Royal Engagement

by Chance Carter

  “What’s it like in the winter?”

  He sat, guiding me down next to him as he considered my question.

  “Lonely,” he said finally. “It’s quiet. Everything’s cold and wet, and it seems miserable, but when you sit in it for long enough, it feels like you’re a part of something ancient and wild.” He laughed and ran a hand through his hair. “Does that sound totally deranged?”

  I shook my head. “No! Not at all. I think about that sometimes when I’m at the beach. The waves have been turning over and over for millions of years, and sitting there with the salt spray in your nose feels like tapping into that.”

  Shane’s eyes warmed, his lips quirking into a little smile. “You’re something else, Dallas. You really are.”

  I was bashful all of the sudden and glanced down at my jeans to hide the red that was surely rising from my neck. I knew very little about Shane and figured now was as good a time to ask as any.

  “You live out in Greenridge, right?” I asked, meeting his eyes again.

  “Sure do.”

  “With your mom?”

  Something flitted across his face. “Yeah, just my mom.”

  “If you don’t mind me asking, where’s your dad?”

  “I don’t mind you asking at all,” he said. “There just isn’t much to tell. The asshole left before I was born and neither mom or I have heard anything about him since then. Good riddance, as far as I’m concerned. Mom’s done an amazing job raising me on her own. She put herself through school and started working as a nurse a few years ago. She’s got a bit of debt to pay down, but we’re finally at the point where we’re doing alright. It was tight for a few years, but she got us through it. We didn’t need that bastard.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “That must’ve been hard.”

  He shrugged. “Nothing’s easy in this life, but at least growing up the way I did allowed me to bond with my mom. We were like two soldiers in the trenches together at times, and I wouldn’t trade that for the world.”

  “You seem to have a positive way of looking at everything,” I noted.

  He chuckled. “Yeah, that’s something I get from my mom too. She’s always looking on the bright side, always striving to be better. I admire her.”

  I didn’t mean for it to show on my face, but a wave of jealousy hit me out of nowhere, smack dab in the chest. My face fell, and Shane noticed.

  “Hey,” he said quietly, tipping my chin up to search my eyes. “What’s the matter?”

  His eyes were as green as the meadow, with beautiful flecks of gold. An instant calm settled over me.

  “I’m sorry. I just...” I sighed. “I miss my mom a lot. My dad hasn’t been the same since she died and sometimes it feels like I lost both of them in one fell swoop.”

  Shane’s thumb stroked my cheek, and I leaned into the touch.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I remember when that happened. Was it two years ago now?”

  I nodded. “About then. Cancer’s a bitch.”

  His hand dropped to clasp mine, and he squeezed. “I didn’t know your dad before. Was he that different?”

  “Sometimes he’s his old self,” I said. “But often he’s just really out of it. He took it very hard and refused to come to me for comfort, as if he felt he was letting me down if he needed to lean on me even a little bit. That ended up just making me feel lonely, and I think it stunted his recovery to the point where he only seems just now to be coming out of it.”

  “But at least he’s coming out of it.”

  “That’s true.” I shrugged. “I still worry about him though. He forgets things, and he’s impulsive. He came home with a ride-on lawnmower not long ago, said he was going to fix it and sell it and never did. It’s still rusting in our backyard, but as far as he’s concerned, it may as well not even exist. It’s like there are two different people in the driver’s seat but neither of them talk to each other. I don’t know if my mom used to be a moderating influence or if he’s just lost the plot.”

  “I don’t think he’s lost the plot,” Shane assured me. “I’ll be honest. It seems like there’s been something on his mind lately. Maybe you should ask him about it.”

  The thought of asking my dad something like that was almost laughable. He never confided in me before, and he wasn’t about to start now. I decided to change the topic, curious to learn more about my companion.

  “What do you want to do after high school?”

  If Shane was caught off guard by my question, he didn’t show it. He smiled, though it was a pained smile, and said, “To be honest, I’m not sure. I’ve been playing with the idea of joining up. I need a little direction in my life, and the military seems like the best place to get it. Plus I get to serve my country, which I’ve always found very appealing.”

  “I like that,” I replied. “Much nobler than what I want.”

  “And what do you want, Dallas?”

  The honeyed drawl of his tone sent a shiver of pure pleasure down my spine. I added extra emphasis to my answer as a way of not showing how he affected me.

  “To be a star!” I cried, flinging my arms wide. “I’ve had Broadway dreams since I was old enough to know what Broadway was. After I graduate, I’m going to save up like crazy and move to New York. Then I’m just going to hope I don’t fall flat on my face.”

  “You’re going to do great.” Shane bumped his shoulder against mine. “If anybody can do it, you can.”

  I snorted. “You don’t even know if I can sing.”

  “You’re a smart girl. If you couldn’t sing you’d have figured it out by now.”

  I looked up at him and smiled. He believed in me. I could see that he wasn’t just saying what I wanted to hear, and I loved that. I never talked about it in front of my other friends these days since Sasha was almost guaranteed to get snotty at even the mention of the B word. But Shane...Shane believed in me.

  “It’s getting late,” he announced suddenly, slapping his hands on his thighs. “I should get you home before your dad sends out a search party.”

  I laughed but allowed him to help me to my feet. “I doubt he’s even noticed we’re still gone.”

  “Still,” he replied, “I gotta head home soon. My mom’s coming off a twelve-hour shift, and I want to have dinner waiting for her when she gets home.”

  My heart nearly exploded. Shane was already heading back toward the road, and I trailed after him on a beam of pure rainbows. He didn’t seem to notice, and I doubted he thought anything of it, but that was the moment I knew for certain that he had a heart of gold.

  We got back to the bike, and I reached for my helmet, but Shane stopped me. I looked up in alarm just as he closed the distance between us and kissed me.

  Having never kissed a boy before, I had no basis for comparison, but Shane had to be the best kisser in the world. His lips danced expertly over mine, and even though I felt clumsy in my actions, he seemed to know how to move in just the right way to guide me. Fireworks went off in my head, millions of glittering explosions from somewhere deep within me. It was everything I’d ever wanted in a first kiss.

  Shane’s hands came around my waist, pulling me closer. He nibbled on my bottom lip, and I sighed, lost in the pleasure of the moment. Lost in him. My toes tingled with pleasure. My hands raked down his back. I could have lived in that moment forever and never wanted for anything more.

  Shane pulled back, both of our eyes fluttering open and finding each other in the small distance. His mouth curved into a wicked grin and he passed me the helmet, turning to mount the bike before I had a chance to say anything. Not that I still possessed the ability to speak.

  I climbed on behind him and shoved my helmet onto my head. Then, smiling bigger than I ever had, I wrapped my arms around his waist, and we took off into the cedar-scented afternoon.

  Chapter 5

  Shane

  Today was the day. Today I would ask Dallas to the prom and, based on her reaction to our kiss yesterday, today wo
uld be the day she said yes. I could barely wait. I was distracted all through football practice, feeling nothing but the burn in my arm from the throws and the burn in my belly that still simmered from our kiss.

  She was perfect in every way. Beautiful, yes, but so much more than that. There was a depth to Dallas that I hadn’t accounted for. I knew she was kind and sweet and intelligent, but a lot was going on in her head besides that, and I was desperate to learn. I wanted to be the one to listen to her problems, the one she could come to when she hurt or when she wanted to celebrate. I wanted to be there for her. Period.

  Beyond that, there was something electric between us. Something real. I could only hope that she felt it as keenly as I did because I’d spent all day wondering how long I’d be able to breathe if I didn’t get to see her soon.

  I was so wrapped up in my head that at first I didn’t notice Wes and his friends having a chuckle party by the water cooler. I wouldn’t normally care either, except they were extra loud and obnoxious today and they were supposed to be practicing too. I expected the coach to go over and tell them to get back to work, but then again even the adults at this school didn’t mess with Wes Gromley. Or they didn’t mess with his dad, I supposed.

  I’d never cared much either way, but I knew I wasn’t Wes’s favorite person. He would be the quarterback if it weren’t for me. I couldn’t wait to see his reaction when he found out that Dallas chose me over him. I’d been watching him try to put the moves on her lately. She would never go for him, whether I was in the picture or not, but it was going to be a particularly sweet piece of entertainment when he realized that once again, he didn’t make the cut.

  I toyed around with the idea of going over there to tell them to get back on the field but decided I didn’t care enough. Then I heard my name.

  Anger flared in my veins. Were they talking about me? Laughing about me?

  I stomped over to them, pulling off my helmet and letting it hang by my side.

  “Hey!” I called. “What’s going on over here?”

  Wes was surrounded by his usual goons—Rob Boleskine, Nelson Vurdock, and Paul Chesterfield. Rob was the beefiest guy in our school and clocked in at about 6’6”. He had arms the size of steel beams and a gut that he could barely wrestle into the uniform. Nelson was shorter and slighter, and immediately recognizable wherever he went because of the shoddily done barbed wire his drunk of a cousin Ronnie tattooed around his bicep the previous summer. He thought he was tough shit, and was always the loudest of the bunch. Paul often hung in the back. He was the skinniest of all of them, though he was close to Wes in height. I got the impression that like a pilot fish, he hung around as a way of self-preservation. Stay close to the predator, and you don’t become the prey.

  All four sets of eyes turned to me as I approached. They all laughed.

  “Here comes poor boy himself,” Wes taunted.

  I ignored the insult. Or tried to, at least. My veins pumped fire, and I knew taking the high road wasn’t going to get me any relief. I could at least use my anger to encourage them to get their asses into gear.

  “Why don’t you worry a little less about me and more about practice?” I asked. “Maybe if you did, we might win a game now and again.”

  I could tell that struck a chord. I played because it helped me relax, but they all played for the glory. Actively ignoring the fact that we barely ever had reason for celebration was probably the only way these knuckleheads got to sleep at night.

  “Of course,” Wes said like he’d just had a lightbulb moment. “If we don’t get you a scholarship, you’re never going to afford college, are you? Is the trailer park throwing a big graduation party for you?” He turned to his friends, chuckling, “I reckon it’ll be a real hillbilly hoedown!’

  “If you’re going to try to insult me, the least you could do is come up with something original.” I folded my arms and glowered at Wes. “Are we going to have a problem or have you finished peacocking for the day?”

  “What’s peacocking?” Paul asked. “It sounds dirty.”

  Wes shot him a nasty glare, nastier even than the ones he reserved for me, but Rob saw an opportunity and pounced.

  “No, you’re thinking of a pearl necklace,” he said. “I hear Shane’s mom will do that for you for a bargain.”

  I gritted my teeth. He’d done it now. He could make fun of me all he wanted, but my mom worked her fucking ass off, and I wasn’t about to let some shit for brains jock with an inferiority complex drag her name through the dirt.

  “You better take that back, Rob.”

  “Or what?” he taunted. “You’ll run home and cry to your mommy? Just make sure she doesn’t have a client over. You don’t want her to miss out on potential income.”

  Most people say they see red when the anger takes over, but I saw nothing. It came back to me afterward, the flash of surprise on Rob’s face, the sickening sound of crunching bone, his agonized scream as he fell back into the dirt. The others were either too shocked or too scared to come at me, and instead, they flocked to the side of their fallen comrade and shouted for the coach. He’d been watching nearby and arrived on scene within seconds, pushing me out of the way to assess the damage. He yelled something at me about going to the principal’s office, but I was already on my way.

  My knuckles stung, but they weren’t broken. That meant the thing that broke was on Rob somewhere, and I remembered back to how his jaw seemed to give under the pressure of my fist. Unnaturally so.

  I smiled. That would teach him for talking about my mother.

  Unfortunately, now it was my time to face punishment.

  The principal yelled at me for a full fifteen minutes before Coach showed up. He yelled at me for an additional fifteen minutes. When they finished yelling, the pair had to decide what they were going to do with me. I obviously couldn’t stay on the football team. Coach wanted me expelled to boot, but the principal wanted to keep the situation as clean as possible. Rob and his family were unlikely to take it to the school board, and he preferred to keep school drama as contained as possible.

  Besides, Rob would find another way to come for me. Neither of them said so, but they were both thinking it. Rob’s dad was big in with Wes’s dad, so that meant I was basically fucked. I didn’t care. I was probably the first person ever to stand up to that bully and I’d do it again a thousand times if I needed to. If nothing else, he might think twice about who he picked on in the future.

  After my haranguing I was sent home and told that they’d be in touch with my parents to tell them what a bad boy I’d been. That was the only part of the entire situation that made me uncomfortable. My mom adored me and worried about me more than her well-being, so I knew if she found out I got into a fight she’d be furious. There wasn’t any way to keep it from her, unfortunately, since I couldn’t steal her phone and impersonate her, though the idea of doing so made me smile on my way out to my bike. At least because of her crazy schedule, she probably wouldn’t find out tonight, which would give me some time to relax for a bit before she started in with the worrying.

  I parked my bike in our trailer’s little carport, glad to make it home just before it started to rain. The aluminum door creaked open loud enough to wake the dead, though that never bothered my mom when she was sleeping during the day. In fact, we often joked she slept even sounder than my dad—though sadly that was because her job was more exhausting than the business of living entirely.

  The trailer was empty, as expected. Mom was working a double today, so she wouldn’t be home until long after I went to bed. I cracked open the fridge to suss out the dinner situation and was surprised to find a homemade lasagna on the top shelf, with directions for the oven and everything. I didn’t know where in her day Mom found the time to make me a big ass lasagna. She probably didn’t think anything of the gesture, either. To her, it was just her duty as a mother.

  Fuck.

  Guilt washed over me like a tempest on the rocks. How was I supposed to explain
what I’d done today? I had to be the one to tell her, as much as that was going to suck. I couldn’t wait for the school to do it. She deserved better than that. I’d be damned before I told her the real reason for my lashing out though. If she asked, I would merely say they were making fun of me. Just me.

  The most annoying part of it all? None of the other guys would be going home tonight wondering how to explain themselves to their parents. None of them gave a shit. Wes especially. His father would congratulate him if he decked some guy at school for pissing him off, justification or no. Hell, Preston Gromley probably wished his son would go around punching more people.

  My only consolation was that I’d broken Rob’s jaw, which meant he wouldn’t go wagging it at anybody anytime soon.

  A small comfort, I know.

  Today was supposed to be the day I asked Dallas out. Instead, I got myself kicked off the football team.

  Oh well. There was always tomorrow.

  Chapter 6

  Dallas

  “Don’t you think it’s disgusting?”

  I didn’t realize Sasha’s nasally question was directed at me until the whole table turned to look, waiting for my answer. I’d been pushing peas around on my plate for the past several minutes, completely absorbed in my thoughts. The meatloaf looked especially drab today, and since I had no idea what Sasha was talking about, I figured that was probably it.

  “Yep, pretty gross,” I said. “Further evidence for my assertion that we’re served the same food as the county jail.”

  That was not the right answer. Sasha rolled her eyes.

  “Were you even listening?”

  “Not really,” I answered. It grated on me that Sasha expected everyone to pay her the utmost attention at all times. She had a whole table of people listening to her tirade, whatever it was today. Why did it matter if I zoned out for a bit?

  Sasha rolled her eyes again. “I was commenting on how that Shane Kelly guy has finally shown his true colors. We should get him barred from prom.”