see out the windshield. “Does it look like I can go any faster?”
Jesus. Just when he’d started to think that Her Royal Highness—she was an actual fucking Her Royal Highness—with her sad father and her kindness to Gabby, had a human side, she’d reverted to form. She’d gotten all stiff and prissy and entitled. Or maybe she was just delusional. Maybe she thought a fairy godmother was going to appear, harness some magical flying horses to his cab, and off they would fly to catch the yacht.
“It is vital that I reach that boat before it leaves.” Her tone was clipped. Prim. Dripping with privilege.
He was driving a princess to a party on a yacht. That was not something he had a ton of patience for. “God forbid you should miss your night of champagne and caviar, Your Most Exalted Majestyness.”
He was being mean, but he didn’t care. There were people in this world for whom twelve bucks for pasta on a Thursday night was a splurge. How dare she elbow her way into his cab—his off-duty cab—and start ordering him around?
She pressed her lips together and looked out her window.
Fuck. That was the problem with him—he did care about being mean. Not a lot. But enough for a splinter to work its way under his skin—his mother had raised him too well.
But not enough to apologize. So he just kept driving. There was a shortcut they could take around Washington Square Park.
“Leo! Give me your phone!”
“Why?” He tried to limit screen time. Dani had told him that too much of it fried kids’ brains, and Dani knew about that stuff. Other than Minecraft, which he and Gabby played together—he couldn’t help himself; it satisfied his frustrated architectural ambitions—he gave her an hour a day.
“I want to look up Eldovia.”
Sighing, he tossed the phone through the partition.
A few minutes later, she was reading aloud from Eldovia’s Wikipedia entry. “‘Though not diversified, Eldovia’s economy is robust. It is dominated by manufacturing—of luxury watches primarily, but also of power tools.’”
He chuckled. Power tools and Rolexes? Maybe this woman’s huge watch was a homegrown specialty.
“Then there’s a whole bunch of stuff about winter tourism, but it all says ‘Citation needed.’” Gabby laughed. “I could totally update this right now. I’d be like, ‘Source: Actual princess of country.’”
Gabby chattered happily for a while, not noticing that the princess was growing increasingly agitated. She was trying to hide it—she had her right hand resting over the watch on her left arm, and she’d shift to the side and subtly peek at it from time to time.
Leo should keep his mouth shut. Gabby was happy—and talking, which was a minor miracle. But eff him if he didn’t suddenly want this princess chick to be happy and talking, too. “You gonna do any New York Christmasy stuff while you’re here? Skating at Rockefeller Center?”
She looked startled. “No. I don’t think so.”
“Not a skater?”
“Actually, I’m quite a good skater. I just don’t think I . . . will have time.”
“Too busy yachting?” He said it teasingly this time.
She smiled, but it was a pathetic one. “Something like that.”
A sad princess to go with the sad king?
Well. Not his problem. He turned south on Sixth Avenue, reasoning that he might be able to shave a few minutes off their trip if he wound his way through Greenwich Village—he knew its maze of nonstandard streets like the back of his hand. Her Most Royal Prissiness didn’t know what good service she was getting here.
Soon enough, they were crossing the West Side Highway with five minutes to spare. He slowed to a halt as they reached the end of the road. You couldn’t drive right up to the docks from here, so she would have to walk the rest of the way.
As Leo watched the princess heave a shaky breath before getting out—he would have thought, given how impatient she’d been, that she’d have leapt out of the car—he realized she was not looking forward to this party.
“We’ll walk you the rest of the way.” He got out and opened the back door for Gabby. Max barked. “Not you.” But then he rethought that. There was a little circular park ahead of them, and the beast could pee there. “All right. Come on, everybody.”
He leashed the dog, locked the car, prayed his illegal parking job wouldn’t earn him a ticket, and they set out, walking briskly.
“I don’t have any money,” Princess Marie said, loping along beside him. “But do you have