Chapter 9 #3
“She pushed you away,” Roman reminded Tia. “She pushed everyone away.”
“But you didn’t let her,” Tia whispered, eyes flicking back to the gravestone. “You stayed in her life.”
He expelled a grunt of disbelief. “Hey, if that was true, she’d still be here.”
“You tried. I got pissed.”
“She cut you out of her life, Tee. She had her music friends, her producer and his team, she’d moved on.”
A tear slid down Tia’s cheek. “You don’t move on from what we had. We were sisters.” She dropped her head forward onto his chest. “Can I tell you something?”
He stroked her back, his heart breaking for the burden that Tia had been carrying all this time, just as heavy, apparently, as his. “Anything.”
“Sometimes, I get so mad, I think I actually hate her.” She sobbed. “I hate her for doing that to herself, for abandoning me, you, everything we could have been. I hate her for leaving us.”
Roman blinked his eyes shut against a fierce wind. “I do too,” he admitted, gruffly.
Tia sobbed again. “Can we go get shit-faced?”
Out of nowhere, Roman thought of what he really wanted to be doing right now, to cope with this moment.
Who he really wanted to be with. And the guilt was a strong stab in his side, a horrible, horrible recrimination for letting desire for Kate cloud his duties to Tia.
“Sounds like a plan,” he said, reaching for his phone and shooting a text to Garrett.
“Kate?” She expected Roman but it was unmistakably not him, tentatively calling from outside the bedroom.
The thought of staying naked had been too strange, so she’d compromised by reaching for a robe and wrapping it around her naked body instead. She’d made a coffee, then grabbed a book, and curled up in bed, her heart racing with thoughts of what would come soon…
Now, Garrett on the other side of the door had her sitting up with a strangled squawk. “Erm, don’t come in.”
“I’m not going to. Roman asked me to pass a message to you.”
She stood, as if somehow knowing she needed to brace for that. “Oh?”
“He’s been detained. He says he’ll be a few hours longer than planned.”
Kate’s stomach seemed to hollow out. She told herself she was being ridiculous and needy to feel hurt by that, that she was being everything she’d sworn to avoid, because of course something else had called his attention.
He was Roman Hayes, a billionaire, a tycoon, a bloody superstar in the investment world, and there must have been a thousand people at any given time wanting to make demands on his time.
The fact he’d been shining his attention solely on her for days, like some kind of megawatt spotlight didn’t mean anything.
They’d both bloody agreed to that. So why did her stomach suddenly drop to her toes, and it felt as though the light in all the world had gone out.
“Kate?”
“Yeah, I heard.” Her voice sounded hesitant. Hurt. She cleared her throat. “Hey, Garrett?”
“Yes, ma’am?”
She winced at that sign of deference, a pointed reminder that she was in Roman’s world, when she knew she didn’t belong. “Is there a spare key to this place somewhere?”
“Yes.”
She rolled her eyes. “Can I grab it?”
“I’ll have to check with—”
“I don’t mean to keep,” she interrupted, moving towards the door and cracking it open a bit, so she and Garrett were eye to eye. “I might as well go out seeing as Roman’s been held up.”
Garrett’s eyes dropped to Kate’s ankle. “Of course, I’ll take you anywhere you’d like.”
“I’m much better, that won’t be necessary.”
“I’ll let—”
“No,” she forestalled. “We both know he’d worry, and I’m sure that whatever he’s doing is more important.”
“Nonetheless, he’d want to know.”
“Has he ordered you to keep tabs on me?”
“He doesn’t generally give orders.”
“Has he required it of you?”
“No, but—”
“Then you’re not breaking any promise to him.” She expelled a breath slowly. “I’ll just go get a coffee or something. I’m getting cabin fever.” She could tell he was relenting. “I’ll be back before he is, promise.”
Garrett hesitated another moment and then nodded slowly. “Fine.”
She expelled a breath of relief, hoping it hid her surprise. “Here are the rules.”
“Rules?”
“No more than five blocks, no more than one hour. You’ll have your phone on you at all times. And what’s your number?”
She stared at him, a smile quirking her lips. “Did you get bossy bastard training from Roman?”
“Something like that.”
“You know him well.”
“Yes.”
She made a contemplative noise and then sighed again. “Fine.”
He reached into his pocket and removed his phone, so she recited her number. He pressed a button and across the room, her phone started to ring.
“You thought I’d given you the wrong one?”
“Just wanted to make sure you had mine,” he responded. “You promise you’ll call if you need anything?”
“Yessir,” she said, for the second time that day, thinking it was just as warranted now as it had been earlier.
“I’ll leave the key on the kitchen counter.” He held her gaze long and slow, contemplatively. “Don’t let me down, Kate. I’m not sure he’d forgive me if anything happened to you, not today.”