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He kissed Penelope goodnight as she made her way out of the kitchen. The little princess offered a smile and a wave to Esme before disappearing down the corridor. Leo turned to Esme and held out his hand indicating that she should precede him.
They walked in silence, passing by the dining room on their way to the front door. The door was wide open now. A few of the guests, dressed in finery, looked up at them as they passed. Frowns skimmed across the dignified diners’ faces.
Esme still had flour on her gown, and her hair had come loose. But she had something they didn’t have. For one more moment at least, she had the king’s attention.
“Thank you for tonight,” said Leo. “For what you did with Penelope.”
“It was my pleasure.”
He looked down at her as though unsure what to do with her now. Leo shifted as though at a loss for words. “I really enjoyed meeting you.”
“It was a dream come true for me.”
His grin came back, but there was sadness at the corner of his mouth. “Disappointed?”
“That you’re not a prince? Yeah, that part’s still a bummer.”
The sadness shook loose, and he laughed. He was her Leo again. The man she met in the street. The man who’d held her in his embrace long seconds after she’d regained her footing.
“But you did slay a dragon for me,” she continued. “And battled flour fairies.”
“Flour fairies?”
“Not many girls can say that.”
“No girl could say that. Seeing as neither dragons nor fairies are real.”
“Must you dash all of my dreams?” Esme sighed dramatically.
“Well, you did dash my coat with flour.”
“Can’t you just pretend it’s fairy dust?”
The sadness crept back into his hazel gaze. “I can’t.”
Esme felt a shift in him. As though he were changing from Leo to King. This was it. Her fairytale was coming to an end. She’d read her fair share of modern day fairytales. There had even been a few royal romances in reality.
But why did she feel that that sparkling, magical light was now dimming on her? The storybook was closing, shutting her out with no happy ending. There was nothing she could do.
“Well, then.” She took a deep breath and let it out. But she had no more stalling tactics. Midnight had struck and left her coated in flour. “Good night, your majesty.”
And then his gaze shifted again. “It’s Leo.”
And it was. Just for one more second. It was a second Esme would hold on to for the rest of her life. That moment she gazed into the eyes of a king and felt the possibility.
“Farewell, Leo.”
“Farewell, Esmeralda.”
Chapter Eleven
He’d never had such a crispy cookie that was also moist and chewy at the same time. It was such a sweet contradiction. Leo urged himself to eat slowly, to savor each morsel. Once this was gone, that would be it.
There were more cookies to be sure. A full dozen sat on a serving plate on the dining table where he had engaged his guests well into the night last evening. But he’d consigned himself to have a taste of only one of Esme’s cookies. It was all he could afford. Even though he wanted more. So much more.
He’d never felt so satisfied by a treat before. He felt both full and starved at the same time. He took another bite, just a small one. The cookie crumbled under his teeth. Like an army on the advance, it spread over his tongue and melted without much effort. The bits of sugar positively danced over his taste buds like dancing sparkles.
Dancing sparkles? He put the other half of the cookie down. What was going on with him?
