Just Between Us (The Kings)

You can do this.You can do this. You can do this.

My eyes flicked up to Royal as we walked side by side down the pier toward the Outtatowner lighthouse. My double scoop of tart cherry-vanilla ice cream was a poor distraction from the chaos swirling in my brain. So much had happened in the past few weeks that my detail-oriented, routine-loving mind was having a difficult time keeping up.

Just tell him.

I gently cleared my throat and stopped walking. “Um . . .”

Royal dropped my hand and turned toward me. He had gotten neon blue Superman ice cream because of course he had.

One look at him and I burst into a fit of laughter. He’d intentionally given himself a cobalt-blue ice-cream mustache, but he pretended he hadn’t noticed.

I barked out a laugh and gestured toward his face. “You’ve got something, uh . . . there.”

He frowned but swiped his cone across his face, smearing more ice cream across the cut lines of his cheek. “Did I get it?”

Humor bubbled inside me, dissolving all the tension and unease I had been feeling only moments before.

That was his gift.

Royal could find the humor in any situation and brought a levity to my life that I never knew I needed. I dug a napkin out of my pocket and swiped it across his face.

“Yeah, you got it.” I wiped the ice-cream mess and peered into his deep-brown eyes.

Royal gave me a cheesy, foolish grin before tossing his mostly finished cone into a nearby trash can, and I did the same.

He pulled me into an embrace as tourists moved around us on the pier.

I sighed. “Thank you,” I said after a beat.

His brows pinched together. “For what?”

I lifted my shoulders. “For being you. For not taking life too seriously, like I do sometimes. For not wanting me to change.”

A look of pure disbelief marred his handsome face. “Why on earth would I want the most perfect woman to ever walk the planet to change?”

I rolled my eyes but leaned into his strong chest, breathing in his spicy, masculine scent. He hummed, and the rumble shot straight through me. I dropped my arms, allowing our bodies to separate so I could look him in the eyes when I finally told him that I had made my decision.

My nose scrunched. Vulnerability was still tricky for me, but I knew in my bones that Royal was a safe space for me. “I made a decision—about work . . . and us.”

The muscles in his jaw twitched, and I watched him steel his nerves. Even after everything we’d been through, the poor guy was still nervous.

Putting him out of his misery, I smiled brightly. “I want to stay in Michigan.”

I watched his grin grow and I held up a finger. “This doesn’t mean I’m quitting my job and opening a bakery. I like my job and I am damn good at it. I have a feeling your brother is going to need help dragging King Equities out of the hole your father put the business in. If not, I will find something else.”

Royal smiled and nodded. “Understood.”

Delight danced under my skin, and I rubbed his forearms to gather my courage to continue. “More importantly, you asked, but then so much happened that we didn’t talk about it again. Do you still want me to move into your house?”

My chest grew tight as he held me. “From the moment you first stepped through the door, it’s been our house. Our home. I didn’t realize it but all that time, I’ve just been waiting for you to show up.”

Tears flooded my eyes, and I furiously wiped them away. “Okay.”

“Okay.” He chuckled and pulled me in for another hug.

Royal held me for a long time. Life in Outtatowner flowed around us, but we stayed still, locked in our embrace. “Well,” he finally said with a sigh. “Guess it’s time to tell my family how we really met . . .”

I swallowed hard as Royal and I waited on his front porch. His siblings’ vehicles slowly made their way up his—our—driveway.

“This is quite possibly the worst idea you’ve ever had.”

Royal shrugged and his lower lip jutted upward. “Probably not the worst idea.”

I grinned, but unease still swirled in my gut.

After many discussions, I had encouraged Royal to continue his content creation on Pulse. He tried to gloss over the fact that he’d all but decided his participation on the platform was dead, but I could see right through him. The reality was, Pulse was another creative outlet for him. It was easy to see how much joy helping other people had brought him, and he really was helping people in a unique way.

Though his content shifted a bit.

Instead of directly feeding into the fantasies of anonymous women online, Mr.Right.Now became the best kind of teacher. Royal used his online presence to teach men how to please their women and teach women how to ask the men in their lives for exactly what they wanted.

It was wildly successful.

It didn’t take long for several of his videos to go mega-viral and gain even more attention. If we had thought his page was popular before, we had no idea it would grow to the millions of followers he now boasted.

Royal was afraid his sisters might accidentally stumble on it, so he thought it was time to finally come clean to his siblings.

JP slammed the door to his car and sauntered toward us. “Another family meeting?”

“Get used to it,” Abel chimed in, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

One by one his siblings congregated in our kitchen. I passed out lemonade as a way to keep busy as they arrived. I had no idea how he was planning to break the news. Neither of us was ashamed of his activity on Pulse, but it wasn’t every day you found out that your brother was a lucrative content creator.

“All right.” Royal clapped his hands together. “So, I’m a sex worker.”

Sylvie choked on her lemonade, and Whip’s hand landed with a thump on her back.

“I’m sorry. What?” JP’s frown deepened, and he stuffed his hands into his pockets.

Abel’s eyes went wide, and MJ laughed out loud. “Ha! Pay up, Abel. I told you!”

Abel had dug several bills out of his pocket and begrudgingly paid his littlest sister.

The Kings all began speaking, their voices folding over one another like origami.

“Hold up,” Royal said. “Let me be clear—I am a content creator on Pulse. It’s an app for⁠—”

“We know what Pulse is,” Whip interrupted.

“I kind of stumbled into it, but the truth is, I enjoy it, and I’m good at it. I’m not ashamed. I don’t get naked, and I help people communicate clearly to get what they want from their partners.”

Whip’s face twisted. “Well, that sounds boring.”

“It’s not, I promise you.” The words slipped out of my mouth, and I immediately clamped it shut. A hot, embarrassed flush crept up my face and neck as my eyes sank to the floor.

MJ’s shoulder bumped into mine as she whispered, “You naughty little minx.”

JP stepped forward. “Have you set up an LLC? Are your business assets separate from your personal ones?”

Royal nodded. “All taken care of.”

I chuckled to myself thinking about how JP immediately went into business mode. The two stepped together as JP continued probing to make sure Royal was monetizing the page appropriately.

Abel looked around the room. “Any other family secrets we need to know about? Might as well get it out now.”

His siblings all looked at one another but no one spoke a word. “Fantastic.” Abel drained his lemonade and set the glass down with a sharp snap. He looked at Whip. “I’m going to need something stronger than this.”

Whip smiled a devious grin. “The Grudge?”

“Let’s go.” Abel placed his glass in the sink and headed toward the door. He paused in front of me. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad he’s got someone taking care of him.”

My smile grew. “We take care of each other.”

Abel’s head bobbed in a knowing nod. “Good luck, and Godspeed.”

I smiled at the genuine love Royal shared with his siblings—how they were actually growing closer. They had been so broken for so long, but it seemed as though the cracks were finally healing.