I looked at the windows and couldn’t make myself say it. “I’m at the shop.” My voice cracked. “I need you.”
Silence. Then... “I’m coming.”
Not ‘what’s wrong?’ Not, ‘are you okay?’
Just, I’m coming.
The line disconnected, and I stood there hugging myself, trying not to cry, and failing miserably.
Not even five minutes later, the roar of a motorcycle sounded down the street.
I’d never been so happy to hear it. The engine roared down Main Street and Rome parked crooked right in front of the store.
He looked at me first.
Then at the windows.
The engine shut off, and something changed in his face.
Not explosive anger.
Not shouting.
Just stillness. The scary kind. The kind that meant somebody was about to regret their life choices.
He climbed off the bike slowly and pulled off his helmet.
I watched his eyes move over the windows, read the words, and then read them again. His jaw clenched.
I swallowed. “Rome...”
He looked at me.
And immediately softened. His anger disappeared. Not gone, just put away for me.
He walked straight to me, and pulled me into his chest.
I broke completely. “I think it was Bruce,” I whispered. The words muffled against his shirt.
Rome’s arms tightened. “You think?”
I nodded. “He used to...” I couldn’t finish. Didn’t have to.
Rome understood. I felt it in the way his body went rigid. In the way his hand smoothed over my hair. In the silence. The dangerous silence.
He kissed the top of my head. “We’ll figure it out.”
I cried harder because he said we.
Not you.
Not me.
We.
Chapter Nineteen
Rome
