Roman gives me a small smile before moving to the door and opening it wide, allowing me to see Sage pacing right outside, a crumpled bouquet of daisies held in her palm.
“Hey,” Roman says kindly, opening the front door to welcome her inside.
“Hi. Sorry to bother you guys. I’m sure you have things to do. I, um, found these under my window.” She holds up the damaged flowers. “There was no name, just, uh, ‘Hey, darling.’ I was wondering if Ash was here.”
Roman turns to look at me, his eyes rolling around his skull as he stares past me to the back door.
Using my hand, I cover the smirk that begins to pull at my lips, giggling at Ash’s drunken romantic gesture.
“He’s actually not awake right now, but I’ll send him your way when he is.”
With a blush tinting her cheeks, she gives each of us a nod, saying her goodbyes before heading back to her home. I don’t miss the way she brings the daisies to her nose, petals falling gracefully behind her as she breathes in their earthly scent.
“Did I miss something?” I ask once Roman shuts the door, a soft smile gracing his lips as he shakes his head.
“Nah, but I think someone has a crush.”
“I think both of them do.”
Our light conversation once again turns dark as Roman and I gaze into each other’s eyes. He steps toward me, stopping when the tips of his shoes collide with my mine, eyes severe as he asks, “How are you feeling?”
“Better now,” I lie, still feeling the faint tingles of my father’s fingers down my spine.
I promised Roman no more lies. We’ve gone through too much to have anything but honesty between us.
But this isn’t for him, so I must go through it alone.
CHAPTER FOUR
ROMAN
Ilisten to the sound of running water coming from the bathroom as I attempt to cook a decent dinner for Amira and me.
She’s been in a strange mood since we got home from the store earlier, and the darkening sky has only made it so much worse, so I’m counting on this meal to raise her spirits.
“What the fuck is that smell?”
I spin around in a huff, too preoccupied with my own thoughts to notice the back door opening and Ash entering the room. Although, I don’t see how I could’ve missed it, considering he still smells like a horse's ass.
His hair, usually tied up in a bun, hangs in ratty tangles on top of his shoulders, with dirt, grass, and other forms of nature sticking out of his mangled locks. The shirt he was wearing, which was once white, is now stained with various substances.
“You’re bitching to me about smells? Take a fucking whiff of yourself.”
“You threw me on the fucking dirt. Did you expect me to smell like roses?” Ash asks, dropping his head onto the table and groaning loudly as he massages his temples, leaving tiny specks of dirt on the clean surface.
I bark out my laughter as I give the Italian herb chicken in the pan a flip. “I didn’t put you there. Your dumbass must have rolled down the stairs and onto the grass all on your own.”
“That explains the fucking back pain.” I hear him moan, hands moving from his head to massage the lower part of his spine.
Yes, it fucking does, I think before remembering Sage’s visit from earlier.
“Did you fucking hack up the daisies from the lady’s yard across the street?”
Ash stares at me through bleary, bloodshot eyes, faint confusion in his gaze before nodding his head. “No. I don’t know. Why?”
“Sage came by earlier with a makeshift bouquet of the neighbor's daisies in her hand and a note that said, ‘Hey, darling.’”
His eyes widen a fraction before returning his head to the table, mumbled curses flowing from his lips as he bangs his head on the wood.
