Page 63 of Cruel King
“Yeah. Mr. Sutton’s been Dad’s estate manager and friend for as long as we’ve been alive. That was nice of him.”
How kind of my father to be nice to everyone. Everyone but me, that is.
“I’m going to be staying for a while, Matthias. I’ve got a shoot lined up in Fiji in a few months, but until then, I think I want to stick around. I think Ronan and Kellen plan to go tomorrow, though.”
I nod, envious my other brothers have lives they like enough to want to return so quickly to them. Not that I could fly back to London even if I had a loving wife waiting for me. Handling my father’s estate means I’ll be staying here for a few weeks, at least, too.
“I’m not sure about Theo, though. I get the feeling he’s in no hurry to get back to racing.”
My brother looks for me to comment on that, but I have nothing to say. I have a suspicion I know why Theo wants to stay here on the estate. He and Ava have been spending every waking minute together, and I heard Eleanor mention to him this morning that she would have his picnic lunch ready for him after today’s meeting with the lawyer.
I should warn him about her. Let him get away before he falls in love so he doesn’t go through what I did.
CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE
Theo
For two weeks,I’ve waited for this night with Ava. Now that everything has been settled with my father’s passing, I can finally be with her like I’ve wanted to since I returned home.
I always said she was the future Mrs. Theo King, and while she seemed to think I was joking, I was dead serious. I knew I loved her years ago when I was far too young to do anything.
Now everything is different. I’m successful and have more than enough money to give her everything she deserves. Not that she can’t afford whatever she wants on her own. My father took care of her and her family in his will, which I have to say was a nice ending for a man I never figured was the thoughtful, caring type.
I’m glad he did that, though. She deserves it, along with her father, and now money doesn’t have to be an issue between us. Not that it ever was. I’ve never once thought of her as less than us because she didn’t have King money. Unlike Matthias, who seems to delight in referring to her as “the help” like she’s a lowly fucking servant and he’s an actual king, I’ve always seen Ava as just Ava. Her social status didn’t mean a damn to me. She was my best friend who lived close by so I never had to worry about not being able to see her.
It must be eating him up inside to know she’s wealthy now and he can’t talk down to her anymore. I honestly don’t understand where the hell he got that elitist bullshit from. Neither of our parents ever treated anyone as beneath them based on how much money they had. It was probably those assholes he hung out with in school. Montclair Prep had its fair share of snobs who looked down on anyone who didn’t live in some huge mansion or drive the right kind of car.
Thinking about high school makes me cringe when I remember how many times I had to push around some guy for treating Ava and her brother like they didn’t belong. God forbid anyone try to get an education without having to put up with that superior crap so many of those kids had going on. She didn’t deserve that kind of nonsense.
As the sun dips below the horizon and dusk begins to come around, I see her walk out of her house and head down to meet her. I’d hoped we could have gotten together before this, but with my father’s passing and then everything else culminating in the funeral, it’s been days since I kissed her at the Spring Festival.
She waves at me, so I start to jog toward her, dying to get our date started. When I reach her, I lean in to give her a kiss. I want her to know that night wasn’t a one-off.
“Why didn’t you just wait for me to come up to the house like we planned?” she asks in a suspicious voice.
I shrug, not having any real reason why. “I don’t know. I didn’t feel like staying inside to wait for you, so I figured I’d sit by our tree and wait until you walked out of your house.”
Ava turns to look over at the enormous maple tree a few hundred yards from my house and smiles. “I haven’t called it that in a long time. I think since you’ve been gone.”
Sliding my arm around her waist, I pull her to me. “Well, I’m back and I missed it, so I spent some time over there telling it all I’ve been up to in my travels. It’s all caught up on my news now.”
With her usual sweetness in her eyes, she gazes up at me and giggles. “Oh yeah? Did it just listen, or did it have anything to say?”
“It just listened. Trees aren’t notoriously big talkers.”
I watch as her expression turns slightly darker and she asks, “So the tree gets to hear all about your life away from here, but I don’t? That doesn’t seem fair. Why does the tree rank and I don’t?”
She’s being sort of playful, but I can tell the fact that I haven’t told her much about my life away from here bothers her. Ava doesn’t need to hear what I’ve been up to. Far too much of it involves women who only cared to be around me because they thought I had some kind of fame. They weren’t supermodels by any means. Just racing groupies I had a good time with but never wanted anything permanent from.
Those women were good for one thing. They weren’t like Ava. Some women you sleep with. Some you care about but can’t imagine spending the rest of your life with.
And then others are the whole package. Like Ava.
“Men don’t worry about boring trees senseless. I’m trying hard to make a good impression here,” I say, half-joking.
She narrows her eyes and looks at me funny before saying, “You don’t have to impress me, Theo. You’re my best friend. I’ve thought the world of you since I was a little girl.”
Jesus, I need to get this date back on track or we’re going to get stuck talking about how we’re friends. That is definitely not where I plan to have this night end up.