Page 44 of Royal Games (The Royals of Monterra)

I made an effort to spend more time with Aunt Sylvia. Which wasn’t easy, given that she seemed to only want to talk about Rafe. Or forgiveness. Or trusting again. I was a grown woman. I didn’t need my aunt trying to run interference for me.

And if someone wasn’t talking about Rafe, he was there. Quietly, constantly. Taking care of whatever needed to be taken care of.

Like the next time rehearsals for the talent show rolled around. Nicole called me, saying she wasn’t feeling well, and asked me to take over. Which was fine, as long as I managed to stay out of Henry’s magic box.

At the rehearsals, Rafe came up behind me, studying the chaos. It suddenly felt too hot with him so close. I twisted my hair up into a bun, frustrated that I couldn’t seem to manage myself when he was around. “I am going to cut this all off,” I muttered, shoving a pencil through the bun to keep it in place.

“Don’t!” He choked the word out, his eyes ablaze with passion. “Please don’t. I love your hair.”

That should not have given me the happy thrill that it did. After my heart palpitations subsided, I called for everyone’s attention. But with Nicole’s authority gone, the high schoolers had all decided that they were the ones in charge.

He picked up a prop onion, tossing it up in the air and then catching it. “Isn’t there a saying in English, something about too many chefs ruining the soup?”

I nodded. I wondered if there was a saying in English that would make him stop driving me nuts.

“Speaking of chefs, when are you going to give me those cooking lessons?”

“You definitely need them.” I’d put it on my calendar, right next to the twelfth of never. The idea of being in such close quarters with him, touching, talking, making food together ... it made me uneasy. I shifted from one foot to the other.

“Did it ever occur to you that maybe I’m an excellent cook and the smoke alarms are just cheering me on?”

My lips twisted as I tried to keep my smile in. “I can promise you that never occurred to me. Here’s your first lesson.” I grabbed the onion when he threw it, showing it to him. “This is fake, but this is an onion.”

He nodded seriously, taking it back. “Ah, yes. I’ve heard of those.”

Then I had to clamp my lips together to keep from laughing. I gestured toward the teens. “I have to go take care of this.”

But trying to organize the teenagers into their respective scenes was a bit like trying to organize a goat rodeo. I kept trying to tell them where to go and what to do, but everyone had a million questions.

Rafe stood up, whistling sharply with his fingers, and managed to quiet them down. I directed them to their rehearsal spots, and they finally started running their lines. I watched as he twirled the onion up, bounced it off the inside of his elbow, and caught it again. That shouldn’t have impressed me, but it did. He caught me looking and winked.

I rolled my eyes. But it was more about me not being able to ignore him than him being cocky. The winking kind of reminded me of Dante. Which made me think about Lemon and Kat and the suspicions I’d had.

“If I tell you something, do you promise not to tell your brothers?”

Chapter 14

He let the onion fall to the floor. “You know that I would never tell anyone your secrets.”

A feeling I didn’t recognize raced through me, pumping blood into my heart. I ignored it. “Your future sisters-in-law came to see me.”

“What? Why?” His reaction was genuine. So he hadn’t known. Which meant he hadn’t been in on it. They’d told me the truth and really had come on their own, and not because he’d asked them to.

“To apologize. Lemon and I hadn’t spoken since ...” But I trailed off, realizing that I was wandering into dangerous territory.

He knew exactly where I was headed because he finished, “Since that night. Genesis, I think maybe it’s time that I explained why—”

I thanked the theater gods when Sarabeth, our soon-to-be Juliet, interrupted us, tugging on my sleeve. “Genesis, can I talk to you?”

“Sure.” We walked away from Rafe, though her gaze darted back to him as we did so. “What’s up?”

“We’re practicing act 1, scene 5 today.” She wrung her hands together while tapping her foot.

“Okay. And?”

“That’s the kiss. And I’ve never kissed anyone before. I say, ‘Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake.’ And he says, ‘Then move not, while my prayer’s effect I take.’ And then he kisses me.” Her voice shook, and it was easy to see how worried she was.

While it sucked that her first kiss would be because of a play, at least it was with Malcolm Schroeder. That was something she could tell her grandchildren about. “Just let him take the lead and kiss you. It’ll be okay.”

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