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“You think so?” Nick asked.
“Oh yes.” She grabbed a green-and-white necklace from the display and held it up to Nick. “No, hold on.” She set that one back down and grabbed a navy blue and white necklace. She held that one and looked between me and Nick.
“Now you two look like good boyfriends.”
My face almost cracked in surprise, but I somehow managed to keep my expression neutral. Nick’s cheeks turned a rosy red, which I actually found quite fucking adorable. He stumbled on his words before saying, “We’ll take them.”
She rolled up our necklaces as she hummed a happy tune. We walked away from the stall with the two necklaces, leaving her with a hundred dollars, eighty of that being left as a gift by Nick. She had nearly been brought to tears by the generous gift, shouting gratefully to us as we left, “Merry Christmas!”
“That was really kind of you,” I said, admiring the necklaces before I turned my gaze to Nick so I could admire the prince at my side. Even though the sun was almost gone, he still wore a cap low on his head. I could still make out his eyes, though, like two lighthouses I had memorized the route to over the past few days. I could always find his eyes.
“The necklaces were just that good.”
“Mhmm.”
I could tell he was bullshitting. He looked at me with a twinkle underneath the shadow of his cap. He hadn’t given her that money because of the necklaces. He’d given it to her because he wanted to.
“Well, I’m sure she’s going to have a great Christmas.”
“How were your holidays? As a kid?”
I wasn’t surprised by the question. Nick had asked me a ton of questions over the past couple of days, and I’d done the same with him. Our curiosity for each other was endless. Like Newton searching for the laws of gravity.
“They were great. I loved Christmas. My parents would do the whole ‘cookies and carrot’ thing the night before, and I freaking loved waking up to an empty plate and an empty glass of milk. Don’t get me wrong, the gifts were great, too, but something about the cookies, milk, and carrot being gone made everything magical. I loved it. Every year. Then after I found my gifts stuffed inside my mom’s closet one holiday and realized Santa wasn’t real, I still left out the plate of treats. And still, they disappeared. By the time I was a teen, we joked that I was just aiding in my dad’s weight problem, but they still ate the cookies and carrot and drank the milk.”
Nick, smiling, narrowed his eyes. “Carrot?”
“That’s what you got from the story?”
“No, of course not.”
I laughed, playfully slapping Nick’s chest, catching myself too late. I momentarily freaked and scanned the crowd, but no one seemed to be paying any attention to us.
“The carrot was for the reindeer,” I said.
“One carrot for all twelve reindeer? Wow. I’m calling PETA.”
I chuckled at that. “And how about you? Anything I could call PETA about?”
“Absolutely not.” Nick held his chin. “I left a trough of organically sourced meal for all twelve of the reindeer along with a five-star course for Santa and a separate buffet for the elves.”
“Of course you would,” I said, laughing, taking in the cool ocean breeze, feeling like I was on top of the world. I wore a pair of khaki shorts and a light-gray button-down shirt, short-sleeved. Normally, my parents rented out a cabin in Tennessee and had us spend Christmas there, so I was used to being bundled up and sitting by a crackling fire. But this variation of the holidays felt equally enchanting.
“The holidays were a fun time,” Nick said as we continued our leisurely stroll, walking past a stand of colorful soap bars and balls that smelled great. “The palace is always decked out, and there are a lot of fun events through the month. It does get tiring by the end of it, though. Especially lately. It’s why I knew I had to get out of there this Christmas. I couldn’t sit around a table, having dinner with my parents and the prime minister, acting like everything was completely fine and dandy. The idea made my skin crawl.”
“I take it you aren’t regretting your choice?”
“Not in the slightest,” Nick said, shooting me a smile that lit up my entire world, from north to south pole. “How about you? Are you regretting our fake-friendship agreement?”
“Oh yeah, duh. I hate this.” I motioned him up and down. “Hanging out with you? It’s literally the worst thing under the sun. Next to having sex with Chris Evans or winning a gajillion dollars.”
“Those all sound like wonderful things.”
I cocked a brow. “Huh. They do, don’t they?”
Nick laughed and I drank in the sound.
“I definitely don’t regret it,” I said, being more serious. “I was nervous about coming on this trip. I thought I’d be an awkward seventh wheel, always being reminded that my relationship crashed and burned. I thought I’d be miserable. But I haven’t. I’ve been having the best time of my life, and I don’t miss my ex at all. I feel like I’ve found peace in the breakup. It’s a really great Christmas gift.”
