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)
** To receive a FREE BOOK and an alert when Susan’s next books, click now to sign up for Susan’s Newsletter: http://susanhatler.com/newsletter **
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.
* To receive a FREE BOOK, click the following link now to sign up for Susan’s Newsletter: susanhatler.com/newsletter *
You can reach Susan here:
Facebook: facebook.com/authorsusanhatler
Instagram: instagram.com/susanhatler
Twitter: twitter.com/susanhatler
Website: susanhatler.com
Blog: susanhatler.com/cat/susans-blog
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)