Kitabı oku: «Once Upon a Princess»

Chapter One

“I need a job.”

Just one week before, when Parker Dillon had uttered those words to her two best friends, Shey Carlson and Cara Phillips, she hadn’t known what she was letting herself in for. And now here she was a working woman—a waitress extraordinaire.

Okay, so maybe she wasn’t quite extraordinary yet.

Most shifts she wasn’t even totally competent, but it had only been seven days and her business degree hadn’t exactly prepared her for a waitressing career path. But Parker frequently reminded herself that all she’d ever wanted was to be ordinary, so maybe being a less-than-extraordinary waitress was okay.

“Hi, may I take your order?” she asked the people at her newest table at Monarch’s, her friend Shey’s small coffeehouse on Perry Square in Erie, Pennsylvania.

A man and two children looked up.

A man and two children who looked rather familiar.

The man wore a black turtleneck sweater and black jeans all topped by a black leather jacket. His hair was black, as well. Not some dark brown bordering on black, but a true black. Despite the dark color, it looked soft.

Inviting even.

Not that Parker wanted to be invited.

She didn’t have time for men.

Not even darkly handsome ones.

So she concentrated on the two youngsters and smiled. “Who’s first?”

The girl grinned and said, “I’d like a hot chocolate and one of those blueberry muffins, please.”

Parker wrote the order down, then turned to the boy. “And you?”

“Hot chocolate and a chocolate donut.”

The man cleared his throat.

“Sorry, Uncle Jace.” The boy looked at Parker and added, “Please.”

Uncle.

The man wasn’t their dad.

For some reason, Parker’s heart did a queer little double beat.

He—Uncle Jace—turned from the children and looked right at her.

Parker noted that his eyes were as dark as his hair. Deep and penetrating eyes. They looked at her as if they could see more than her well-worn jeans and ponytailed blond hair.

He peered at her as if he knew things about her, things that she’d rather no one know.

“Coffee,” was all he said in a low voice that sounded as if someone had taken sandpaper to his vocal chords.

Something within her stirred at the sound.

“Cream and sugar?” she asked, her voice oddly breathy.

“Black.”

It figured, she thought with a small smile. Of course Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome took his coffee black.

“Be right back.”

She headed over to retrieve their food, but couldn’t help one quick glance over her shoulder. Uncle Jace appeared to be scolding the kids, who were both wearing guilty looks.

“Hey, that’s some hunk,” Shey said as Parker came behind the counter. “Too bad about the kids. Like they say, all the good ones are taken.”

“They’re not his kids. They called him uncle.”

“Not too bad, then. I don’t see a ring.” She was looking past Parker toward the table. “Do you know him? He’s watching you.”

Parker turned, and sure enough he was. He shifted his gaze back to the kids, but he’d been studying her. “I can’t quite place him, but he looks familiar, like I should know him.”

“So ask him,” Shey said.

That was Shey in a nutshell.

She was the kind of person who always cut to the chase. She didn’t have the time or the patience to pussyfoot around issues.

Shey only had one speed: full-steam ahead.

She’d been the one to spearhead Parker and Cara into forming a partnership and opening the two stores. Parker had her degree in international business. And although Perry Square wasn’t exactly international, it felt good to use some of her education to put together a business plan. She’d been the stores’ financial backer and business manager. Having a healthy trust fund had made things much easier.

Full-steam-ahead Shey had taken responsibility for Monarch’s Coffeehouse. And Cara, who was the quietest of the trio, had surprised them all by not only managing Titles, the adjoining bookstore, but really enjoying it.

Each of their positions had played to each of their strengths. It had been perfect.

The stores weren’t generating a huge profit yet, and that hadn’t been a problem until her father cut off her access to her trust fund. That’s why she’d taken the vacant waitressing position to help make ends meet.

Both her friends had argued against it, but most of the time Parker was enjoying it. Eyeing Uncle Jace, she had to admit she was enjoying today, and this particular table, more than most.

“Go on. Ask him if you two know each other,” Shey prompted again.

“That’s okay. It’s not important,” Parker said as she poured the hot chocolate into a cup.

“Come on now, Parker, he’s a hunk. You should just go for it. You’re on a roll lately,” she said with a chuckle. “So why don’t you roll his way? Nothing can be as hard as standing up to your father. By the way, he called again…or rather, his secretary did. You’re supposed to call him back. He said it’s important.”

“I don’t think so.” Parker topped the hot chocolates off with whipped cream and got a coffee cup.

“You should call your father,” Shey scolded. “After all, what’s he going to do? You’ve said no. You’re an adult, free to make your own decisions. And just because you’ve decided not to go home, not to give in to his demands, that doesn’t mean you should cut yourself off from your family. Family is important.”

Parker felt a stab of guilt. She knew she should appreciate her family more.

It wasn’t that she didn’t love them.

She did.

Her mother was the sweetest, most easygoing woman Parker had ever known.

Unfortunately Parker hadn’t inherited any of those qualities from her mom.

She tried to recognize her own virtues…and laid-back wasn’t one of them. Parker knew she was as hard-headed and sure of herself as her father and brother.

She smiled as she thought of them all.

She adored them, even her bossy father. And to be honest, she missed them terribly.

But loving her family and living with them were two distinctly different things. There were so many burdens associated with her family name.

Parker wasn’t shy, but being the focus of so much public scrutiny was trying. Endless appearances that were little more than photo ops. And press who found even the most private details of her life to be fair game, as well. Being followed, hounded… A claustrophobic feeling pressed on her chest, making her pulse start to race.

Parker forced herself to draw in a long, slow breath and release it as she pushed unpleasant memories aside.

No, she wasn’t going back to that life, but that didn’t mean she didn’t miss her family. Despite everything, she knew she was lucky to have them all.

Look at Shey.

Shey didn’t have anyone except for her and Cara. The three of them were truly sisters of the heart. But Parker knew that Shey longed for more. That her friend would give anything for a real family, even if they came with unwanted baggage.

“I’ll call tonight,” she promised. “But right now, I’m off to work on my waitressing skills.”

“Ask Mr. Tall, Dark and Yummy if the two of you have met.”

“Maybe,” Parker said, hefting the tray and trying to balance it. “Maybe I will.”

“Maybe I won’t tell if you promise not to follow me again,” Jace O’Donnell told his niece and nephew.

The twins looked stubborn.

“You know your mother will ground you, right? Your mom is tough.”

Jace knew that was stretching the truth more than a little. His sister liked to pretend she was tough, but to be honest, she had a soft heart.

It’s what made her special.

It’s also what had caused her so much pain recently.

“We eat, then you leave,” Jace continued. “And maybe, just maybe, I won’t tell.”

“Come on, Uncle Jace,” Amanda whined. She reminded him of her mother. Shelly had the same brown hair with streaks of blond, the same inquisitive blue eyes as the twins…she’d also been a huge pain when they were growing up. Her kids were carrying on the tradition.

Chalk one up for genetics.

Part of Jace wanted to hug his pretty little niece. The other part knew that if he didn’t come down on them hard now, he’d spend the rest of the twins’ summer vacation checking over his shoulder to see if they were tailing him.

“You know better,” he said sternly. “You could have blown this case.”

“We wouldn’t,” Bobby assured him. “We’re practicing. Next year we’re in high school. Four years after that and we can come work for you full-time as P.I.s.”

Jace stifled a groan and reminded himself that he was flattered the twins wanted to work for him. They wanted to be like him because they looked up to him.

But occasionally their admiration was too much.

This was one of those times.

“This is an important case,” he said. “I can’t afford to lose it.”

“Tell us all about it,” Amanda said, clearly intrigued. “We can help you.”

“No.”

“Four years, Uncle Jace,” Bobby said. “That’s only forty-eight months. We need to train now.”

“Not four years.” The kids’ faces fell and Jace felt like a heel. They’d been through so much lately, and now he’d made them feel worse.

“Eight,” he corrected. “You each get your college degree first. Then, if you still want, you can have a job.”

“We don’t need college,” Bobby said. “We want to work for you. You can teach us everything we need to know. Starting now with this case. Who are we spying on?”

Jace ignored their questions about the case and focused on their reluctance to attend college. “Unfortunately I only hire college graduates. As for my case—”

Parker Dillon was heading their way, a tray balanced precariously on one hand.

“Shh,” Jace said, not wanting their waitress to hear the conversation about his case—mainly because she was the case. Not that he was telling the kids that.

Her tray wobbled as she approached their table and the huge puddle of water their very wet feet had made.

Visions of coffee and hot chocolates falling prompted Jace to jump to his feet and grab the tray just as she skidded through the puddle.

“My hero,” she said with a grin as she righted herself. “That could have been a mess.”

She took the tray back.

“No problem,” Jace said as he slid back into the booth.

“It would have been a problem if it had spilled, so as a thanks for saving me from certain disaster, your order’s on me.”

He frowned. He knew from his report that Parker Dillon didn’t have money to spend on their breakfast. Last week her father had cut off her trust fund, and Parker didn’t have two plug nickels to rub together. She’d be scrambling to make this month’s rent and to pay the stores’ monthly bills if she hadn’t sold her car.

He wondered if her father knew. He’d have to include the information in his next report.

“You don’t have to do that,” Jace said.

“It’s my pleasure. It’s not every day a girl meets a hero.”

“I’m no hero,” he felt compelled to warn her.

The way she was looking at him, her very naked admiration, made him feel guilty.

And there was no way he should feel guilty. He wasn’t here to harm her. As a matter of fact, he was here to make sure she didn’t come to any harm.

“You’re a hero,” she said again.

“I’m—”

Before he could protest further, his helpful niece and nephew jumped in.

“Sure you are, Uncle Jace,” Amanda said. “Why, just last week Mom said you were her hero when you took us to Cedar Point for the day.”

“And how about the time you caught that guy who stole the lady’s purse?” Bobby added. “The paper said you were a hero.”

Parker smiled at the twins, then turned to Jace. “See, I was right, you’re a hero. I can always spot one. So, your breakfast, such as it is, is on me since you saved it from being on me.”

She laughed at her own play on words.

Jace just frowned. He knew that Parker had no experience with being broke. He could give her lessons, but not without blowing his cover.

This was the first time in her life that she had to work for her money. And if her almost mishap was any indication, she hadn’t quite settled into a blue-collar existence yet.

And why should she?

Parker Dillon was no real waitress.

Parker Dillon was a princess.

A true, blue-blooded, wear-a-crown-to-royal-functions sort of princess. And it was his job to find out why she wouldn’t go home and assume her royal duties. Until he did, he was to ensure the safety of Princess Marie Anna Parker Mickovich Dillonetti of Eliason.

“Really, we can’t allow you to pay for our breakfast. I know how tight it can be to live on a budget.”

There, he’d reminded her that she was on a budget now. She had to watch her money and couldn’t go spending it on just anything or anyone.

“Really, it’s my pleasure. Like I said, it’s not every day a girl meets a real hero. Speaking of meeting, have we met before? You look familiar.”

“No.”

She looked taken aback by his monosyllabic, more-than-a-little-brusque response. But when he didn’t say anything else, she took the hint.

“Well, all right, then. Just holler if you need anything else.”

“We’re fine,” Jace said.

When Bobby appeared as if he was going to say something, Jace gave him a look of warning, and for once his nephew heeded it and sank back in his seat, silent.

Without another word, Parker Dillon left them.

Jace watched her go.

The princess went back to the counter, ready to wait on someone else.

And while she was waiting on tables, her father, Antonio Paul Capelli Mickovich Dillonetti, the king of Eliason, was waiting for Jace to find out why she wouldn’t go home.

What a mess.

“Hi, Mom.” Parker was taking a break in the small back office later that afternoon. “It’s me. Father called and wanted to speak to me.”

“Are you two fighting again?” There was motherly concern in the former Erie resident’s voice. Back then her mom had been plain Anna Parker. A small-town girl. Now she was a queen. More than that, she was a woman who liked her family to be happy and get along.

Since Parker’s father and brother were both stubborn and autocratic, the family dynamics were frequently less than tranquil. But all three of them tried to keep their squabbles to themselves. By an unspoken agreement, they didn’t run tattling to Parker’s mom. Which is why Parker said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mom. I just called to talk to him. Can’t a daughter call her father just because she misses him?”

There was a decidedly less-than-queenly snort from the other end of the line.

“So, how are you?” she asked before her mother could phrase a more wordy retort.

“Fine. How are you?”

They made small talk for a while. Regular homey talk. Her mother chatted about her charities and Parker’s father. She mentioned that Parker’s brother, Michael, was on a short diplomatic tour. “He’ll be in the States and is hoping to visit. He misses you.” There was a slight pause, then her mother added softly, “We all do.”

Parker suspected that Michael wasn’t coming just to visit. He sided with her father and considered Parker’s decision to abdicate her royal duties a childish whim she’d eventually outgrow. His visit would consist of a lot of Parker-it’s-time-to-grow-up lectures.

She’d have groaned at the thought, but she was stuck on her mother’s comment. “I miss you, as well.”

“Even if you don’t want to live in Eliason, there’s nothing that says you can’t visit, is there?”

“I will. Soon. I promise.”

“Good. Let me get your father for you.”

For a moment Parker thought her mother was gone, but then she said, “And, Parker, remember I love you.”

“I love you, too, Mom.”

She waited on the line, trying to psych herself up for another conversation with her father. It wasn’t going to be as easy as her conversation with her mother had been.

Once upon a time, her father had known her every thought, her every dream. He’d hold her on his lap and they’d really talk.

Parker felt a stab of regret that those days were long since gone. Now they barely spoke. And when they did, her father spent his time issuing ultimatums, and she spent her time ignoring every one of them.

“I’m going to put you through to him. Try not to fight.”

“Mom, how can you think we’d fight?”

Again, her mother snorted.

These days, despite any good intentions not to, whenever she and her father spoke, fighting was inevitable.

The situation broke her heart, but she didn’t know what to do to make her father accept that she would never be able to be what he wanted.

To be who he wanted.

Parker just wasn’t princess material, no matter how much her father desired it.

“Marie Anna,” he said in his rich, cultured voice as he came onto the line.

When she’d been little she’d loved to listen to him talk. It didn’t matter what he’d said, she’d just loved the way his voice rumbled in his chest.

“Parker, Papa. I’m Parker now.”

She’d stopped being Princess Marie Anna when she escaped Eliason. She’d come to her mother’s home in the United States looking to leave her royal life behind.

Erie was a small city on the shore of Lake Erie, and there she went to college as Parker.

Just Parker.

At first that name had been a cloak of anonymity, but now it more aptly fit who she really was.

Parker Dillon.

A waitress at Monarch’s.

A normal, everyday sort of woman.

Ordinary.

“You’ll always be my little Marie Anna,” her father assured her. “My princess.”

Parker sighed. Fighting with her father was as if pounding her head into a brick wall. The wall couldn’t give, and she ended up with a headache.

“What did you need, Papa?” she asked.

“I need my daughter to come home.”

Tenacious. Her father was the most tenacious, single-minded man she’d ever met. That ability to set a goal and not lose sight of it made him a great leader. But it sometimes made him a difficult parent because once he had an idea, he couldn’t let it go.

Of course, her mother claimed Parker was just like him in that respect.

She smiled at the thought.

“I love you, Papa,” she said softly before she added, “but I’m not coming home.”

“Your fiancé is waiting for you. He misses you.”

“He doesn’t know me to miss me.”

“Tanner is anxious to start planning your wedding.”

“And if he doesn’t know me enough to miss me, he certainly doesn’t know me well enough to marry me—which is a good thing since I’m not marrying him.”

She hadn’t seen Tanner in years. What she remembered about him was a gap-toothed smiling boy who liked to torment her. Tanner, though he teased her, also made her smile.

A joker.

He’d been a sort of sweet boy.

But he wasn’t a boy any longer. He was a stranger. He was a prince. She wasn’t sure of anything about him any longer except for the fact that he wasn’t her fiancé, no matter what her father decreed.

“Arranged marriages haven’t been in vogue for a century or more, and I don’t think I’m the one to bring them back into style,” she said, trying to joke. Her father didn’t respond, so she added, “I’m sorry, Papa, but I can’t marry him. I’m happy here. I even have a job.”

“It’s beneath your station to work as a waitress.”

“Hey, I’ve worked as a clerk for Cara over in the bookstore. Is that better?”

“No,” her father assured her. “It isn’t better at all. You don’t need to work. You’re needed at home.”

“Yes, I do need to work. Mom had all kinds of jobs when she was in school, before you met her. And I’m a good waitress.” Parker crossed her fingers as she said the words. She was working at being adequate, and that was good enough.

Though she’d better get better…fast. Her father’s cutting off access to her funds meant not only was she broke but the partnership wasn’t as financially solvent as it should be. According to her projections, they should be operating in the black sometime in the next few months, but without an occasional influx of cash, the stores were walking a narrow financial line. Working as a waitress not only gave Parker an income but meant the store didn’t have to pay benefits to a full-time employee, and so it saved them money, as well.

It was a win-win situation in Parker’s eyes.

“As for working,” she continued, “it’s a necessity. You see, someone froze my accounts and canceled my charge cards. I have bills to pay, just like everyone else.”

“I cut off your money so you would come home, not so you would get a job,” he explained.

Parker could hear the exasperation in his voice and felt another stab of sorrow that she was the one putting it there.

“Papa, we’ve been over this a dozen times. Neither of us is going to give an inch, so we might as well drop it. I’m not marrying Tanner. I’m not coming home. And surprisingly, I like working.”

She thought of the tray she’d almost spilled today and the dark-haired man who’d rescued her. She smiled. “Some days I like it better than others, but no matter what, it’s satisfying.”

Her father didn’t say anything.

“Did you want anything new?” she finally asked.

“Tanner will come to America and get you, since you’re being stubborn and won’t come home.”

“No,” Parker insisted. “No. It would be a waste of time. Don’t you send him here, Papa. I’m not marrying him. I can’t believe you thought arranging some archaic betrothal to a virtual stranger would be a way to entice me back.”

“Your grandparents had an arranged marriage. My father used to swear it was love at first sight. That’s how our family falls—hard and fast.”

“You found Mother on your own, and I plan to find my future husband—if I ever marry—on my own, as well. Don’t send Tanner.”

“He’s already on his way. He should arrive tomorrow. He’s on flight 1129, arriving at the airport at eight-thirty in the evening. Make sure you’re on time.”

“On time for what?” Parker asked.

“On time to pick him up, of course.”

“I am not picking him up.”

“Young lady, it would be rude to make your fiancé take a cab from the airport. You might not want to be a princess, but I know that even someone who is not royalty has to have better manners than that. You will meet your fiancé at the airport.”

“I don’t have a fiancé,” she said for the umpteenth time.

And for the umpteenth time her father refused to acknowledge the comment. “Marie Anna, I expect you at that airport at eight-thirty tomorrow evening.”

Her father was right. She couldn’t leave poor Tanner stranded at the airport.

“Fine,” she said. “I’ll see to it that he has a ride. But that doesn’t mean I’m engaged to him.”

Her father sighed. “You didn’t used to be so difficult.”

“Neither did you.” The memory of sitting on his lap and feeling as if nothing in the world could harm her was back, practically choking her with unshed tears. “But no matter how difficult we both are, I love you, Papa.”

“And I you, Marie Anna. And I you.”

He disconnected.

Parker sat staring at the phone in her hand.

Tanner was coming to Erie.

The boy she used to know was a man now…a man who thought he was coming to meet his fiancée and bring her home in order to plan a wedding, say “I do” and settle down into wedded royal bliss.

Poor Prince Eduardo Matthew Tanner Ericson of Amar.

Her father had misled him and now it was up to Parker to set him straight.

Call your father, Shey had said. This was all Shey’s fault.

So maybe Shey should be the one to pick up the prince?