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“How?”
He moved his legs. “There was this girl she was seeing. Made her all tense. When things were good, they were awesome, but when things were bad…” His expression hardened. “She and the situation with her ran your sister off, and I know it did. I just wish she would have stayed. We could have dealt with this, her.”
“Who was the girl? Someone at school?”
He shook his head. “She doesn’t matter, though. What matters is she drove your sister away. The end of all that with her and your sister went down pretty fucking shitty. I saw it, was there for it. That girl broke her damn heart, and though Paige wasn’t without fault in some of it, she didn’t deserve that.”
“What happened between them?”
“That doesn’t matter either.” He braced his arms. “I just know she’s not coming back. Not this time. She ripped her goddamn heart out.”
Paige had mentioned a girl she’d been seeing last summer. She passed it off like it hadn’t been much of a thing then, but I knew better. She’d been so lit up, then suddenly, it’d been like a switch went off. Paige’s texts had become more guarded, her calls less and less. Had it been this?
Had my sister had her heart broken and I didn’t even know?
Chills racked my shoulders, and I rubbed my arms. “You really don’t know anything? About where she is? What about t
he girl she was seeing?”
“She don’t know shit, and she doesn’t care either.” His growl brought more chills, that bite about him familiar. “Just leave all that alone. She hurt your sister, and the last thing Paige would want is you anywhere near her. She was a monster.”
I covered my arms. “It sounds like you two really had each other’s backs.”
He said nothing, his swallow hard. “I could have had it more.”
I watched that move over his face, his guard up again. Eventually, he stood to his feet, and I tilted my head.
“Should we probably get you back, then?” he asked, putting a hand on top of the truck.
I rose up. “We don’t have to. Hershey’s still sleeping. I wouldn’t mind letting her rest.”
I had no idea what the fuck I was doing, but for whatever reason, I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay, be around my sister’s best friend for a while.
Royal’s lips parted, a clear debate in his eyes, but for whatever reason he got down to his knees and reached into the cabin through the back window. He pulled out some blankets and handed me one. “Might as well get comfortable, then. It gets chilly out here.”
Nodding, I helped him spread out one blanket, and the pair of us lay on top of it. The other I wrapped around my body like a burrito while he laced hands behind his head and gazed up at the stars. The way he lay, his hands behind his head, brought form to his biceps and broad chest, a form that had me looking at him as neither an enemy nor my sister’s bestie.
Swallowing, I studied the stars. “Can I ask you something?”
He turned on his side, his focus all on me.
I swallowed again. “What’s with all this? Dragging me out here with Hershey and everything? How is that me owing you anything?” If anything, it all seemed kind of nice what he did.
He shrugged. “More sentimental shit, I guess. Your sister and I used to come out here all the time when we were kids, and when I heard about my cousin’s pups and knew you had one just like them…” He shrugged again. “I don’t know. It gave me an excuse to come out again, something to do.”
Something to do…
I eyed him. “I mean, you could have asked anyone else out here. LJ, Jax, Knight, or any one of your friends?” And he wouldn’t have had to drag them at that, blackmail them.
“Could have,” he said, flashing those entirely too green irises at me. He fell to his back, tilting his chin up at the stars. “I chose you, though. Didn’t I?”
He chose me.
My gaze found the stars then too, not knowing what else to look at. Royal moved, and when I finally did look at him, he’d repositioned, lacing fingers across his wide chest.
He grinned. “Fuck, we used to get into so much shit out here. It helped that my cousin owned the place. He let us do whatever we wanted, ride tractors, eat corn dogs until we exploded, and just chill around here until after midnight.”
I smiled. “That all sounds amazing. Well, except for the corn dogs part.” He faced me, and I shrugged. “I’m vegan, don’t eat animal products.”
