Fearless The King Series Book One - By Tawdra Kandle Page 0,41

it. We expanded about eleven years ago.”

The dirt road ended in a parking lot that backed up to two buildings. Michael pulled between the buildings and followed a smaller driveway into the woods, which opened to reveal a log cabin.

“We’ll park here, but we’re not going to the house yet,” he announced to me. “My dad is in the fields somewhere probably, but I think my mom should be in the shop or in the greenhouse.” He paused before opening his car door. “Tell me the truth. Did I spook you with the story about my parents?”

I thought about it for a few minutes before answering. “No, I don’t think so,” I said slowly. “It does make me wonder, though.”

“Wonder what?”

“Well, I assume you grew up hearing the story about your father and mother. So what if… maybe in some part of your mind, you expected it to be the same for you. And then your subconscious just played into it.”

I expected him to vehemently deny this idea, but instead, he seemed to consider it. For the space of several heartbeats, fear gripped me as I wondered why on earth I had mentioned this possibility. After all, what if he decided I was right? In my terror, I slipped down the wall and listened to him.

No, it’s not just subconscious expectations. Doesn’t she think I wondered about that? But how to convince her it’s real, that’s the problem. How to make her see that we belong together no matter what happened to make it that way.

Relief washed over me. He wasn’t thinking of a way to let me down easily.

“A couple of things wrong with that theory,” he said, choosing his words carefully. “First, let’s say I did expect it to happen to me the way it did with my dad. I haven’t exactly been a hermit all my teenage years. I’ve met girls. I’ve even kind of liked some girls. Nothing serious,” he assured me quickly. “But still, I thought some girls in school were pretty or were fun. So if I were looking to be like my father, why wouldn’t my subconscious have jumped on the bandwagon at that point? Actually, that would have made more sense. I knew those girls better than I knew you. Some of them I’d known since kindergarten. Look at Anne, even. Why not her?

“Second, and you didn’t know this, so I can’t blame you for thinking the way you did, this isn’t just a two-generational thing with my family. It actually goes pretty far back.”

“What do you mean?” Now it was beginning to sound strange.

“Before my dad met my mom, his father, my granddad, had experienced something very similar with my grandmother. They met and married within a week. They celebrated fifty years together last spring.

“And his father, that would be my great-grandfather, saw his wife-to-be across a crowded ferry boat. He lost her when they were getting off the boat, and he waited at the dock every day for three months until he found her again. They were married a month later.”

“Aren’t there any exceptions?” I asked curiously.

“I have a great uncle who never married. He says it’s because he still hasn’t met the one yet. He’s sixty-four years old. Still looking for her every day.”

“So… you’re saying that if by some twist of fate, my father’s company hadn’t moved us to Florida, you would live out the rest of your life single?”

Michael was very serious as he took my hand. “If I hadn’t met you, yes, I would still be waiting. I have to believe that there’s something bigger than fate controlling this, though. I have to believe that if you hadn’t moved down here, we would’ve ended up at the same college or met on a trip somewhere—something like that.”

I was silent, thinking. Michael released my hand and leaned over to kiss me lightly on the lips. “Come on. My mom probably saw the car when we went past the greenhouse and she’s in there thinking I’m taking advantage of you back here.”

“Really?” My face flamed, mortified at the thought Michael’s mother thinking we were doing anything inappropriate in the silence of these woods. But Michael just laughed at me. He slammed his own door shut and then came around to pull me out of the car.

“I’m just teasing you. She won’t think that at all. She’s going to love you.”

To my complete surprise, it seemed as though Michael was right. His mother did at least appear to like