Page 144 of The Legend (Rivers Wilde 2)

REMI

“I don’t understand how a man like you can be so totally clueless when it comes to women.” Regan shakes her head at me in disgust. We’re lying in a double float in her pool. It’s a warm night and the cicadas are singing for us.

Her huge magnolia trees dangle over the pool and the lights at the bottom of it make me feel like I’m somewhere far away.

I wish I could get far away from how shitty I feel. I don’t know what to do about Kal. She asked for her break, and I’m giving it to her. But, it feels wrong. We’ve spent enough time apart.

I came to stay with Regan for the weekend so I could avoid being out and about in Rivers Wilde. I don’t want to risk running into her.

She left my house and hasn’t been in touch since. I spent all day moping around, and after Regan put her kids to bed at their ridiculously early bedtime, she dragged me outside and into the pool and coaxed the story out of me. I told her everything.

“How is this me being clueless? We were at an impasse. She wanted to write a story about me. I couldn’t let her do that.”

“Why the fuck not? You think you’re The Prince of Persia?” she laughs derisively.

“No, Reg, I don’t want the whole world to know how fucked-up our family is.” I shoot back, annoyed at her nonchalance.

“Remi, there’s nothing to be ashamed of. People are going to f

igure out that Dad is back. He and Gigi will come up for air and someone will see him. And there’s going to be reporters flocking. Someone will write that story. Why not let someone you trust, someone who loves you, write it?”

“Why didn’t she tell me? I hate that she kept something from me.”

“Oh, for God’s sake. Grow up.” She scoops a handful of water and splashes me with it.

“Fuck you, Reg.”

“People lie. You lie. That woman loves you, dummy. She wouldn’t have hurt you or done anything to betray you. I know Mom fucked us up, but you’re lucky. If a woman is brave enough to love you again after you broke her heart, I promise she’s the one. Give her the benefit of the doubt.”

I groan, my stomach feels like someone dropped a ten-pound weight in it. “Oh, shit. I fucked-up, didn’t I, Reggie?”

“Big time. But now you have a chance to make it up to her.”

“How?”

She kisses her teeth. “You’re lucky you’re pretty, ’cause you’ve got like zero game.”

“Shut up and tell me.”

She flips a lock of hair off her shoulder and turns on her side to face me. “The way I see it, that girl has saved you more than once. You told me you wanted to make her believe in happy endings? Then take a page out of a fairy tale and be the white knight she needs right now. Go give her that story. Tell her you want her to write it. Save her job, make her career. Be her hero.”

When she says it, it all sounds so obvious.

Her phone rings. She looks at it and curls her lip.

“Work?” I ask.

“No, Marcel. It’s about time for his usual check in,” she says irritably.

“Trouble in paradise?”

“I have never lived in paradise, so I wouldn’t know. But trouble, in general, yes.” She flips onto her back and pulls her hat over her face.

I wish I’d been around more in the last year. She’s been lurching from one mini crisis to the next. Work, her husband, her kids, everything is sort of haywire in her life at the moment.

“You want to talk?” I ask after a few moments of silence.

She pulls her hat off her head and looks at me askance. “I can’t believe you’re still here. You should be running over to Kal’s place and practicing your grovel.” She shoos me away with her fingers and covers her face again.

---