A Royal Pain (The Royals Trilogy Book 1)

by Brown, Tara

  “The year was 1939, and I was about to join Her Majesty’s Royal Navy. I wanted to join like a regular lad might, stand in line and all. I was walking down the road with my brother when I saw this girl. Her shoe was stuck in the cobblestone. I ran over and the moment her blue eyes met mine, I knew. I knew, no matter how much of a gentleman I was expected to be, I couldn't look away. I boldly stared at her, like a cad. She smiled and I helped her with the shoe. We went for a walk and a man on the road, downtown London, offered us a bike built for two people.”

  “Like the old song,” Millie said. Her accent was as cute as his and Aiden’s.

  Jack smiled at her. “He told us we could use the bike if we agreed to pose for his advertisement. So we posed and he gave us the bike and we rode all over the city.”

  Millie laughed, and it was like watching her be the young woman she was in the picture. “We rode all over. It was so romantic.”

  Jack smiled. “That was the day I fell in love. So I joined the navy and we courted.”

  Millie giggled again. “We wrote each other every single day he was at war. It was the most romantic way to fall in love.”

  “It’s like Internet dating,” I said before I thought.

  Jack laughed but Aiden raised a brow. “What is wrong with you?”

  “Shut up.” I shrugged. “It’s a sweet story.”

  Jack gave me a look. “Well, you two kids probably have a bunch of fun things to do today, and I am taking my girl for a soda.”

  Aiden stood and offered me his hand. I took it without thinking about the fact I didn't know him at all. He squeezed and helped me up. “Thanks, Jack.”

  Jack bowed slightly. “Of course. Anytime.” He winked at me again. “Don't let him sweet talk you. Make him work for your heart.”

  “Oh uhm, thank you.” That was random and weird. It dawned on me he might have a mental disorder like Alzheimer’s. Aiden pulled me to the door. I waved at Millie. “Thank you for letting me see the picture.”

  They both waved. “Welcome to the family.”

  Aiden laughed and opened the door. When it was closed he paused, tilting his head to the side. “They meant the family here, who work here.”

  “I have to go.” I walked down the hall and tried to figure out what the hell just happened. It was all weird on like an Alice and Wonderland level of weird. Thank God Johnny Depp did that movie or I never would have made it through.

  “Did you like it?”

  I didn't turn back. I just smiled and said, “It was all right. I mean, since you show it to all the pretty girls.” Whew, my cool was back. So long as I didn't look at him anyway.

  The day went fast and when I finally made it home to bed, I didn’t care that my bed felt wet from the humidity or that my heart was broken. I was so tired I didn’t care that I’d been betrayed by everyone I knew, including my own father.

  I thought about the people I had met and the weird-ass situation I had been plunged into. Peaches rolled over on the bed and groaned.

  Aiden was going to be the thing that got me through the summer. I liked him at least a little and that would have to be enough to get me through.

  If a teenaged girl makes a duck face and doesn’t Instagram it, did it happen?

  Chapter Five

  Peggy on the Cove

  July—worst summer ever, bahhhh

  I had spent three weeks there, learning who liked cranberry juice and who liked tea and who liked their coffee Boston style. And what the hell Boston style was. It meant you put the cream and sugar in before you poured the coffee. I called it too lazy to stir, but the old man didn’t think that was funny.

  Aiden had vanished the day after he’d been so sweet and showed me “it.” I had thought about him and the picture a lot, but again started to think he was a figment of my imagination. Well, until Mae made fun of me, saying that seeing me in my bra had chased him off.

  After three weeks, I was beginning to believe it.

  Why had he even bothered to be nice to me if he was just going to leave?

  I carried a tray of drinks to the ladies playing cards at the table. Marbles smiled. “Did you make the refreshers again?”

  “I did. Lime today.” I placed one in front of each of them and sat in the chair that was there for me. Sarah dealt me into the card game. Who knew bridge could be fun? Or that this table of sarcastic, mean-spirited, and sour-faced old women were my soul mates?

  I sipped the drink they had made me Google from the Starbucks menu. Who knew Canadians liked Starbucks too?

  I wondered if the English did as well, but then I forced the thoughts away and pondered the weird facts I’d learned about Canadians.

  Almost right away I learned they were exactly like us. I had partied in Vancouver and done a bit of shopping, but it was a major city. I figured rural Canadians were more arctic and shit—not true. It was hot as hell, or hot as sin as they always said, and muggy. We wore shorts all the time and tank tops. I’d even gone for a swim in the salty lake. It was weird. I found a starfish, in a lake.

  Andrew jogged by in his short red shorts. They all sighed, watching him. I felt like I was perving on an old man, but he was Robert Redford hot so it was sort of okay.

  Hanna nodded at me. “Have you heard from Aiden?”

  “No. Not since he left a few weeks ago. Mae said he had to go home for something, but she didn't say what. Jack and Millie said it was a family thing.”

  Hanna smiled. “His grandpa died. Millie got an email yesterday.”

  “That’s sad.” The news made my stomach ache, not for him but me. All that time I’d thought he was a jerk and really his grandpa had died. I was the jerk.

  “He’s coming back tomorrow.” Hanna stared at me.

  I smiled. “Cool.”

  Sarah rolled her eyes. “Don’t try to act like he isn’t the cutest thing you ever saw. We all know he is. You had a moment when you saw him. Your eyes went all weird. We all agreed, they were weird.”

  “What?” I cocked an eyebrow and pretended I didn’t know the exact moment she was referring to. “No, they weren’t.”

  “Don’t worry, Fin.” She laughed. “He is the cutest thing any of us ever saw. He’s a good guy. Comes from good stock.” They all laughed weird old-lady cackles about it.

  I folded my arms. “Good guys aren’t really my thing.”

  Marbles laughed. “We know. You think we don’t know why you’re here? Pshh, you can’t trust old Hattie with a secret. We know you’re a modern-day Mae West. And even from the West Coast.”

  “I’m not from the West Coast.”

  “Hattie told us your father couldn’t handle you—you’re such a renegade. Girl after my own heart, if you ask me. Had to send you here to straighten you out.” Sarah winked at me.

  “Oh my God.” I rolled my eyes. “My father doesn’t handle anything. His evil wife does. She won this round, but I will be winning the next one.” I looked out at the sunny day. “I just didn’t know how dirty she was willing to play.”

  “So you didn’t steal and get alcohol poisoning and not come home and lie to your parents and spend horrid amounts of money on drugs and booze and then cut yourself?”

  I choked on my refresher and gave Hanna a look. “What?”

  She folded her arms. “Well? We know all your dirty little secrets. Now give us the dirt.”

  “I mean, I guess.” The explanation got lost in my tight throat. “It was just fun stuff. You know, regular teen shit? I didn’t kill anyone. I wasn’t drinking and driving. I wasn’t risking anyone else. And I never did drugs.”

  Sarah reached forward, gripping my hand where the scar was. “You got that out of your system now, didn't you?”

  “I guess.” I lied, waiting for someone else to say something, but they didn’t. They sat there giving me a grandmotherly stare. I didn’t know what else to say. If given the chance to be reckless, I believed I would have already painted Halifax, the local city, red. I would have my name all over that city. It wasn
't out of my system, I just liked fun. But the situation had changed. I didn't want to have fun. Maybe because there wasn't anyone to have fun with.

  “I should get back to work.” I got up quickly. ”It wasn’t a big deal.”

  I turned and walked out of the dining room and didn’t stop until I was in the office again. I sat down and went to Twitter and read Linna’s feed. There was a party at Aaron’s house. Her profile picture, that had once been her and me, was now her and Aaron kissing. He called her “babe” in his tweets.

  Panicking, I signed off and went to Instagram. The millions of selfies on her feed had become millions of kisses. She and Aaron kissing at the park, kissing on the dock, kissing at a restaurant, kissing in a cab, kissing in front of my house. “What the fu—”

  “Indeed. What are you doing in here? You know the rule about Internet with you.”

  I peered up to see the moody face of Hattie in the doorway.

  “You’re a fine one to talk,” I snarked back. “How could you tell them all I was some kind of evil delinquent? I never did anything beyond steal a friggin’ lip gloss, Hattie. You’ve got me snorting lines of cocaine and selling my dad’s shit. I never did anything.” I shot up out of the chair and raced from the office, hurrying out the front door and into the hot weather. I didn’t stop there. I ran like I was Forest-effin’-Gump, all the way to the lake. I got to a huge rock on the side of the water and climbed up on top of it.

  The breeze blew hard from the direction of the ocean.

  Something was wrong with me.

  The ladies asking if I wanted to have fun and if it was out of my system made me realize just how hard I’d been rocked. I was deflated and beaten down. But it was actually more than just being caught doing something wrong. It was all of the betrayal by Linna and my dad and even Sheila.

  Words like delinquent made me sick.

  Staring out at the water, I wanted to hate Hattie, but it wasn't like she had told them lies. Those things had happened.

  Sheila’s mean words floated by my face, carried on the breeze and created by my suddenly obvious lack of self-esteem.

  Your father hates you for a reason.

  I wish you’d never been born.

  You’re nothing but disappointment, you little bitch.

  I tried to breathe past it, not let her hate fill me with the desire to be hateful back.

  Mostly, I tried to remind myself she wasn't there.

  My self doubt got in one last jab.

  Why do you think Aiden really left without even saying good-bye?

  He probably heard all the bad things and ran for his life.

  What did I care? I wasn't that lame. I needed to forget about Aiden and focus on the fact my life was in ruin and I had no friends. Except a bunch of crazy old ladies.

  I watched the water and came to the realization that maybe I was a bit of a delinquent and needed to stop being so hard on myself. I hadn’t hurt anyone but myself, but the rest of them couldn't say that. Sheila and Linna had both hurt me.

  Wishing I remembered the night of the party, I ran my thumb down the scar that stretched from my other thumb up my wrist. Could the rosebush have done it? But why would Linna lie about it?

  Screw Linna. She was the devil in disguise. She wasn’t a true friend. I never would have cut myself like that—ever—and even if I had, she should have known better than to tell Sheila. I couldn’t even dig out a sliver. It had to have been the rosebushes when I was throwing up.

  “Finley Roze!”

  I turned around to see him, the guy I’d literally just told myself to forget. It was like a cosmic joke. He was standing with the sun glinting off him, the same as that first day. Aiden nodded at his car. “Come, get in.”

  “No. I don’t even know you! Leave me alone.”

  He winked one of his blue eyes at me. “But I wanna show you something.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “It’s about to rain.”

  I looked up at the blue sky. “It’s sunny—nice try.” I needed to focus on the fact I didn't even know him, not really. He could be a perve who sends his friends naked selfies.

  “It’s going to rain.” He pointed. “This is coastal. Sunny means nothing when clouds like those are coming at you.” I followed his fingers to the black clouds racing across the lake.

  “Great.” I hopped off the rock and walked to the road, passing him and his fancy car.

  “Finley, get in the car.” His tone changed.

  “No!” I hiked toward the rain clouds. They were where home was.

  “Fine, but I’m walking with you.”

  “Please don't.” I gave him an annoyed glare when he was next to me.”

  “What?” He seemed confused. “What did I do?”

  I sighed. “Nothing.” It was true. I was in a rotten mood and it actually had nothing to do with him.

  He nudged me as we walked. “You ready for the wet tee shirt contest? I think I’ll beat you.”

  I glanced down at my white tee and then over at the rain that was coming for us like a wall. “Oh shit!” I turned and ran for his car.

  He laughed. “I told you to get in.” He ran harder for the car and had the door open for me when I got there. I jumped in and he closed it, just as the rain hit. It was a downpour like I’d seen sometimes back home. We always pulled over and waited for it to pass. He got in and was already wet. “Love that you got in unscathed from the rain and I’m soaked. Had you just listened to me, I might still be dry.”

  I cocked an eyebrow. “My third-grade teacher taught me about stranger danger.”

  He rolled his bright-blue eyes. “I’m not a stranger.”

  “You are strange.”

  “Says the girl crying on the rock like Peggy of the Cove.”

  “What?” I folded my arms across my chest. “I wasn't crying. Who’s Peggy?”

  He winked. “I told you, I have something you have to see.” He started the car and drove into the rain like it was nothing.

  I gripped my seat. “Can you even see the road?”

  “Of course. It rains harder in England. This is a light sprinkle.” He chuckled at me and turned on his Sirius radio, putting the volume up too high to talk. He didn’t want to talk. It was like winning the lottery, like Marbles always said.

  I also didn’t want to talk. I was still cranky.

  He turned down the music and gave me a reluctant smile. “Do you really do drugs?”

  “Oh my God.” Even weeks after the offense, I still couldn’t believe I’d done drugs. I had always stayed away from them.

  “Never?”

  “No. Never. One time I contemplated doing Ecstasy cut with speed, but a friend walked up just as I was about to snort. She looked like death. Her eyes were fluttering and her face was gray. She glanced at my drugs and said, ‘Ohhh, I need some more.’ She looked like hell. I let her have mine and went into the rave with just some Crown Royal.”

  He seemed astonished. “You let her have yours? Was she okay?”

  “I guess.” I shrugged. “I don't know.”

  “That's a terrible story.”

  “It’s nothing compared to the one time I watched a lady shoot heroin in Seattle. It was downtown and she was leaned against a building. I saw her tie her arm, stick the dirty old needle into her arm, pull back some blood, and then push everything into her vein. It haunted me for weeks. Maybe it still haunts me. It was nasty.”

  “You saw that? As a small child you saw that?”

  “Yeah, drugs have never appealed to me. I was terrified of becoming addicted and looking like a meth head. They always look like shit and they always have bad teeth, like the Eng—”

  “Were you going to say the English? You think I have bad teeth?” He appeared insulted.

  “No.” My face was burning. “I was going to say in Inglewood. It’s a suburb of Los Angeles.”

  “You are a big fat liar. I’ll have you know, I had braces when I was a boy. I got them in America. My father is
a kin—kind of liaison in New York. We spent a spring there once and I got braces then.”

  “You sound so old. The way you say liaison is weird—intense. Now tell me where we’re going.”

  “No.” He drummed his fingers along the steering wheel. “So you don't do drugs at all?”

  “No.” I scoffed. “Jeeze. What’s your obsession? If you wanna get high, just get high. It doesn't offend me. I can drive, dude.”

  He seemed as offended as I did. “I don't do drugs.”

  “Okay.” I rolled my eyes and turned my face to the window. “Whatever.” He was being weird.

  We drove for like an hour in silence. I was antsy and bored by the time he turned the car into something I assumed was a joke. It was a village, maybe a fishing village. He drove to a huge lighthouse and parked. There were only a couple of cars in the parking lot, probably because the rain was brutal.

  He got out without saying anything and went to the trunk. He came back a second later with bright yellow raincoats. The one he passed me was similar to ones the fishermen wore in pictures of Newfoundland. “Here, let me help you.” He pulled his on and ran around the car to my door. He opened it. I scowled as the cold rain dumped on my legs and he held out a hand. “Come on.”

  “What are you doing? We’re going to drown out there.”

  “Stop being ridiculous.” He rolled his eyes and grabbed the coat, shoving my arm into it.

  “No.” I jerked back. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m not taking no for an answer. So you can put the coat on like a big girl, or I can carry you out there without it. Either way, you’re coming.” His eyes were lit up, but my indignant and stubborn side kicked in and I pulled back more.

  “No. I hate rain.”

  He chuckled again, running his hands over his soaked head. “Can you not make this painful? Please?” The rain was pouring down on him. When I didn't budge he reached in and dragged me from the car.

  I kicked and screamed, but he tossed me over his shoulder and closed the car door.