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Just like the first time we were together. “Okay. The keys are inside. Lead the way!”
He settles in behind the wheel, and I sit down beside him in the passenger seat. Turning his head, he looks at me and says in a quiet voice, “Kate, I haven’t driven since the accident.”
“Then you have some miles to make up for.”
Ronan hesitates before starting the car and says, “Thank you for trusting me.”
I reach over and touch his right elbow just above where they amputated his hand near the wrist. It feels like he needs to see I’m not afraid of what he’s dealing with. We can handle this. He’s strong, and I’m smart, and maybe I’m a little stronger than I ever thought.
“Always. Now let’s get going because all of this emotional stuff has made me hungry.”
He leans over and kisses me, and unlike a few minutes ago, this one is full of all the passion I know he has inside him. My stomach flips, like it always has when he kisses me like this. When I was a teenager, I wondered if I felt like that because I hadn’t been with many guys.
Now I know my stomach didn’t flutter just because I was young. It was because it was Ronan kissing me.
I sense his trepidation as he starts to back the car out of the driveway to the road that goes around the estate. He doesn’t have to be afraid. I trust him, and no matter what happens today on our drive to get food or any time in the future, I’m right beside him.
“They say it’s like riding a bike,” he jokes as he reaches over with his left hand to shift the car into drive.
Nudging his right shoulder, I smile at him. “I think that’s what they say about most things after you don’t do them for a while.”
I feel my cheeks get hot from a blush because there’s something else I haven’t done in a while. Ronan picks up on my hidden meaning instantly and grins.
“Then I can’t wait to see if something else is like riding a bike too.”
Shaking my head, I can’t keep the smile off my face. He is the same boy I fell in love with when I was a nerdy teenage girl. Maybe not entirely, but all the things I loved about him are still here.
“First we eat.”
He presses his foot onto the gas pedal and we begin moving a little faster. “Good to know I still have it.”
I’m sure he does, and I can’t wait to find out. Maybe lunch should wait for later.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Marius
I sitoutside watching Ava and Matthias splash around with little Theo as Sabrina sits with Matty in the stroller. He seems to love sleeping in that thing, so they keep it on the patio whenever they bring him outside.
It’s good to see my brother and Ava enjoying parenthood. They’ve had a lot on their plates these past couple months. A baby nearly a year old. A newborn. Ronan moving in with his own issues. And as always, problems at King Industries for Matthias to deal with. Kellen helps, but the weight of the crown rests on the head of the company, so there’s only so much he can do.
“Marius, stop sitting on the sidelines and get in here! Theo is almost to the point that he’s swimming,” Matthias says with pride.
I’ve got other things in mind for today, so I wave him off. He’s too busy having fun to care that I seem more interested in hanging out with the nanny than spending time with my family. Good. I don’t want to explain myself about that.
Sabrina stares down at her phone as I look over at her, and when she realizes someone is paying attention to her, she begins pushing the stroller back and forth. How nice of her to remember one of her charges need attention.
“So, do you like your job watching my nephews?” I ask, not interested so much in her answer than what I don’t hear.
She perks up, but I sense it’s merely to make me think she’s something she’s not. “Sure! Ava and Matthias have been great, and I don’t think I’ve ever lived in such a nice place.”
“So you like your room down near Eleanor’s?”
This girl is no dummy. She knows what I’m implying not as deftly as I could but exactly as I intend. She seems to think she’s part of the family like Eleanor is, but that’s nowhere close to being true. Eleanor has been with the King family for my entire life and even longer. Before any of us King boys were born, she was here already working for our parents.
Eleanor is family. This person, on the other hand, is someone who works for my brother. There’s a difference, and I don’t think she should forget that.
Especially after the bullshit she’s been playing on Ronan.