Page 69 of Royally Drawn

“Peder is handling it,” Mamma said, examining the damage. Can someone get me some ice?”

“I can!” Betty called out, ever-helpful.

Aunt Natalie said no more. She didn’t come back or admonish me further. I wish she had. I wish she’d said anything. I sat down for dinner with an aching jaw, quiet. Lars sat on the complete other side of the table, glaring at me. Auntie Nat ignored me. Everyone acted as if it hadn’t happened. I sensed Cici wanted to strangle me, but getting into a verbal row wasn’t her style.

After dinner, I loaded the dishwashers and the butler’s pantry in the kitchen. My aunt found me about to start the final load.

“You are trying to make up for it,” she sighed.

“I didn’t punch him.”

She leaned against the doorframe, assessing me. “You would have maimed him if I hadn’t stopped you.”

It was true. I was stronger than Lars and much better at fighting. I knew better than to throw him around like that.

“I… he called her sloppy seconds. He implied I ‘ruined her’, which meant a lot because…”

I didn’t want to say I suspected he thought she was probably a virgin when the thought never occurred to me. And, if true, he now saw her as less attractive—never mind that he didn’t want to touch her now.

“It doesn’t matter. He… he cannot say things like that about her.”

“You feel very strongly about her?”

I shrugged.

“Enough for fisticuffs?”

“Yes, of course. She’s… I dunno. She gets me. She’s brave, bold, and funny. I adore her. I cannot help it. It’s as if I am drawn to her by this pull. There is something I cannot quite describe. And it frightens me.”

“Why? It sounds like love, quite frankly.”

I let my guard down, knowing my aunt wouldn’t judge me.

“Of course, we both are keen to keep this casual—not that I do not care for her or want her for me—because I just… you understand this life. She wants something stable, I’m sure.”

“She’s twenty-one. She has no clue what she wants.”

“How do you know? She seems a million years older than all of Betty’s other friends. But you’re right. It’s a mess. I should break it off.”

“That is not what I meant. You and I are too alike, sweetheart. We both push people away. We shut down and focus on work, but what does it get you? Heartache. Because someday, you will want a person to come home to. And why are you fighting it if she’s good for you?”

“You just said she’s too young to know what she wants!”

“I implied that nothing was set in stone and that life is wild. She’s young, but she’s been through a lot. Take it from me. I had a hookup with a man at a party at twenty-one and had no idea what I wanted, Keir. And you know where he is now?”

I shook my head.

“He’s in the living room chatting with everyone. Because when we found each other again, it was instant chemistry. I couldn’t avoid him. He took up all my mental energy, and I love him madly. It’s… if it is meant to be, it will be. You don’t need to rush in to label it, but calling it off is cruel to both of you, Keir.”

“It probably doesn’t matter,” I said.

“What? You don’t like her enough to say all those wonderful things about her? Not enough to play house all weekend in Wales?”

“Wait a minute—” I groaned. “Fucking Duncan!”

“He likes her, so give him a break,” Aunt Natalie said. “He thinks you two are cute together—his words—and she’s a laugh. I find her adorable and incredibly talented. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for some very horse-mad babies in the family! But, alas, we’re not going to discuss that. Duncan says you look at her like she’s a steak. I’d have to agree, having spent an entire weekend with your uncle saying, ‘I think Keir likes Ingrid’. He’s usually right about such things.”

“He is?”

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