sorry.”
The prince walked over and grabbed a red apron with the family’s gold swan crest on it and tossed it to her. “Now we have to make more.”
Kaylie almost dropped the apron. “Wait, what? It’s late and I have a lot of work to do…”
“Then we better get moving. They’re really easy,” the prince said as he put on a matching apron. “And this is part of your work. This is on my mother’s list of things for us to do. One of her favorite Christmas traditions is making Christmas gingerbread biscuits and I’m sure she’d like you to use this in the fairy tale.”
Since the prince said this was work and on the queen’s list, Kaylie didn’t know how to say no. She looked at the apron she was holding. “I thought you said Chef Jake didn’t like people in his kitchen?”
The prince gave her a look. “I’m the prince. This is my kitchen, not Jake’s. He’ll be fine. This is what my mother wants, so…”
Kaylie put on the apron. “So, we better get to work. You said this won’t take long, right?”
“It won’t take long at all,” the prince said. “Easiest recipe in the world.”
“Okay, but I’m warning you, I’m no Betty Crocker in the kitchen,” Kaylie said.
“Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing,” the prince said with a confident smile.
But an hour later, when the prince caught his potholder on fire and the fire alarm went off, Chef Jake came running into the kitchen.
“What is going on in here?!” Chef Jake demanded.
The prince was putting out the blaze with a fire extinguisher, creating a huge mess.