Page 99 of Learn Your Lesson

Ava’s eyes grew wide, and I tried and failed to calm the knocking of my heart against my chest as I felt Chloe’s gaze on me from above.

“A princess?” she repeated softly.

I nodded. “You get your hair done, your makeup, and you get to pick whatever princess dress you want. You even get a tiara,” I added.

“What’s that?”

“It’s a beautiful, sparkling crown that sits on your head,” Chloe filled in for me, her voice full of wonder as she dropped to her knee beside Ava.

She was so fucking pretty. Of course, she couldn’t have just worn jean shorts and a t-shirt like the rest of us. No, she’d spent the last week sewing a romper for the occasion. It was a mix of a rich purple and a sea green, the pattern somehow childlike and adorable, yet fitting for an adult. Maybe it was the way it cinched her waist and framed her breasts, modest but in no way hiding her curves. Across the chest, she’d stitched the wordsMost Magicaland there was an embroidered image of the castle beneath the font.

I tried not to focus too hard on the way her thighs stretched against the fabric as she twirled one of my daughter’s pigtails. “You’ll love it, little angel bug.”

Chloe’s eyes found mine then, and I swallowed, nodding in lieu of a smile.

“I can really be a princess?” Ava asked.

“You sure can. But we better hurry. The kind Fairy Godmothers who will turn you into a princess are agreeing to stay later than usual just for us,” I said.

“Really?!” Ava’s mouth dropped open, and then she grabbed me by the hand and tugged me off the ground. “Let’s go!”

“Are they ready for us?” I asked Juan.

He was texting away on his cell phone, but nodded and smiled. “They should be once we get there. Let’s stop and get a snack like you said and we can head that way.”

“I’m going to be a princess! I’m going to be a princess!” Ava chanted the words, skipping around us before she stopped dead in her tracks and looked up at Chef Patel. “Do you want to become a princess, too, Chef?”

“Oh honey, I’m already a queen,” Arushi said, patting her head. “Have been for years.”

Ava giggled.

My heart lurched into my throat, Juan arching a brow at me before nodding encouragingly.

“Actually,” I said. “How would you feel about Miss Chloe becoming a princess with you?”

Ava gasped at the same time Chloe’s head snapped toward me, confusion in her wide eyes as she frowned and tried to make sense of what I’d said.

“It’s… I’m too old,” she whispered, keeping a smile on so as not to upset Ava. “They have an age limit.”

“Sometimes, exceptions can be made,” Juan said for me, since apparently my voice was too unstable to make a peep.

Chloe’s lips parted, her eyes softening as she swiveled toward me. She blinked once, twice, and then her eyes were watering.

“You did this for me?”

Fuck.

“For Ava,” I said instantly. Sniffing, I tucked my hands into my pockets on a shrug. “But I thought she might not want to do it alone.”

Chloe read right through the lie.

Her lips wobbled as she pressed them together, her eyes glossed, disbelief painted in her every feature.

And then she launched herself into my arms, wrapping hers around my neck and squeezing tight as she let out a deliriously happy squeal.

“Thank you,” she whispered, her grip unrelenting. “This is the nicest thing anyone has ever…” She shook her head, pulling back but not away. “Well… just, thank you, Will.”

It was impossible not to catalog every point where her body met mine, from her hips in my hands to her breasts pressed against the bottom of my chest. My nostrils flared as I stared down into her impossibly deep brown eyes, eyes that were surveying me as if I was a puzzle she couldn’t quite figure out.