ROYAL (25 page)

Royal

“Hey, asshole.” Pandora’s the first to greet me when I
arrive to work Friday morning. Yesterday I was “douche lord.” The day before
that I was “asshat.” Monday I was a “fucking prick.”

I ignore her like I’ve done all week, punching in and
heading outside to pull in a rear-ended Audi on today’s schedule.

For the next several hours, Pandora shoots death looks my
way from behind the glass window that separates the front desk from the shop,
and I avoid going near the lobby at all costs.

I have to get out of here.

I have to get away from that crazy bitch.

When lunch rolls around, I exit a rear door and walk clear
around the building just so I don’t have to walk past her, only as soon as I
come around the corner, I find her sitting on my hood.

“You just going to ignore me all day, Royal?” She crosses
her legs, leans back, and smears handprints along my racing stripes. There’s
red lipstick on her teeth, and her hair is pulled back so tightly that the
corners of her eyes are pulled back.

“Get off my car.”

Pandora laughs and slides down. “Yes, sir. Whatever you say.”

She drags a finger down the buttons of my work shirt and
circles behind me as I slip the key into the driver’s door.

“This thing looks good, by the way,” she says. “Never had a
chance to tell you that.”

I climb in and start her up, but I’m met with resistance
when I attempt to pull the door closed.

“Let go, Pandora,” I growl.

“Are you still mad about last week?” Her lips wiggle into a
closed-mouth smirk. “God, get over it.”

“You’re asking if I’m mad that you told my girlfriend that I
was a sex offender?” My view of her narrows as my eyes squint into the noonday
sun. “Are you that fucking mental, Pandora?”

“I assumed she knew.” The innocence in her tone mocks my
question. “I mean, don’t you have to tell people that before you fuck ‘em?”

Legally. Yeah. Which is how Pandora knew. But it was
different with Demi. I needed her to hear me out. To not completely hate me
before I dropped the bomb.

“Yeah, well, I’m not an offender anymore.” I have to clear
my name, regardless of the fact that I could give two shits what Pandora thinks
of me.

“Oh, you’re off paper now?”

“The record is being expunged. My accuser finally admitted that
she lied about the entire thing.”

“Let me guess—your rich bitch girlfriend paid her
off?”

“Stop calling her a goddamn bitch, Pandora. You don’t know
her.”

“I know enough about her to know she’s too good for you.”

“You’re pathetic.” I shake my head and rev my engine,
popping it into reverse. She takes a step back, which his probably smart
because I’m feeling like I could very easily run her over and probably feel
very little remorse for it.

“What does she have that I don’t?” Pandora yells over the
growl of the motor.

“Everything,” I huff. “Class. Grace. Dignity. A beautiful
heart.”

Pandora rolls her eyes and pretends to stick a finger down
her throat.

“You’ll get tired of her white bread, vanilla, boring ass
eventually, and then you’ll come crawling back.” Pandora folds her arms across
her chest.

“Ha. Never.” I offer a haughty laugh. “Don’t hold your
breath.”

“Yeah, well, maybe it’s time I tell my father about all the
freaky things you did to me in the back of the shop. You know, bending me over
bumpers and fucking me with all these dirty, phallic tools lying around the
shop . . .”

My stomach churns.

Sex with Pandora tops the list of stupid things I’ve done in
the last few years. She had very particular tastes and a very abundant
appetite. Pandora’s motto was the dirtier the sex, the better. And I always
aimed to please.

Can’t take it back now.

“So you’re blackmailing me?” I slip a pair of aviator
sunglasses over my nose and stare straight ahead, because looking at her does
nothing but turn my blood into molten lava.

I think it’s time.

“Yeah, well, the joke’s on you,” I say. “Because I’m
leaving, and I’m not coming back.”

“Where the hell are you gonna go, huh?”

“Anywhere I want.”

I’ve been saving money and living on the cheap for years
now. And to tell the truth, I don’t even know what I’ve been saving for all
this time. I just never needed a whole lot, and I never had anything worth
wasting it on.

“You’re just staying that,” she says. “You’ll be back. You
wouldn’t leave Daddy hanging like that. You know the shop’s three weeks
behind.”

“Tell Rod I’m sorry. I’ll call him and explain later.” I
take my foot off the brake and roll backward, glancing over my shoulder.

The soft crunching and pinging of gravel beneath my tires
feels like freedom.

“Where are you going?” she calls out, like it’s any of her
damn business.

I ignore Pandora for the last time, stopping for a second to
unbutton my personalized shop shirt and toss it out the window, and then I
drive away from South Fork for the last time.

With no destination in mind, I drive for an hour or two.
Mostly down country roads and mostly so I can do some deep thinking. After a
while, I call Demi and tell her I’m on my way to see her. She sounds surprised,
but she doesn’t ask questions.

For now, I’m going to go take the woman I love on a lunch
date. And after that, I’m going to look into getting that pre-law degree, and
maybe someday I’ll get into law school and become an attorney like I’d always
wanted.

Only I won’t follow the Rosewood prosecutor path.

I’ll be a defense attorney.

Because the good ones are few and far between, and maybe,
just maybe, I’ll be able to save an innocent man from the seven-year hell I
experienced.

Demi

{two months later}

The handles of the grocery basket hanging from my arm leave
indentations. I should’ve gotten a cart, but I’d only come here to grab a few staples
and some items for dinner tonight. Royal requested lasagna. And not the frozen
kind. Bliss’s recipe.

So that’s what he’s getting tonight. Lasagna. Salad.
Breadsticks.

But of course, as I was getting lost on my way to grab a
quart of ricotta, I happened by his favorite cookies and yogurt and those
little candied raisins he loves.

God, he’s like a child.

That’s why I rarely take him to the store with me. He loads
our cart with everything we don’t need, and he thinks it’s hilarious.

And sometimes it is.

Two weeks ago, he put a jar of pickled pig feet in the cart,
and I didn’t see it until we were checking out.

I’m fourth in line now, and the lady three spots ahead has
an overflowing cart. Pretty sure she could feed a small country with all of
that.

The two spots ahead of me are occupied with two little old
ladies in knit shawls and matching white perms cut short. One lady wears
coordinating turquoise earrings and rings, and the other’s lips are slicked in
a blinding shade of raspberry.

They’re mostly laughing, whispering here and there. After a
minute, their expressions sober. I’m guessing their conversation took a more
serious turn.

“It’s so sad, Betty,” Raspberry Lips says, placing her hand
on her friend’s arm. “All those people, their retirements . . . poof. Gone.”

“My goodness, I just can’t even imagine,” Betty says, her
voice rife with condolences. “I’m living off Virgil’s pension, but boy, half
the town handed their money to that man to manage.”

“And everyone thought they were getting filthy stinking
rich. I just knew it was too good to be true.” Raspberry Lips clucks her
tongue. “I don’t know what they’re going to do now. They’re too old to start
over.”

Betty makes the sign of the cross. “They’re in God’s hands
now.”

“I heard a bunch of them are looking for a good attorney to
take him on. They’re going to sue the ever-loving daylights out of that young
man,” Lips says, staring down her pointed nose. Her penciled-on eyebrows lift,
and she looks like a scolding schoolteacher.

I would know.

“Excuse me.” I interrupt because I can’t stand it a moment
longer, and the twinge in my gut gives me a feeling I need to have confirmed.
“Do you mind if I ask who you’re discussing?”

Betty glances behind me, swallows, and leans in. “That
Brooks Abbott fellow, with Abbott Financial.”

My heart lands at my feet, and my mouth dries.

“Do you know him?” she asks. “He’s about your age. Not very
old at all.”

I swallow the lump in my throat and nod.

“Yeah, I used to know him,” I say. “What did he do?
Exactly?”

Raspberry Lips leans in, her hand on Betty’s shoulder. “He
was running some sort of Ponzi scheme operation.”

“My God.” I almost drop my basket of groceries when my arms
go to Jell-O. The credit cards. The cash advances. The constant moving around
of money. The secretiveness. He was constantly buying and selling random
things. He never really had any real money.

“Hundreds of millions of dollars. All gone.” Betty shakes
her head. “Can you even imagine?”

“How did they find out?” I ask.

“Apparently, he was in a really bad accident a couple of months
ago,” Lips says. “While he was recovering, his accountant and partners were
trying to balance the sheets, and the numbers just weren’t adding up. That’s
when they realized what he’d been doing all this time.”

“Do you know any of these people?” I ask.

Betty nods. “We know most of them, yes. Why?”

“If they haven’t hired an attorney yet, tell them Robert and
Derek Rosewood of the Rosewood and Rosewood Agency are two of the best
prosecutors in the state. And you didn’t hear this from me, but I have it on
good authority that Brooks has a sizable trust fund set to mature in a few more
years. It won’t cover everything they’ve lost, but it’ll help.”

The line moves ahead, and the lady with the huge cart pushes
her bagged groceries toward the front door. Raspberry lips places her basket on
the moving belt and exchanges a pleasantly surprised smile with Betty.

“Well, sweetheart, we’ll certainly pass the message along,”
Betty says. “You can count on that.”

Royal

“They’re going to freeze all his assets.” Demi’s mouth moves
a mile a minute as she unloads groceries. Cupboards open and slam. The glass
condiment jars rattle when she yanks on the fridge door. She’s in a frenzy, all
worked up. “All this time, he’d been running a goddamn scheme. Royal, he didn’t
just fuck me over, he fucked over half the population of Rixton Falls.”

I shut my Constitutional Criminal Procedure book and rise to
help her with the rest of the groceries.

“And you’re surprised, why?” I take a box of cookies from a
bag and peel the pouch open. “Thanks, babe.”

She slaps my hand. “Wait until after we eat, please.”

Demi’s frown makes her look exactly like Bliss for two
seconds, and I smirk. “You look like your mother right now.”

She rolls her eyes. “Good. Then maybe my lasagna will taste
exactly like hers.”

“I’m sure it’ll be good either way.”

“How was school today?” She pulls a long casserole dish from
the pantry and lines the ingredients along the island of our little rental
condo. It’s modest and quaint, and just the right size for two people.

I’d love nothing more than to buy Demi a house someday, but
now that I’m in school and she’s substitute teaching, the timing’s all off.

She hasn’t complained though. Not once. That’s what I love
about her. The woman of my dreams is content just to be with me.

Now
that
says a
lot.

Demi Rosewood is a keeper, but I already knew that. And I
plan on keeping her. Forever.

She hands a jar of red sauce to me to open, and I twist it
with a satisfying
pop
before giving
it back.

“You know,” she says. “I was thinking on the way home.”

“Uh, oh,” I tease.

She shoves my arm playfully. “No, I was thinking about that
ring.”

Tucked away in a safety deposit box at our bank is Demi’s
flawless five carat engagement ring. The appraisal came in around a hundred
grand, and we were hoping to use it for a down payment on a house someday.

At the time, it seemed justified. Brooks royally screwed her
over, and her father is still working on the credit card fraud situation. But
she always had slight reservations.

“He probably bought that ring with other people’s money,”
Demi says. “Money he stole from the good people in Rixton Falls who trusted
him.”

“Yeah. I’m sure.”

“I’m going to sell it and put the money toward them. It’ll
hardly put a dent in the damage Brooks did, but it’s better than nothing. We
have the rest of our lives to save for our retirement, and they don’t.”

“That’s big of you, Demi.” I clear my throat and slip my arm
over her shoulders. She fits under me just perfectly. “I completely agree. It’s
the right thing to do.”

The knock at our door at six signals that our guests have
arrived.

“I’ll get it,” I offer.

“Royal!” Haven jumps into my arms before I’ve even pulled
the door all the way open. She wraps her arms around my neck and dangles, and I
lift her up and carry her to the kitchen.

“Hey, man.” Derek pats my back and smiles.

We’ve been reconnecting these last couple of months. Getting
to know each other again. Turns out the bonds of friendship aren’t as easily
severed as I thought they were. Sometimes when we’re hanging out, it feels like
we never really had that separation of time. It’s like someone placed a
bookmark between us and we picked up right where we left off.

Demi says that’s the measure of true love and also true
friendship. I couldn’t agree more.

“Aunt Demi’s making Nana’s lasagna.” I sit Haven down at the
head of the kitchen table where she likes to sit because she loves to be in the
middle of all of us.

“Hi, Aunt Demi.” Haven waves.

“Hey, baby doll,” Demi says, browning Italian sausage over
the stove. “I’ll be over there for kisses in a minute, okay?”

“Okay!” Haven’s legs swing under the chair.

“Is that a panda on your shirt?” I ask.

Her face lights, and she grins.

“You know I love pandas. They’re my favorite.” I told her
that the last time I saw her. Don’t really have a favorite animal, but it
seemed to make her smile.

“I remembered, Royal,” she says.

“She wanted to wear it for you,” Derek says. “Apparently,
she’s pretty fond of you for some reason.”

“And who wouldn’t be?” I wink.

“Need any help, Dem?” Derek offers.

“No, no. You guys can go in the living room and hang out
there if you want. Haven, do you want to help me make Nana’s lasagna?” Demi
lifts a wooden spatula and points it at her niece. “I have a little apron
that’s just your size . . . and I could use a ton of help . . .”

Haven looks to Demi, then to Derek, and lastly, to me.

“No, thank you, Aunt Demi. I’m going to play with Royal. He
likes to play Legos and puzzles with me.” Haven melts me with her big, blue
eyes. They match Demi’s. And if we’re lucky, maybe someday we’ll have a little
girl with that very same gaze.

“Burn.” Derek laughs.

“That’s cool, that’s cool,” Demi says, her hands in the air.
“I get it. Royal’s fun. I’m boring. I only color with you and braid your hair,
but that’s cool. Whatever.”

Haven hops down from the chair and walks back to me,
reaching for my hand and slipping hers into mine.

“Come on, Royal.” She leads me to the living room and goes
straight for the box of Legos hidden under the sofa. Haven stayed with us a
couple of weeks ago while Derek was entertaining a new client during his
custody weekend. Demi insisted on taking her to Target and buying her whatever
she wanted, and she chose pirate Legos. “Let’s play.”

At least she didn’t pick Barbies. I’d never hear the end of
it from Derek if I was sitting on the floor dressing Ken dolls.

An hour later, the four of us are sitting around the kitchen
table, enjoying Demi’s dinner, which tastes bite-for-bite like something Bliss
would make, and Haven’s telling me all about her new preschool teacher.

“They bumped her up to three day,” Derek says. “She was the
smartest kid in her class.”

“Doesn’t surprise me,” Demi said. “She’s a Rosewood.
Overachieving is embedded in her DNA.”

“Speaking of overachieving Rosewoods,” Derek says. “Did you
know Delilah’s coming back in a few months? She’s in some wedding in April for
one of her old friends from high school.”

“Yeah, but we were thinking of taking a trip to Chicago
sometime soon and visiting her.” Demi hands Haven a napkin.

“Let me know when you’re going. I’ll go too,” Derek says.
“As long as it’s not my weekend with Haven. She doesn’t do too well on planes.”

“Imagine that. Haven Rosewood can’t sit still for longer
than an hour. Doesn’t surprise me.” Demi laughs.

“How’s your pre-law program going?” Derek turns his
attention to me.

“Going pretty well. Just a few weeks into the semester, but
so far, so good. Really immersed in the program. Definitely feel like this was
my calling.” I nod as I take another bite and chew.

“Allendale College has one of the best legal programs in the
state,” Derek says. “You chose well.”

It’s not like I had many options, but I agree. It’s one of
the best, and so far, it’s a great fit.

“Not sure where I’ll go for law school,” I say. “I’ve got a
few ideas in mind, but a lot of it will depend on where Demi’s teaching by
then.”

“Naturally,” Derek says. “If you ever need a letter of recommendation,
let me know. And you know there’s a spot at the firm for you, once you’re all
finished.”

“I appreciate it,” I say. “Thank you.”

After dinner, Haven and I put together a fifty-piece,
toddler-approved puzzle on the living room coffee table, and Derek helps clean
up. After he leaves, Demi and I curl up on the sofa and try and decide which
DVR’ed shows we should catch up on first.

“How’s Misty?” Demi asks as we peruse our recordings. “You
hear from her lately?”

Blowing a heavy breath between my lips, I drag my hand
through my hair. Ever since Misty retracted her accusation, Demi’s been
encouraging me to forgive her. She said I need to do it for myself, and that
forgiving her won’t mean that what she did was right. It’s just a way of
releasing anger, untethering myself from all of that.

Now that I’m no longer a registered offender and Misty is no
longer considered my victim, I’m legally allowed to be in her presence.

“Mona said she’s up at some inpatient recovery facility,” I
say. “She’ll be serving her sentence as soon as she’s out.”

“You should probably go talk to her at some point. I bet
she’s scared.”

And she should be. Prison is no fucking joke. And it’s not
meant for the soft or the weak.

I exhale and Demi fits her head beneath my chin.

“I know it’s not your idea of a good time,” she says
sweetly. “But I think you’ll feel better when it’s all done. And subsequently,
so will she. Only good things can come of this.”

“Yeah.” I kiss the top of her forehead. “You’re right. I’ll
visit her soon. Give her some encouragement.”

“You’re a good big brother, even if you don’t think so.” Her
voice is a sweet whisper.

I grab the remote from her hand and select an episode of
Walking Dead.

“Hey!” Demi pops up and tries to swipe it back. “I thought
we were watching Scandal tonight. I wanted something a little . . . sexier.”

“Oh. You’re in the mood for something sexy tonight?” I rise up,
guide her onto her back, and climb on top of her. Pinning her beneath me, I
crush her lips with mine, feeling them pull into a grin as I kiss her. “Screw
watching TV tonight.”

I crawl off of her and pull her off the sofa, sliding my
hands down her thighs and up her ass before hoisting her up. I carry her to our
room, and her nails dig into my scalp as she kisses my neck.

This could be the rest of my life, and I’d be the happiest
man alive. We could relive these small moments again and again, like
Groundhog’s Day, and I wouldn’t mutter a single complaint.

As I lay her across
our
bed, the bed that
we
share, the bed
we
picked out together on some lazy
Saturday afternoon several weeks back, I’m filled with nothing but warmth and
an unapologetic, unwavering love for Demi Rosewood.

I stare into her gorgeous blues and breathe in her soft
scent that fills the electric space between us. Our love is just as vibrant and
alive as ever before.

I climb over her, and she nestles her head into a pillow and
tugs at the hem of my shirt, and I know with absolute certainty that I’ll never
tire of making love to this woman.

Ever.

No matter how much time will pass, it’ll never get old.

I’ll never take her for granted.

And I’ll never jeopardize our happiness, so long as we live.