Page 7 of Broken King

I can barely hold back the tears as I listen to all he went through. “Thank God he survived, but he lost his hand? I heard he got a position with a minor league team. What about that now?”

My sister shakes her head. “He can’t play baseball anymore, Kate. That part of his life is over.”

Hearing that makes my heart ache for Ronan. All he ever wanted was to play baseball in the major leagues. Oh, God. He must be devastated.

“Have you heard anything about how he’s doing?”

Kelly’s frown deepens. “It’s not good. I heard his brother Matthias and his wife brought him to the family house because…”

She doesn’t finish her sentence, but I have to know what happened. “Because of what? Is it that he can’t walk?”

“No, his legs are fine. He’s living there because they need to keep an eye on him.”

That makes no sense. I know Ronan got a place in Rome when his father died, and I think he had his own apartment in Manhattan.

“Why? He’s a grown man. Those brothers of his were always treating him like a child, even when he wasn’t.”

They always were unable to see he didn’t want to be babied. I know he hated that.

Kelly reaches out and touches my arm. “No, it’s nothing like that. They’re having him stay there because he tried to kill himself.”

I lower my head as tears begin to roll down my cheeks. “Oh, no. He must be so sad because of what happened. He always dreamed of being a ball player, and now that dream is gone.”

My mother walks into the room, so I quickly dry my eyes before looking up at her. “You know, you don’t have to do my clothes, Mom. I can do them at my place.”

“No, you can’t, and what’s wrong? Did something happen on your trip? Did some man try something he shouldn’t have? When your father hears, he’s going to tell me he was right about not wanting you to go on that trip all along.”

I let out a heavy sigh and say, “No, nothing happened on the trip. Kelly was just telling me about what happened with Ronan. I wish one of you had told me before this.”

“We didn’t want to ruin the trip for you,” she says sadly. “I always liked Ronan. He’s had so much sadness in his life with losing his mother so young and then losing his father and brother before he graduated from college. That poor boy has had a lifetime’s worth of misery. It doesn’t seem fair that life should give him even more to deal with.”

She and my sister talk about the accident, but all I can think of is I should go visit him. We broke up when the two of us were in college, but whatever hard feelings I had then are nothing compared to what he must be going through now.

I stand up and announce, “I’m going to the King estate to see him. I feel terrible that I didn’t know until now, and he might think I heard and didn’t even care enough to call him.”

“Are you sure, honey? You two ended things pretty badly,” my mother says. “I remember when you broke up. You were devastated and nearly failed out of school that semester.”

Leave it to my mother to make this even worse than it already is.

“I didn’t nearly fail out of school, Mom. Yes, I was upset, but that was a long time ago. I don’t blame him for what happened to us anymore.”

“I just worry about this idea. You loved him, Kate. I’m not sure those feelings ever went away for you, and he likely can’t reciprocate even if he wants to now.”

She’s trying to help, but I can’t think like that. Ronan was my first love. He was my first everything. I can’t bear the thought of him struggling in life and not even try to see him to make sure he’s okay. Whatever happened between us is water under the bridge.

“I’ll be fine, Mom. Maybe seeing me will remind him of the good times we had together. I just want to let him know I’m here as a friend. I’d want that if I was going through tough times.”

Before my sister or mother try any more to talk me out of going to see him, I grab my purse and hurry upstairs to my old room. I don’t want to rehash the day I broke up with Ronan, but I can’t stop the memories as they come flooding back.

Just like then, they take my breath away.

Ronan walks through the door of Beanz, our favorite coffee shop, the place where we had our first date almost two years ago to the day. The last time I saw him was during the holidays. We promised one another that we’d make sure to spend our spring break together since both his university and mine have the same week off.

He smiles when he sees me, and even though we’ve dated for years, my heart still does a little flutter when I first lay eyes on him. It’s been like that ever since that first day he walked up to me in high school and asked me out in spring of our junior year. We’ve been inseparable from that moment, except for the past six months after he chose to go out of state for school and I stayed home for college.

I watch as he walks over to the table where we had our first date. We’ve always joked this is our table, like no one else has ever had anything as wonderful happen as we did that first night. He looks as handsome as he did then. Maybe a little bigger since he’s been playing ball even more while he’s been away at school. He’s still the most gorgeous guy I’ve ever known, though.

“Hey, I should have known you’d pick this table if you could get it,” he says with a smile, but I sense something different about him.

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