Page 45 of American Royals

“So you are seeing someone!” one of the reporters cried out, elated.

“Who is she?”

“What’s her name?”

“Is it Daphne?”

Nina began stomping the heel of her boot angrily into the snow, the way that ten-year-old Annabel had been doing not so long ago.

“What the prince means is no comment.” Robert stepped smoothly between Jeff and the reporter. “And that will be all for today. Let’s give Their Majesties a chance to enjoy the snow, shall we?”

There was a final burst of flashbulbs, and then the Washingtons quickly dispersed: Aunt Margaret whooshing down the slope in pursuit of her Hollywood Hottie, Richard and Evelyn leading their children off to a private instructor. The press corps began the laborious process of packing up their cameras and gear, to load it into the snowmobiles that would cart them back down the mountain.

Jeff strapped his foot into his binding and snowboarded the few yards toward them. “Sorry about that.”

“I know,” Nina replied quietly, just as Ethan said, “No problem.”

Oh, right. Jeff had been talking to Ethan, apologizing that he’d been forced to wait through yet another press call. Nina had thought it was for her, that Jeff was sorry the paparazzi had somehow found out about them.

Ethan cast her a sharp glance, as if wondering what she meant. Because of course, Nina wasn’t supposed to be here for Jeff. She was here for Samantha, her best friend.

Sam chose that moment to join them, cutting a razor-sharp turn so that her arrival flung a spray of ice crystals into their faces.

“Hey!” Nina cried out, wiping the snow from her shoulders. Sam laughed. It was her dad’s laugh, that great Washington roar of laughter that sparked an answering smile in everyone.

“Sorry, but you all looked drowsy,” she said, not sounding sorry at all. “Consider this your official wake-up.”

“I knew I would regret brewing you that second mug of coffee,” Jeff countered, though he was smiling.

“I blame the frosted bear claw as much as the coffee.” Nina directed the comment at Sam, though she was watching Jeff’s mouth for a smile.

Sam ignored them, reaching up to pull her goggles down over her eyes. “Where are you guys headed? I’m thinking if we want to do Prospect, we should go now, before it gets choppy and skied-over.”

“That sounds perfect,” said Teddy, who’d been quiet up to this point.

Nina hoped she was the only one who saw Sam flinch at his words. “You go ahead. I just remembered something.” The princess pulled her phone from her pocket as if to send a text, though Nina saw she was really just scrolling through her social media feeds.

Jeff’s eyes lit on Nina’s, then darted rapidly away. “Last one to the lift is in charge of the hot-tub jets!” he called out, and dropped down into the slope, Ethan and Teddy on his heels.

Nina turned to Sam, but the princess’s eyes had widened at something on her phone. “You won’t believe who’s in Telluride!” Sam answered her own question before Nina could hazard a guess. “Daphne Deighton.”

“Really,” Nina said carefully. It was an effort to keep her features bland and disinterested. Just when things seemed to be going so well, she would have to face Jeff’s ex-girlfriend?

“I know, it makes her look totally desperate,” Sam agreed, misunderstanding.

Sam and Daphne had never really gotten along—though they’d pretended to, for Jeff’s sake. Nina wasn’t sure why, but Sam didn’t like Daphne. It was the biggest thing the twins had ever disagreed upon.

“We need to find someone else for Jeff to date, so that he doesn’t relapse and end up back with her,” Sam declared.

Nina made a strange noise of protest that she quickly tried to hide with a cough. “I think you might be overreacting.”

Sam only smiled as she shoved her phone into her pocket and kicked off. Nina hurried to follow.

Halfway down the run, she took a narrow traverse through the trees, only to realize she’d gone the wrong way. She’d missed the turnoff for the Prospect lift.

Though she’d learned to snowboard alongside Jeff and Samantha, Nina had never gotten the hang of it the way they did. The twins loved extreme terrain, which required sharp turns and serious finesse. While most of the time, Nina secretly wished she could call Ski Patrol to come collect her, and have them take her home in what Jeff and Sam called the “toboggan of shame.”

She turned her board edge-on to the mountain, slowing almost to a halt, leaning back as she scraped down the traverse inch by painstaking inch.