Page 71 of Forever King

“I guess you think I’m sad for getting married too then,” Marius says with more than a hint of defensiveness.

The same argument I used on Ronan isn’t useful with him since he dated tons of women before marrying Eden, so I say, “No, I think you got married because you got tired of being alone. Not that I don’t think you love her, but I think you spent all your life in the middle of all of us Kings and still felt alone, so you jumped at the chance to marry someone you cared for. Thankfully, she cares enough about you to tolerate your bullshit, so it’s a match made in heaven.”

I’m not generally that insightful, but I’ve heard this brother talk about how lonely it often was growing up as the middle child between Matthias and Theo, who were best friends, and Ronanand me, who were also very close. It didn’t take a genius to come up with the answer. I just repeated the material I’ve heard him use before.

He starts to attempt to debunk my theory about why he married Eden, but it isn’t long before he simply stops because I’m right. “There might be something to that, Kellen. It doesn’t change the fact that I love being married to her and being Lily’s father.”

I turn back to focus on the menu as I say, “Nobody’s saying you shouldn’t be happy to be married. I simply don’t see what the draw is compared to living together. That’s all.”

Both of my brothers start to talk about what they like on the menu as I pretend like I feel as if I bested them in that discussion, but the truth is while I don’t see much of a difference between what Salem and I have and what my brothers have in their marriages, there is a very real difference.

She doesn’t want to be my wife. Eden and Kate wanted to be my brothers’ wives.

26

Salem

For the last thirty minutes,I’ve sat in this room with Chase Parker and his wife Cheyenne talking out what the plan is to get his reputation rehabilitated and his career back on track. Like with many of my clients, I don’t like him. Not that liking him is part of my job. I simply have to successfully promote the image these two want the world to see to get him back into the public’s good graces.

I listen as he talks about how much this whole thing with the nanny has hurt him. That’s how he refers to it. This thing with the nanny. No mention of the young woman’s name, who from what I understand from these two has been fired and may currently be unemployed after this thing with her. No use of the actual terms adults use to accurately describe his behavior, such as cheating or sleeping around. No, it’s this thing with the nanny over and over as his wife sits by his side wincing every single time he refers to what he did in such a sterile and blameless fashion.

“So basically, I want the world to see I’m the same guy they loved before I made a mistake with this thing with the nanny,” Chase says in an all-too-confident voice for my taste.

I look to the right of him where Cheyenne sits and see her force a smile for me. As much as I don’t get personally involved in the lives of my clients, I wish I could reach over and give her hand a gentle squeeze. I would never do that, but she’s looked uncomfortable the entire time we’ve been sitting here, and something inside me would love it if I could make her feel even a tiny bit better.

Her husband, on the other hand, only seems to have his comfort level in mind today. I suspect this is how he’s always been—selfish, egotistical, and entirely self-involved. He continues droning on about how hard he’s had it these last few weeks as I silently wonder if he was like this when she met him. And if that’s the case, why did she marry him at all?

Then I remind myself that she married him right after he’d hit it big on that first TV show a decade ago, so I have to believe she knew exactly who he was. Maybe she isn’t as blameless as I thought.

I shake my head to push that thought away, though. Whatever her reason for marrying this overgrown toddler, she didn’t deserve to be cheated on with some younger woman who was taking care of their child.

“Don’t you agree?” he asks, and I realize he thinks I don’t like what he just said because I shook my head.

Since I honestly can’t say I know what he was talking about, I turn to my notes on my laptop next to me and change the conversation entirely. “Do you have a journalist you’d prefer to do this interview with? I have some choices, but if there’s someone you particularly like and likes you enough to handle it as we want them to, let me know.”

I look up and see both Chase and Cheyenne shrugging. Good. I really didn’t want their input on that point anyway. I have the exact interviewer who will be perfect for this situation already.

“Okay. I’d like to speak to each of you separately, so let’s start with you first, Chase. Cheyenne, please feel free to relax in the room right next door. There’s coffee, pastries, and anything else you need. This won’t take long, and after I’m done talking to Chase, I’ll talk to you.”

She smiles and stands up, and I can’t help but notice how tall she is. In fact, she might be the first person I’ve ever met who I would use the word willowy to describe her body. Cheyenne Parker is nothing short of beautiful, and I notice that as she walks out of my office, she almost glides. I also notice that Chase watches her until the door closes.

“Isn’t my wife stunning? Ever since she got that tummy tuck, she’s killing it,” he says, practically bragging about something he had no part in. “You know how it is after a woman has a kid. That tummy tuck was practically a necessity in the circles we travel in.”

I have to stop myself from muttering, “Charming.” What a delightful human being this guy is. The more I listen to him, the more I think Cheyenne Parker may be a saint. She must really love him to put up with all the nonsense he brings to her.

Ignoring his comments about his wife’s body, I ask, “So, I think we need to accept the fact that you’re going to have to answer some hard questions about this affair. One would be why did you do it?”

Oddly, he seems caught off guard by my question. Haven’t other people been asking him the same thing? It would be the first question I’d ask someone I knew who cheated.

He stammers out something about being lonely, which makes me want to punch him, but I stop him before he gets too far into his personal pity party. “No, that won’t do. Trust me.Nobody but some guys who’ve done the same thing as you have are going to be okay with the lonely excuse. I’m asking you to seriously admit why you did it.”

This is as much for my job as for my curiosity. Kellen’s talk about marriage the other night has left me wondering why any man would cheat on his wife, and since I have a cheater sitting right in front of me as a captive audience, why not ask him?

For his second attempt at answering, Chase clears his throat and says, “I don’t know. It was stupid. Yes, I was a little lonely since Cheyenne was spending time working on her makeup and skincare business, but that wasn’t entirely it. I don’t know why, though. I love my wife, Salem. I know it seems like I don’t, but I do and you can’t even imagine how happy I am that she’s agreed to stand by me after this terrible mistake.”

I point at him, happy to finally hear something we can use. “Yes, that right there. That’s what you need to project in this interview. People can stomach a man who admits he made a mistake and that it was stupid. They can’t tolerate a man whining about being lonely because his wife was trying to succeed at something on her own. Stick with the part about it being a mistake and how you truly love her. People will buy that with her sitting next to you.”

For some reason, that bothers him, and he looks at me sulking. “I want you to know I really do love Cheyenne. I hate that I’ve done this to our marriage. I’ve endangered our entire life because of this. Nobody will hire me because I’m radioactive. At least, that’s what my agent said. That’s why she said we needed to come to you.”