Chapter 24

TWENTY-FOUR

MONROE

"Hey Chip, it's me . . . Monroe." I scrubbed my hand down my face and pressed the phone closer to my ear. "Of course you know it's me. Not that I expect you to. Not that you really don't know. Okay this message is a disaster. It's just me calling you … again. It's been a few days and I . . . I was thinking about you. Right, so . . . um . . . call me back."

I hung up the phone and shoved it back into my pocket. I ran both my hands through my hair and tugged at the strands. When I turned around back to our group I found King Vauntero eyeing me closely. I forced a smile. "Your Majesty, is there anything I can do for you?"

"No." His vivid sapphire eyes were unwavering and I suddenly felt like a bug under a microscope.

"Oh." I glanced around. "Okay."

We were in the mountains of Pennsylvania standing beside one of the most beautiful parts of the Delaware River. Just in from of us was a mountain covered in trees. The colors were a breathtaking array of yellows, browns, reds, and orange. The leaves had all turned crisp and even with my coat zipped up I felt the chill in the air. The King wanted to come to the Delaware water gap to see if it would be a good trip for the family to take to go skiing in the winter. Small cabins were hidden throughout the mountain and as the sun began to set I could make out their lights from the other side of the river.

"So Monroe . . ." He moved closer to my side. He didn't look at me, instead he kept his eyes locked on the flowing river before us. He reached into a white paper bag and pulled out an apple cider donut. I could smell the cinnamon sugary goodness from where I stood."You seem troubled."

"I'm okay."

He turned to look at me with one black eyebrow raised. "Son, please, I'm ancient."

"Right. Well . . . okay . . . I-I don't know if I am or not." I groaned. "I think I might've messed up."

Dawson strolled away from the river and joined us where we stood under a tree. When we fell silent he cleared his throat. "Um what are we talking about? Worried about Sylvester? I've never seen you mother hen anything like you do that little seal."

"No, that's not it. I left him at the sanctuary with Torren. I know he'll be safe with her and she owes me."

"So if not Sylvester then what's with the face?" Dawson pointed to me then to his own face. Then he pointed to the king's face. "He's also got a face."

"Monroe was just about to tell me how he messed up with his girlfriend." The king took a bite of his doughnut.

He extended the bag out toward me but I shook my head declining, my stomach was too knotted up to eat anything. "She's not my girlfriend, at least I don't think. We never said we were. But I feel like I messed up somehow."

The king chuckled around his bite. "Well, that's your first mistake."

"What is?"

"Not knowing if she's your girlfriend or not." He took another bite. "Women don't like to feel like they're being strung along. You have to communicate properly."

"Wait, who are we talking about?" When the king offered Dawson a donut he reached into the bag and took one without hesitation."Since when do you have a new girl? What did I miss?"

I stared at my cousin, unsure if I wanted to answer that honestly after everything.

But he wasn't giving it up. He just stared back at me while chewing. "Well? Spit it out. What's her name? I'm assuming she's a siren, which is good. I'm glad you met a girl out of this being forced back into the water. Who is she?"

I took a deep breath then let it out slowly. " Chip ? — "

He choked on his doughnut and had to spit pieces out onto the ground. " Chip? CHIP. You two hate each other!"

"No, we don't," I snapped. "We had a running disagreement. We talked about it. We . . . called a truce."

In truth, we'd far surpassed that truce and moved into a totally different stage. It all happened so fast. I was a little slow on realizing I'd run off immediately. I missed her. I missed everything about her. It'd only been a few days but I felt her absence like I was missing a part of myself.It was a little unnerving but in an exciting kind of way. We'd spent weeks tormenting each other and then a single week trapped in the ocean together and now I was struggling to function without her. The scariest part was that I wasn't even mad about this turn of events.

"A truce," Dawson echoed me with his eyebrows raised. "What triggered this truce? And who started it?"

"Well, I think we both did but she was the one to actually say the word first?—"

"Why? Why would she do this?"

"What's your problem right now? Shouldn't you be happy we're not at each other's throats still?"

He narrowed his eyes at me then pointed to me with the half of his doughnut he hadn't finished. "I'm suspicious, Monroe. You made me do some crazy shit in that prank war of yours and now . . . this ? I have questions. I need more info than that."

"Look, we called a truce because neither one of us wanted our little rivalry to cost us what matters most?—"

"And what's that?"

I shrugged. "You. And Pickles, for her, I mean."

His eyebrows rose and a smile tugged on the corners of his mouth.

I held my hand up. "Don't make it weird."

He chuckled and nodded his head. "I love you, too, cousin."

My face was burning. I nodded but couldn't get the words back out. I was a mess.

"Don't say it back, you might combust with all these emotions flowing at once." He teased then winked to the king who stood silently beside us just watching me fall apart. "Let's get back to you and Chip. You're a thing now?"

"Yeah, I mean, I thought we were? She's . . . she's . . . special, as it turns out."

"Special huh?" Dawson rocked back on his heels and nodded his head. "Special."

"We bonded, okay? We got to know each other and discovered we . . . ya know . . . like each other."

Dawson was trying not to laugh and barely holding it in.

I sighed in defeat.

The king chuckled. "Well, the first thing you need to do is apologize."

"But apologize for what?" I held my hands up. "I don't even know what I did or if did. If I did mess up then of course I'll apologize."

Dawson scoffed. "Oh, my bet is that you did something."

"I haven't eaten a doughnut without someone stealing some of it in two hundred years. And I get romance tea as its unfolding and it has nothing to do with my family. This is a great day." The king took another one from the bag and held it to his nose. "We are gonna have to come back, you know just for the doughnuts. Hey, maybe you should bring her a bag of these as a peace offering for when you apologize?"

I groaned. "So you both think I did something?"

Dawson and the king nodded. "Yep."

I groaned louder and tugged on my hair. "But like how? When?"

I really didn't want to mess things up with Chip now that I'd seen the truth. She was all the things I needed in my life, all the things I'd been missing. All the things Kristie hadn't been. She was fun, adventurous, hilarious, determined, and so much more rolled into one. I didn't want there to be a rift between us.

"Well to start with you said goodbye to her with a pat on the shoulder." Dawson smirked and shook his head. "Nothing says friend like pat on the shoulder. I would've said something at the time if I had realized you weren't just friends."

The king took another bite. "Forget what I said about apologizing. Grovel."

"Because you both know what's best?"

"I've been married to my soulmate for a long time." The king wiped the back of his sleeve over his mouth. "And do you know how many daughters I have?"

I shook my head. "Honestly no I don't recall."

"Good me either, the point being is that I've been around a lot of women in my life. You have to own what you did and then never, ever, ever do it again. Accountability and humility go a long way."

"But I don't know what I did so how can I own up to it and then never repeat it?"

Dawson narrowed his eyes. "Cousin, when you went into the ocean she hated your guts. If you were able to take that and turn it into a budding romance then my guess is you've been communicating with her all week."

"What's your point?"

"Just talk to her. Tell her where you're at emotionally and mentally."

"And don't forget the groveling. And some doughnuts."

I hung my head and cursed. "All I know is I can't lose her right when I've gotten her."