Twenty minutes later, I’ve changed my outfit into a white, eyelet peasant blouse that’s loose and wide at the neck. I’ve also managed to pull it even wider so my shoulders show. That move has stretched the little floral ruffles at the edges of the neckline, but I’m pleased with the effect because it does look very princess bride. I know the girls will love it. Hopefully they won’t be disappointed that I’ve paired it with a plain black miniskirt, but that’s the best I can do on short notice and limited wardrobe choices. The veil that Angel had left in the box had turned out to be a gorgeous, real wedding veil. I think it’s antique, because of its off white color and how the gauzy fabric is slightly stiff so it feels fragile. It has these amazing embroidered flowers all along the edge of it, and I swear the thing looks like it was made over one hundred years ago. I’m very careful as I attach it to my cute fresh-daisy headband, wondering if it was Mrs. Perino’s wedding veil.

To make up for how my outfit might be lacking compared to the veil as well as the hard work everyone’s done, I’ve gone all out with my hair. I Googled every photo of the Disney princesses and compared their long, flowing locks side-by-side. Then, I searched “best bride hair” and “bride hair with a crown and veil”. I’ve settled on keeping the front part of mine pulled up-and-back, leaving the rest of it cascading down my back, long and curling just how Anna and Julia would expect it to be.

Thank God for the numerous YouTube videos that showed me how to make a poof up front and how to use the pins to create waves all around it. When I attached the daisy crown, tiara thing it came out perfect. I’ve even secured the veil by pushing pins into little loops that were sewn under the embroidered flowers so you can’t see how it’s pinned. I’ve put on the necklace the girls made for me out of painted and glittered macaroni, and for full effect, I took some art glitter I found in Cara’s studio drawers and sprinkled it generously onto my hair, headband, and veil so that I would match the glitter in the garden they put out there.

Hello, pixie dust!

I can only hope I’ve done myself proud.

When the sound of frantic knocking starts at the door, I run to open it with a smile.

I think I’m about to be met by a swarm of dressed-up six- and eight-year-olds, but instead I’m shocked to find all of Guarderobe, including Vere and the baby, crowded on my small front porch. And they’re dressed how Angel was. Guys are in suit jackets, and Vere’s resplendent in this pretty, all-sliver, glittery dress.

“What are you doing here?” I try to push back the veil and locks of hair I’d arranged on both sides of my face to impress the girls before I opened the door, as my eyes lock on to Royce’s shocked expression. The way his eyes are going over my face, my head, and, I think, my bare shoulders has my stomach flipping all over the place, because this guy, this face, the one without the mask and the smile that seems to be just for me—this is the guy I spent the whole day painting.

And he’s so devastatingly handsome I’ve realized, despite Angel’s compliments about my painting, I haven’t captured one bit of how beautiful he is. I’m not even close.

Damn you, Royce Devlin…

“Happy birthday?” Vere sighs heavily. “We are—we were—going to crash your party, and now—um—” When I pull my eyes away from Royce, I realize that for the first time since I’ve met her, she’s not smiling all the way to her eyes. Her easily flushing cheeks also seem completely pale. “We—were—um—” She points to the garden behind her. “Mrs. Perino asked us to come.”

“Well, that explains your perfect outfits. And…I guess you’re welcome. Most of you, anyhow.” I fold my arms across my chest, feeling self-conscious about what’s going on with my hair, because a whole bunch of glitter is raining down all over my shoulders. Apparently when I opened the door with such a flourish, even more flew out and made their dark jackets sparkle, too. I’d yank down the hair and the veil, but I’ve secured it so tightly I’ll set off some sort of glitter blizzard should I dare to touch it.

Adam says softly, “We’re sorry to appear like this, and we meant it to be a fun surprise, but it appears not much fun will be had tonight for us. The fans are going crazy, the paparazzi are on a Guarderobe manhunt, we’ve got a show tonight, and we almost didn’t make it unseen into the unmarked minibus. Everyone’s really flipping out, and, if you must know, so are we.”

“Okay, and this concerns me…why?”

Royce continues, “Our two publicists, Gregory, and Mrs. Felix—pretty much anyone and everyone who’s involved with our professional and personal lives are all in the main house.” He motions to the back door behind him. “And from the way Angel yelled at all of us—hell, like he actually just threatened my life—it appears Mrs. Perino and Angel are slightly beside themselves.”

“This about the newspaper article?”

Royce nods. “That, yes. But, of course, they’re also freaking out about the usual more that comes with the giant conglomerate that is Guarderobe.”

Adam frowns and the others blink like this situation is not a surprise, rather it’s another boring day at work for them. “It’s on me why things are blowing up like this so suddenly.”

I shrug. “I don’t care about that newspaper article, so you can all stop freaking out. I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I would appreciate it if you could disappear before your circus train catches up and puts the Perino’s in the spotlight.” I put my hand on my mouth. “Oh God. Did my brother see you?”

Adam glances behind him, then back at me. “For now, your brother and the girls have been hustled into the basement, so no, they didn’t see us coming in here through the garden.”

“Not yet, you mean. If that kid catches wind that you’re here, he will scream like a little girl, and he will expect to go to your concert tonight, and I don’t think the timing is good for that at all considering the article, and even if Mrs. Perino did invite you, I’m begging you to please leave.”

Adam’s face falls. “Gregory is meeting our attorneys over here, with others on Skype. I need to make some phone calls. There’s much to say and do here tonight. We need to do most of it without being seen or photographed, and this is a perfect place to hide out. Again, later you will understand that this is kind of my fault.”

“Kind of his fault, he says?” Hunter glowers. “This whole summer and being stuck in a hotel in Orlando doing these crazy shows is all your fault. All of it, and you will make it up to all of us someday.”

“I’ve promised and I will.” Adam nods.

Royce leans against the porch post. “Like you promised us last summer? Being stuck in that castle in Wales? When will you make that up, too? Christ. When will everyone stop pretending that he can make this all up to us. After today, any make-ups are going to be impossible.”

Adam puts his hands through his hair, looking too anguished to answer.

Vere whispers, “Don’t listen to them, Adam. It always works out for the very best. We simply haven’t found where ‘the best’ is yet with this situation.” Vere, of course, is the only person who could find the sunny side of anything.

Annoyed, I lower my brows and glare. “Royce, you’re the one who caused the newspaper article. You said all of that stuff to that girl. It’s not just Adam’s fault.”

The baby laughs like she gets some sort of private joke, and her giggles capture us all for a moment. Adam reaches back to where Vere is snuggling the baby and runs his hand over her hair fluff. “Robin, you don’t understand the full scope. Mrs. Perino and Angel already said it’s okay that we…stay for a bit. We need to talk to you.”

Royce holds up the same article Angel showed me earlier. “Because of this, and because of the crowds building at the hotel and at the stadium we really need to—include you in our next plan.” He laughs darkly, looking at each of his friends. “Whichever plan we decide to go with, that is.”

Adam sighs, pulling the newspaper forward so I can see that he’s pointing at the shot of him with the redhead in the miniskirt. “See this? I let that photo get snapped. We staged that shot a few days before you were hired. A move I once thought was genius, but in hindsight, it was also very stupid of me. That first photo started the prostitute rumors. Rumors that pissed me off a ton, but ones we thought we could handle.” He shrugs. “It was a publicity stunt that did work to get the press worked up in a direction very far away from the baby. That’s always been our goal. Divert the press from the baby, keep the baby safe and happy—all that. But when we started, when we hired you, we had no idea all of this could ruin your life as well, and now we’ve done that. So, we need to talk to you about that. We need to try to fix it.”

Royce rolls his eyes to the sky. “For the record, I had an idea this would happen. I brought up the idea every damn day. I begged you all not to hire her. I even begged you to fire her.”

“Poor Robin. Are you okay?” Vere asks, shifting the baby from one hip to the other. “The first time one of these stories full of lies leaked about me, I cried and cried.”

“Like I said. I don’t care about the article. My life was pretty much ruined before I met all of you, and things got even worse before I saw that stupid article today. So really, don’t include me in your talks or your new plans. They don’t have my full face or my name. So, how bad could it be?”

“Royce. You’re right. She’s got no clue,” Adam says, shaking his head. “I’m so sorry. Robin, it’s very bad. The press will have your name in a matter of hours.” He looks so distraught that I only want to make him feel better and tell him I’d never blame him or any of them.

“Look. Guys.” I place my hands on the screen. “This whole article is also my fault. I did what I did, and I was there when that horrible girl was in Royce’s room. And that’s because I was kissing Royce in his closet. It’s not all lies.”

Vere’s mouth drops open and she fires a look over her shoulder to Royce. “You kissed?”

I answer before Royce does, “A moment that got out of control while I was, in fact, getting his leather jacket, which is when Royce told that girl ‘I worked there’ that I’d earned it just like the article says.” I blink and add in a shrug. “He apologized too, and so we’re good. No hard feelings on my part. I swear.”

“Royce. Why in the hell did you kiss her? And if you did, why would you say what you said?” This is the first time I’ve ever seen the always-calm Hunter look upset.

“It sounds messed-up now but remember we were executing plan-D, or was it plan-E?” Royce throws his arms out wide. “Whichever plan we’d agreed upon that included the part where I was trying to make Robin hate me. I said all of that to make her hate me.”

“And it worked.” I smile stiffly at all of them. “I do hate him.”

Hunter throws his hands in the air. “Unbelievable. No wonder you were so easy to convince on the new-new plan today. You feel guilty as hell, don’t you? You dragged the nanny into a closet for a stolen kiss, and now the world thinks she’s a whore. Such clichéd behavior from Guarderobe’s most notorious womanizer. You’re trying to save her. You want to save her, don’t you? It’s like Adam guessed, you have a crush on her. More than a crush.”

They all start arguing.

“Um.” I call out. “In his defense, he does not have a crush on me. I was already inside his closet and I kissed him back, and I just said I hated him. Hello, guys? I do not need saving!”

None of them hear a word I’ve said because they’re all shouting over each other.

I grip the screen door handle, mostly to hold myself up, but also because I’m considering pushing the lame little slider lock that’s connected to the plastic handle down with my pinkie. I have this insane idea that this small motion will help me block this moment out.

Finally, when they all go silent, Vere whispers, “Royce, why didn’t you tell us about the kiss when you first saw the article? Don’t you think that was a slightly important detail to what we were going to decide today?”

“No! Hell. Yes.” Royce runs a hand through his hair. “I don’t know. I can honestly say it is because I was afraid. For her. For all of us.” He looks at me directly through the screen. “All along. I swear Robin. From the day I met you in that limo, I’ve been an asshole because I’ve been trying to protect you but then…I couldn’t stay away from you.”

“As much as I’d like you to have all the blame, I can’t. I knew kissing you was wrong, too.” I point at the baby. “I, the nanny, full-on, willingly made out with the baby-daddy.” I look helplessly at everyone’s shocked faces. “Despite my personal aversion to Royce as a human, because he’s quite possibly the worst person alive, and despite how I’ve always sworn to myself to never, ever be any sort of home wrecker, I fully participated.” My gaze returns to Royce’s. “Which makes me just as horrible as he is. I’m the second worst person alive, okay?” I sigh, my voice as heavy as my heart feels for having confessed all of this. Royce’s eyes have never left mine. He shakes his head, dropping his voice to a low rumble.

Adam steps off the porch and his gaze travels around the yard. “Robin. You’re not. Let me in so we can explain. I promise to make it all up to you somehow, especially your ruined party.”

“What do you mean?”

Royce lets out a long sigh. “Mrs. Perino assured us that only a few people, little kids, are—were—attending the birthday?”

“Yes. Little princess brides are on the way. There will be six of us,” I glower, feeling suddenly ashamed that these guys now know my only friends are little kids.

“We asked Mrs. Perino to stop them from coming,” Royce adds softly.

“What? You cancelled my birthday party? The poor girls. They worked all day for this.” I point at the garden all set up.

Royce looks quickly over his shoulder, “We really can’t stand out here any longer. We have much more to say, the press is on the way, and we need to come clean on some stuff.”

I’m stunned at the pure sincerity and underlying worry I think I see crossing his expression. The guy is acting worse than Angel acts right now. Like I’m not safe, or like I’m going to get hit by a bus or shatter into broken glass right in front of him. Once they realize I’m quitting and that they don’t owe me anything besides my pay, they will all calm down. Calm down and go away before my caseworker shows up, I hope.

Vere squeezes forward. “We’ve also got to feed this one a bottle and change her, too.”

My brain says I should slam the door and order every single one of them out of the yard. But when Royce’s expression continues to draw me in, and then the baby laughs up at me from Vere’s arms, I know I also have things I need to tell them, too.

I also owe the baby one last try—a try that will finally get her father set straight—so I step back and open the door.