Remington's Tower

by Katharine Sadler

  “I know.”

  “Everything I did, everything we’d been through should have been enough. There’s no way I could have done more for you or given more of myself than I did. I gave you…” he shut his mouth hard, and I knew from his stony expression that he was done giving me anything.

  “I know,” I said. “For what it’s worth, I trust you now.”

  “After I’ve been here with your family and managed to restrain my bloodthirsty need for revenge?” he said. “No, it’s too late.” He dried his hands on the towel I held in my hands without making eye contact. “I need to go. Thank your Aunt for me and tell her I…just tell her thank you and congratulations, again.”

  He walked out, and I stood there, desperately trying to think of something to say to change his mind and knowing I’d lost my chance. I finished up the dishes, passed Worthy’s well wishes onto my aunt and went back to my room. I got undressed and snuggled down under the covers, wishing for a way to turn back time, and undo the hurt I’d caused Worthy.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  The roads were mostly clear of snow the next day, when Keats, Tennyson, and Barrett left and headed back to their respective homes. The temperatures were up in the forties and the snow was melting all around us, making it sound like it was raining.

  “I put our stuff on your bed,” Barrett said, as he hugged me goodbye. He’d been extra nice to me since he’d given my phone back and warned me about the text from Worthy. I almost wished he’d teased me about it, because that would mean he thought the whole thing was silly and I was fine. Since there was no teasing, I knew he was hurting for me and I hated that. Tennyson and Keats hugged me and promised to see me at Christmas. Then they all left and it was just me, Byron, Betty, and Leon in the driveway, watching them go.

  We all went inside, but Betty and Leon went into their room and it was just me and Byron in the living room. I didn’t think Leon and Betty were doing anything that would make me blush or gag, but the house was small and there weren’t a whole lot of options for them to be alone together.

  “So,” I said, slapping Byron on the knee. I needed a distraction so I could stop thinking about Worthy and checking my phone every five minutes to see if he’d texted to accept my apology. “Wanna watch a movie?”

  Byron stared at the plush carpet under his feet. “Sure, for a little while. I’m meeting up with some friends in a bit.”

  “And by friends you mean Worthy.”

  He bristled. “He’s still my friend, Remington. I’m sorry things didn’t work out between you two, but you can’t expect me to write him off, too.”

  “I didn’t write him off,” I said, but my voice felt small. Even I didn’t really believe that.

  He gave me a look that said I was wasting his time pretending to lie, but he didn’t call me out on it. “He’s not very tight with his family and he hates it here, hates the city, hates his neighborhood. We’re going to drive to the mountains and go for an afternoon ski.”

  Ski? I loved to ski. At least, I’d always wanted to try it, but Leon didn’t exactly have the money to take all of us skiing. Byron had worked in high school and earned the money to ski when he could. I’d had no opportunity to earn money or to leave the house. “It’s okay,” I said. “I’ll figure out something to do.” I’d spent plenty of time alone at my uncle’s house, but there I’d had the woods and the mountains to play in and I hadn’t had a taste of freedom. I hadn’t really known what I was missing. Now that I had, I could feel the boredom pulling me down.

  “Maybe you could get a job at Dad’s place,” he said.

  Leon had sold his shop in West Virginia, but he didn’t have the money, yet, to buy a new one, so he was working for somebody else. I’d never had an interest in cars, beyond changing the oil and the tires, which Leon had forced me to learn. “I don’t think so.”

  He shrugged and we picked a movie, but I didn’t really pay attention. I saw the next few weeks stretching out before me and tried to think of ways to fill the time. I realized that getting a job was my only option. I wasn’t going to sit around the house and do nothing when I could be earning money to help Leon pay for my tuition and my expenses.

  After Byron left, I went on-line and cruised the want ads. I put together a resume, then I took my list of possible jobs, borrowed Leon’s truck, and went out to find work.

  I started with the mall, but I got a whole lot of nothing. Everyone had already hired on their Christmas help. I wasn’t familiar with Roanoke and had no idea where I was going, even with my phone and my GPS. I stopped everywhere I thought I might find work, except the fast food joints, but I found nothing.

  As the sun started to set, I stopped at a Christmas tree lot, not expecting to get any further than I had anywhere else. An elderly man stood by the gate and smiled at me warmly as I walked up. I got all kinds of good feelings, but he turned me down, too. Defeated, exhausted, and hungry, I went home to dinner with my family.

  “Remy,” Betty said over spaghetti and meatballs that night. “You should have just asked me. I’ll call around and see if anyone I know needs help over the holidays.”

  “Thank you,” I said, without much hope. Aunt Betty pulled through, though. One of her friends owned a boutique that sold vintage clothes, costume jewelry, and kitschy knick-knacks. Business had been better than she’d expected over the past few months, and she found she actually could use help over the holidays. I started working the next day.

  Working at the shop was hardly exhilarating, but it kept me occupied and the Christmas break flew by in a dream-like swirl of fake gems and swishy fabrics and cozy evenings with Byron and my aunt and uncle. I stopped checking my phone for messages from Worthy, but I didn’t stop thinking about him. Christmas Eve arrived before I was ready and Barrett, Keats, and Tennyson plowed into the house, all good cheer and laughter.

  By the time I got back to school, I thought I was over Worthy, that I could see him with another girl and be okay. I’d even convinced myself it was for the best. I’d only been out in the world for a few months, and there was a wide world of guys I needed to date and kiss and have fun with. I wasn’t ready to settle down and get serious about one guy before I’d even really started. Those were the things I told myself over and over, preparing myself, convincing myself.

  When I stepped into the common area of my suite, I saw Worthy on the couch, a steaming cup of coffee in his hand and a wrapped gift next to him. I froze and all my good intentions, all my resolutions, evaporated like the steam from his coffee. My heart stuck in my chest as the reality struck me. Worthy’s new girl was one of my suitemates, one of my friends, possibly. It couldn’t be Bell, she’d have told me. I’d talked to her a few times over the break and she’d told me tales of hooking up with some guy she met at her holiday job, but nothing about a new boyfriend. Still, it had to be someone who lived near me, someone I’d see him with all the time. What if I walked in and found them making out on the couch? I couldn’t do it. I’d have to find somewhere else to live. I backed up, with no plan what I’d do with my bags or where’d I’d go, but Worthy looked up and smiled, his amber eyes darkening, and I was caught.

  “Um, hi,” I said. I waddled in with my bags and tried to move quickly past him. “I hope you had a good Christmas.”

  He nodded, but he didn’t say a word. I made it to my door and was fumbling for the key when he said my name.

  The key hit the linoleum with a clatter and I bent to pick it up, ignoring him. I didn’t want to hear about his new girl or how he’d make sure he kept his distance or whatever he might be planning to say. I fit the key in the lock and pushed the door open. I threw my bags and myself into the room and started to close the door, but Worthy was there, blocking my path.

  I prided myself on not being afraid of anything, but in that moment I feared Worthy. Not because I thought he’d physically hurt me, but because I thought he might just reach into my chest and squash my heart beyond recognition.

  He wasn’t smiling any longer.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I should have brought this to your house, but I wanted to give it to you alone.” He shoved the big, wrapped package at me and I took a step back, my hands raised.

  “What is it? A bomb?” I was trying to be funny, to lighten the mood, but I was also trying to cover my confusion, because I couldn’t imagine a scenario in which Worthy would give me a nice present.

  He didn’t laugh. He took another step inside. “Just open it,” he said. I swallowed against my natural instinct to argue with any and every direct order I’m given, and I took the package. I sat on my bed and opened it.

  Inside was a framed picture. It was a candid shot of a little girl with blonde hair and a little boy with dark curls and brown eyes. We were outside, in t-shirts and shorts, and we were laughing, our eyes on each other, sharing a happy moment. Behind us stood two men, beers in their hands and smiles on their faces. It was my dad and Arle Stanley.

  “I wonder what we were laughing about?” I said, my voice cracking, tears burning my eyes.

  “I don’t think it matters,” he said. “What matters is that we were happy. That’s what I want to remember about our past.”

  I looked at him, not fighting the tears streaming down my cheeks. “Thank you.”

  “I’m sorry. When you apologized, I was still so angry and hurt, I couldn’t…I talked to my mom while I was home. She still won’t tell me the truth about my dad, but my aunt…what she said backs up your story.” He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. “I’m screwing this up. What I’m trying to say is that I’m sorry it took me so long, but I accept your apology and I want to…” He sat on my bed next to me. “I want to give us another chance, because I love you, and I hate not seeing you and talking to you and just being with you every day. I miss you so much it hurts.”

  My heart was beating so fast I wasn’t sure I’d be able to talk. “What about the girl you’re seeing?”

  He looked at the floor and shook his head. “I may have exaggerated a little bit.” He met my eyes and gave me a sheepish smile. “And by exaggerated, I mean I made the whole thing up.”

  I knew I should be upset, but I was just so happy that he was there and he wanted to be with me, that I couldn’t make myself care. “I’m willing to try being your girlfriend again, under one condition, no more lies and no more secrets.”

  “In that case,” he said. “I feel I should tell you that your cousin Barrett swore he’d hunt me down and tear out my intestines if I ever came near you—”

  “I can handle Barrett,” I said.

  “That’s good, because he’s—”

  I grabbed his shirt and pulled him toward me and kissed him until I forgot what he’d been talking about. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me back, and everything was just the way it should be. I was back where I should have been all along.

  WHAT’S NEXT?

  The next book in the Remixed Fairy Tales series, Francesca’s Slumber, tells Frankie’s story. After her dreadful relationship with Duran, she decides she needs to toughen up and learn how to go after what she wants, instead of hanging back and waiting for it to come to her. She goes to Bell for lessons in how to be tough and finds Harrison an unlikely ally in her quest. Francesca’s slumber will be out in April, but is available for preorder at Amazon. Visit my website to find out more about my books: http://www.KatharineSadler.com/

  TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Katharine Sadler lives with her husband in North Carolina. She’s been writing since she was ten and has wanted to be a writer even longer. When she’s not writing or otherwise gainfully occupied, she reads like it’s an addiction, exercises, skis whenever she gets the chance, and adds more books to her Amazon wish list.

  OTHER WORKS BY KATHARINE SADLER

  The Reapers (5 book series)

  The Reaping (Reapers 1)

  On a White Horse (Reapers 1.5)

  The Revolt (Reapers 2)

  The Rift (Reapers 3)

  Switch (Reapers 3.5)

  The Resonance (Reapers 4)

  The Resistance (Reapers 5)

  The Reapers Series Box Set

  Dying Dreams (Trilogy)

  Dying Dreams (Dying Dreams 1)

  Dying Innocence (Dying Dreams 2)

  Fairy Files (7 book series)

  Fairy on the Rocks (Fairy Files 1)

  Pink Princess Fairytini (Fairy Files 2)

  Fairy with a Twist (Fairy Files 3)

  Wild Fairy Moonshine (Fairy Files 4)

  Bloody Fairy (Fairy Files 5)

  Remixed Fairy Tales

  Remington’s Tower (Remixed Fairy Tales #1)

  Francesca’s Slumber (April 2017)

  I’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU

  You can chat with me at:

  www.KatharineSadler.com

  www.Facebook.com/KatharineGSadler

  www.Twitter.com/KatharineSadler

  www.pinterest.com/AuthorKSadler

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Thank you to my family for their unfailing support. And a big thank you to my husband/business manager for making sure I keep my priorities straight and keep writing and editing and publishing, even on the days I’d rather spend curled on the couch reading a good book. Thank you to my friend and beta reader Becky Kyslinger for cheering me on and loving my books, and for letting me know when something isn’t working for her. Thank you to www.CoverYourDreams.net for the gorgeous cover on this and all of my books.