The Mermaid and her King (21 page)

Skyla

We land in Maui and get a car
. After all that’s happened, it’s strange for us to be in the car together. It doesn’t bother me since I’m with three of the four people I’m closest to, but I know it’s uncomfortable for them, so I feel bad.

We get to the hotel, and t
he guys come to my room, so we can get a game plan. They each have their own room, and Brooke and I are sharing one. I glance at Eric and Lee. “I’m going over there first.”

“No, Skyla. I don’t know what you could walk into,”
Eric says.

“I agree with
Shooter. We need to go first,” Lee adds.

“
I miss him. It’s killing me, and knowing he might be this close to me just makes it worse.”

“
Nixie, I don’t think King would do it, but he did have a drug problem, and if he’s doing that to numb himself, then you don’t need to see him like that,” Lee says.

I quickly shake my head.
“He won’t do it. I know he won’t go back to that.”

My brother gives me his protective
look. “Sis, let us go first.”

“Fin
e, but plead with him to see me.”

Eric
walks up and takes hold of my shoulders before he kisses my forehead. “I will. We’ll be back and hopefully with him.”

They leave, and I pace the room, chewing on my nails.

“Nixie Moore, why didn’t you tell me how hot Eric is?”

“I told you he’s
cute.”

“He’s far beyond cute
.”

“You’re taken, remember?”

“Yeah, but I’m not blind, and is he always that sweet?”

“Yes, and you deserve someone like that.
Rob’s an asshole.”

“H
e just has issues.”

“Yeah, that he takes out on you,
Honey. I wish you would leave him. How many times has he already text you today?”

“A lot, but he worries about me.”

“He threw the biggest fit over you coming here. He’s controlling.”

“
That’s only because I’ll be gone New Year’s. I came didn’t I?”

“True, and I
’m grateful. I can’t take this. I’m going to go insane waiting.”

“I’m sorry
, Nixie. Let’s watch a movie to take your mind off of it.”

Honey
turns on a movie, and I pretend to watch as a million images run through my mind. I’m worried Chase and Lee will fight, and this will backfire. I clutch my phone and wait … and wait … and wait.

Chase

I haven’t cleaned up the mess. I don’t have the energy.
I decide I’ll pay people to do it when I leave and make it worth their while. Looking at the glass and broken furniture everywhere makes me feel more punished.

It’s a fucked up mess like my life.
Last night I used the wall as target practice for the steak knives I repeatedly threw. They’re still stuck there like they are in my heart.

The doorbell rings.
This can’t be good. Only Eric and Andy would suspect I’m here. I open the door, and sure enough, it’s Eric but also Rock. Why in the hell is he here? “I made it clear how I feel, Eric,” I say before I try to shut the door. Rock grabs it.

“You’re letting me in to speak to you. I didn’t take one
of my days away from that hellhole desert to fly here and have a door shut in my face.” Rock looks pissed.

I open it up and move for
them to come in. I see the stunned look on their faces and hear the floor crunch from the glass underneath their feet. 

“I see you’ve been getting some of your anger out,”
Eric says.

“I
t’s better than the alternative.”

“You’re right,” he says.

They pick up a couple of kitchen chairs from the floor. Rock faces his backwards and sits down, leaning on his arms over the top of it. I lean against the counter with my arms crossed and stare at them.

“
You need to come back home. You’re killing Skyla, leaving her the way you did. You know how much she loves you, and your connection to Bud isn’t going to change that. She said it makes her love you more,” Eric says.

Picturing her in pain hurts so fucking bad
. “I don’t see how she could feel that way. She should be upset with me for all the grief she’s had to deal with. Why the fuck did she keep something like this from me?”

“We were going to tell you the
day after Christmas, but Rock showed up earlier than she expected. She was waiting to tell you until she was sure you loved her enough not to walk away. Don’t be pissed at her because obviously she had grounds for feeling that way. You did exactly what we feared.”

“Don’t even say I don’t love her,” I say angrily.

“I’m not saying you don’t love her, but if you love her as much as you always say you do, then you won’t leave her. Bud made the choice on his own to surf at night when he was strung out on drugs. You fixed what you were doing wrong. You made things more than right because along with getting clean, you treat Skyla like a fucking queen. It’s exactly how Bud wanted it. I told Rock everything.”

I glance to Rock. I can’t imagine why he wants to talk to me, and I really don’t want to hear whatever
it is he has to say. My heart slams against my chest repeatedly, and I just want something else to break.

“King,
Eric told me about Bud getting you to try the coke. I know he had an unlimited supply because of you, and that pisses me off, but I’m sure he took advantage of the fact you have money.

“
He was responsible for his own actions. Even messed up, Bud knew better than to be out in the water that night. If you were still using and treating Nixie like shit, then I’d say to stay the hell away from her, but it sounds like you’ve changed. You went to rehab and punished yourself for months.

“
I don’t know if I’ll ever like you, but I hear you treat Nixie well, so you need to go home and take care of her. However, if you ever start the drugs again, I’ll make sure she leaves your ass.”

I stare at Rock.
I don’t know if I could ever like him, either, but I’m surprised at what I’m hearing.

“I don’t know how to look at her and not think about how upset she’s been all these months over Bud. I watched her on the beach for three months before I ever met her, and I saw her pain, not having a clue th
at it was because she lost him … that it was because of me.”

“
Didn’t we just cover this? You can give Nixie the life she deserves, not the shitty one she was dealt so far. I saw the pain you were in and the way you looked at her when you found out she’s Nixie. I can tell you love her.

“
I can’t stand how depressed she is, so go back to her, and I’ll never breathe another word about you being responsible for Bud’s death. Also, she pushed me and slapped the shit out of me over what I said about you that day, so make things right. I can’t stand having her pissed at me,” Rock says.

I never in my wildest dreams would’ve thought I’d be hearing this. He hated me, and now he’s practically begging me to be with Skyla.
Eric made this happen.

“
I know how close Bud was to her. He talked about it constantly. I don’t deserve to love his Nixie after feeding his addiction.”

Eric
stands up and launches his chair across the room before getting in my face. “I’ve fucking had it with you and this self-loathing shit. You don’t see it, but it’s hurting everyone around you. I took it and dealt with what it did to you, me, Andy and our other friends, but I won’t stand by and watch you hurt Skyla this way!

“If you feel a need to redeem yourself the rest of
your damn life, then do it by taking care of her. You’re abandoning Skyla after you told her you’d always be there for her. Bud would kick your ass for treating his Nixie this way, and you know it.

“
She’s depressed and barely eating. You fucked up everyone’s holiday, and she’s lain in
your
bed all day every day, clutching her phone, waiting for you to come back to her. Yes, you heard that right,
your
bed. That’s an actual reason you should be feeling like shit, not all this other nonsense you want to believe. You’re your own worst enemy, King.”

I’ve never seen
Eric this angry. He smacks my chest with a manila envelope. “Take this. I don’t know what it is, but Skyla said it was important for you to see. She’s here waiting at the Hyatt Regency Resort, room 522. She wants us to bring you back, but I refuse.

“
I only want you to go to her if you’re done feeling sorry for yourself and have no intentions of walking out on her again. She doesn’t deserve any of this, and I want to know you won’t put her through it again.

“You need a fucking shower,
too, and seeing this place would scare the shit out of her, so I’m not letting her come here, either. We’ll be at the hotel until morning.”

Rock points at me.
“Don’t keep her waiting, King. If she has to come looking for you, then I’ll be ahead of her to kick your ass,” he says before they both go out the door.

I let out the deep breath I took
when I heard she’s in Maui. She’s so close to me, and just thinking about touching her warms me all over.

I’m terrified
she’s going to see me different once she spends time with me. She’ll see me as King, Bud’s friend, the drug user and womanizer. Holding the large manila envelope, I fall back on the bed and stare at it. As I run my hand around it, I feel a lot of papers.

I don’t know why, but I’m afraid to look inside. Maybe she just
wrote me a letter. I should’ve known she was staying at my place … our place.

Thinking of her waiting in my bed for me day after day crushes me. I left her while
she clung to me, begging me not to go. I didn’t even let her tell me how she felt, yet she’s here still trying to get me back.

Eric
’s right. I should only go to her if I’m going to stop this shit. I can’t hurt her again. I just wish Bud was here to tell me it’s definitely what he’d want.

Skyla

J
umping off the bed, I run to answer the door. It’s Eric and Lee. I move so they can come in before I look behind them, but there’s no Chase. “What happened?” I ask desperately.

“He’s here, and he’s OK. Well, I wouldn’t say he’s OK, but he’s not using. He’s punis
hing himself with guilt instead,” Eric says.

“So, he won’t come back to me?”

“We don’t know. After yelling at him, I gave him the envelope and told him your room number. I’m just over his shit. I probably could’ve convinced him to come.”

“Then why didn’t you?”
I ask with frustration.

“I want him to be sure, Skyla. You don’t deserve this pain. Only he can stop what he’s doing
to himself.”

“Lee
, what did you say?”

“Don’t worry. I was nice.
He’s definitely punished himself long enough. He’s not the spoiled, arrogant guy I met when I moved here. He’s changed. I saw how much he loves you and Bud.”

“I’m going over there,
” I say.

“No. I told him I wasn’t letting you. I know you’re desperate to get him back, but you deserve someone who’s not going to be self-destructiv
e. He has to believe he deserves you and believe that this is what Bud would want. He has to make a choice. I think he’ll make the right one,” Eric says.

I shake my head. “No, give me the address.”

Lee walks over to me and takes me into his arms. My brother doesn’t hug, and it feels weird to be in his arms. He pulls back but doesn’t let me go.

“Sis, you don’t need to see his house. He’s destroyed it, and
he’s a mess. People can hurt themselves in more ways than doing drugs.

“He has to choose to be the strong man you need. Don’t start a life of enabling him. I know you think you have enough love for the both of you, but if he doesn’
t think he deserves it, then he’ll do this again. If it’s not over this, then it will be over something else.”

“You’re
probably right. As painful as it is, I have to wait. We can’t fix others. I thought I could fix Chase, but he showed me I can’t.” I hear Brooke and Eric leave the room. They know Lee and I need to be alone to have this conversation.

He
pulls me back against his chest. “Dad ran from his grief over Mom. His job over in that hellhole was his way of self-destructing because he thought it was all he deserved since Mom died and not him.

“
I’m sorry, Nixie. I see now that I did the same thing to you, joining the Army and going over there just like Dad. We both walked away from you because we didn’t want to deal with our grief. We left you alone.

“
You deserve a love you can always count on, one you don’t have to chase after. Make King come to you. I can’t leave the military right now, but I will try hard to be the brother you deserve, especially when I get back. I love you, sis.”

Tears come, stinging before they trickle down
my cheeks. “I love you, too, Rock. I love you so much.”

He pulls back from me and smiles. “You called me Rock again.”

“That’s who you are. It’s time to celebrate Bud’s life. I need to continue being the strong woman I grew into. Chase has to choose to live life with me. He’s choosing all of this. I believe with all my heart that Bud had a hand in bringing all of us together, but we have free will. Now it’s up to Chase to hang on to what Bud gave us.”

“You’re special, Nixie. You’re wise and kind. You always have been. I don’t believe King will be able to stay away from you.”