Royal Hearts (Love At The Lake #2)

Chapter 38

Thirty-Eight

WINTER

T here’s no way I’m moving to Denmark without my animals, so here I am, initiating the paperwork involved in transporting them internationally. Visits have been promised, regularly and often, to the men I love who have supported me since I moved here. I will miss them fiercely, more my family than the blood relations in Denmark, but it’s what’s meant to be. Elias needs me, and I need to be in the country I love at least part-time to support him, I understand that.

But being back in Clover, so close to Garland and Little Star Lodge where it all started and where it all ended so abruptly, still smarts.

Who am I fucking kidding? It’s devastating , I scoff at myself darkly. This is why I can’t live here. I can’t be constantly running into Fran, and inevitably, Cat. I’m simply not strong enough, and at least I can admit it.

To make matters even more torturous, I’ve got a surprise proposal in about an hour where my best friend plans to take a knee for the love of his life. Not exactly where you want to be when you’re nursing your own broken heart.

Staying at Thistle and Burr has been a treat. Cat’s living in our cabin I hear, and that makes my chest ache. Thinking of her in our bed, making coffee in our little kitchen is too much to bear, so I press it from my mind as best I can. Fran and John have done a great job with the motel, I’m pretty sure Holiday is trying to convince them to franchise it. But John has bigger things on his mind than expanding a motel business.

He’s got a ring burning a hole in his pocket.

“Here’s how it’s going to go,” he explains as the guys huddle, but really, he’s working himself up. I haven’t seen him this nervous since his last major league game. “I’m going to walk in,” he points to the entrance of Boggs’ Bar and Grill while we all stand like dopes on the sidewalk on Main Street, “and she’s going to say, oh hey, I didn’t expect you in today . . . ”

“Why isn’t she expecting to see you in your own bar today?” I ask. It’s my job as Best Friend to poke holes in his plan.

“Because I said I’m helping Holiday winterize his boats for the season.”

Ben shrugs. “I got a lotta boats, boys.”

“But you’ve already winterized the boats,” Jack says.

“Ah,” John plays with his baseball cap nervously, “but Francesca doesn’t know that.”

“And I’ve brought a few out for today, so technically, we’ve been un-winterizing boats, and therefore, not a total lie.” Ben Holiday has a way of making things work out his way. He is the local golden boy after all. Former homecoming king and owner of almost half the town of Novel despite barely being thirty.

“Because they’re picking everyone up so we can motor in after she says yes, right?” Jack says, Wagner at his side doing his best to keep up with the plan like the rest of us.

“Yep.” John nods. “I’ll pull her to the dock out back and waste a little time before I propose so you guys can get everything inside ready. Patty’s on her way with Ricky—I couldn’t propose without my dad, and he’s going to take video to send to my sister at school. Patty’s bringing a bunch of food, and I’ve got the alcohol covered. Cat and all of you are in charge of decorations. You all sneak out when you’re finished and she’s said yes.”

“How will we know when she’s said yes?” Wagner asks.

“She’ll be jumping around and going nuts, you know Frannie,” Jack answers him, lovingly wrapping an arm around his shoulder. “Have you already forgotten the giddy feeling of being proposed to?”

John ignores the two men having a moment and goes on, “The boats pull up with all our friends and family, and everyone cheers.”

“Easy enough,” Logan puts in, cracking his knuckles and eyeing the boxes we’re about to haul at the speed of light into John’s bar.

John nods, again, more to himself than to us. “Okay. Okay, I think this is going to work.” He paces the sidewalk, flipping his baseball cap around backward then forward again. “I’ve been trying to come up with the right way to do it, at Oracle Field, at home while we’re cooking, but the dock feels right.” He’s nodding, convincing himself and I hate to see the guy go through so much stress.

“It’s gonna be great, buddy. The woman adores you, and you’ve known she’s the one since you first laid eyes on her. Right?”

“Yeah, right,” he nods.

“She’ll love it because it’s very you, and very her. You nailed the plan, bro,” Logan says, he pays attention to the important stuff more than any of us.

“And celebrating with everyone at Boggs’ after is a good reason to throw a party. Right?” Ben chimes in. “Why own a bar and grill if you can’t throw your own engagement party?” Once a homecoming king, always a homecoming king—ready for a bash .

“You’re sort of splitting nails. He didn’t re-open his dad’s bar just so he could host his own engagement party,” I say.

“I swear to God, you like to mess with us— it’s splitting hairs ,” John laughs, pointing a finger at me.

At least I broke the tension for him. “How would you even begin to split a hair?”

“That’s the point,” they chorus at me.

We all pat him on the back and watch him walk into his bar to get his girl. Fran gets tugged out to the lake, and the dudes and I jump into action.

As we’re hauling the last of the boxes of decorations inside Boggs’, Patty’s pickup truck rolls up with John’s dad, Ricky, in the passenger seat, Cat riding in the bed.

My heart stops beating in my chest at the sight of her. “What the hell are you doing in the bed of a truck in February?” I shout as they pull up.

It’s a gut reaction, not a great hello after she stomped on my heart and drove over it with a snowmobile, but the girl has to be frozen stiff riding in the back of a truck in this cold.

She ignores me and it’s infuriating, so I press her, wrapping my way around the truck while Patty cuts the engine. “I’m serious. This isn’t safe, Cat.”

“Can you honestly tell me you’ve never ridden in the back of a pickup, pretty man?” A new black beanie is pulled low over her ears, and her cheeks are pink with cold as she clutches a to-go coffee.

She is wearing the coat I gave her. She didn’t burn it, so that’s something.

“You think the guys haven’t thrown me in the bed of a truck before? We’ve all done it, but that’s when we were idiot teens. The roads are slick. Patty,” I holler toward the driver’s side where she’s ambling out of the truck, “you know better.”

“There was no room in the cab,” she says sweetly, “that’s where the engagement cake sat. Ricky was in charge of making sure it didn’t slide around the bench seat and get smushed.”

Ricky drops a hand on my shoulder and I snap out of my staring contest with Cat Bloomfield. Her eyes were burning into me, mine roaming all over her. “We kept an eye on her out the window.”

I bluster and huff back at him, incredulous. “Dammit, Ricky. I expected better from you.”

“Nah, just a little fun. And she’s tough. You boys got everything inside?” He claps me on the shoulder as we watch Patty and Cat deftly maneuver an enormous cake box out of the truck.

“We got it all. Let’s go watch your boy get engaged.”

It’s impossible to ignore her presence at my side as we walk through thick front doors, the name Boggs’ burned into the wood.

“Cat,” I murmur, looking down at her. It’s pathetic, the pleading in my voice is audible to everyone as Ricky takes the cake from Patty and they move quickly past us. “How are you?”

She hesitates in the entry, a Boggs’ Bar and Grille sign with a colorful fish above a vacant hostess station. The lake committee circulated the hush-hush message that Boggs’ is closed today for a proposal.

“I’m okay.” She lifts her chin and gives me a small smile. “How are you?” Her eyes swim with emotion that makes my chest feel tight, I rub over my heart with the palm of my hand.

“Not great, Bloom.” Elias, and the move to Denmark, have taken up every spare second of my time, but I miss her desperately and in this moment, I let myself hope that she’s missed me, too.

Her eyes drop to her boots, and when she looks back up there’s one single tear running down her cheek. She dashes it away with the back of her hand. “Saw your speech, you did good.”

The words hit me like a Mack truck squeezing down Main Street, a lump forming in my throat. “Thanks, it was, tough . . . without you.”

The emotion on her face gives me even more hope. Maybe I’ve missed my chance to beg her again to be with me, even if that means long distance and video calls and whatever else people do when they’re in love but torn apart by distance.

But maybe she’d still have me. I hadn’t even considered it because she’d closed herself up so tightly, thrown her walls up so quickly. But if there’s a chance . . .

She glances at my wrist. I don’t try to hide it, a tattoo of her heart peeking out from the cuff of my coat. I took pictures of many of the ones she’d drawn, and an artist in Skagen layered them in a computer program and tattooed the heart on my wrist the day after I landed in Denmark, the day of my speech.

She sniffs. “Yeah, it’s been tough without you, too. But we’ve got a proposal to get to.” She plasters on a smile and pushes her shoulders back.

So strong, this woman.

“Not mine,” I quip, and the joke falls flat.

She doesn’t look back when she leaves me standing there, walking into the bar as if she didn’t just give me hope.

It’s been tough for her, too.

Inside, we have about five minutes while John pretends to show Frannie something that needs fixing on the dock, all part of the plan. Then he’ll profess his love, take a knee, and that’s our cue to walk out and cheer for the happy couple.

However, twisting streamers in all shades of pink and red, hanging flying cherubs above the bar because it’s fitting for a Valentine’s proposal, and laying out the custom Frannie and John 4 Eva napkins I ordered takes longer than one might think.

“Put them on the side of the bar,” Cat says as she passes me with a cardboard cutout of Cupid shooting arrows. Her elbow grazes my hip and I feel fire. That fire that’s always between us.

Does she still feel it?

“I like them spread out down the bar, ready for drinks. Easier than passing them out one by one.”

She tucks a chunk of hair behind her ear and speaks to me through the mirror behind the bar. “Easier. Well, I guess that makes sense.”

Ignoring her barb, I continue sliding the napkins down the wood bar I know John polishes daily—my way. I even go so far as to start dropping them at each seat at all the tables around the cozy dining room. There’s a fireplace on the back wall and Logan is already poking at a roaring fire.

“Hey,” Cat yells, hands on hips, “you’re making it worse. We don’t need napkins all over?—”

Continuing with my plan, steadfastly ignoring her direction, I respond over my shoulder “This was the plan. I was put on napkin duty, and on napkin duty, I’ll stay.” If I’m not mistaken, she’s sparring with me. And it feels so good.

“Winter,” I swear, there’s a hint of a smile on her lips. I think she’s missed this as much as I have. “Sometimes plans need adjusting.”

I drop another napkin. “This plan doesn’t need adjusting. This plan is perfect the way it is. Stay. The. Course. Bloom.” Drop, drop, drop.

What I’m really saying is I love you like crazy and we can make this work, Bloom.

“I tried.” She throws her arms out wide, her words echoing off wooden beams in the high ceiling. Ricky and Patty both pull themselves a draft beer as if they’re getting settled with popcorn for a movie.

“Come outside and talk to me in private. We both know this is not about fucking napkins.” I bite down on my last few words, the tension in my jaw so tight I feel like I could break a tooth. I’m dying to get my hands on her, even if she bats me away, I have to try.

I’ve regretted not fighting harder for her since the day I left. But since then, I’ve cleaned up my life, gotten things sorted with the Crown, and I feel more than ready to fight for her now. If she’ ll have me . . .

Ben clears his throat, coming to stand right in between us, his hands up in peace. “Uh, guys, looks like it’s show time.” He points out the window, pulling his aviators off his head, and walking out into the sunny winter day on the lake.

We all file out behind him, Cat falling into step beside Patty and Ricky, me forming a huddle on the beach with the dudes. Cat and I end up next to each other, our hands grazing at our sides as we silently watch our two best friends get the happily ever after they deserve.

The electricity between us is impossible to ignore. I thought being away from her these past weeks would kill me, but it’s this, being right next to her and not being able to touch her. This will be my end.

“She said yes!” John yells from the dock, waving his hat as the cue for boaters to come from around a cove.

Fran screams and jumps into his arms. “We’re getting married!”

Cat covers her mouth, smiling happily into her palms.

For a second, it looks as if he’s going to take a step back and fall straight into the lake.

All the guys and I shout at once, a cacophony of don’t fall in! Watch it! And that lake is gonna be freezing!

But John pulls his girl in tight and swings her around in a circle on the dock as boats begin pulling in across clear glassy water, cheering, blaring music from speakers, honking horns, and flying John and Fran 4 Eva flags from their boats.

Cat’s eyes cut to mine. “I was put on flag duty, too.”