Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
K ate
By the time our food arrives, I’ve told Jessie a little about my biggest concern with Ronan, and it isn’t that he’s struggling to deal with what happened to him in that accident six months ago. It’s that Sabrina.
Shaking salt onto her baked potato smothered in cheese and green onions, she says, “Do you think he might like her? I don’t like that she lives there. Too much easy access to the goods.”
Just the way she says that makes me feel even worse, so she quickly adds, “Not that she’s getting any of that access. Forget I said anything about that and focus on him. Do you think he’s into her?”
“Truthfully, I don’t know. I mean, what guy wouldn’t be? She’s pretty, looks great in a bikini since she’s as thin as a rail but still has big boobs, and somehow she’s gotten close enough to him to shave his face.”
Jessie takes a forkful of baked potato into her mouth and groans. “You don’t want to know what I think about that.”
She asks me about it, and I tell her, and now she doesn’t want to give me her opinion? Is she trying to drive me nuts?
“Just tell me so I can try to eat my salad, okay?”
Not that my stomach is in the mood for food anymore. Not with how it’s twisting into a knot Alexander the Great couldn’t get through.
“Shaving a man is very sexy. Remember that guy I dated in junior year? The one who turned twenty-one ahead of all of us and would buy us beer and hang out all the time? Well, I shaved him once. We had a very hot night.”
I stare down at my salad as my appetite all but disappears. “You’re not helping.”
“Well, in my defense, I did say you didn’t want to know what I thought about shaving a man.”
“So it’s hopeless. I might as well just jump on the next guy who shows his face in this restaurant,” I say, my emotions quickly careening toward depression.
Setting her fork down, Jessie stops eating. “No, nothing is ever hopeless. We’re smart women. We can figure this out. So maybe he does like Miss Young Thing paying attention to him. So what? From what you’ve told me, the guy deserves a little happiness after all he’s had to deal with. Let him ogle the girl. I’m thinking he still cares about you.”
Nowhere close to believing that now, I stab my fork into my salad and spear a tomato covered in Russian dressing. “Oh yeah? Why’s that?”
“Because he set up that whole lunch for you. He made sure that woman who works for him made your favorite foods. The man remembered that from five years ago, Kate. You told me he hates chocolate, yet he had her bake a chocolate cake just for you? He’s into you.”
He did do all those things. That’s true.
“Her name is Eleanor, and she doesn’t work for him. She’s the woman who’s been with his family since before he was born.”
Jessie waves away my defense of Eleanor. “Whatever. Fine. What matters is he went to that effort for you. That means something.”
Sighing, I stuff the tomato wedge into my mouth and chew it before saying, “He’s always been very thoughtful. It’s just who he is.”
“So she shaved him? You should thank her. You said he looked like some wilderness guy who’d lived in a cabin for years without a shower or a razor.”
The way Jessie says that makes me smile, but a second later, I see someone walk into the restaurant, and my mood instantly sours. She sees my expression fall and turns around to look for the reason.
“Sweet baby Jesus, who is the god in the gray t-shirt and jeans, and why do you look so miserable?” she says as she stares at him.
Of course, he sees the two of us looking at him and begins to walk over to talk to us. Super.
I can’t answer her questions before Marius King stops next to our table, smiling like he’s thrilled to see me. Since I’m convinced he’s hated me for years, I have to assume that grin of his is mocking me.
“Katie Abbott, I keep seeing you in the most unexpected places. What are you doing here at The Library?” he asks like this is his spot and someone like me doesn’t belong here.
Jessie mouths the word Katie, as if she’s shocked anyone had the nerve to call me that, and looks up at him with nothing short of pure lust in her eyes. For his part, he seems interested in her too and turns his attention toward her, thankfully.
“I’m eating,” I say, answering his question with as little effort as possible since he’s clearly moved on by the time I get the words out.
“And who’s this?” he asks Jessie.
She offers her hand to shake his, and with the first touch of his skin on hers, I’m convinced my best friend has finally fallen in love. I should warn her about him, but since I know her thoughts on men, I doubt he’ll be more than a distraction for a short time.
“Jessie. And who are you?”
“Marius King,” he answers in a voice that instantly says he thinks that means something.
My friend recognizes the last name and turns her head to face me. “King? As in Ronan King?” Looking back up at him, she asks Marius, “Any relation?”
“He’s my baby brother. I’m surprised your friend here has never mentioned me. I’ve known her for years.”
Even though neither he nor Jessie are likely interested in my response, I mumble, “I can’t imagine why I’d mention you at all since you’ve never been anything but a bust ass every time I’m around.”
I’m surprised when he turns his attention to me and says, “You always were very sensitive when it came to me, Katie. I just like to tease.”
I look across the table and can almost read my friend’s mind when he says that. To her, that sounds as sexy as hell. To me, it sounds like an excuse for being a jerk ever since we met.
Whatever he means, I don’t say anything in the hopes that he’ll go away, but then Jessie offers to have him join us, clearly not reading my mind, and he accepts, sliding into the booth next to her. How nice. She’s getting to enjoy herself with this King while I sit here worrying about his brother and what he feels for the nanny.
The all-too-sexy nanny who looks unbelievably good in a bikini.
And then, it’s as if Jessie suddenly can read my mind and says to Marius, “So what’s the deal with the nanny your sister-in-law has?”
I watch in horror as Marius smiles at me as if he knows every worry that’s filling my head about her. Throwing Jessie a nasty look, I attempt to change the topic, but of course, Marius isn’t having it.
“Interesting girl, don’t you think, Katie? She parades around the house like she owns the place. Not that I’m upset because the view is all right.”
He and Jessie stare across the table waiting for my response, but I have no idea what to say to that. Is he goading me into something he plans to use to tease me again? Or does he genuinely not like the way Sabrina acts?
When I don’t say a word, my friend says, “Well, she was nice enough to help your brother out with a shave. She can’t be all bad, right?”
Every syllable gives him more ammunition to bust my ass, I’m sure, and if he doesn’t use this conversation for that, he’ll probably use it in some way to hurt what I’m trying to have with Ronan. God, I just want to disappear.
“That seemed a little too personal to me, but who am I?” Marius asks, clearly not interested in my opinion. “I prefer to save the shaving for women I’m closer to. My brother, on the other hand, is a nice guy, so I doubt he thought anything of it when she was shaving him.”
I didn’t think it was possible, but I hate Marius King even more now than I did before he sat down. Jessie looks at him like he’s a god, of course, so he isn’t going to leave anytime soon, unfortunately.
I’m in hell. This is what hell must be like for someone like me. The only thing that would make this experience worse is if a deranged clown walked in and joined us.
“So you don’t think she’s interested in him?” Jessie asks.
She’s trying to help. At least I think she is. The problem is that Marius is going to go back to Ronan, and if he doesn’t use everything he’s heard here tonight to poison him against me, he’s going to use it at some point in the future to embarrass me.
Whatever happens, nothing good will come of our little time here together.
Marius laughs at the question and shakes his head. “No way. Ronan isn’t like the rest of us. Trust me. She could walk around naked in front of him, and he wouldn’t bat an eyelash. I will say this, though. The opposite isn’t true. She definitely has her eye on him.”
My heart sinks. Oh, God. There it is. The terrible truth of the matter. Sabrina does want to be with Ronan, and there she is, twenty-four seven around him in that tiny bikini while I’m only around a few hours here and there.
And just to make things worse, Marius reaches out and touches my arm before saying, “Not to worry, Katie. Ronan never got over you. She’s got nothing he wants.”
I can’t tell if he’s making fun of me or not, and I don’t care. These past few minutes with him have only served to make me miserable.
“My name is Kate, Marius. You know that. You’ve always known that. I’ve never been Katie to anyone at any time in my entire life.”
The words come tumbling out of my mouth before I can stop them, and when I finish, Jessie stares at me like she’s horrified and Marius simply smiles like he’s enjoying himself immensely. Worse, I’ve probably given him the exact reason to do everything in his power to wreck my chances with his brother.
“You’re Katie to me because you look like a Katie. Sweet. Innocent. Katie. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m meeting someone in the bar. See you out at the house.”
With that, he gets up and walks away. Jessie continues to stare at me in disbelief. I’m not sure what she’s so surprised about. Even someone as timid as me has a breaking point.
“Um, what the hell was that?”
I shrug, not caring anymore since I imagine my shot with Ronan was just blown to smithereens. “I never liked the fact that he always insists on calling me Katie, so I told him.”
“Not that. I was trying to get some details on that nanny. Why didn’t you encourage him to talk? We might have found out some good stuff.”
I look down at my food and stab my fork into my salad. “I didn’t want to talk to Marius King about the nanny. All it does is make me realize she’s got everything going for her, and I have nothing going for me.”
Jessie touches my arm to show sympathy, but I doubt she understands. She’s never cared about someone like I care about Ronan, and if she did, she’d just walk right up to him and tell him they were going to be together. My shyness doesn’t allow that.
“If it makes you feel better, I don’t think anything we said is going to hurt what you and Ronan have going.”
“It doesn’t.”
“Then let’s figure out a gameplan. So Miss Thing is young and pretty. From what his brother just said, Ronan doesn’t care. That’s good!”
I shake my head as despair starts to sink in. “She’s there all the time, Jess. Even if she’s not wearing that bikini every hour of every day, she’s there. He told me on the phone before that he wants to talk to me about something she told him. They’re having conversations that mean something to him. And where am I? Sitting in a restaurant being harassed by his older brother. It’s hopeless.”
“Nonsense!” she says a little too loud for The Library, and I look up to see diners near us glaring in our direction.
“Shhhh! Keep your voice down,” I whisper. “Everyone in this entire place doesn’t need to know what a mess my love life is.”
Jessie leans forward, and in a low voice says, “Okay, okay. So they talk? So what? Talking doesn’t mean anything.”
“It does with a guy like Ronan,” I say as I push the croutons in my salad around the bowl. “He’s not like other guys. If I was with his brother there, then fine, conversation wouldn’t mean anything. I can’t imagine Marius King spends much time talking at all with women. Ronan is different. He’s thoughtful, and talking to someone shows he cares.”
I don’t say what else I’m thinking. If he’s talking to Sabrina, it’s only a matter of time before he falls for her. It’s who he is.
And I have no way to stop it.
“So you’re just going to give up on the love of your life? Is that it?” Jessie asks sharply, like she’s disappointed in me.
“What else is there to do? I can’t compete with her on looks. I can’t compete with the fact that she has home field advantage.”
“Remember that he loved you for you!” she says too loudly again. This time she realizes her mistake and immediately lowers her voice for the rest of what she has to say. “Kate, you can’t give up. If you care about him, then you have to fight for him.”
Nothing she says is helping. “I love him. I always have. But what does that mean up against someone new and fun? All I am is a memory of who he used to be. She’s the future. I’m the past.”
That finally makes Jessie stop talking, which is for the best since I’m pretty sure I’m going to cry if we keep discussing this. I just have to accept that I can’t compete against Sabrina.
“So what are you going to do? You already said you would go hang out with him again on Monday. Are you bailing on that?”
I nod, sighing as I feel everything slip away. “Yeah. What’s the point of going now? And don’t say at least I could check out Marius and see what he’s up to for you because I’m not going to do that.”
Jessie sits back against the booth and laughs. “I wouldn’t ask you to do that. I have to say, though, if I had any idea Ronan came from such a good looking family, I wouldn’t have given you a hard time about wanting to be with him.”
“Ronan is nothing like that brother.”
“So he isn’t as sexy as all hell with a gorgeous body?”
I roll my eyes at her description of Marius. “Ronan is that, yes.”
“So he’s got money and looks like that brother, who by the way I’m absolutely sure offers a woman toe-curling good times?”
“I’m not talking about this with you anymore. Why don’t you go join Marius and whoever he’s meeting? I’m sure they’d love a third.”
Jessie shakes her head. “That man isn’t available.”
“I think you’re mistaken. Marius King has always been as single as they come. I remember Ronan once saying his girlfriend back when we were dating ruined him for other women.”
But my friend isn’t hearing any of that. Shaking her head, she digs her heels in. “I don’t care who ruined him for what. He’s taken. Everything in his body language practically screams that.”
I shrug, not caring if Marius is or isn’t single. God help the woman who ends up with him. She better enjoy his sense of humor.
For me, there was always only one King I ever wanted.
I guess I better forget about that.