Mess Me Up
Page 17

“Dear God, Rome,” I muttered, looking at the cobwebs. “Why are those up there?”
He followed my finger and snorted. “I can’t reach up there.”
I stopped at the fireplace and gave the mantle an evil eye. “What about this?” I asked as I took a swipe over the rough-cut cedar with one finger, then held it up for him to look at.
Rome had the decency to look embarrassed. “I…I don’t know.”
I rolled my eyes, then mentally went through my calendar to see when I’d have time to clean Rome’s house this week.
It wouldn’t be today…or tomorrow for that matter.
Wednesday, though…that could work.
Mentally penciling him in after the Troubadours, I came to a stop next to Rome.
“I’ll be here Wednesday to clean,” I told him.
Rome’s lips twitched. “I work on Wednesday.”
“You don’t need to be here for me to clean,” I pointed out, then narrowed my eyes. “Unless you don’t trust me in your house by myself. If that’s the case, I can come on Saturday. It’s the next day off that I have.”
Rome’s eyes studied me. “You can come on Wednesday.” He paused. “I just wanted to see you.”
I felt my lips twitch, and his eyes that had been on my face went to those lips and stayed there, studying them.
I couldn’t help darting my tongue out and licking said lips.
I felt something deep in my belly flutter, and I worried my lip with my teeth, causing his eyes to once again meet mine.
And what I saw there was definitely not the blank mask he’d been wearing for quite a long time.
This new face, with his expression-filled eyes, had something deep in my belly unfurling.
“What?” I asked softly.
He swallowed, and I watched his throat bob with the movement.
Then he blinked and the moment was lost…but definitely not forgotten. At least by me, anyway.
“I want you to have something.”
I frowned. “What?”
He handed me something that was sitting on his table, and I recognized the bag of letters that I’d left in my haste to leave earlier that morning.
I had never, not ever, wanted to leave those.
I read them over and over again when I had a bad day—and lately, there were more bad days than good days.
I was glad that he was giving them back.
“If they mean to you what yours mean to me, I don’t want you to be without them,” he said softly.
I took them up in my hands and hugged them to my chest.
“They do.”
Our eyes met, and something else—something powerful—passed between us. As if we were each other’s lifelines, and we both knew it.
“Do you want a ride home?” he asked softly.
Would I like a ride home on the back of Rome Pierce’s bike, or would I like to walk another four miles home? That was a stupid question.
And I told him so.
He laughed. The sound was rusty and husky, but it was the sweetest sound I’d ever heard.
“Let me get some boots on and find my keys.”
A shaft of sunlight shifted, spotlighting an object on the couch in its rays, and when I could make out that object, my stomach lurched at what I saw.
On the couch, illuminated by those rays of sun, was Matias’ dragon.
The big, black Night Fury from How to Train Your Dragon. It was about three feet tall and was the most ungainly large, stuffed animal in the world, but that had been how Matias had wanted it.
Stuffed to the brim so he could be ‘as big as he can be’ according to Matias.
Picking up the dragon, I tucked it underneath my arm and carried it up to Rome’s room. When he went to sleep tonight, he’d have it on the nightstand. Maybe if he woke up and saw it, he would remember the good and not the bad.
***
Rome,
I want to tell you a secret.
Today I saw my ex, and I didn’t turn around immediately and run away.
You have no idea how big of a deal that is for me.
If I’d have seen him six months ago, I’d have run away so fast that you’d have smelled burning rubber. He scares me that much.
Lucky for me, you’ve given me confidence that I never thought I’d have.
Today is the Fourth of July. I went to buy sparklers. The first thing I saw when I turned the corner was him. He had a basket full of crap, and his arm around a new girl.
It was the best feeling ever to know that he’s moved on and has shifted his focus.
Thankfully, I was able to get my sparklers and go before he confronted me.
Because it was inevitable. He would’ve introduced the new girl, and he would’ve found a way to make me feel just as low as ever.
That’s what he always does, which is why I usually run.
The good news was that it didn’t happen.
And I was able to be strong enough to buy my favorite things in the world.
I took some extreme slow-motion shots. I printed them out and sent them with this letter.
Hope you like them!
Have a good week,
RP’s Biggest Fan
Chapter 11
Funny guys are dangerous. They’ll make you laugh and laugh and laugh, then BOOM. You’re naked.
-Rome to Izzy
Rome
I don’t know how she managed it, but the moment that Izzy forced her way back into my life, we became friends.
It was a week after she’d confronted me, and not a day had gone by that I hadn’t seen her.
At first, it was just for coffee.
Then, it was for dinner.
The night after that, she’d forced me to go to the movies—though at that point I wasn’t sure it was because she wanted to hang out with me or just because she needed a ride to the movie theater to see the newest superhero movie.
And so, it went.
Night after night, I spent it with her.
When she got off. When I got off. When we both had off. Even if it was for an hour a day, we still spent our free time together.
Which led us to today.
After waking up the morning after our encounter with a cold, she’d pushed the day that she was coming to clean my house back to Saturday—today.
I was just finishing up my workout at the twenty-four-hour gym when I got her text saying she was ready.
Grinning, I pulled the phone out of my pocket, ignoring the way that sweat dropped onto the screen, and called her.
She answered within moments.
“Hola, Romeo.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Very original,” I teased. “Are you ready to be picked up, or are you saying ‘you’re ready’ just to see if I’ll wait outside for you for ten minutes.”
She let out a very unladylike snort. “That’s ridiculous. I don’t do that.”
I narrowed my eyes, finding myself grinning despite the wariness rocking through my bones, and walked to my bike. “Yesterday I got there at six, and you weren’t ready to go until six thirty. You didn’t even have the excuse of work to use seeing as you had the entire day off.”
She giggled, and I felt something inside of my chest thump.
“You were the one who asked for more tamales,” she pointed out. “It’s not my fault I was waiting for the last batch to finish cooking before I gave them to you.”
She had a point.
“Whatever,” I muttered, remembering the reason for the cardio this morning. I’d put away about twenty of her tamales, and I had to admit, they were even better than the ones she’d brought me at the prison.
Her grandmother was good at what she did, but those tamales that Izzy made put her Abuela’s to shame.
“I’m done except for putting on my shoes,” she continued. “I’ll be standing out on my porch when you get here.”
I would believe that when I saw it.
I wasn’t sure how the hell Izzy was ever on time for anything that she did.
Not only did she walk everywhere she went, but she was also consistently late. The two together probably had quite the snowball effect in her life.
“I’ll see you when I get there,” I murmured.
Izzy made an agreeing sound and then hung up, leaving me staring at my phone and wondering how the hell I’d gotten myself into this position.