Series: Fever Falls Series by Riley Hart
Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
He headed out of my room as Mère entered, closing the door behind her.
As was her way, she approached quietly, studying my face like she could read so much more than I wanted to share.
“So news has made it so far as the East Library already?” I joked, but she didn’t laugh.
“Did you want to talk to me about anything, my secretive child? What am I saying? Both my children are so secretive. Just like their dear mother. Trapped in our palace of secrets. Your brother has his thoughts and I have mine, but I would rather hear it directly from you.”
“I’m dating this man, and I’m glad we have this opportunity to be open and share this to effect change in our country,” I said stoically, the way I might have at some assembly, rather than to my own mère.
Her chin quivered as water glistened in her eyes. “Anything else you wanted to share?”
I thought for a moment, through my sordid day, through over a decade of pain. I rifled through so many memories and so much that I’d experienced in my life.
“I guess if I was being sincere, I would say I’m…confused. And a little lost.”
“Well, when you are ready to chat more, I am here.” She came closer. “Come, give your mère a hug.”
I pushed to my feet and offered her a much-needed embrace, trembling in her hold. “A little scared too,” I confessed.
I heard her sniffle. “You’ve fought so many demons in your life, Owen.” She pulled away and looked me in the eyes. “But I’m here to remind you that this isn’t one. And you’re not in the wrong here.”
“Why didn’t you fight Lucas more? It was what was right.”
“I’ve had a hard position here, O, all my life with your mother. It’s never been my job to speak for the Crown, but it is yours. And you have the right to do that.”
And as always, Mère was there for me.
“Thank you, Mère.”
“No, thank you. Not for any of what you’re fighting for out there, which I am behind one hundred percent, but for being honest with yourself, and being honest with me. I know that can’t be easy.”
She looked to my screen with Keegan’s Facebook page still on it.
I looked at his profile pic—that hat on backward and his goofy smile, a little gap between his teeth that I’d hardly noticed until I’d looked him up online.
“Be very careful,” Mère went on, her words intense, stirring my concern once again. A wicked smile formed on her lips. “Owen, you don’t want to fall in love. Then what would you have to sulk around about?”
She winked, and I had to laugh.
“I think I’m safe from love, Mère, but I appreciate the heads-up.”
She leaned close and kissed me on the cheek. “I thought I was safe too, dear O. But the universe has a way of surprising us when we least expect it.”
If ever that was true, it was the case with my little Keeg. This boy who had managed to fascinate the hell out of me, and with whom I had already signed up for quite an adventure.
But love? Really?
It just wasn’t happening.
9
Keegan
“Keegan, what about this one, dah-ling?” Serena asked as she stepped out of the dressing room in a red gown. Since we’d returned from Parlaisa a week earlier, she seemed to continue donning her affected accent.
“The purple one from before. No contest.”
She whirled around and assessed herself in the floor-length mirror, running her hand through her new lengthy blonde extensions. “You don’t think this one shows a little more of the girls?” She adjusted her breasts. “You pay good money for things, you don’t want to hide them.”
“You look better in the purple. You trust me on this or not?”
She sighed. “Yes, yes. Of course I trust you. We’ll take the purple one,” she told the clerk before we made our purchase and headed back through the mall. We passed a small cluster of guys in a seating area by the escalator. They looked to us before turning and whispering to one another, I could only assume about my recent notoriety.
“Just keep walking, Keegan. It’s hard enough for them when they have a single celebrity sighting, but two-for-one in a town like this might cause a mob.”
She was referring to her own stardom as a TV star in the ’90s, something that didn’t typically bring around fans of such a young age, but I let her have her moment.
Most of us had learned to let Serena have all her moments.
“Speaking of your return, you must have some sort of coming out party now that you’re all out and about.”
“A what?”
“Like a debutante. We’re in the South. You need a big event with friends and family—everyone around, celebrating your love of men.”
“A party for being gay?”