The girl shook her head solemnly. “Being a princess isn’t about wearing a crown. It’s about who you are in here.” She reached out to place her palm on Sam’s sweatshirt, square in the middle of her chest, and Sam’s heart wrenched.
“You’re very wise.” She managed a wobbly smile before rising to her feet.
The little girl ran off, but her mom hardly noticed; she was staring at Sam in complete shock.
“What are you doing here? I thought you’d fled the country.” The woman’s cheeks colored. “Sorry, Your Royal Highness, I didn’t mean to— It’s just so surprising—”
“It’s okay. I didn’t flee the country. I took an extended sabbatical.” Sam liked the sound of that. “And I’m here to shop, same as you. Actually, where did you find the Cheerios?” she added, pointing to the woman’s cart. “I was devastated this morning when I realized we’d run out.”
Sensing his mother’s distraction, the toddler leaned out and stretched his hand toward the tower of ramen boxes. He knocked them over with a spectacular crash, then clapped in delight.
“George!” The woman knelt and began gathering the boxes into her arms. Sam crouched down to help, Liam following suit, which seemed to make the woman even more flustered.
“I’m sorry, Your Royal Highness, you really don’t have to do that,” she exclaimed.
Sam began stacking the boxes back in order. “It’s no trouble. And please—just call me Sam.”
“Mommy! Can I buy this puh-lease!” The little girl had returned, holding a plastic inflatable beach ball.
“Hang on, Sam,” the mom replied. It took a moment for Samantha to realize that the words weren’t addressed to her.
“Your children are George and Samantha?”
“I— Yes. I’m Mallory,” the woman said haltingly. “It’s just that your family have such beautiful names. I never thought, when I named her Samantha, that I would ever meet you.”
An unexpected warmth blossomed in Sam’s chest. She knew that the Washingtons’ names were popular, but Beatrice had always topped the lists of girls’ names, followed by Adelaide; there had been three Addies in Sam’s high school class alone.
She didn’t meet a lot of Samanthas, though. No one was particularly eager to name their newborn after the royal family’s rebellious wild child, the one so problematic that she wasn’t even royal anymore.
“I’m honored,” she breathed.
The younger Samantha tossed the beach ball in Sam’s direction. “Samantha! Catch!”
This was why elementary school appearances had always been her favorites. Children didn’t treat you any differently if you were a princess, or an ex-princess; they didn’t care about the color of your skin or how much money your family had. They didn’t gasp in shock if you dated someone who wasn’t the same race. They treated everyone with the same cheerful indifference—unless, of course, you had cookies, and then you were their favorite person.
If only adults were as wonderfully blind to prejudice, the world would be a much better place.
Sam caught the beach ball with a grin. “This is a pretty great ball.”
“It’s from over there.” The little girl waved to a sign marked Clearance: Summer Items 60% Off, which made Sam want to laugh. Summer felt like a million years ago, back when she’d been on a royal tour with Nina. When her relationship with Marshall had still been easy and uncomplicated.
She tossed the ball back toward the little girl, who clasped her hands together and tapped it up in a volleyball move. “Think fast!”
“Samantha, come on, we need to leave the princess alone,” Mallory protested, but Sam was delighted. She bumped the ball back in her new friend’s direction.
“We can’t let it hit the ground!” young Sam squealed.
“Definitely not,” Sam agreed. Liam was watching her with unmistakable amusement, but he didn’t say anything.
She and Samantha kept bumping the ball back and forth, moving steadily down the aisle as they did, toward the display of on-sale summer gear. Sam’s eyes were drawn to a floating tennis net, meant to be set up across a swimming pool, complete with buoyant racks and squishy neon tennis balls. She fought off a sudden wave of nostalgia, because it was exactly the sort of toy that she and Jeff would have obsessed over when they were little. They used to constantly make up games with water balloons or pool noodles, challenging each other to endless matches that neither of them won because they kept changing the rules.
“Heads up!” Samantha giggled, and Sam quickly tapped the beach ball back toward her.
Their volley had drawn a few curious onlookers. Sam could tell that word of her presence was spreading; several people had begun recording with their phones, but she didn’t care as long as Mallory was fine with it. Besides, even if Sam had tried to take their phones away, the news was already out.
She knew from experience that this was one genie she couldn’t put back in the bottle. Her anonymity in the capital was gone for good.
The palace would have a heart attack when they saw this video. They didn’t even want people to know she was in town, let alone see her at a wholesale shopping store, criminally underdressed in her sneakers and hoodie. When members of the royal family interacted with ordinary people, it was always scripted—a choreographed interaction on a royal tour, or at one of those stuffy garden parties. Even the moments that seemed fun to outsiders, like the time Jeff had played darts at a dive bar on tour, were all staged.
Sam couldn’t help it; she began to laugh. The sheer fun of what she was doing seemed to stretch out space within her chest, making her feel light as air, the way she used to feel when she was a child and anything seemed possible.
* * *
Later, after she’d said goodbye to Mallory and helped Liam find the rest of the items on his list, he turned toward the home decor section. “Did you want to get anything for your room? I mean—they sell mattresses here,” he added a little clumsily. “And bed frames.”
Sam edged closer to an enormous display of toilet paper, trying to stay out of earshot of an employee who was restocking nearby. “You want me to stay long-term?”
“Sam, you know I love having you at the house. But do you want to stay? What’s your plan?”
“I don’t have much of a plan. I’ve been taking it one day at a time.”
Liam was quiet, so she exhaled and went on. “I came back to see my family, but they don’t want anything to do with me. And I’m not sure what the path forward looks like now that I’m…ordinary.”