“She’s really easy to get along with, too,” Mom continued, her eyes pointed at the tube behind us. “I never really thought that you’d find someone that was so easy to get along with.”
My brows rose as I turned to her. “What’s that mean?”
Mom pulled up her phone and started to take a video, laughing along with me when Dad turned the tube so that Royal was splashed with a wave of water.
“I mean,” she said. “You always go for the high maintenance ones.”
I knew which high maintenance one she was talking about.
“When she came over to the house after we saw her in town,” I said. “She acted like nothing had changed. Like we could just pick up where we left off.”
“Your Royal cleared her of that notion, though,” she drawled.
I snorted. “I don’t think that she knew she was doing it at the time. She staked a claim and there was no beating around the bush.”
“I hated her,” Mom said. “But Royal? I could see her being the mom to my grandbabies.”
I took a hard turn with the boat and watched the tube hit a wave and become airborne.
Both of them managed to stay on, though water hit them both full-on in the face.
“I can see that, too,” I admitted. “I think I’m falling for her.”
My mother placed her hand over my head, then stood up while holding onto the boat and said, “My turn, Justice. Dump ‘em.”
So I did what my mother told me to do.
I dumped them.
The next wave they hit wasn’t as forgiving as the first.
One second, they were both holding on, and the next they were flung sideways.
Dad came up first, but with the way the boat was turned, I couldn’t quite see where Royal was.
In fact, it took me so long to find her that I started to freak out a slight bit.
When I found her, she was laughing.
But my heart was still just as fucked up as it’d been a minute before.
I swallowed hard when we finally made it to her, pressing my hand hard over my heart for a short second as she climbed inside.
“That, my boy, isn’t ‘almost.’ You’re full-blown gone for her,” Mom teased as she jumped into the lake, nearly on top of my dad.
“What was that about?” Royal asked as she plopped into the seat my mom had just vacated.
I swallowed hard, not telling her that the minute that I couldn’t find her had been one of the scariest experiences of my life.
For sixty entire seconds, I thought of her gone from my life.
And for sixty seconds, I’d wondered how the hell I would survive without her.
Now that was scary.
The idea of no longer having her on this Earth with me was downright terrifying.
“She wanted to ride,” I grinned, trying to play off my terror. “You hung on a lot harder than she expected.”
Royal beamed as if I’d just told her the secret to life.
“I’m glad you asked me to come with you,” she admitted. “If you hadn’t insisted, I would’ve still been at home, ignorant to what was waiting for me out there.”
I pulled her into my side and pressed a kiss to her forehead, forcing her to practically vacate her chair before I let her go.
“Ready!” my father hollered.
I put the boat in gear and started forward once again, incredibly aware that life had just changed completely for me.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” she pushed.
I swallowed, then nodded. “Yeah, I had a moment with my mom. That’s all.”
She looked as if she was about to argue, but something on my face must’ve dissuaded her, because she turned around and watched as I drug my parents on the tube.
But, an hour later when we were posted up on the raft that was as big as the boat smack dab in the middle of the lake, I was still feeling that worry.
Worry that I had a feeling was now a permanent resident inside my heart.
***
Hours later, I was on the couch in my parents’ living room, feet propped up on an ottoman, and Royal laying lengthwise along the couch, her head pillowed on my lap.
Her face was the cutest shade of pink due to us not applying enough sunscreen, and her hair was a matted mess strewn all along my lap.
“I wish I had hair like hers,” Mom said softly, bringing my attention to her.
I picked up a strand of her hair, loving the way the long locks slipped between my fingers.
“It’s beautiful,” I admitted. “That was the first thing that I noticed when I saw her across the street working. Her hair. It was piled up in a big, messy bun on top of her head. Ninety-nine percent of her body had been covered. She was wearing these big, baggy coveralls that left quite a bit to the imagination. And her hair was like a shining beacon in the middle of a dirty shop.”