Free Royal Games (The Royals of Monterra) by Sariah Wilson Page A

down.
     
    —Rafe
     
    P.S. I had Stuart deliver flowers to all the women on your list, so you can keep these.
     
    Then I had to deal with dueling desires—I wanted to strangle him and kiss him at the same time. He needed to stop sending me flowers, but how could I not be touched that he’d had flowers delivered to all of the widows in our town? He had gone out of his way to make a lot of people happy. That kind of thing probably wouldn’t even have occurred to most men. They would have just been mad that I didn’t accept their gifts and then punished me by not giving me more.
    Not Rafe. He had to go and be twice as thoughtful and considerate.
    We technically weren’t supposed to use our phones while at work, but this required some feminine backup. I texted Whitney.
     
    FLOWERS!!!!
     
    She immediately responded, but she didn’t say what I had expected.
     
    Send me a picture because Christopher hasn’t brought me flowers since we got married. I’m pretty sure I’ve forgotten what they look like.
     
    Where was my female solidarity? I glanced around before I answered.
     
    That’s not what you’re supposed to say.
     
    My phone buzzed with her quick reply.
     
    Sorry, just overwhelmed—and on top of everything else, I have to take Mere to a birthday party tomorrow morning at 7:00 that’s apparently being hosted by the devil.
     
    After apologizing and telling her that we would talk soon, I put my phone back in my pocket. Laura came in to relieve me so that I could head over to the high school. I left the flowers at the diner. I’d let the customers enjoy them.
    I didn’t want to admit that part of me wanted to take them home and keep them in my room. I knew that if I did that, though, Rafe would know somehow (even if I was sneaky) and then he’d misinterpret my actions to mean something that they didn’t.
    And I needed to keep the lines between us very clear.
    When I got to the school, Nicole picked up on my not-so-great mood. “What happened now?”
    “He fixed my car.”
    “The nerve of that jerk! Want me to lay into him?” Her sarcasm implied that I was overreacting. She didn’t have all the details about my past.
    I was usually the one doing things for other people. So I probably should have been fine with Rafe doing stuff for me. But I had worked so hard to be independent. To stand on my own two feet after having every moment of my life controlled by someone else. I understood that Rafe wasn’t trying to control me. He was just being kind. But something inside me instinctively reacted negatively whenever he did things after I told him not to.
    We were standing on the stage where they had just finished putting together the balcony for the Romeo and Juliet scenes. Sarabeth was in the process of climbing up the back side of the scenery to get onto the balcony, though the set appeared wobbly.
    “Is that safe?” I asked Nicole.
    “Technically speaking? Maybe. But it’s okay. We’ve got someone coming to help out with building scenery.”
    From her evasive tone I knew who she was talking about. “He’s a prince. He doesn’t know how to build sets.”
    “You know I can’t turn anyone away. We need all the help we can get.” She walked off with her clipboard, telling Sarabeth to come down until they could get it properly tested. Sarabeth looked crushed. She was performing a scene with Malcolm Schroeder, and he was the most popular boy in the entire county. She looked at him the way I used to look at Rafe.
    And speaking of Prince Fibbing, my entire body knew the second he entered the auditorium. Like I was attuned to his presence and every piece of me stood at attention when he came into a room. All of the teen girls on stage turned to watch him walk down the aisle. He jumped up onto the stage, greeted everyone, and came to stand next to me. “What play are you doing?” he asked. He seemed oblivious to his newly formed fan club.
    There were so many things I wanted to say to him. I wanted to