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We share a smile. Was that another bonding moment? Could we have come to some kind of truce between us?
By now, we’ve reached a side entrance to the palace.
“I look forward to seeing you poking a cheese wheel with a stick at The Games, but now I've really got to go.”
“Where are you off to?”
“Why? Are you going to try and crash my next thing, too?”
“I didn't crash the peafowl event.”
Why can’t she get this point? Obstinance, that’s why. She’s an obstinate woman with thoroughly kissable lips.
She shakes her head at me before she turns towards the door. “See you ‘round, Alex.”
“I’ll look forward to it, Texas.” I watch as she breezes through the door into the palace, satisfied I’ve begun to melt the iceberg, just as Father instructed.
Chapter 15
Maddie
“Why do I have to change again, Grandmama?” I ask as Alice zips my dress and fusses with a silver belt, fixing me for the fancy lunch.
My grandmama smiles at my reflection, herself wearing a pretty pink dress that complements her skin tone. “Because, my dear, you were already photographed in a similar dress. If you're seen in what seems to be the same dress within a couple of days? Well, people will talk.”
“What will they say?” I ask on a laugh. “New Princess wears the same dress for an entire 12 hours! National scandal! Bring in the military, STAT!”
“You may not understand this yet, my dear, but one way or another you are the country’s newest style icon. Think of Kate Middleton, or Grace Kelly, or Princess Diana. Even your old grandmama was a style icon in her day.”
“I bet you were a total style icon, Grandmama.”
“Oh, I was quite the fashionista,” she replies with a grin. “Some said I was the Jackie O of Europe, although I never quite bought into the idea. I was my own person with my own ideas about fashion, even if, between you and me, the idea of being known as the European Jackie O was rather exciting.”
“I bet she had nothing on you, Grandmama.”
“You were very stylish and beautiful, ma’am,” Alice agrees. “You still are.”
“Oh, you both flatter me,” Grandmama replies, flushed with happiness.
“I need to see this fashionista. I'm going to Google you,” I tell her.
“Is that another one of your Texas expressions?” she asks.
“Google. You know, search the Internet? Not Texas, more like global,” I explain.
Grandmama looks at me blankly.
How can my grandmama not know about Googling? I mean she's old, sure, but she lives in the world, doesn't she? I open my mouth, ready to try to explain what the Internet is when she nudges me.
“Of course I know what Google is, Maddie dear. I was just playing with you. There's life in this old girl yet, you know.”
I giggle. Grandmama’s willingness to relate to me and her desire to know me has made it easy to form a quick bond with her. Her sense of humor helps, too, and I genuinely enjoy spending time with her and Grandpapa, a little family unit I feel very much a part of.
It’s something I honestly didn’t expect. Weird, I know. I mean, they’re my grandparents, so of course they should feel like family. What I didn't expect was to find family in the real sense of the word. A closeness. A bond.
I search on my phone and land on an image of Grandmama in a beehive hairstyle and a slinky 60s dress.
“Oh em gee, Grandmama! You really were the Jackie O of Europe.”
