Parker sighed and then rubbed her hand over her stomach with a wistful expression. “I just can’t believe I’m having a baby in the next three months.”
“If I wasn’t sitting in the room with you when she showed us, I wouldn’t believe it myself. Sheesh, Parker. Go. Tell Remy. You have like a million things to do before the baby gets here and I can’t start talking about it until you announce it.”
“Ooh.” Parker’s face lit up. “We should do one of those pregnancy announcements. Not like, the ones that started that wildfire, but something small and hilarious. Do you think Remy would do something like that with me?”
I stared at her like she’d grown a second head and then some, and waited until she took back her stupid question. Unfortunately, she was too busy eyeing my tacos to see the look on my face.
“Parker, my brother would kill someone for you. He’d work a twenty-four-hour shift for you. He would do literally anything in the world that you asked him to. Of course he would do a pregnancy announcement with you because you’re crazy.” I pushed my plate across the table, silently offering her one of my precious tacos, and waited for her to eat it. “I know you’re scared. I know this isn’t something you planned. Any of it. Less than a year ago, you wanted to move out of Birch because you felt like there was nothing here for you. But there is.”
Parker’s eyes filled with tears, which was unfortunate since she was also in the process of eating a taco. Which led to her starting to choke. On my taco.
She slid out of the booth, waving her hands toward her face and I rushed to assist, but I didn’t make it before a set of masculine arms picked her up from behind and started to perform the Heimlich maneuver on her.
Everything was fine, until I saw his face. The malicious glint in his eyes pointed directly at me while he performed an act of civil duty, at least to anyone else. But I knew exactly what Royal was doing in Lucy’s. He was there to torture me. To prove that he could touch any part of my life. Just like he did with Mallory when I tried to leave him the first time. When he had her threaten Parker, just enough for me to find out and to stay.
“Drop her.”
My order happened to coincide with Parker’s gasp for air that signaled the blockage had cleared. Otherwise, I’m not sure if Royal would have put her down or taken his hands off her. As it was, I found it hard to believe that he’d just stepped away without making it a point to prove to me that he was doing it because he wanted to. Until I saw the way he glared at me.
“Oh, thank you.” Parker hadn’t turned around yet, and she hadn’t looked up at my face to see why I was suddenly so frigid.
“No problem at all, Mrs. Hayes.” Royal’s fake cordiality had Parker standing completely straight, her face white as a sheet. “I’m happy to help.” Royal went on like he hadn’t just crossed a line.
A line that we all knew he’d crossed.
Parker stepped toward me, her hands unconsciously going to her stomach to protect the unborn life there. And for a second, I was scared for her. Not for myself. Not for the fact that we were standing in the middle of a busy restaurant and Royal was still making moves to be a jackass. No. I was scared that he was going to do something to my friend that would cost her the baby.
Reacting before I could think it through, I stepped around her, placing myself directly in his path. He was so close I could smell the designer cologne that he insisted on spraying under his shirt so that it wasn’t too overpowering while he was in court. And I could see the way his eyes raked over my body, trying to understand why I would stand between him and Parker. But the conclusion he came to was wrong. So wrong.
“Jealousy, Kennedy?” His lip cocked slightly to the side while he processed his inaccurate belief. “You continue to surprise me.” Royal looked over my shoulder to Parker, his eyes turning critical. “You know I don’t prefer brunettes.”
“You do prefer blondes though, don’t you?” Parker bit out, standing immediately behind me but not at my side. “Isn’t that what Mallory’s hair looks like?”
Royal ignored her completely to turn his attention back to me. “A way to pass the time.” He lowered his voice. “Nothing more. A plaything to indulge in until you come home where you belong.”
“I don’t belong to you, Royal.” In my head, the words came out strong and unbroken. Not shaken by his presence or the pain he’d caused me. In reality, the terror and torture he’d inflicted on me didn’t just vanish overnight. And I’d lied to the police about what happened, so there was nothing I could do about everything he did now. I couldn’t hide the tremor in my lip or the way I couldn’t quite meet his eyes. What I could do was stick up for my friend, and I always would.
“Go away, Royal.” Parker’s presence at my back gave me strength that I didn’t know I had. Either that, or I was wrong about the pain he brought down on me never getting better. “I don’t want you here, and if you come near me again, I’ll report it as harassment.”
“Harassment, really, Kennedy?” His eyes lit up like I’d just given him a Christmas present. “After all the time we spent together, and the life we were supposed to build together, I’d hardly call what I’m doing here harassment. Especially since you never gave me back my ring.”
The ring.
My body heated immediately, and I dropped to my knees in an uncontrollable reaction to the only memory I’d managed to forget.
“You can’t run from me, Kennedy,” Royal’s voice called out from the living room of his house, and I tried to get to the bathroom to lock the door before he reached me.
I closed the bathroom door just as he made it into the bedroom, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I tried to turn the lock, but it was gone. He’d changed the doorknob when I wasn’t home, and now I had nowhere to hide.
I backed up slowly, trying to put natural distance between myself and the door, when he opened it with a smile on his face.
That smile. The one that told me he’d had a bad day at work, and he was about to take it out on me.
“I’m so glad you came home, Kennedy. After Parker’s incident with Mallory, I knew it would only be a matter of time before you saw the error of your ways.”
“Ro-Royal,” I stuttered. “I wasn’t leaving you.” The lie hung between us, but it was enough to give him a moment of doubt. A moment for me to come up with something better.
“Well, tell me, Kennedy. What was it?” His voice was coated with a hint of what would happen if I didn’t do a good job. If I didn’t make him happy, and I started to tremble uncontrollably.
When I couldn’t even open my mouth because I was shaking so badly, Royal stepped into the bathroom and concern marred his perfect face, mocking me. “Kennedy, are you ill?”
“N-no.” But my stomach churned, making me a liar… again. I barely turned around in time to make it to the toilet before I threw up.
“Oh, Kennedy.” In an instant, all of the rage and terror was gone. In its place was the care and love that Royal used to lure me into a relationship in the first place.
He put his hand on my back, sweeping my hair up and away from the toilet, almost like he cared about me.