Antonio’s head teetered back and forth. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“You’ve been mute this entire time,” King Zeller rumbled at them, glaring. “Please, don’t stop now.”
Sighing, I moved to the couch, but stopped abruptly when Bindi brushed past the tent flap, rushing so much that she stumbled as she stopped. She waved a piece of paper at me…and started gurgling. Again I sighed, and I moved back to her, grabbing the sheet of paper from her.
Read the printout.
Stared.
Read it again, then nodded to her. “Thank you, Bindi. That’ll be all.”
After she left, I walked to the couch. Sat down steadily. And handed over the piece of paper to King Zeller as I dumped the items of the pillowcase onto the coffee table.
He read it, then he calmly murmured, “Well, now we know for certain.”
Yes.
We now did.
King Zeller was, indeed, Isa’s father.
And I couldn’t bring myself to look at him, knowing for certain I’d had sex with him…and I couldn’t remember a damn thing about it. “At least you don’t remember anything about it, either.” I fumbled with an envelope, my hands shaking a bit. “I mean, how awkward would it be if one of us did and the other didn’t, right?”
“Right,” he stated softly, laying the piece of paper down on the table — which his dad covertly pulled away to review — and rested a gentle hand on top of mine while I rummaged to get the package open. I jerked at the contact, blinking rapidly, not about to look at him. Fuck me if tears weren’t threatening to spill over, relief and anger mixing together at finally knowing for certain who was Isa’s father — even if I did not like the guy. He gently squeezed my hand before lifting the package from my grip and easily opening it, hardly hindered by Isa lying in his arms. Staying silent, he handed me the open package.
I coughed, hiding my sniffle, which I had to do or risk having snot running down my face, and peered into the package past the tears in my eyes. I blinked blurrily and pulled out a VHS tape. There was nothing else inside, the label on the tape reading:Lil’s King Hall Graduation.I peered at Antonio because it was his handwriting.
“You taped my graduation?” Hell, I couldn’t remember large chunks of it.
“Yes.” A short answer.
My lips thinned, and I quickly wiped away an errant tear that verged on falling, and grabbed the next package. And opened it a bit easier. It was another VHS tape. Nothing else, except for the label that stated:Lil’s first Awakening with Pearl, Jack, and Ezra.
I stilled, staring at the names, and flipped the wording toward King Zeller so he could read it, even as I turned my attention back to Antonio since again the handwriting was his. I gauged him, blinking away the tears that didn’t seem to want to stop stinging my eyes. “You knew.” My hand trembled as I set the tape down, hearing King Zeller grunt after reading it. “You knew in advance this was going to happen. Knew you wouldn’t be able to speak.” I cleared my throat hard when he still didn’t express anything, my voice gruff and full of emotion. “You’re not such a bastard.”
After a silent moment, King Zeller stated briskly, “There’s still one package left.”
“Right,” I murmured, turning my attention to the thinnest package of all three. Lifting it slowly, I carefully pulled the tab off and peered inside. There was more here, even if the package was smaller. I pulled out the piece of paper first and placed it on the table. And damn if everyone in the room didn’t hover to read what it said. Breath escaped me as I scanned its contents, choking, “Jesus Christ, we actually got married.”
King Zeller just stared, jaw clenched tight, eyes flittering over our marriage certificate.
Elder Merrick pointed at the paper. “Queen Ruckler…what does it say your middle name—”
I snapped the paper over. “My middle name is not up for discussion.”
Elder Merrick started snorting, sounding like he was trying not to laugh.
My gaze darted to where he was hovering. “Seriously, not the time.”
He lifted his hands, backing away a few steps at my expression. “Okay.” He tilted his chin. “But someday I’m going to give you Shitz for it.”
My wolf growled at him, but King Zeller tapped the package still in my hand. “Is that it?”
“No.” I pulled out one of the photos inside next, studying it, evaluating every aspect of the picture, and a breathless exclamation escaped me. “Christ…” There were no other words. It was a close-up of our faces. We were both disguised with brown hair and glasses, and King Zeller had a short, trendy beard, but it was us, our cheeks pressed together, grinning like mad for the camera, with huge, cheesy,happyexpressions on our faces.
“What is it?” King Zeller asked quickly, darting to the side, trying to see the photo, but he couldn’t move far enough because of Isa. “The back has something written on it, too, but your hands are in the way so I can’t read it.”
I quickly flipped the photo and shook my head, reading aloud, “Baby and Sweetheart. Just Married.” I shook my head, a bit wigged out. “It’s my handwriting.” I flipped the photo back over, but King Zeller snatched it out of my hands.
