Page 42 of Royal Icing

A sense of victory filled him. That was as enthusiastic an affirmation as he’d ever seen his mother give. Emma would pull it off. And he would help her.

He had one foot out the door when his mother’s voice stopped him.

“Leo?”

“Yes, Mother?”

“I meant what I said. Don’t disappoint me.”

He looked at her but didn’t offer a reply. He shut the door rather roughly behind him and went to find Emma.

“Emma,” he called. Maya turned to look at him and rolled her eyes. She kept walking, but Emma waited for him.

“I knew you’d pull it off. Believe it or not, that was a rave review from my mother.”

“She could have fooled me.”

“She’s forever withholding with her praise. Except for Ruby. I’m about to head into town to meet with the architect. Would you like to accompany me?”

Emma perked up. “Um, yes. As long as we don’t get chased by paparazzi again. Maybe I could disguise myself as a bush.”

He laughed. “I don’t think that’ll be necessary. I’ll meet you in the courtyard in half an hour.”

“Emma, this is Kat. Kat, Emma,”Leo said.

“I hear you’re an architect,” Emma said enthusiastically. “That must be such interesting work.”

The community kitchen smelled like rich, savory stew. A winter storm was expected tonight, and he had just dropped off some fresh vegetables and an extra dozen loaves of bread. A pile of blankets was waiting in his truck to be taken to the homeless shelter next. Emma had insisted they stop to add a hundred pairs of clean socks and hygiene products to the care package.

Kat waved a hand. “Eh, it’s a lot of banks and car dealerships. But I’m very excited about the prince’s plans for the community,” she said.

“What plans?” Emma turned to him.

“Nothing,” he said quickly. When she raised an eyebrow, he yielded. “We’ll talk about that later. Thanks for meeting us, Kat. I have an unusual request.”

She smiled and leaned forward. “Go on. I’m intrigued.”

“We need you to create a gingerbread-compatible blueprint for the castle and grounds. Something that’s easy to replicateand similar enough to the castle to be recognizable, but not so intricate that it would take weeks to assemble.”

“Okay,” she said slowly.

“And we need them as quickly as possible. Tomorrow would be great.”

“Well, I better make a trip to the library and scrounge up the official blueprints,” Kat said. “I’ll email them to you.”

“Excellent. You can send the bill to the castle for this one. Feel free to include a hefty charge for the rush order.”

“Any news on the other project?” she asked hesitantly, one hand on her purse.

Emma leaned forward in interest.

“I’ll be making my presentation after the ball,” he said.

She smiled and looked pleased. “Excellent. I’ll get started on these right away.”

Kat left, and Emma turned to him. “Okay, you have to spill the details. What are these plans for the community? Are you building a Cheesecake Factory?”

He scoffed. “No. We’re building…well, I’ll just show you after we stop at the shelter.”