by Erika Kelly
The truth shot out, taking her by surprise. She shook her head. “I meant from what you’ve done.”
“That’s not how relationships work. Do you think our parents didn’t go through rough patches? No marriage can survive decades without struggle.”
“I don’t care about other couples. I don’t care how people suffered in loveless marriages. We’re not right for each other, and I won’t do it. And, no matter what my family’s going through, I know in my heart they wouldn’t want me to.”
“It won’t be loveless. You’re angry right now—rightfully so—but it will pass.”
“The anger has passed, but the doubts won’t. If I stayed with you, I’d wonder every day for the rest of my life if you’re cheating on me, hiding things from me, or working behind my back to sink my business plans. You’ve shown your true character, and I thank God every day you did it before we got married.”
His features burned red. “I didn’t go into that meeting with a plan to block your idea. We gave it tremendous consideration, but in the end…” He drew in a breath. “In the end, my father thought it made the most sense to hold off on any changes. Growing the business isn’t the priority right now.”
“It is to me. This isn’t some vanity project of mine. You and I both agreed it’s time to move House of Villeneuve forward, and to do that we have to grow. It’s absurd to have one, single product.”
“If you’d seen your father during the meeting, you’d understand why we decided to table the discussion.”
Fear stuck a pin in her heart. “What does that mean?” Her mother would have told her if something were wrong. “Is he all right?”
“No, Rosalina, he’s not all right. The vote’s in a matter of weeks. He’s waiting to find out whether the People’s Party is going to gain more traction in parliament. If they do, not only will they push their agenda to kill the monarchy, but they’ll try to take back your family’s land. Just because you’re hiding from our problems in another country doesn’t mean they’ve gone away. Your sister’s at school, you’re in America, so it’s just your parents. You need to come home and be seen with me. We need to send out wedding invitations.”
She knew that. God, it ate through her like acid. Every night she lay awake fighting her conscience. It seemed so simple to send out the invitations. It would make things easier for her parents and give the country something joyful to focus on.
It would secure the vote for the Royalists.
But she would never marry Marcel. “I won’t lie to the people of St. Christophe. I just won’t play them like that.”
“You’re not lying. Rosalina.” She’d never heard him shout. Not once. “I know that I’ve hurt you deeply, and I hate myself for it.” He took a breath that seemed to restore his composure. “But you are going to marry me. You have to.”
“Get over your embarrassment and pay attention to the deeper issues your behavior uncovered. We don’t love each other.” After the way Brodie made love to her, she fully understood that now. “And I certainly don’t trust you, so get it through your head once and for all. I’m not going to marry you. Period. End of discussion.”
“Even if the consequence is the People’s Party winning enough seats to end the monarchy? To take the land that’s been in your family for six hundred years?”
“First of all, I don’t believe for one second there’s only one solution. But, also, I don’t have to marry you.”
He reeled back, reaching out for the bannister. “You can’t mean that.”
She softened. “But I do.”
He looked anguished and scared. “Rosalina, this is my life. This is what we’re supposed to do. Every decision I’ve ever made has been driven by our future together.”
“Including the decision to sneak around with my assistant. That was the part of you that knew we shouldn’t marry, that didn’t have the courage to stand up to your father and tell him we don’t make each other happy. That, if we marry, we’ll be lonely. I hope, if you’re truly honest with him, you’ll find out your father doesn’t want that kind of future for you. I know my parents don’t want it for me.”
“But they need—”
“They needed me to make a gesture, and I’ve done that. I came home for the Jubilee and announced my philanthropy. The whole country got to see us together. But right now…Marcel, I don’t want you here. I asked for this time away, and I need it. Please go back home and work on yourself. Figure out who you are and what you want. I promise, it isn’t me.”
And, oh God, it struck with such perfect clarity.
Brodie’s right for me.
She knew it down to her bones. Knew without a doubt she’d never meet anyone again who was so right for her.
He’s mine.
I’m his.
And yet…we live worlds apart.
Chapter Seventeen
Brodie sat on a rocker, Ruby on his lap as she shared her croissant with her stuffed chicken. One bite for her—as those little chicklet teeth chomped into the flaky dough—and one for Squawk.
“Faster, Bwodie.”
“You got it, peaches.” He rocked a little harder.
While everyone around him talked and laughed, he was filled with restless energy, waiting to find out what was going on.
Had Marcel come to bring her home? Or just to win her back?
At heart, Rosalina was dutiful. He didn’t think she’d marry the douchenozzle, but she would go home if her family needed her to play some role in advance of the vote. Because she could finish her work from there. They didn’t need to be in the same country to be business partners.
His heart thundered, and his body heated up so fast his skin prickled.
What worried him most was that she’d already checked off the main items on her list: getting drunk and having wild sex. She’d also had a hell of a lot of fun riding a mechanical bull and boarding a glacier.
So, was she done here?
No. He knew her. The taste she’d gotten would only make her crave more.
His oldest brother came over, and Ruby lifted her arms for him. Will scooped her off Brodie’s lap and set her on his hip.
“I hongry, Wheel.”
“You’ve got that croissant.”
She thrust it at him, one end soggy from her nibbles. “Scock don’t like it.”
“He doesn’t? Well, forget it then.” He turned and pitched the pastry off the porch and into the goat pen across the lawn.
A little hand cupping her mouth, Ruby giggled, her eyes glittering.
“Let’s get you something else to eat.” But Will didn’t go. Towering over him, his forehead creased in concern, he said, “You have any idea what’s going on?”
Brodie shook his head.
“You don’t want to go check on her?”
“It’s none of my business.”
“It sure looked like your business when I walked into your room this morning. I don’t know her issues, but I’d bet she could use a friend right now.”
“I think you know if I could help her, I would. But, trust me, I’m nothing more than a little break from her reality.”
Will held his gaze, intractable. After a moment, he said, “You know, Mom did a number on all of us, but she hit you and me the hardest. Me, she left behind. She took my brothers and moved across the country. Hard to get over something like that.” He smoothed Ruby’s hair away from her cheek and kissed the top of her head. “But what she did to you was even worse.”
Brodie’s gaze snapped up. Worse?
“Those twisted little mind games she played with you?”
Oh, that. “I’m an adult now. I’m over her manipulations.”
“Not so sure about that. She played dirty.”
“Yeah, not cool telling your kid he’s your favorite. But it was a long time ago. I don’t care about that stuff anymore.”
“Maybe, but we never talk about what went on back then, and we probably should, since I’m pretty sure my perspective of the past’s dif
ferent from yours. Like, you probably remember asking her to come home, but I remember her telling you she wasn’t sure if she should since she couldn’t handle us. That I was too wild, and everyone followed my lead. That Dad didn’t care enough about us to bother keeping us in line. Or to get you the right care for your knee.”
“I do. I remember that.”
“And I remember her saying that if you, the only good kid, couldn’t keep your brothers and your dad in line, then she didn’t think she should come back home.”
The memory appeared, sharp, and in perfect focus.
Oh, honey, I just don’t think I can do it. Your brothers don’t listen to me.
I think you’re the only one that wants me there.
I want to come home for you—you’re the best. He remembered her laughter—but only now could he recognize how forced it had been. But your dad doesn’t want me there. He’s in his office the whole time. That should tell you right there he doesn’t want me around.
Trust me, no man who wants a woman around looks like Sasquatch.
They might listen to you, though. If you can just get them to behave, just while I’m in town, it’d make it easier. You know what it’s like for me.
Something teased the edge of his consciousness, but he couldn’t grasp hold of it. “I forgot about that.” He’d known she’d manipulated him—obviously—but where was Will going with this?
“Yeah, so essentially, she made it your job to create the kind of family she could live with, and if you couldn’t do it, then she’d have to stay away.” Will’s gaze narrowed on him. “You understand what I’m saying? She had an idea in her head of what a family looked like, but instead of disciplining us, distracting us, doing any of the things a parent does, she looked to everyone else to make it happen for her. Her husband, me…and then you. You were her last attempt.” Will watched him carefully. “And when that didn’t work—because you were eleven years old—she had to divorce Dad.”
“Are you saying I blame myself for the family breaking up?”
Will gave a terse nod. “I remember hearing Dad and Uncle Lachlan talking about how you carried the breakup of the family on your ‘little shoulders.’ Dad wondered if Coach should be pushing you so hard, because he thought you might only be training and competing to make peace in what was left of the family. To keep the five of us intact, since you felt responsible for Mom leaving.”
Shit. Fuck. All those hazy memories he’d carried of his mother’s role in his life clarified. The truth locked into place. And it made him sick. Because he had, absolutely, felt responsible for the destruction of his family. It was just something he’d accepted.
Will shifted Ruby to his other hip, adjusting the chicken between them. “We were all too young to understand that Mom never wanted to move to Calamity in the first place. She wanted to be a socialite in a big city. She wanted to shop and go out to lunch. There wasn’t anything we could have done to keep her here. Even if she’d shipped us all off to boarding school, and Dad had become the perfect husband, she still wouldn’t have stayed in Calamity.”
Brodie was too unsettled to respond.
“So, I guess where I’m going with all this, is everybody thinks the worst thing that ever happened to you was getting injured two weeks before the Olympics. But I think it’s that Mom made you feel responsible for the family blowing up. And I worry that you carry the burden of that failure in here.” He tapped his heart.
“Dat your heart, Wheel.” Ruby pressed her ear against Will’s chest. “It goes da-dum, da-dum, da-dum. Scock gone listen now.” She shoved her chicken against him.
He smiled adoringly at their half-sister, before turning his attention back to Brodie. “All I know is I’ve never seen you like someone as much as Rosie, and it would be a shame if you let her go because of Mom’s mind games.”
And, just like that, the world as he knew it snapped back into place. “It’s got nothing to do with that. Rosie’s got a lot going on back home.”
“I’m not talking about her end of things. All relationships have issues. Couples only survive because they’re invested in making it work. And, I’m telling you, when you find the right woman, you do whatever it takes. You don’t look at the obstacles, you look at the ways around them. Callie had an internship in New York, and Delilah needed to run her family restaurant, but Fin and I didn’t let that stop us from holding onto the women we’re going to marry, have kids and grow old with. And I’m worried you’ll never get to the good stuff until you see that Mom pulled a number on you. She made it hard for you to trust, for you to go all-in with anybody or anything. Look, all I know is that you can’t trust Mom with your heart. That’s a given. But is Rosie like Mom?”
“She’s nothing like her.” Rosie was real and deep and honorable. And it was her dedication to her family that would cost him a relationship with her. “But the situation’s completely different. She has to go home.” I just hope it’s not today.
“You’re not hearing me. I’m telling you that fighting for Mom was a dead-end, because she’s a narcissist. Rosie’s not. That means there’s hope for you. There’s always hope. Don’t let Mom screw it up for you. She’s done enough damage, don’t you think?”
“Yeah. I do.” He didn’t think Will understood the whole picture. There were no weapons for Brodie to win the battle against Rosie’s parents, her country, the fucking monarchy.
Will might not know the situation, but he’d just given Brodie a hit of hope. If there was a chance in hell to make it work with Rosie, he’d grab it. Getting up, he clapped his brother’s shoulder, smacked a kiss on Ruby’s cheek, and took off into the kitchen.
From the cool of the living room, he heard Rosie talking. Peering through the window, he found her on the porch. Ass perched on the banister, phone to her ear, she gazed across the meadow with a troubled expression. When he opened the door and stepped outside, she looked relieved to see him.
“I don’t know.” She sounded exasperated. “I don’t even know where he’s staying. All I can tell you is that he looked shell-shocked. I guess I never saw that he’s nothing more than his father’s puppet. I’d be sad for him if I weren’t so angry.” She paused to listen. “Well, if he thinks he can guilt me into a loveless marriage, he’s out of his mind.”
Brodie came closer, reaching for her hand. She grasped it, pulling it onto her lap.
She heard something she didn’t like, because she landed on both feet. “No, Mom, I won’t change my mind.”
Brodie could hear her mom’s voice grow louder and more insistent.
“You know what? Challenge accepted. I will come up with a solution we can all live with.” She paused. “Yes, before the vote. I’ll talk to you later.” She ended the call and tossed her phone onto a cushioned chair.
“All right, warrior princess, what’s going on?”
“It’s an impossible situation.” She spread her arms wide. “I can’t please my family, my country, and myself at the same time.”
“They’re still insisting you marry him?”
“You have to understand, the People’s Party is fighting hard and dirty, so the closer the vote gets, the more stressed my parents become.”
“So, it all rests on you and your marriage to the douchenozzle?”
“Yes, but only because that’s been the expectation all along. I finish school, come home, marry Marcel, and get pregnant. So long as we stayed with the program, the People’s Party wasn’t a real threat. Now, though, they’re convinced nothing short of a wedding invitation will solve their problems.”
“I could be wrong, but it sounds like your parents are holding onto the old way of things, while the other party’s pushing the ball forward.”
“Believe me, we’ve fought to change the law of succession. My father’s been soundly rejected.”
“When was the last time he brought it up for a vote?”
“Oh, it was…Genevieve’s twenty, so I’m thinking ten years ago.”
“Seems to me, i
f the People’s Party poses an actual threat, then the citizens of your country aren’t as conservative as they used to be. They’re open to new ideas. So, maybe, instead of giving them a wedding, you could give them something genuinely meaningful. You be the one to change their view of your worth. Because, Rosie, you’re worth so much more than being a vessel for the next prince.”
She walked right into his arms. “I needed to hear that. I feel so guilty, so selfish. I know how much peace of mind it will give my parents if I just go home and pretend to be engaged. It’s only for two more weeks.” She pulled back. “But there’s this other feeling in me. It’s in my bones, and it says to hold my ground. Only, I couldn’t figure out a way to do that and still help my family and benefit the people. Thank you for reminding me that I’m worth more than marrying the douchenozzle.”
“I think, when your parents dismiss your ideas, they make what you do seem inconsequential.”
“In the scheme of things right now, it’s ridiculous that I’m working so hard to create a product for your spa. That’s not where my time or energy should be spent.”
“You’re working. You’re creating. You’re living your life, as you should. This work is what makes you you. You’ve studied for seven years, and now you’re forming a business. This is exactly what you should be doing. It would be a waste of your talents and abilities to just get married and pregnant. We can come up with a better idea.”
“That’s what I told my mother. Unfortunately, that might’ve been more bravado than actual confidence. There’s not much I can do in two weeks.”
“We can come up with an idea in five minutes. We don’t need to execute.”
She eyed him sharply. “You’re right.”
“What can you do to improve the lives of your people?”
“We have the finest roads, schools, and medical care in all of Europe.” She sounded like he’d insulted St. Christophe. “We’re known for the beauty and cleanliness of our country.”
“You’re being defensive. We can’t brainstorm when you’re fighting me.”