Once Upon a Princess

by Holly Jacobs

  It was a stab in the dark, but Parker knew she was right. That same feeling was deep in her gut. Her father had hired someone to watch her…again.

  That’s why Uncle Jace had looked familiar.

  That’s why he was out here in the dark, watching her in the store.

  He was her father’s paid flunky.

  Maybe she did have a touch of second sight, because she was certain she was right. For the last few weeks she’d occasionally had that old feeling that someone was watching her. She’d tried to convince herself that it was just her imagination spurred on by her father’s renewed efforts to get her to come home. But maybe she’d been right after all.

  “Okay, I’m getting out my phone,” she called.

  He didn’t just step out of the shadows, he sort of materialized.

  “What are you babbling about?” he asked.

  Despite the fact she’d been expecting him, Parker jumped.

  She tried to hide her nervousness by going on the offensive. “Babbling? I don’t babble. Ever. What does he have you looking for?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the man said.

  There was enough light on the edge of the path for her to be reminded of how knee-weakeningly good-looking the man was. Dark and—here in the park at night—dangerous even. He was every woman’s fantasy.

  Every woman but Parker Dillon.

  If Uncle Jace was working for her father, he wasn’t her fantasy—he was her nightmare.

  “Sure you do, Uncle Jace. My father. You’re one of his thugs. Don’t deny it. It’s an insult to my intelligence. The reason you looked familiar to me yesterday was because I have seen you. I just figured out where. At the hockey game last week. You and the kids were there. Are they really your niece and nephew or just kids my father hired to give you cover?”

  “They’re real, all right. And I would never use them for cover. They’re getting their summertime kicks out of following me around. I doubt you’d have spotted me if it wasn’t for them.”

  Parker looked at the intense man. Even in the dark, he was a sight to behold. “I don’t think you’re the kind of man who fades into the woodwork real well.”

  “Should I take that as a compliment?” he asked, a devilish smile on his face.

  “Take it however you want, then tell me why you’re following me.”

  “Sorry. No can do.”

  “Fine, then I’m calling the cops and telling them I have a stalker.”

  “Hey, whatever makes you happy.” He shrugged and looked rather nonchalant about the idea.

  “Nothing about this makes me happy,” she stated as she marched back up the path to the street.

  She could hear her stalker behind her.

  Not that she cared.

  Let him follow her all he wanted.

  He might not have admitted it, but Parker was sure that her father was behind this.

  She was going back to the coffeehouse and calling home. She’d tell her father to call his watchdog off or else she’d disappear, go into hiding somewhere he’d never find her.

  She hated to threaten her father, but he’d gone too far this time.

  Sending Tanner—her unwanted supposed fiancé—after her was one thing, but siccing a spy on her was another thing entirely.

  Stalker Boy took a couple quick steps and was next to her. “Just what are you up to now?”

  “Don’t you worry about it. Just know you’re about to be out of a job.”

  “I’m not worried about my job.”

  “Aha! You just admitted it.”

  “I didn’t admit it was your father.”

  “You don’t have to admit it was him, I know it was him. I won’t be followed. I had enough of that growing up.”

  That old feeling of panic threaded through her system and Parker fought to tamp it back down. This was just a flunky, not the press. He didn’t have a camera, just a great deal of dark looks.

  “Princess—”

  Whatever else he planned to say was lost as Parker stopped dead in her tracks and stood toe-to-toe with him. “Don’t ever, ever, call me that again. I’m no princess here. I’m Parker. Just Parker Dillon. An ordinary girl who’s just trying to get by.”

  “Even if you weren’t a princess, there would be nothing ordinary about you, Parker,” he said, his voice a caress.

  For one moment, Parker felt the urge to touch him, just lightly run a finger down his stubbled chin. But that was insane.

  She didn’t know anything about Uncle Jace other than he was her father’s watchdog and he was good to his niece and nephew.

  And despite the fact he was following her, he didn’t know her or else he’d know she was ordinary. That’s all she ever wanted to be.

  Normal.

  Everyday.

  The type of person no one noticed. Someone who warranted no headlines or tabloid attention.

  She turned and hurried back into the shop, flipped the sign to Closed and started to slam the door, but Jace walked in and took a seat in one of the booths before she managed it.

  She gave him her best withering look, then shut the door.

  “Can I get a coffee?” he asked.

  “No.”

  Cara poked her head through the door. “You’re back.”

  “Yeah,” Parker practically growled.

  Cara looked concerned. “Problems?”

  “Nothing I can’t handle.”

  After all, she’d been handling her father and his overbearing protectiveness for years. She’d handle this new tactic.

  “Who is he?” Cara asked.

  “Uncle Jace,” Parker scoffed.

  When Cara looked confused, Parker added, “Not my uncle. He’s a henchman my father hired to watch me.”

  “Oh, no. I thought your father had learned his lesson after what happened to the last man he hired to trail you. Poor Hoffman.”

  “He obviously didn’t learn enough.” But he was going to.

  “But Hoffman certainly did,” Cara said with a giggle.

  “What happened to Hoffman?” Jace asked.

  Cara’s giggles escalated. “You don’t want to know. You’re probably next, and it wouldn’t be kind to make you worry needlessly, because worry or not, she’d get you.”

  His eyes narrowed and he studied Parker a moment, then turned back to Cara. “Get me how?”

  Cara looked at Parker, then back at Jace. “Sorry.”

  Obviously deciding Cara wasn’t going to tell him, he switched to Parker.

  “Hey, Princ—Parker, just what did you do to this Hoffman?”

  “That’s for me to know and you to find out,” she said, then realized how juvenile the statement had sounded. “Just sit there and be quiet.”

  She picked up the phone and started dialing her father’s private number.

  “What time is it there?” Jace asked. “Are you going to wake him?”

  “I wouldn’t care if I did. He deserves to be woken up. But I’m pretty safe calling whenever. He doesn’t sleep much.”

  She didn’t add that in that respect she was her father’s daughter. The rest of the world needed seven or eight hours of sleep a night. Like her father, she existed on three or four hours at the most.

  Those extra hours of not sleeping left her a lot of time for thinking and scheming, which is how she’d thought of the great get-Hoffman plan.

  Tonight she’d be thinking of a new get-Jace plan.

  The phone rang.

  “Hello?” her father said.

  Without any warning, Parker lobbed her initial volley. “How could you?”

  “I told you Tanner was coming.”

  She groaned. She was so caught up with Jace that she’d forgotten her no-way-fiancé was coming to Erie.

  She glanced at the clock. Shey would probably be here with him soon.

  The night was going to be a long one—and the length had nothing to do with the few hours she spent sleeping.

  “Not Tanner,” she said. �
�Jace. Your flunky.”

  “I’d never hire just a flunky to watch over my baby girl,” her father assured her. “Jason O’Donnell is a very well-respected private investigator. The mayor himself recommended him.”

  “And what’s he supposed to be investigating?”

  “You. He’s supposed to find out what’s keeping you there in Erie. Or rather, who.”

  “I’ve told you over and over again, there’s no one in my life other than my friends, Shey and Cara. I just can’t go back to being a princess. You know what my last year there was like. Stalked by reporters, every move I made exploited and exaggerated. I like my life here. I like being just Parker. I like the anonymity, the ordinariness of it all.

  “Papa, all fathers think that their daughters are special. You’re biased. And despite the fact that I love you, I’m annoyed. Very annoyed. Call off your watchdog.”

  “No. He’ll stay until Tanner brings you home. I’ve missed you, so please make it sooner rather than later.”

  Her father hung up.

  Parker stared at the phone in her hand a moment, then turned to Uncle Jace.

  Jason O’Donnell, private detective.

  “It looks like I’m stuck with you,” she said.

  “Oh, no. Another Hoffman?” Cara whispered.

  “Oh, yeah,” Parker said, glaring at her new nemesis. “Maybe even worse.”

  Cara shot Jace a sympathetic look, then said, “I think I’ll leave you two to duke it out. I don’t enjoy all this drama.”

  Parker smiled. “Go ahead. I’m fine. I can handle anything he dishes out.”

  “I know you can,” Cara said as she started back to the bookstore. “That’s what scares me.”

  Jace looked from the small brunette who gave him a sympathetic wave before she left to the tall blonde who was glaring in his direction.

  He wasn’t sure who Hoffman was, but first thing tomorrow he was going to find the man and see just what the princess—Parker, he corrected himself—had done to the guy.

  Knowledge was the best protection. And with the way Parker was glaring at him, he was pretty sure he needed all the protection he could get.

  “When I get through with you—” she started, but Jace didn’t get to hear just what she had planned for him because at that moment the door to the coffeehouse opened.

  He’d been watching Parker for two weeks and knew that the woman with the short red hair was Shey Carlson, her friend and the owner of Monarch’s. It wasn’t Shey who caught his attention. It was the man who walked in next to her.

  The guy looked to be about the same height as Parker, so he couldn’t be more than five-ten. But he seemed to have a larger-than-life sort of aura that gave the illusion of being taller. But Jace wasn’t fooled. He was in the business of seeing beyond illusions.

  He had dark brown hair that was impeccably styled and a suit that Jace was sure had some designer label attached to it.

  “Princess Marie Anna,” the guy said in a deep, sophisticated voice.

  “It’s Parker,” she practically growled.

  Parker obviously wasn’t overly impressed with the GQ looks of the man.

  “It’s been a long time, Tanner,” she said in more of a normal tone.

  “Too long.” He shot her a thousand-watt smile that had probably melted the hearts of women all over the globe.

  “Not long enough,” she muttered.

  Tanner.

  Jace knew the name from the files Parker’s father had sent. Prince Eduardo Matthew Tanner Ericson of Amar.

  Parker’s fiancé.

  “Your father sent me to bring you home.”

  “I am home.”

  The man’s perfection was marred by his sudden frown. “Back to Eliason.”

  “You’re welcome to go back to Eliason or Amar on the very next plane out of Erie. But I’m staying here.”

  “That’s it? I flew all this way to see my fiancée—”

  “I am not your fiancée,” Parker interrupted.

  “—and all you have to say to me is leave?”

  “That’s about the shape of things. And speaking of leaving, I’m on my way out. You don’t mind closing up, Shey?”

  “Of course not,” her friend assured her. She nodded toward the prince. “What about him?”

  “Would you give him a ride to whatever hotel he’s staying at?”

  “Sure.”

  “Hey, watchdog, are you coming?” Parker asked.

  “Uh.”

  Jace wasn’t sure what to do. He was supposed to be trailing her, not escorting her. But even though she seemed totally in control, he knew she was upset.

  “Sure thing,” he said. “How about I drive?”

  “Sounds good to me, since I took the bus.”

  “The bus?” the prince exclaimed. “My fiancée is riding public transportation?”

  “You don’t have a fiancée, but if you were referring to me, then yes, I take public transportation. My father shut off access to my trust and I’m broke. So I sold my car.”

  “But, but…” the prince sputtered.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Jace said. “I’ll see that she gets home all right.”

  “Home,” she said to the prince. “I’m home and you need to go home. Go back to Amar. There’s nothing for you here in Erie—especially not a fiancée.”

  With that she turned and walked out the door.

  Jace felt some sympathy for the guy.

  Tanner might be the suave, smooth sort of man that generally set Jace’s teeth on edge, but he’d just been totally shot down in front of witnesses. Jace could empathize with that.

  He wondered who was going to empathize with his plight, because he was sure that Princess Parker was going to do her best to make him more miserable than the prince looked.

  Maybe more miserable than the mysterious Hoffman.

  Jace sighed as he chased after the princess.

  It was going to be a long, hot summer.

  Chapter Three

  “I didn’t really take the bus this morning. I walked. It’s only a few blocks,” the princess—Parker—admitted.

  Jace had known that. He’d been trailing her as she’d left her house that morning and walked the few blocks to Monarch’s.

  She’d obviously forgotten she was his assignment, which meant she forgot that he knew where her house was. He didn’t remind her as she gave him directions. He preferred that Tanner be the focus of her ire, not him.

  As they turned onto Front Street, she said, “That’s it,” and pointed.

  Jace eased into the driveway of the neat, two-story brick home. It wasn’t quite a castle, but it was a beautiful house.

  “It’s nice,” he murmured.

  “Uh,” she said, “not the house. The garage.”

  He knew that, as well, of course.

  He knew the house belonged to a local manicurist who worked at a small beauty store across from Monarch’s. And that Parker had moved into the garage apartment three years ago.

  What he didn’t know and hadn’t been able to figure out is why a princess, a woman who could buy and sell half of Erie, chose to live in a garage apartment.

  Her father had prevented her access to her money, and Jace could have understood if she’d moved in recently. But she’d moved in right after college.

  “Why?” he murmured.

  “Why what?” Parker asked.

  He hadn’t meant to ask the question out loud. But since she’d overheard, he figured what the heck and asked, “Why do you live in a garage?”

  “Over the garage. There’s an apartment.”

  “But you’re a princess. Why would you live over a garage? You could live anywhere.”

  “Where should a princess live?” she countered.

  “Never mind,” he muttered.

  He wasn’t going to say that a princess should live in a castle. It was too cliché.

  “Come on,” she pressed.

  “Forget I asked.”

  “I k
now you’re thinking it. You know you’re thinking it. Go ahead, tell me. You might as well.”

  “You’re going to make me say it out loud, aren’t you?” he asked, though he knew the answer.

  Parker was the kind of woman who was going to make him say it, who would keep pushing and prodding until he actually spoke the words and embarrassed himself in the process.

  “Yep.”

  “Fine,” he blurted out. “A castle. A princess should live in a castle. I bet your family has one. A big one like Windsor Castle, right?”

  “Yes, we have a castle. Europe’s full of them. They’re practically a dime a dozen. People there don’t get as excited about them as Americans do. Ours isn’t as big as Windsor, but it’s big enough that we’ve never run out of guest rooms. Not that it matters to me anymore. You see, I don’t live in Eliason, I live in Erie. And I have an apartment over a garage. Do you want to make something of it?”

  Jace knew that Parker was raring for a fight. And as annoyed as she was that he’d been hired to watch her, he suspected that she was more annoyed about her fiancé showing up in town.

  Jace prided himself on being a wise man who knew how to pick his battles. And this wasn’t a battle he wanted to fight. So he simply said, “No, I’m not going to make anything of it.”

  “Good.” She opened the door and got out of the car.

  Jace followed suit.

  “What now?” she asked.

  “You going to invite me up?”

  “Why would I do something like that? We’re not friends. You’re my stalker.”

  “I am not,” he said. “Your father hired me to make sure you were okay.”

  “My father hired you to spy on me.”

  “No. He’s just worried about you. He cares about you. And maybe I want you to invite me in so I can check out your place and feel better knowing I was doing my job.”

  “That’s what I am—a job. Well, you can report to your boss that you watched me go in the door. I’m going to assume that’s enough for him.”

  “Hey, far be it from me to get in between whatever problems you’re having with your father, but—”