King and Yara

Chapter 11 (Yara): One Subject

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

The children and I were in the backyard kicking a soccer ball around the next morning when I heard Carter shout, "Daddy!"

The two of them raced over to their father, and he grabbed both of them into tight hugs, a huge smile on his face. Henry walked over to me, each child clinging to one of his legs, their tiny feet resting on his much bigger feet. Carter and Louise were giggling uncontrollably as he lurched forward, making monster sounds like he always did.

"I can't believe you left the celebration."

"There wasn't one, Yara."

"Since when don't you celebrate five hundred million dollar deals?"

King put a hand on each of his children's heads and glanced away for a minute before looking at me. "Since the deal never happened."

Excuse me? "What?"

"I backed out of the buyout this morning. This deal was nothing but a reminder of all the hurt I caused you, and Stephen and Carmen caused you even more when they sent you the picture of the kiss. I didn't want to work with them going forward, so I didn't sign the agreement."

"Daddy, kick the ball with us! Pleeeeeeeease!" Louise begged.

She and Carter untangled themselves from King's legs and raced to see who could get to the soccer ball first.

"I want to tell you everything, if you want to hear it," he said, and moved quickly to stop the ball coming toward us. "But maybe now isn't the best time with the wild ones ready to play."

Then he tapped the ball and sent it to Louise, who kicked it to Carter, who then kicked it back to King. He sent the ball over to me and I kicked it to Carter.

Gah! I wanted to know what could have possibly happened to make King back out of a half billion dollar deal, but I also knew two little bundles of energy would make that challenging. Patience wasn't just a virtue, it was a necessity when children were clamoring for your attention. So King and I gave up trying to talk for the time being and just gave ourselves up to the pleasure of being with these two perfect little beings.

When he wasn't looking, I snuck glances at King, trying to figure out what was different. Off. It finally dawned on me that he was weighed down, if I had to choose a term to describe him. King was normally electric, forceful, bold, confident. Today, he was definitely flagging. It was nothing Carter and Louise would notice as he ran and chased them, played ball and pushed them on the swings, laughing out loud with them and teasing them. He was fully engaged and present, and the lines of stress slowly disappeared from his face the longer they played. His children always had that effect on King; he'd walk into the house after a long day at work, and the tension would melt from him when Louise and Carter ran to him. When I walked up to him. When he gathered all of us close and sighed happily.

My three favorite people to see after being at the office all day.

King always chose to go into the office very early so he could get home in time for dinner and to spend the evening together as a family. He'd seemed to enjoy our home life, to the point that he grumbled and grumped when we had to attend occasional events as Mr. and Mrs. Henry Kingston.

I'd rather be at home with you and the children, Yara.

He'd fooled me so completely that I thought he cherished what we had. I admit, he'd never come out and said it, and cherished was my hopeful term, but he'd certainly acted that way. So I'd been shocked when he'd begun his...whatever with Carmen. That he'd risked it all.