King's Guard

Chapter Thirty

"Who is Reece Kingsley..." Kingsley muttered, repeating Lorenzo's question.

"Tell me."

"Well, it's not a very interesting story," Kingsley finally spoke. "My parents were never married. Or even together for that matter. I was the product of a one-night stand. They dumped me with my grandparents in their ancestral home once I was born. My grandparents were the ones that raised me. Initially.

"My father visited once in a while. Sometimes for birthdays and Christmas. My grandma, uh, she passed away when I was fourteen. Cancer. Grandpa passed away a few months later. Probably depression from losing his wife. They were together since they were eighteen. They really loved each other."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Kingsley said. "After that it was just nannies or some other person that my parents hired to look after me. Until I turned eighteen. Then I moved out. Moved here. And that's about it."

Kingsley shrugged once he was done talking, his face completely devoid of emotions. Lorenzo kept glancing at him every couple minutes, a soft frown on his face. He had no idea that Kingsley grew up with absent parents, and the fact that he was talking about it so casually worried him.

"Do you still talk to your parents? I remember you mentioning something about your father the other day." Lorenzo pointed out.

"I haven't spoken to my mother in maybe five years now. Heck, I think I can count on one hand the amount of times I've physically met her in my entire life," Kingsley scoffed. "My dad... he's somewhat better in this regard. He apologized recently and we've been... we've been trying to build a relationship."

"Better late than never," Lorenzo said as he finally pulled into the parking lot of his building. "But this... this sounds rough. Not having your parents around—"

"Going to parent teacher conferences in school sucked, so did shadow your parent for a day assignments but other than that I was fine," Kingsley shrugged. "My mee-maw? She was epic. I was happy growing up, despite the crap with my parents. So, don't worry."

Lorenzo parked, before turning off the ignition and unbuckling his seat belt. He turned to face Kingsley, who had just gotten done removing his belt as well. Lorenzo was at a loss for words, he grew up in a big and happy family, so hearing Kingsley's story made his heart ache for the other man. All he wanted was to make things better for Kingsley. To make him happy.

"I'm glad," Lorenzo smiled, rather forcefully, before pressing his lips in a thin line as if he was keeping himself from saying something. Kingsley raised a brow in question. "This is probably not the right time to be asking this but... did you think about what I asked you? About going to San Francisco with me?"

Kingsley licked his lower lip as he stared at Lorenzo, who looked nervous due to the anticipation of Kingsley's answer.

Kingsley did think about it. But he also didn't. He made a list in his head with the pros and cons, and when he got frustrated he pretended like Lorenzo never asked him the question. But ignoring it didn't make it go away, and he knew he had to give an answer soon. And the soon seemed to have arrived quicker than he thought.

There were a lot of things to consider. And Kingsley tried to calculate them all. But now that he was sitting in front of Lorenzo, with the other man waiting eagerly for his answer- the only thing that Kingsley could think about was whether he wanted to go with Lorenzo or not. Whether he wanted to be with him or if he wanted to spend four days alone?

"Yes," Kingsley said.

"Yes?" Lorenzo's eyebrows shot up in surprise, as if he was expecting Kingsley to deny.