Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
R onan
“Eleanor, I need your help. Kate’s coming over for lunch tomorrow, and I’d like to have all her favorites,” I say as I walk into the kitchen.
She spins around at the sink, and I swear she looks like she’s going to burst from happiness. “Of course! Just tell me what she likes, and I’ll be sure to make it.”
I sit down at the table and think about what I know she loves to eat. Assuming her tastes haven’t drastically changed, I remember she enjoyed lobster, shrimp, chicken salad, and anything with chocolate. How those will figure into a lunch menu I have no idea.
“Maybe something with shrimp? I know she loves anything with that. Or chicken salad, but that doesn’t feel like it will be good enough. Whatever we go with, I want to make sure she has a dessert with chocolate as the main ingredient.”
Eleanor wipes her hands on the dish cloth hanging next to the sink and walks over to the table to sit down across from me. She seems upset with tears in her eyes.
“Did I say something wrong?” I ask, trying out my new effort to be nice like I used to be.
Shaking her head, she sniffles and gives me a big smile. “No, not at all. I’m just so happy to see you excited about something.”
“It’s only lunch.”
“I know. I know. It’s just that you haven’t been like the old you in a long time. It’s good to see this Ronan again. I missed him.”
The last thing I want is to make her cry for real, so I merely shrug and say, “So what do you think we should have tomorrow?”
Nothing gets Eleanor more excited than planning out a great meal, so she shakes off all her emotion and sets her jaw. “Hmmm. Let me think. We could do shrimp kabobs with rice and a salad. Oh, I can make a wonderful chocolate cake for dessert. I saw a recipe the other day that sounded delicious! How does that sound?”
I have to admit it sounds great. Leave it to Eleanor to make a simple lunch sound like a grand meal.
A playful sparkle fills her eyes, and she asks, “So will it be just you and Kate? Where are you planning to have lunch? If it’s just going to be the two of you, then you’re going to want it to be somewhere other than right here or out near the pool. There’s no peace and quiet in either of those spots.”
She’s right. Ava and the boys spend every day outside, and when they aren’t out there, they’re right where I’m sitting. Not exactly the kind of vibe I’m going for with this lunch.
“What about asking Matthias if you can use the carriage house? I know he’s changed it to his studio, but there’s still a kitchen there and the backyard of that house has that adorable little patio. I know it’s been spruced up recently because the gardener was complaining that we shouldn’t let it go so long between cleanings. That might be a perfect spot, and it will ensure you aren’t bothered by any of us.”
The way she says that makes me feel like I’ve been mistreating everyone in this house. “You guys don’t bother me.”
She tilts her head and stares at me for a long moment, like she can see right through me. I did just blow up on my entire family the other day about leaving me alone.
“I know what you’re trying to do, Ronan, and having me or Ava and the boys or Sabrina march through your lunch isn’t your goal. And now that Marius is here, there’s another chance you’ll be interrupted. What do you say? Ask Matthias this afternoon. I’m sure he’ll say yes.”
After our last few interactions, I’ll be surprised if my brother doesn’t tell me to go fuck myself and my lunch plans. He’d have every right to tell me to go stick one of those shrimp kabobs straight up my ass.
I smile like I’m going to do exactly as she’s suggesting, but I see by her expression she knows I’m not. “Ronan, I know you and Matthias haven’t been the best of friends lately, but he loves you. You’re his baby brother. He would do anything to help you find happiness. So ask him. Go right now. I know he’s in his office.”
“Then he’s probably busy with work,” I say, not budging.
Eleanor screws her face into a grimace and stands up from the table. Pointing in the direction of my brother’s office, she says in her sternest voice, “Ronan, go talk to your brother. You don’t want this lunch to go badly, do you?”
She always knows exactly what to say to make me do as she thinks I should.
“Okay. I’m going. Wish me luck,” I mumble as I stand from the table.
“You won’t need luck. Now go.”
I can only hope she’s right. She hasn’t been around when we’ve had our disagreements lately. Love me or not, if he decided to kick me out of his house, nobody would blame him.
By the time I reach his office, I’ve convinced myself he won’t even be interested in the idea to use the carriage house’s patio for my lunch with Kate. I stop just outside the door and reconsider whether I should even bother. I’m sure Ava and the kids will be outside, and I can just tell Marius to stay out of sight for a while.
As I think that, Matthias calls out, “Ronan, is something wrong? Why are you standing out there? Come in!”
So much for reconsidering.
I step in and can’t believe how much this room reminds me of when our father used it as a home office. He spent much less time here working than Matthias does, but I can’t see a single thing my brother’s changed since he began calling it his own. The walls are that same light beige color. The black leather sofa is still here and in the same spot just inside the door. Even the big cherry wood desk is the same sitting near the windows that look out at the front of the estate.
All those years Matthias spent telling anyone who’d listen he had no interest in ever running King Industries or being anything like Maximilian King, and here he is like his doppelganger sitting behind the very desk our father used to sit at.
“I guess you’ve decided to stick with the way Dad used to keep the place?” I ask as I look around.
The Thanksgiving picture I drew in kindergarten with my hand as the turkey is still hanging on the wall to the left of the desk in that wood frame my mother let me pick out. The sun has faded the yellow and oranges where my fingers made the feathers, but the brown for my thumb and the turkey’s head is still going strong.
Pointing at it, I laugh. “You know, you can take that down. Pretty soon your own kids will be drawing you ugly Thanksgiving turkey pictures.”
He turns to look at the picture and nods before looking back at me. “I don’t think I never noticed that was there until now. Dad must have really liked that turkey you made for him.”
As the youngest, I always got the best treatment out of the five of us kids. I don’t think my parents loved me any more than any of my brothers. I just think by the time I came along, they had smoothed out all the rough spots and kinks in how to raise kids, so I simply seemed easier than the four who came before me.
“That’s the best drawing I’ve ever made in my life, you know. Things just went downhill from there,” I joke. “I didn’t get the artistic gene, sadly.”
Until recently, if I said that, anyone who knew me would say that I more than made up for it with the athletic gene. Nobody, including Matthias, says that anymore.
For a few seconds, that ugliness that always springs up in me whenever I think about all my dreams coming true and then losing everything that night on the Taconic threatens to ruin my mood. I fight it, though, because I don’t want to feel that way anymore.
I’m tired of being unhappy.
“So what’s going on? Why were you lurking outside in the hallway?” Matthias asks, and I hear the fear and worry under his words come through loud and clear.
He has every reason to feel that way. For the past six months, nothing about me has put a smile on his face. I’d like to change that today, although I don’t know if he’ll feel anywhere as pleased as I do that I’m having lunch with Kate tomorrow.
“I wasn’t lurking, per se. Just taking my time deciding if I wanted to bother you. I know you’re busy with work, and I didn’t want to interrupt anything important.”
My brother listens as I hedge, nodding as a slow smile lifts the corners of his mouth. “Okay, well, I’m not doing anything that can’t be interrupted. What’s up?”
I guess I can’t stall anymore. Well, here’s to hoping Eleanor was right.
“I’d like to use the carriage house’s patio for lunch tomorrow.”
He looks confused for a few seconds and then shrugs. “Okay. Can I ask why?”
“Because Kate and I are having lunch together, and I’d like it to be just the two of us.”
That sounds like this lunch we’re having is far more important than it actually is. It’s not really a big deal, but his eyes immediately get huge, and he stands up like he’s going to run around the house to tell everyone else who lives here what’s happening tomorrow.
“Really? Well, yes, of course. Use the carriage house. I can go down there tonight after work and straighten it up for you so you don’t have to stay outside. I’ve got brushes and pencils all over the place, to say nothing of my easels, but I can put them all away.”
I hold up my hand to stop him before he gets too carried away. “No, it’s okay. That’s your place. Keep it just like you want. I only want to use the patio. Eleanor was the one who suggested it. She thought it would be more private than the kitchen here or out by the pool.”
“Okay. Just let me know if you change your mind. I can have it all straightened up in no time. In fact, Ava would probably love that since every time she comes down to see me when I’m there she mentions how much of a mess it is. So lunch with Kate? That’s good! That’s really good.”
He stops and then asks, “It’s good, right? I’m not seeing a ton of excitement in you right now, but it seems like it’s a good thing you two are having lunch together.”
“It is,” I say, tempering my emotions about what may happen with her tomorrow.
I’m out of practice and don’t know how to act around people much anymore. That comes from hiding out first in my apartment after getting out of the hospital before hiding out in my childhood bedroom since I got here two months ago.
“Well, I’m glad. You’ve put a smile on this very tired father’s face today, Ronan. Thank you for that.”
Happy to change the subject from my plans tomorrow, I smile and ask, “Is Matty still having a hard time sleeping through the night?”
My brother lets out the heaviest sigh I’ve heard in a while and sits back down in his office chair. “Not only him but now Theo. They seem to be feeding off one another’s sleeplessness at night now. I told Ava maybe we should try not putting them down for naps during the day and see if that helps, but she doesn’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Probably because that’s the only time she gets to rest, Matthias. She’s with those kids all the time, and I know Sabrina is helping, but it’s still a lot. Give her a break.”
He looks at me oddly for a moment and then sighs again. “You know, I hadn’t thought of it that way. Probably because my brain is only half working these days. You’re right. Still, we need to do something, or one or both of us is going to go crazy without enough sleep.”
I don’t think a Benadryl joke would be good at this moment since my brother’s ability to judge humor is likely not what it needs to be for him to get a laugh from that, so I smile and say, “I’m sure you guys will figure it out. Mom and Dad did.”
“God, I have no idea how they did it. Maybe Theo and I slept through the night from the moment they brought us home from the hospital?”
That gets him a laugh from me. “I highly doubt it. Didn’t Mom used to say he was colicky until he was like two or something?”
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Matthias shakes his head. “God, don’t let that happen with Matty. I don’t think I’ll make it. I really don’t.”
“You’ll get through this, and then you guys will have another one when you forget how rough having two within two years was. That’s how it works with parents, I think. At least it must have worked that way in our family.”
The look of horror that settles into his expression tells me he’s not ready for a third. Since Ava wants a girl, he better get ready, though.
“Well, I’ll let you get back to work. Or maybe you should head over to that sofa of yours and take a nap for an hour or so,” I say as I turn to leave. Looking back at him, I add, “Thanks, Matthias. For the patio down at the carriage house. It means a lot to me.”
“My pleasure.”
Just as Matthias says that, Marius walks into his office wearing a big grin. “Whose pleasure are we talking about? Ronan, I got to chat up that ex of yours today. She’s still as pure as snow, isn’t she?”
This brother never misses a chance to bust balls. I wish he would when it comes to Kate, though.
“She thinks you hate her, you know. She asked me why does Marius hate me, and I told her I didn’t think you do. Now I’m not so sure.”
He throws his head back and laughs. “Hate her? Clearly I need to work on my flirting skills. Or maybe she needs to work on hers because I was giving off some very clear signs I liked what I saw. I mean, who doesn’t like a girl who still looks like a virgin in her mid-twenties? I’ll have some of that, for sure.”
I feel my protectiveness rise up inside me and step close to him to get in his face. “Don’t talk about Kate that way. Whether or not she’s a virgin is none of your business.”
But Marius doesn’t care how angry I am. “Of course, she’s not a virgin. She was with you for more than two years. You’re the nice King boy, but even you weren’t hanging out for two years without getting some of that pretty thing.”
I want to lay him out, but Matthias stops me before I see if I can hit as well with my left hand as I used to be able to with my right. “Marius, lay off. Kate’s a nice person, and Ronan has always cared about her. Step back with that bullshit you’re giving off today.”
Marius raises his hands like he’s surrendering, but I can tell by the smirk on his face he isn’t sorry for a single thing he said about her. “My bad. I was just saying she looks great. I meant no offense. Honest.”
I pass by him, shoulder checking him as I head toward the hall. “Thanks, Matthias! Get some sleep.”
Behind me, I hear Marius ask him, “What’s his problem? He knows how I am.”
My oldest brother sounds far less pleasant now when he answers him. “You don’t have to bust balls all the time, you know? Let it go sometimes. Ronan is finally feeling better. Don’t fuck it up by riding him.”
I don’t hear what my other brother says, but knowing him, it’s something smart ass. No matter. My day’s been made. First, Kate agreed to hang out tomorrow, and now I know we can have some peace and quiet when we have lunch down at the carriage house.
Tomorrow’s going to be a good day.