Page 101 of Learn Your Lesson

She had completely transformed.

Just a year ago, she was barely speaking. Months ago, she was barely smiling,neverlaughing.

Now… she was a kid.

She was happy and smiley and carefree. She didn’t wear the weight I unintentionally put on her. She didn’t emulate me the way she had for so long.

No, it seemed she favored Chloe’s energy now.

That struck me like a bat to the head. Chloe had swung into our lives so unexpectedly, and she’d done so with a mission. She hadn’t just taken on the job as Ava’s nanny with pity or with the mindset that she could make a buck. She didn’t want anything from me — not fame or a quick ticket to money or a relationship past the professional one we had.

She didn’t want anythingat allother than to make Ava happy, and me by proxy.

That was a kindness so pure and selfless that I couldn’t quite understand it.

But I was thankful. I was grateful for her time and her energy, for the way she knew how to get my daughter out of her shell better than I ever could. I would never be able to truly pay her enough for how she’d knocked sense into me, too — how she’d brought to light the ways I could introduce Ava to her mom without wanting to hurl myself off a cliff in the process.

Chloe was healing us, just by existing.

That thought was dancing in my mind when Ava and Chef Patel stopped their dance party on a gasp, Ava’s hands flying to cover her mouth as they stared at something behind me.

When I turned, I understood why.

Chloe appeared to glide out of the dressing room, the mirrors all around the boutique reflecting her in a kaleidoscope of beauty. Her russet hair hung in loose, wavy curls around her chin, one side of it pinned up with a light pink seashell. Her makeup was a little less glitzy thanmy daughter’s — a more refined look, as if she really were a princess joining us for dinner.

I had no idea where they’d conjured the dress they found for her, but it fit as if it had been tailored with her in mind. The skirt that hung to the floor was a shiny, pearl pink. A darker shade, similar to the color her cheeks turned when she blushed, hung over her shoulders and cinched her waist before slowing out in two puffs from her hips.

On anyone else, the thing would have been ridiculous.

But on her…

It was breathtaking.

“Sundar,” I heard Chef whisper somewhere behind me, and while I was still stuck in a haze, Ava whizzed past me and slid to a halt right in front of Chloe.

“Wow,” she breathed, blinking up at her.

“Wow is right,” Chloe said, tapping the tip of Ava’s tiara. “You look amazing, princess.”

“No,youlook amazing.”

“No,you,” Chloe argued back, and then they were plucking at each other’s clothes, dishing out compliments and giggling like best friends.

Chef approached them with her phone in hand, gesturing for them to get together for pictures. She snapped away while I watched from behind her.

I couldn’t take my eyes off Chloe.

And when her gaze slid to mine, I felt that familiar faltering of time, the way the world stuttered to a quiet whisper around us.

Juan tapped me on the shoulder, shaking me from the moment as he informed me we needed to get to our dinner reservation. It was madness as Chloe and Ava thanked the employees profusely for their work, and after a dozen more pictures with the Fairy Godmothers and a hundredblown kisses, we were all but running across the park to Be Our Guest.

We were immediately escorted to our dining table once we made it, and after dinner, we rushed to the Seven Dwarfs rollercoaster ride before finding our spot for fireworks.

I never got the chance to tell Chloe how gorgeous she looked.

But as we rode the water taxi to our hotel, I caught her shy gaze from across the boat. The lights reflected off the water, and in her warm eyes, my daughter sleeping with her head resting against Chloe’s shoulder. Chloe smiled at me, just the corner of her mouth lifting, and need coursed through me like a wild, rushing river.

I wondered if Fairy Godmothers really did exist.