Roman - Lane Hart Page 0,36

role because he practically lives at the clubhouse, and we just told him to make himself useful.”

“I’ll never remember all of this or their names,” Charlotte laughs when she gets up to take her plate back into the kitchen.

“You’ll have plenty of time to get to know them over the next few weeks, I’m sure,” I say when I follow her even though I’m not thrilled about the idea of her spending any alone time with my brothers.

“I’ll wash these up,” she offers, nodding to the rest of the pans I used to cook our dinner.

“I’ll help. I can dry them off and show you where everything goes, give you the grand tour of the facilities.”

“Thanks,” she says quietly as the water begins to fill the sink. The blush is long gone from her cheeks; and after our conversation, her entire demeanor seems to have shifted.

“Hey, what’s wrong, Charlotte? The eggs were bad, weren’t they? I didn’t check the date on the milk I poured in when I scrambled them, so I hope it wasn’t…”

“No, no,” Charlotte interrupts me with a small smile. “It was delicious, and you’re fine – a great distraction actually. I just had some dark thoughts suddenly intrude. God, I feel like the mistress of dark thoughts sometimes, every time I start to enjoy myself.”

“Tell me about it,” I offer as I lean back and prop myself up by the sink. “Worries get lighter when you have friends to help carry them. Words of wisdom from Mama McNamara, some of the only ones I remember,” I quip.

“I’ve been having a great time with you Roman,” she says as she begins scrubbing at my frying pan. “I just realized I’ve been enjoying myself, a lot, while Tessa is in that cold, sterile rehab facility trying to recover from the worst tortures…” she trails off, at a loss for words.

“Charlotte, no, baby, don’t put that on yourself,” I tell her as I move to stand behind her and wrap my arms around her. “Yes, Tessa is in a bad place right now. I mean mentally, not the actual facility. It seems pretty nice. But, baby, you didn’t do that. You didn’t hurt her, and you being here, helping her through this, means everything to her. Don’t let what happened to her ruin any happiness or joy you can find day to day. Do you know how pissed she would be to hear you talking this way?”

“I know that’s right,” Charlotte snorts, a glimmer of a smile returning to her face. “She would tell me to ‘get right up on that biker, or stripper, or whatever he is and ride him as far away from here as you can’ or something equally vulgar,” she adds lamely as her cheeks flare red once again.

“That sounds like good advice from your best friend,” I tell her as I let her go to grab my dish towel. “But, for tonight, how about we get these dry and go sit on the porch for a while, just enjoy the evening. We can talk a bit; and when you feel like it, we’ll get some sleep. I’ll be right by you to keep you safe, and you can follow Tessa’s ‘advice’ some other time. Sound good?”

“That sounds perfect, Roman. You know, I haven’t met many men who are able to handle my ups and downs. You’re good at handling me, you know that?”

“I’m good at lots of things,” I wink at her. “But if it turns out I’m good at handling Charlotte Newsom, well, that might be the one I’m most proud of out of all.”

Chapter Thirteen

Charlotte

“So, I was able to get time off from the office to stay for the whole month with the promise that I would get as much work done as I can remotely. Oh, and I, ah, was finally able to convince Paul to head back home tonight,” I tell Tessa while we’re sitting in the sunroom, sipping tea in rocking chairs. The place really is peaceful. That could just be the lack of television and electronics, though.

“You were? That’s good,” Tessa says, even though she sounds sad. “That’s good for him,” she amends. “Will you be staying at the beach house alone now?” Tessa asks.

“Oh, um, no, I’m not. I didn’t stay at the beach house last night.”

“Then where did you stay? Did you get a hotel? I hate for you to run up a big bill just to stay close…”

“I’m not spending a dime,” I assure her.