Free The Christmas Princess by Patricia McLinn

travel great distances in bad weather and all to see people who can drive us crazy in the shortest amount of time known to man. People — intelligent people, mind you — who
know
you’re a grown up, yet can’t seem to get past the fact they changed your diapers in some distant, dim past, leaving you forever locked in that stage in their minds.”
    Hunter watched April’s face as she stared at the other woman. Was she feeling bad because of the reminder that she wouldn’t be spending these holidays with either her now-ex-fiancé or her family?
    “Sharon—” he tried.
    “Oh, and we spend money we can’t afford,” she continued, “because our mercenary offspring have been brainwashed by the megabucks machine of advertising conglomerates. We stay up until 3 a.m. wrapping heaps of packages — not to mention the impossible task of inserting Tab B2 into Slot 5AA — and the little heathens have all the paper shredded and the packages ripped apart by 5:02 a.m. Twenty minutes later they’re looking around for something new.
    “And dinner! Don’t get me started on Christmas Day dinner. We’ve gotta have all of Ross’ family dishes and then there’s the real dinner —
my
family’s dinner. I feel like I cook for a month, then they plow through it in four and a half minutes. Except for the cookies, of course. Those they eat until they could fuel the entire Eastern seaboard with their sugar high. ”
    April’s lips compressed.
    He tried to change the subject. “It’s time to—”
    Neither woman paid any attention. April spoke over him. “And you love it all, don’t you, Sharon?”
    His boss opened her mouth, and he braced for a flow of hot words. Instead, she held her breath a second then released it in a puff. “Yeah, I do. It’s a great time.”
    They smiled at each other.
    He would never, in his life, understand women.
    “So, what do your kids want for Christmas this year?” April asked her, leaning over to look at her screen.
    “Oh, God, what don’t they want?” Sharon said. “Deposit the inventory of a ToyRUs warehouse in our family room and we’d be all set.”
    He sat in the closer upholstered chair. “No more talk of shopping or Christmas. There’s too much to do.”
    Sharon chuckled. “Hunter Pierce, the
real
Grinch.”
    But April’s eyes were pinned on him, and they had gone huge.
    “Hunter.” She sounded a little breathless. Almost as if she’d read the news on his face or in his voice somehow. But that wasn’t possible. People didn’t read him.
    “The king will see you tomorrow. Three o’clock.”

CHAPTER TEN
----
     
    Sharon whooped. “Hot damn!”
    Rufus sat up, looking around, probably checking if he needed to bark at something.
    April’s eyes widened even more. “He wants to see me?”
    “He’s agreed to see you.”
    She didn’t seem to notice his correction. “Tomorrow.”
    “You’ll do fine.”
    She met his eyes.
    Then she looked away, stood, and walked into the bedroom.
    When his gaze shifted back from the still-open door, Sharon held up one stop-sign hand before following April.
    Rufus stared at him a moment, then trotted after the women.
    Hunter waited. Maybe five seconds.
    “I can’t do this. You have to postpone,” April was saying to Sharon as he entered the room. “Better yet, call it off.”
    “What’s the problem?” he demanded.
    April snapped. “Problem? For starters, let’s try that I have no idea why I’m doing this. All your talk of operational security. You’ve told me hardly anything about this king who’s—”
    “We spent hours on him yesterday.”
    “—supposed to be my grandfather. Dates. Facts. Not who he
is
. How can I—?”
    “It would make him suspicious if you knew too much. The princess was taken when she was a baby in a crib. It’s not as if he’d expect her to have memories of him, the family, or that life.”
    “That is not the point. I can’t believe I’ve gone along with this. Was I nuts?”
    She opened her tote