Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
M arius
I sit outside watching Ava and Matthias splash around with little Theo as Sabrina sits with Matty in the stroller. He seems to love sleeping in that thing, so they keep it on the patio whenever they bring him outside.
It’s good to see my brother and Ava enjoying parenthood. They’ve had a lot on their plates these past couple months. A baby nearly a year old. A newborn. Ronan moving in with his own issues. And as always, problems at King Industries for Matthias to deal with. Kellen helps, but the weight of the crown rests on the head of the company, so there’s only so much he can do.
“Marius, stop sitting on the sidelines and get in here! Theo is almost to the point that he’s swimming,” Matthias says with pride.
I’ve got other things in mind for today, so I wave him off. He’s too busy having fun to care that I seem more interested in hanging out with the nanny than spending time with my family. Good. I don’t want to explain myself about that.
Sabrina stares down at her phone as I look over at her, and when she realizes someone is paying attention to her, she begins pushing the stroller back and forth. How nice of her to remember one of her charges need attention.
“So, do you like your job watching my nephews?” I ask, not interested so much in her answer than what I don’t hear.
She perks up, but I sense it’s merely to make me think she’s something she’s not. “Sure! Ava and Matthias have been great, and I don’t think I’ve ever lived in such a nice place.”
“So you like your room down near Eleanor’s?”
This girl is no dummy. She knows what I’m implying not as deftly as I could but exactly as I intend. She seems to think she’s part of the family like Eleanor is, but that’s nowhere close to being true. Eleanor has been with the King family for my entire life and even longer. Before any of us King boys were born, she was here already working for our parents.
Eleanor is family. This person, on the other hand, is someone who works for my brother. There’s a difference, and I don’t think she should forget that.
Especially after the bullshit she’s been playing on Ronan.
Her chipper way fades a bit, but she keeps the show going. “Yeah, sure. She’s so sweet.”
Good. Sabrina picked up on what I was really saying. Now she needs to remember it.
“So you and Ronan seem to be getting close,” I say with a flatness that doesn’t give away that I know what she’s been up to.
Once more, she perks up. “Oh, he’s so great. I’m so happy he found Theo. For the life of me, I can’t imagine how he got into the master bedroom. But Ronan saved me, so I owe him big.”
I lean in toward her side of the table and fix my gaze on her. “Don’t you mean he saved little Theo?”
That throws her off, and for the first time since we started talking out here today, she stumbles. “Oh, yeah, I mean, sure. My focus was always on Theo. I’m just so happy he’s all right.”
“Uh-huh.”
I let her stew in that for a few minutes as I listen to Theo squeal with delight in the pool. Like the brother he’s named after, that kid is one big bundle of life. He’s also not even a year old and still hasn’t mastered standing, even in his crib.
That’s how I knew less than thirty seconds after Ronan came rushing into my room in a panic that there was no way in hell that kid got out of his crib, crawled out into the hallway, and got all the way to the master bedroom. Little Theo was never in any danger because she set the whole thing up to get Ronan to be her savior. That way she could profess her undying gratitude and have yet another tie to him.
My youngest brother is dealing with too much between struggling with the reality of his new life without a right hand and how he feels about Kate to figure it out. That girlfriend of his is smart, so I bet she knew the truth, though. That’s why she ran out of here so upset.
Hopefully, Ronan explained to her in that kind way of his that Sabrina is just the nanny and nothing else in his life. If I know him, he found a way to reassure Kate. Those two are meant for one another, so I think they’ll figure out how to get past what this little minx has been up to lately.
She doesn’t look at me as I sit here pretending to enjoy this beautiful sunny day. Like Ronan said, at first glance, it seems odd that she didn’t latch onto me instead of him.
He’s too good a person to understand why she wouldn’t, but I know. Sabrina saw him as an easy target. She must have thought it would be like shooting fish in a barrel. He’s struggling with what he lost and was barely hanging on. All she had to do was flash him a pretty smile and walk around here pretending like she was Miss Helpful. Ronan was so lost in his misery he didn’t see her trying to ingratiate herself with him.
But I did. It didn’t take a day from when I arrived to see what she was trying to do. Now she’s going to find out her plan is blown. Let’s see how she takes that. Something tells me Matthias and Ava are going to need a new nanny pretty soon.
“I saw Ronan and Kate leaving right after he found Theo. They’ve been in love for a long time. Did you know that?” I ask Sabrina but don’t directly look over at her.
No need to look into her eyes to see her reaction. All I need to do is stare straight ahead and catch how her mood changes in my periphery.
Unlike my youngest brother, I’m not kind nor am I nice. Now she’s dealing with a King who knows how to manipulate as well as she does.
“Sorry. I didn’t hear you. What did you say?” she asks, and now all her sweetness is gone.
Interesting how different she sounds when she isn’t pretending to be the sweet, young thing. She almost seems like a much older, much more jaded version of herself.
After nearly a minute of making her wait, I turn my head to look at her and smile. “Just shooting the breeze. I’m happy for Ronan that he and Kate are back together. They’ve been in love since high school.”
She’s practiced at controlling how her emotions show on her face, but I can see in her eyes she’s disappointed the King brother who seemed like such an easy target isn’t anymore. That only leaves me if she’s looking to snag her a man with money in this family, but that won’t happen.
“Can you watch Matty for a few minutes? I need to visit the little girl’s room,” she says, her perky act back in full force as she stands up to go inside the house.
“Take your time.”
She disappears behind me, and I hook my foot onto the front of the stroller to pull it toward me. Leaning down, I tickle Matty and make him giggle.
“Can you believe she thought she could pull that nonsense off without anyone noticing?” I say to him.
Of course, it might have happened if I didn’t show up. Matthias is swamped between work and everything here, and Ava has her hands full with two children under a year old. Eleanor is too sweet, just like Sabrina said, so she may not have figured out what she was up to.
And Ronan? Until Kate started coming around, he couldn’t see any future that included love and happiness for him ever again. He was like a sitting duck primed to fall for Sabrina and all the attention she was giving him.
I knew the second Matthias mentioned to me when I called a couple weeks ago that Sabrina and Ronan were getting close that something felt off. Not that he wouldn’t have a woman interested in him, but knowing how difficult he’d been with everyone since he moved here, something wasn’t right.
It only took one day to see Sabrina had set her sights on Ronan for reasons that had nothing to do with actually caring for him. I couldn’t let that happen to him. He’s my baby brother, and even though I enjoy busting his balls about nearly everything, it’s my job to protect him like we all did for his entire life.
So just like that day I found him bleeding out and close to death, I did what I had to do. A well-placed word or two with Kate that night at the restaurant when I knew neither she nor Ronan would move fast enough to ensure Sabrina didn’t sink her claws into him and that’s all it took.
And to think my entire family just thinks I’m a jaded misanthrope. Well, maybe I’m jaded, but I love my family.
Matthias swims up to the side of the pool and lifts himself out. Grabbing a towel to dry off, he looks around and asks, “Where’s Sabrina? I thought she was watching Matty.”
“Change of plans. She had to run inside, so I’m in charge of my nephew. I’m telling him all the things he needs to do to have a good time without you guys being any the wiser.”
My older brother looks nervous for a moment before he realizes I’m joking. “Well, thanks. You don’t mind?”
I shake my head and look down at Matty who’s wide awake now. “Not at all. He’s family, and you know how I feel about that.”
Matthias nods. “If you want to swim, I can come out and hang with him.”
“Nah. I’m good. I accomplished what I wanted to do out here, so now I’m just hanging with your little guy. Enjoy yourself, Matthias. You deserve it. We’ll be fine out here.”
He jumps back into the pool, and I smile down at the baby. “We’re just two guys hanging together, right, little guy?”
Matty kicks his legs excitedly, so I tickle his belly again before checking the time on my watch. “I need to make a call, buddy, but no worries. I’ve got my eyes on you, so you’re safe.”
Taking my phone out, I press four and the number comes up on the screen. No name since I’m not interested in having people know my business.
“Hey, you!” she says in a playful way. “Right on time.”
“Always.”
“Are you still at the estate?” she asks.
“Yeah. I’ve done what I needed to do, so I’ll probably be leaving soon.”
“When are we meeting?” she asks, and I hear the impatience in her voice.
I’ve been consumed with watching out for Ronan lately, so we haven’t seen each other much in the past couple weeks. Since things are better for him now that he and Kate are together, I can devote one hundred percent of my attention to her, just like she deserves.
I look down at Matty and smile. “How does seven sound?”
“Make it eight and you have a deal.”
“Deal. Are we staying in tonight?” I tease, knowing we can’t go out on the town. Not yet.
“Of course. It’s not like we can go around letting everyone see us. How would we explain it?”
I laugh at the way she says that. “Indeed. I’ve never liked explaining myself when it comes to this kind of thing. Everyone can find out when we decide they can.”
“So eight o’clock?”
“I might be a little late,” I say, looking toward the pool as Ava hands little Theo up to Matthias on the deck.
“I’m tired of waiting. Shame on you for making me wait this long.”
“Mmm…I do love a woman who knows what she wants.”
“Eight o’clock, Marius. Don’t be late. Bring something good to drink for after. We’ll order dinner in.”
“Eight o’clock, Duck. You should wear the little black dress you wore to that party last year. I love you in that.”
She laughs at my demand. “I don’t plan to be wearing clothes for very long.”
“Fair enough, but I’ll enjoy seeing you in it for the thirty seconds before I rip it off you.”
“I love that dress, so don’t you dare rip it. Just for that, maybe I’ll wear shorts and a t-shirt,” she scolds.
As much as I enjoy seeing her in anything, I do love her in that dress. “If I promise not to ruin it, will you wear it? I’ll make it worth your while.”
“Oh, really? How’s that?” she asks, teasing me.
Matthias, Ava, and Theo come walking toward me, so I can’t tell her exactly what I plan to do that will make her eyes roll back in her head. “Gotta go now. See you at eight. Wear that dress.”
“You’re so demanding, but I’ll wear it.”
I end the call just as my brother and his family sit down around the table. Ava looks around and then asks me, “Where is Sabrina?”
With a shrug, I say, “Not sure. She went into the house a few minutes ago and hasn’t come back.”
She and Matthias exchange glances, and he asks me, “You didn’t say anything to upset her or offend her, did you? I know how you can be. She might not get your sense of humor, Marius.”
I glance down at Matty still enjoying his time in the stroller and then at my brother. “Trust me. She understood exactly what I was talking about, but no worries. By the way, I was considering sticking around for a little while longer. I know Ronan is good, but I have some things I want to do here. Do you mind?”
Again, my brother and his wife look at each other and then me. “Sure!” Ava answers, and then adds, “Maybe we should have a party since you’re in town. Ronan can invite Kate since I hear they’re together now.”
“You don’t mind being the odd man out again, do you?” Matthias asks, referring to my never having a date for their get-togethers.
I grin, knowing the truth even though they don’t. “I’m a perpetual bachelor, big brother. I’m fine with being a single in a world full of couples.”
“Then it’s settled,” Ava says full of excitement. “You know my friend Eden is going to be there, right?”
I shrug again. “As always. She doesn’t bother me.”
Ava pouts and starts typing into her phone. “Doesn’t bother you. It must be nice to have people adoring you and you get to be so blasé about it.”
It’s good to be me.