Page 130 of Romeo

I almost laughed at how useless that was.

Apparently, she saw it.

“I’m serious, Rome. Stop trying to figure out the exact moment she’ll magically become ready for whatever this is between you. Just pay attention to her. She’ll tell you.”

That sounded suspiciously simple.

Fiona was getting better at telling me.

The problem was whether I was listening when the answer wasn’t the one I expected.

“Be patient with her,” Amber continued, resting her hand on my arm. “She’s not had the best life, and she’s had to grow up faster than any child should.”

That much I knew.

Not all of it. Fiona still kept parts of her past tucked away where I couldn’t reach them, and I’d knew that trying to pry those doors open would only make her guard them harder.

Sometimes something slipped through. A stray comment about her life before Granny. A memory she moved past too quickly. Little pieces of her past that made it clear there was a hell of a lot of it she hadn’t told me.

Then she’d move on, and I let her.

When she wanted me to know the rest, she’d tell me.

“Her brothers are going to kill me,” I muttered.

Amber laughed. “Probably, but it’s nothing you can’t handle.”

“That’s easy for you to say. You’re leaving.”

“Exactly. Excellent timing.”

She rose onto her toes and kissed my cheek. Massacre growled again. This time I looked directly at him and smiled. The expression he gave me promised a painful death.

Amber shook her head. “Both of you are ridiculous.”

“He started it,” Massacre grumbled.

“Of course he did.” She turned back to me, and the teasing disappeared from her face. “She’s lucky to have you, Rome. Even if she doesn’t know it yet.”

I glanced toward the ground.

“I’m the lucky one.” That was the truth.

Fiona could’ve decided the age gap was too much. She could’ve listened to Georgie or taken one look at my reputation and decided she wanted no part of it. Instead, she kept answering my texts. She trusted me with pieces of herself. At prom, she’d slipped her hand through my arm and chosen to leave Granny’s house with me, despite the fact that her brother looked ready to bury my body in the mountains.

None of those choices belonged to the La Croix curse.

They belonged to Fiona.

Amber squeezed my arm. “Then don’t screw it up.”

I smiled. “There’s the heartfelt goodbye I was waiting for.”

“You’re welcome.”

She stepped away and returned to Massacre. The bastard immediately wrapped an arm around her and pulled her against his side as if there were some chance I might steal her on the way to the bike.

I flipped him off one more time.