Page 115 of Cruel King
Once again,the King house is full of people laughing and enjoying themselves. It’s been far too long since the last time it was like this, and I’m happier than I thought possible that our families have come to spend the holidays with us. We’ve had far too much sadness this past year. I want this to be the start of far happier times.
As Eleanor sets the last dish on the table, everyone prepares to eat, but I want to tell all the people we love about Ava and me. Standing from my spot at the head of the formal dining table, I wave Ava down to me and take her hand in mine.
“We have something to announce. Yesterday, I asked Ava to marry me, and she said yes.”
Beside me, she lifts her left hand to show off the engagement ring, and more than a few people let out audible gasps. My youngest brother chuckles and asks, “So did you leave any diamonds at the mine, or did you just decide to buy the mine for that ring, Matthias?”
Ava giggles at his teasing as I pull her close. “No, I didn’t buy the mine, Ronan.”
From the other end of the table, her friend Eden says, “So when is the big day?”
I turn to look at Ava because we never got to discuss that after I proposed since we spent the rest of the day and all night in bed. The two of us shrug, and she answers, “We don’t know yet, but you’re all invited. It wouldn’t be right not to have you all there on our most important day.”
Lifting my glass in the air, I make a toast. “To family.”
The entire table raises their glasses and answers, “To family!”
After dinner,Andrew, his wife, and their girls leave to go to their hotel in town with Ava’s father while she and Eden huddle together with Eleanor looking through wedding dress pictures on their phones. Kellen and Ronan head upstairs to shoot pool, so Marius and I relax with a drink.
“So marriage, huh? I don’t know why I never thought about you getting married, but this is your second one. If you’re thinking the rest of us need to catch up, you can forget it,” my brother says before taking a gulp of his whiskey.
I can’t help but laugh. He’s still so jaded. “Nobody’s suggesting that. Ronan and Kellen still have a lot of life to lead before they settle down, and I doubt you’ll ever get married. You hate love too much.”
Marius smiles because he knows I’m right. “Love never got me anything but misery.”
Since there’s no way I’m going to dissuade him from his dislike of love, I drop the conversation, happy to know I’ve found it with the woman of my dreams. Maybe he’ll change his mind someday.
When Ava, Eden, and Eleanor move their wedding dress search into the kitchen to enjoy more of those cookies everyone loved, I sense something change with Marius. Curious, I pour him more whiskey and sit back to look out the window at the snow beginning to fall, wondering if he’s planning to tell me he’s actually found someone and won’t remain alone forever.
Instead, he looks at me and says, “You know, I talked to Theo the week of the crash. We were making plans to get together when I went to Paris for a shoot.” He stops for a long moment before he continues. “He didn’t hate you, Matthias.”
I try to smile, but it never really happens. “I hope you’re right.”
“He seemed okay. At one point, he joked that one day he was going to drop in here and act like nothing happened just to see how you guys reacted.”
That makes me chuckle. “I can see him walking through the front door and giving me one of his Theo smiles and asking, ‘What the hell is new, Matthias?’ I like to think it would be like we always were with each other.”
“I think it would have been. He missed you. I could tell.”
Hearing that makes me choke up, and I look away as tears fill my eyes. “I miss him. More than I know how to handle some days, Marius.”
“Ava seems okay now. I wasn’t sure she would be when I was here for the funeral.”
I nod, relieved we’re past those terrible weeks when she wouldn’t leave Theo’s room. “She struggled for a long time. He was her best friend for her whole life.”
“He loved her to the end, Matthias. He never said those words, but he told me if you ever hurt her, he was going to come back here and kick your ass.”
If only he was still here to say that to me in person.
“I’m happy he didn’t hate us after what happened.”
Never one to spend too much time on serious talks, Marius rolls his eyes and says, “And this is exactly why love is nothing I ever want. It tears brothers apart and makes everyone unhappy. No thanks.”
I shake my head as I lift my glass to toast his happiness at being single. “To you and your life of being single and loving it.”
With a grin that reminds me so much of Theo, he lifts his glass and says, “To you and Ava and the happiness you’ve found.”
This first holiday without our brother has been bittersweet, but knowing he didn’t hate us for what happened is the best Christmas gift I could get. Well, the second best. The best would be having Theo here with all of us.