Page 97 of Royal Icing

“Oh, you don’t have to go to any trouble for me. And I don’t want to derail your usual Christmas—” he started, but Emma threw a pillow at his face. It bounced off and landed on the floor.

“Don’t make us drag it out of you. It’ll help to have something to celebrate,” she added.

He debated. “I quite like spaghetti. We almost never had it at home. My mother always said it was too ‘pedestrian.’”

“Then I’m going to make you the best damn spaghetti you’ve ever had. Let me just run out and get a few?—”

“No, please, let me,” Leo interrupted. “I need to pick up a few things anyway. Just make me a list.”

Emma jotted some things down, then handed it over. “Let me just get my coat?—”

“I’ll go. I’ll come right back.”

She had done enough.

“But you don’t know where you’re going.”

Leo waved a hand. “I found my way here, didn’t I? It’s a grid system. It’s not even possible to get lost.”

“That’s Manhattan—” she called as the door closed behind him.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

LEO

Leo arrived backat the apartment laden with multiple shopping bags from the hardware and grocery store. It was a good thing he had pawned some old laptops and palace trinkets, since they couldn’t very well wait for the insurance company to cover a fix for Emma’s door.

He knocked, and Emma answered the door a minute later.

“I thought we were going to have to send a search party after you.”

Maybe he had been a little cavalier about exploring a new country without an international phone plan.

“You know,” Leo said as he stepped over the threshold, “I’ve always heard how rude New Yorkers are. But everyone I’ve met has been so kind.”

Emma took some bags from him and walked down the hallway toward the kitchen. “Well, if a stupidly attractive six-foot-three European man asked me where the ‘loo’ was, I’d probably fall all over myself to help him too.”

When he followed her into the dining area, Leo was greeted by the sight of purple-and-gold streamers—the national colors of Lynoria—and a birthday banner that looked like it had been cut out of a Diet Coke box.

No one had ever made him a birthday banner before.

“What’s all this?” he asked. For some reason, he was having a hard time swallowing.

“It’s not much, but we want to celebrate you. I’m really happy you were born. And I’m sorry your parents are being total dickbags right now, but I’m also selfishly glad it led you here.”

He pulled her into his arms. “Me too.”

The anxiety that had whirled in his chest since he left Lynoria finally quieted. This was all he needed. The girl of his dreams in his arms. The sweet smell of something delicious cooling on a rack. Car horns honking outside while Christmas lights glowed and streamers danced in the wake of the HVAC. It was foreign yet intimately homely all at the same time.

“Shouldn’t you be doing your exercises?” Emma said pointedly.

He glanced into the living room, where Lisa was sitting on the couch with a smug look on her face.

“Yes, dear,” she said, picking up a set of light dumbbells.

Leo released Emma and dropped the hardware bag on the kitchen table. Wood, screws, lightbulbs, and painting supplies spilled out.

“Oh, you didn’t have to…” She gestured at the paint supplies.