Once Upon a Date - Susan Hatler Page 0,42

her a brilliant smile.

“Yeah, right. Tell me, for real.”

“Is it that obvious?” I sighed, taking a sip of champagne. “What can I say? I’m heartbroken, Missy. It helps that there are so many friends here, but . . .”

She nodded. “I get it, trust me. Try and forget about the whole Brooks thing for tonight, so you can enjoy the evening. You never know, you might even find your real life knight in shining armor.”

I smiled, appreciating her support. Things went from bad to worse, though, when the DJ put on the next song, and Celine Dion’s beautiful voice began singing the words to “Beauty and the Beast.” Then Peabo Bryson joined in and my vision blurred. I quickly escaped to the restroom before anyone could see me.

As the romantic song that Brooks and I had danced to at the masquerade ball rang out, memories flooded my mind and I couldn’t take it anymore. I knew Brooks loved me. I felt it in everything he said and did. He may be able to give up on us easily, because he’d been hurt before, but I had the strength to be his knight in shining armor. I pulled my phone out of my purse and dialed his number before I could change my mind. I heard the click right away.

“Brooks? It’s me. Look, we need to talk. It’s just th—”

“Hi, you’ve reached the voicemail of Brooks Keller. I’m unavailable to take your call at the moment, but if you leave your name, number, and a short message, I’ll get back to you as soon as I am available.”

I waited impatiently for Brooks’ message to end. When the beep finally sounded, I took a deep breath, and said, “You may not believe in modern-day fairy tales, Brooks, but I’m here to tell you they are real. I’m here with my friends and you should come see them. They’ve found their happy-ever-afters and it didn’t always come so easily for them. I’m not letting you ruin ours because you’re scared. We need to meet and talk this through. Call me.”

I hung up and slipped my phone back into my purse, feeling more nervous than ever. What if he didn’t call me back? If he truly was my prince, then he would. I had to believe that. If not . . . well, I still wasn’t sure I was ready to give up so easily.

When I left the restroom, I noticed everyone hurrying out the front door. For a moment, I wondered if there was a fire or some other emergency, but there was no alarm ringing. I saw Frankie, a reporter from the news outlet Triple S (aka: Sacramento Social Scene), hurrying by.

“What’s going on?” I asked him.

“Something to do with a white horse. Isn’t that fabulous? That’s all I know,” he said, joining the crowd to exit Fashionably Late, even though the party had hardly begun.

I frowned in confusion, but as there didn’t appear to be anyone left in the store, I followed the crowd, which was, ironically, something I’d always tried to avoid.

“Missy, what’s going on?” I asked, catching up with Missy and Nick.

“Look, Michelle!” Missy grinned and pointed to a beautiful white horse standing patiently in the street, a line of cars behind it—with some drivers honking their horns and others recording the whole thing on their cell phones.

The tuxedoed rider turned his head as he searched the crowd until his blue eyes locked with mine. My heart flipped and I felt heat rushing to my cheeks.

“Brooks!” I stared, with my eyes widening. “I-I just called you. You didn’t answer.”

He grinned. “I was a little busy.”

I clapped my hand to my mouth. This was a scene from my book! In it, the hero needs to get to the heroine, but he’s stuck in traffic, so he unhooks a white horse and rides through the mayhem to reach her. Ironically, it was also the scene that Brooks had branded as the most unrealistic.

A police car pulled up and an officer approached Brooks on the horse. But before he could get to him, Abigail’s boyfriend, Cooper, who was also a cop, called the officer over and asked him to give Brooks a minute.

Brooks steered the horse toward me and came to a halt on the sidewalk. With one hand holding the reins he swept the other in the air in a sweeping gesture and cleared his throat.

“My name is Prince Brooks Keller, and by royal command it is decreed that I am to return to my kingdom only when I have Princess Michelle Moss by my side. I have been searching lands near and far for my lady, and I am not to return until I find her, for it is written in the stars that then, and only then, will I take my rightful place on the throne of Great Kellerdom.”

The horse began to get a little spooked as everyone inched closer and closer, looking from Brooks to me and then back to him again, not quite believing (but loving) what they were seeing. The police officer had now been joined by a colleague but neither of them made any move to stop Brooks’ declaration.

“This is going to go viral online, I just know it,” someone shouted, and the crowd laughed good-naturedly.

“Brooks, what on earth are you doing?” I asked, in a half whisper, half yell. I was mortified, but genuinely moved, too. “You’re breaking the law!”

“I need a do-over,” Brooks said, as he jumped down from the horse. “The only thing that will be broken here tonight is my heart, if you don’t come with me, Princess Michelle Moss.” A collective ‘awww’ went up from the crowd, and I noticed that even the officer smiled.

“For once in my life, I’m making the unrealistic a reality to prove to you that I can and will believe in fairy tales as long as I have you.”

A silence fell on the crowd as everyone strained to hear what Brooks was saying.

“The truth is . . . I love you, Michelle. I’ve always loved you. I regret the choice I made when I was young and stupid. I should’ve put our relationship first like you did. I should’ve gone to a college near you. I won’t make the mistake of separating us ever again. So . . .”

He knelt down on one knee and lifted his hand to reveal a tiny red velvet box. Inside was a sparkling ring with a princess cut diamond sitting on a platinum band. I clapped my hand to my mouth as I realized this was the exact ring from my book.

“Will you do me the honor of marrying me? So we can live happily ever after?”

A lone cheer went up from the audience and I recognized Courtney’s voice, which was swiftly stifled by more cheers as others waited silently for my reply. Everyone leaned forward, closer to us, as if they were straining to hear my answer.

“There’s nothing I would love more, Prince Brooks. Yes, I’ll marry you . . .” I sobbed, as he smiled and slipped the ring onto my finger. “You are my happy-ever-after,” I said.

Car horns beeped in celebration—a kind of modern day fanfare—as Brooks took me in his arms, dipped me back low and kissed me in the middle of the street while the crowd cheered. Even with a modern day, very realistic prince, my fairy-tale dream had finally come true.

The End

If you enjoyed spending time

with these characters,

be sure to read Krista’s story in:

Destination Date

(Do-Over Date Series, 7)

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About the Author

SUSAN HATLER is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author, who writes humorous and emotional contemporary romance and young adult novels. Many of Susan’s books have been translated into German, Spanish, French, and Italian. A natural optimist, she believes life is amazing, people are fascinating, and imagination is endless. She loves spending time with her characters and hopes you do, too.

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Titles by Susan Hatler

Do-Over Date Series

Million Dollar Date

The Double Date Disaster

The Date Next Door

Date to the Rescue

Fashionably Date

Once Upon a Date

Destination Date

The Wedding Whisperer Series

The Wedding Charm

The Wedding Catch

My Wedding Date

The Wedding Bet

Kissed by the Bay Series

Every Little Kiss

The Perfect Kiss

Just One Kiss

The Sweetest Kiss

A Christmas Kiss

All About That Kiss

Forever in a Kiss

A Kiss for Santa

Better Date than Never Series

Love at First Date

Truth or Date

My Last Blind Date

Save the Date

A Twist of Date

License to Date

Driven to Date

Up to Date

Déjà Date

Date and Dash

Christmas Mountain Clean Romance Series

The Christmas Compromise

‘Twas the Kiss Before Christmas

A Sugar Plum Christmas

Treasured Dreams Series

An Unexpected Date

An Unexpected Kiss

An Unexpected Love

An Unexpected Proposal

An Unexpected Wedding

An Unexpected Joy

An Unexpected Baby

Young Adult Novels

See Me

The Crush Dilemma

Shaken (Mind Reader Series, 1)

Linked (Mind Reader Series, 2)