CHAPTER 29
A va and Justin rode the rest of the way in silence.
When they arrived at the trailhead, they found Justin’s SUV covered in snow.
“Wow, it really did snow a lot,” Justin said as he helped Ava out of the sleigh.
“If you two are okay here, I’m going to head back,” Bert said. “Some other customers are waiting for a ride.”
“Of course,” Ava said. “Thank you so much for bringing us back first and please thank Samuel and the rest of the staff for…everything.”
Bert smiled. “I will. Be careful on the roads.”
“You, too,” Justin replied.
As the sleigh headed back down the trail, Justin opened his SUV, turned the engine on, and then tossed his keys to Ava.
“What’s this?” she asked as she caught them.
“Get in and get warmed up,” Justin said as he grabbed an ice scraper out of the SUV and started scraping the ice off the front windshield.
Ava walked up to the SUV and looked in the back. “Do you have another one of those?”
“One of what?”
“The thing you’re using to clear off the window,” she said.
“You mean an ice scraper?”
She nodded. “Yes, one of those.”
“For what?” Justin asked.
Ava gave him a look. “So I can help you.”
Justin laughed. “That’s okay. I got it. Just get in and get warm.”
Ava crossed her arms in front of her chest and stared him down. “You think I can’t do it?”
Justin kept scraping. “Have you ever scraped ice off a car before?”
Silence.
“That’s what I thought,” Justin said.
Ava’s eyes narrowed. “It doesn’t mean I can’t do it. We need to find the dog and the sooner we get out of here, the faster we can do that. I want to help.”
Justin stopped scraping and found another ice scraper and gave it to her. “Okay,” he said. “Go for it.”
Ava smiled. “Thank you.” But when she first tried to scrape the ice off the driver’s side window, the scraper slid across the window doing nothing.
“You have to push down harder, at an angle, like this,” Justin said as he took her hand and showed her.
Her pulse quickened when he touched her, and they scraped the icy window together.
“It’s working!” she said, triumphantly.
Justin laughed at her excitement. “Something to add to your royal resume—princess, tiara wearer, and ice scraper.”
“Who says I wear tiaras?”
That stopped Justin’s laugh. “Don’t you? Don’t all princesses?”
“So, you’re an expert now on princesses?” Ava asked with a straight face.
“I…uh…” Justin stumbled then gave up. “I have no idea what I’m talking about.”
Ava hid a smile. “Then maybe less talking and more scraping would be a good idea.”
Justin laughed. “Yes, ma’am.”
Ava raised an eyebrow.
Justin cringed. “Sorry, I mean, Your Highness, Princess…Wow, I have no idea what to call you. I’m just going to shut up now—”
“Good idea,” Ava said, but she was smiling when she started scraping the window again.
“How about this?” Justin asked as he walked over to her and bowed in front of her. “I’m sorry, Your Royal Highness. I’m pretty sure that’s the right thing to say, right? I researched it before I met your mom.”
“You’re close,” Ava said. “The first time you address me should be with my full title, Your Royal Highness, the Princess Ava.”
“Really?” Justin asked. “Why do you use the , saying the Princess Ava?”
“It’s a matter of royal protocol and tradition. It distinguishes a specific titleholder from others who might hold similar ranks.”
“Wow, okay, that’s pretty cool,” Justin said. “Let me try again.” He smiled his sexy smile as he did another bow with an even bigger flourish this time. “I’m sorry, Your Royal Highness, the Princess Ava.”
Ava smiled back at him. “Very good.” She playfully tapped her ice scraper on his right shoulder and then his left. “You may stand.”
Justin stood up, grinning. “Does this make me royal?”
“Do you want to be?” The question flew out of Ava’s mouth before she could stop it.
Their eyes met.
Even with the frigid winter weather, the sparks between them sizzled.
Justin eased the tension with a smile. “I don’t think I could get all the names right,” Justin said. “I’m sure I’m going to forget the right thing to call you and mess up again.”
“You can call me Ava, but only when we’re alone.”
Justin’s eyes widened with surprise.
“Just to make it easier to communicate,” Ava quickly added.
Justin grinned back at her. “Of course. Thank you…Ava.”
Ava’s pulse quickened hearing him say her name. She scraped the window harder.
“I wonder, if I were royal, would I be able to do this?” Justin gathered up a pile of snow from the SUV’s hood and packed it into a giant snowball.
Ava backed away swiftly, but not before Justin threw the snowball, hitting her in the leg.
Ava gasped in shock. “What are you doing?!”
Justin flashed her his sexy smile. “It’s called a snowball fight . Ever heard of it?”
Before Ava could answer, Justin threw another snowball that hit her arm.
“I could have you thrown in a dungeon for this!” Ava shouted at him.
He laughed. “Look at you. Another joke. You’re on a roll.”
“No, this time, I’m being serious. It’s an ancient rule, but a rule nonetheless. Look it up.”
When Justin laughed louder, Ava made her own snowball that was twice as big as any he’d made.
“You need to be punished,” she said, dead serious.
As she walked toward him, he kept laughing as he took several steps back. “You wouldn’t dare. That wouldn’t be very princess-like of you.”
Ava never took her eyes off his face. “Remember, you know nothing about being a princess.” Ava fired off her snowball. It smacked Justin in the chest.
The stunned look on his face made Ava laugh loudly as she made another snowball and marched up to him until she stood toe-to-toe with him. She looked into his eyes.
“If you really knew me, you’d know I love a good snowball fight,” Ava said as she lifted her giant snowball high into the air, dangling it over his head.
“No, no, no, no, no!” Justin hollered.
“And I always win,” Ava said before happily dropping the snowball on Justin’s head.
It exploded, covering him with snow.
Ava burst into laughter, doubling over as she clutched her stomach.
“Oh, you think this is funny?” Justin asked as he brushed snow off him.
“Take me to the dungeon, because you’re going down!
” Justin was scooping up another snowball when his phone rang, giving Ava a chance to run to the SUV, jump inside, and lock the doors.
She was still laughing and feeling pretty proud of herself for outsmarting him until she saw Justin’s expression suddenly change as he listened to his call.
He wasn’t laughing anymore.
When he turned away from her, she got out of the SUV and walked over to him.
“Justin, is everything okay?”
Justin turned around as he hung up his phone.
She immediately could see by the pain in his eyes that something was horribly wrong.
Her heart stopped. “Is it…Stormy?”
Justin nodded.