Lawless Kingdom (Reign & Ruin 1)

We followed, making our way up the overgrown drive. I looked around, noting how much land we had now compared to our old place that had barely had space to plant flowers.

Fields in desperate need of a mow and peppered with dandelions stretched out on either side of the farmhouse, running into a thick tree-line. There were no neighbors for a good five minutes in either direction, making the area extremely peaceful. I liked that so much more than the sound of a busy city.

I avoided the handrail that bridged the connection to the wrap-around porch. It didn’t look sturdy enough for me to try and hold on to, and I wasn’t trying to test it out by seeing if I would fall onto my ass. The white paint was flaking enough as it was—touching the thing would only make it worse.

Dad pushed open the large double doors and led us into a square foyer. I took in the space, pleasantly surprised. The inside was nothing like the out. There was a nice aroma of lemon Pine-Sol from a recent cleaning, and the soft breeze coming through the open windows with beams of natural sunlight had the horror movie vibe diminishing rapidly, replacing it with a fresh, airy feeling.

Packing boxes were piled all over the place along with the furniture that had arrived a day before Mom and me.

Clearly, Dad was leaving her the task of piecing the house together…which was probably for the best.

"I know it needs some TLC…" he trailed off, losing some of his enthusiasm in the face of our elapsed silence. Mom swooped in to recover it, wrapping an arm around his middle.

"Well, lucky for you, your wife knows a thing or two about interior design.”

Dad grinned and kissed the top of her head. I watched them for a minute and smiled, adoring their love. As they started to discuss where to place what, I wandered off to explore on my own.

I didn’t inherit my mother’s knack for decorating. It wasn’t so bad that I would dare mismatch colors—say, orange with purple—but I failed in every way possible when it came to arranging furniture.

I flopped down on my bed after moving it for the third time and pulled my cell from my back pocket. There were two texts from Dax and six from Audrey. I skimmed over hers first, deciding to just call instead of reply.

As the line rang, I shut my eyes and sighed, letting the sun from a large bay window warm my face.

“About damn time, Rhia!” her breathy voice blasted through my speaker.

“You knew I was going to the new house today. I’ve been busy.”

“Doing what? Pretending to arrange the furniture?”

She knew me too well. I laughed, picturing the smirk she would be sporting.

“So, have you spoken to that boyfriend of yours? He’s back in town now, right?”

There was a rapid clicking sound in the background which more than likely meant she was in her closet, shoving hangers around in search of an outfit. I rolled onto my back and opened my eyes, staring up at the swirled ceiling.

“He said he was, but I called you first. Why? What did you two conspire about now?”

“Nothing,” she replied too quickly and with way too much innocence.

“Audrey.”

She sighed dramatically. “Okay. I may or may not have told him we would be attending a small get together tonight. And now he may be meeting us there even if he didn’t want to.”

I had a flashback to three weekends ago when she said almost this same thing. That ‘small get together’ ended with me being so drunk I thought I’d died. I wound up commandeering the bathroom of Matthew Hartley.

I slept in his tub, waking to the not so glorious sound of him peeing.

I learned some valuable lessons from that experience. Mainly that Everclear is dangerous and needed to be avoided like the plague. And Matthew, with his beautiful face and mouthwatering body, had a penis the size of a Frito. It was an injustice to all the high school cheerleaders I now knew had faked it for him.

“Did you forget I swore off parties for the rest of the summer?”

“Oh, come on Rhia. There are only three weeks left of break. And you’re my best, best friend. If you don’t come with me, who will?”

“One of your other friends.”

She huffed. “I don’t have any other friends. I have acquaintances that serve a purpose.”

I laughed again, shaking my head at her. What she said was mostly true, though.

Audrey could party like no other, but she wasn’t huge on adding new friends to the small list of ones she already had. Pretty sure there was a song about that.

“Dax will be there,” she repeated as if I hadn’t heard that the first time.

A groan unfurled in the back of my throat. This was what happened when your boyfriend and your best friend were also friends—by default. But him being there wasn’t really an incentive. Dax and I could easily have hung out together at my house.