Page 50 of Broken King

I stand up to my full height and take a deep breath into my lungs. Letting it out slowly, I answer, “Twenty-four, but I haven’t done much in the past six months. Muscles get old when you don’t use them.”

She purses her lips and looks me up and down again. “Then you should make sure you use those muscles.”

“Why aren’t you up at the house with the kids? I thought that was your job,” I say as I start walking toward the back of the estate.

Sabrina pushes her fingertips into my bicep and laughs. “I get a few minutes off each day, you know. In fact, when the boys are down for their naps, I can do whatever I want. If you’d like, we can go for a run every day from now on. I bet you’ll get back in shape in no time.”

I glance over at her to see if she meant for that to be insulting, but since she’s all smiles, I assume it was her usual clumsy way of talking. This woman sure does like giving her opinion on things.

“Well, thanks.”

Even though she doesn’t seem to have the ability to censor herself, she does appear to understand when she’s offended someone. As I keep walking, she says, “I wasn’t trying to make it seem like you aren’t in good shape already. I just heard you were a baseball player at some point, so I thought maybe you wanted to get back to that level. That’s all.”

That she mentions baseball surprises me since nobody in my family has dared uttered a word about that subject since I came to stay here. I stop and look at her, unsure if I should be furious or happy there’s at least one person here who doesn’t insist on handling me with kid gloves.

I hold my right arm up in front of her. “No more baseball for me, obviously.”

Sabrina stops in front of me and reaches out to poke me in the abs. Smiling, she looks up at me and says, “Still seems pretty tight to me.”

Everything about this person confuses me. One minute she’s insulting me, and then the next she seems to be flirting withme. Then again, maybe I’m not understanding the signals she’s putting out. I have gotten a little rusty after avoiding nearly all of humanity for months on end.

“What are you two doing out here?”

I turn around to see Marius walking toward us. Christ, I’m not sure I’m up for his ball busting today.

“I could ask you the same question,” I say as he stops next to me.

“You guys aren’t misbehaving, are you?” he asks with a smirk that instantly gets under my skin.

Sabrina doesn’t seem bothered by my older brother, though. “Define misbehaving,” she says with a chuckle.

Marius looks at her and then me, raising his eyebrows like he’s surprised by her comment. “She’s got the right idea. Your idea of misbehaving is probably not what I’d call misbehaving.”

“I imagine most people’s idea of misbehaving isn’t yours, Marius. You have a pretty loose version of morals.”

My brother smiles and turns his attention to Sabrina. “I like to think of them as situational ethics.”

“What exactly are situational ethics?” she asks, clearly intrigued by Marius and his willingness to entertain anything as long as it’s enjoyable.

“Basically, every situation you encounter in life has its own version of what’s right and wrong. For example, what might be wrong for you as an employee of my brother’s wouldn’t be wrong for me as his brother.”

Sabrina nods like she understands, but since Marius pretty much makes up that bullshit as he goes along, I’m not sure there’s much to really grasp. To me, his situational ethics always felt pretty much like his willingness to do whatever he wanted and claim he was in the right.

I prefer a higher standard.

“What do you think of your brother’s situational ethics?” Sabrina asks me, touching my left forearm for a brief moment as if to punctuate her question.

Without missing a beat, I answer, “I think he uses that idea as a way to justify doing things he should feel bad about.”

Marius throws his head back in laughter before sliding his arm around my shoulders. “Sabrina, let me introduce you to the most moral and upright of all us King brothers. If there’s a right thing to do, Ronan will do it.”

I push him off me and say, “There’s always a right thing to do in every situation. That’s where Marius and I differ.”

Sabrina touches my left arm again and smiles. “I think it’s admirable that you’re a moral man, Ronan. More people should be like you.”

As I open my mouth to thank her for the compliment, Marius laughs. “If I followed this brother’s example, I’d be perpetually trying to do the right thing. I prefer our brother Theo’s way. Whatever you’re doing, make sure you’re having the time of your life doing it.”

“Oh, so Matthias and Ava’s son is named after another brother? Will he be coming to stay too?” Sabrina asks.

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