Royal Games (The Royals of Monterra) by Sariah Wilson

Author:Sariah Wilson [Wilson, Sariah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781503950788
Published: 2016-07-05T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Two men whom I’d known for a long time had given me some serious and conflicting things to think about. On my way home, I picked up a tree from the Ramirez farm. It wasn’t quite the tree from A Charlie Brown Christmas, but I had to make do with what they had left.

All the ornaments and decorations were waiting in the living room, along with my aunt. There was no way she had carried up all those boxes from the basement by herself. I didn’t ask, and she didn’t tell.

We got everything ready before we started decorating the tree. I made the hot chocolate and started up a fire from the logs that Rafe had cut, while Sylvia turned on a Johnny Mathis Christmas album. Even the weather cooperated, sending down little tufts of snow to blanket the yard.

Opening all of the boxes was like going through a mini time capsule. We remembered the ornaments and when and why we had bought them. I grabbed my favorite USS Enterprise NCC-1701 ornament, hanging it near the top. Laddie had always been a little obsessed with Christmas trees and thought everything hung on the tree should be his own personal chew toy.

Part of me felt guilty as I put up the strands of colored lights. Rafe was sitting in his little house, all alone. We probably should have invited him over. The worst part was that I wanted to.

The hardest thing about what had happened on the show wasn’t just losing a boyfriend or a possible husband. In that short time, he’d become my best friend. He’d understood me and my hobbies in a way no one else ever had. When I talked about pwning some noob in a battleground, he knew what I meant. No explanation necessary.

And he was practically perfect for me. If someone had asked me to describe my ideal man, it would have been Rafe. Ridiculously smart, witty, loving, kind and thoughtful, strong and steady. He made me laugh. He liked my weirdness. We had a similar sense of humor. I had felt comfortable with him. He was the first man I had ever been my total, actual, authentic self with. I never felt like I had to hold anything back or play any games. He accepted me for me. And best of all? He made me feel safe.

To stop thinking about him, I asked Aunt Sylvia to tell me about her date with Max. She had a sparkle in her eye and a wistful tone in her voice that I hadn’t heard in a very long time. She told me all about how Max had brought her daisies, her favorite. Then he had driven her to a theater in a town twenty minutes away. They were running a 1950s movie retrospective, and he knew how she loved old black-and-whites.

“I heard you two had a disagreement about something,” I asked, wanting to find out whether or not my suspicions were correct.

“Not everyone agrees on everything,” she said, putting me off.

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