Rome

by Jay Crownover

  Shaw got up and went over to give him a hug.

  “Thank you for coming. Just let me get my keys.”

  Rule got up, too. “Can I ride back with you guys?”

  Lando’s Adam’s apple bounced up and down in a slow slide. “I think I would like that a lot.”

  Dale cleared his throat and rose to shake the younger man’s hand.

  “Son, you are welcome here anytime you would like.”

  Margot nodded her head, though she had remained quiet throughout the entire exchange.

  Hugs and good-byes were exchanged until it was just Rome and me and Rome’s parents at the table.

  His mom was staring at me and Dale was watching Rome. It could have been awkward, but instead it felt like a giant door had been slammed closed, leaving a ton of baggage stuck behind it.

  “That was a bold move, young lady.” Margot’s tone wasn’t exactly appreciative, but she didn’t sound mad either.

  “I’m a bold kind of person, Mrs. Archer.”

  Dale thumped his fist on the table and threw back his head and laughed. “I used to think nothing would top Rule’s antics at brunch, but that … that definitely did the trick.”

  Rome stood, then scooped me up and threw me over his shoulder. He thumped me on the ass with the flat of his hand and started to haul me toward the front door. I hollered at him to put me down, that this was an undignified way to exit his parents’ house after our first meeting, but he just laughed at me and tossed me over his other shoulder. “I can top it even more. Cora’s pregnant. We’re having a baby. Thanks for brunch. I’ll see you next week.”

  I heard his mom scream and his dad swear and they both ordered him to bring me back, but he was already headed out the door. He put me on my feet next to the truck and then leaned into me until I had the warm metal pressed all along my back.

  “You’re trouble.”

  I put my arms around his neck and tugged him down until I could fit my mouth over his. His hair was longer than usual, so I tickled the dark strands that brushed across my fingers.

  “But I’m totally worth it.”

  He kissed me again, and I tried not to groan out loud when his tongue brushed across my own.

  “Yes you are, Half-Pint. Yes you are.”

  CHAPTER 12

  Rome

  I dusted my hands off on the back of my Carhartts and looked around the liquor room. The new shelving I had built looked awesome, the place was spotless and organized, and not a bottle or keg was out of place. It was the last task I had on the list Brite had given me all those months ago. The rest of the bar was done. Polished, primed, and looking entirely new and ready to be part of this generation. The regulars were still posted up at their favorite spots all day long, but there was a whole new crowd and influx of younger blood wandering in. I didn’t ask Brite about the change in revenue because he had been quiet and a lot harder to pin down lately. Ever since the robbery, he had been skipping out before it got busy at night, leaving me and Asa to run the show. I didn’t mind, but I thought it was weird that he didn’t seem more excited about all the improvements.

  I was putting the tools away in the toolbox when the door opened. It wasn’t a huge storage space, so between my massiveness and Brite’s, there wasn’t a lot of room to maneuver. I frowned a little at him when he took a seat on the top of an empty Fat Tire keg and motioned for me to do the same thing.

  “You all done?”

  I pulled the bill of my ball cap lower over my forehead and nodded solemnly. I was proud of the work I had done. I felt like I brought the place back to life for him, but I was going to be bummed to move on and not just because I didn’t really have anywhere else to go.

  “I think so.”

  He nodded and clapped a heavy hand on my shoulder. I tried not to grunt under the pressure.

  “The place looks great, son. You did an amazing job. I would have been honored to follow someone like you into battle, Rome. I hope you know that.”

  I just stared at him. That was a pretty serious compliment from one soldier to another.

  “Thank you. I’m not real sure what would have happened to me if I hadn’t stumbled in here on the Fourth.”

  He snorted and pulled back to stroke his beard. “You would’ve been fine, kiddo. A man like you … the universe looks out for the good ones, Rome.”

  I didn’t know if I agreed with that, but I was grateful that he saw it in me. I was going to ask him what this little heart-to-heart was about, but he surprised me by asking me:

  “Hey, you got a hundred bucks on you?”

  I blinked at him and dug my wallet out of my back pocket.

  “Yeah, why?”

  He waited until I handed over the bill and then climbed to his feet. I followed suit since I was confused as to what was going on. There was a strange undercurrent flowing between us that I couldn’t put my finger on. My anxiety ratcheted up a notch when Brite stuck his hand out like he was saying good-bye.

  “Rome, there are not enough good men in this world. Men that fight for what they believe in. Men that are more than willing to sacrifice for the greater good. I watched you this summer, saw how you handled the vets’ and your own demons that chased you back stateside. You faltered here and there, but you’re a rock-solid young man and there is no one else in the world that I would trust with my bar and my customers. You put your heart and your soul into this place this summer. You earned it.”

  I just stared at him because I still wasn’t sure what he was saying. I crossed my arms over my chest and watched him steadily. He held up the hundred-dollar bill and made a big production of folding it up and putting it in his own wallet. His steely gaze held me in place and his face was marked with unwavering determination.

  “You just bought the Bar. Congratulations. I’ll have the paperwork to you by the end of the week.”

  I swore and reached out to grab him as he went to walk out the door like that was the end of the conversation.

  “What. The. Fuck.”

  He sighed and turned back around to face me.

  “I’m too old. My family is fractured, I’ve served my purpose here. When I was a couple years younger than you, I wandered into this bar after a serious string of bad days. The guy behind the bar kicked my ass, cleaned me up, had me work my ass off to get the place cleaned up and back in the current century. He was a retired air-force colonel and he didn’t take any shit from me. When I had put everything I had left in me into the bar, he asked me for twenty bucks. The next thing I knew, I owned a bar. I didn’t have to figure out what I was going to do, where I was going to go. This place was my home. I trust you to take care of it and honor it, son.”

  I just stared at him because he had to be joking. I didn’t know what to say to any of it.

  “Keep Asa around. That boy has something good going on behind the bar. Keep Darce in the kitchen, she knows what she’s doing. Don’t worry about the robbery. I talked to Torch, the prez of the SoS and he’s aware that he has a problem on his hands. Biker justice makes the long arm of the law look like preschool.”

  I shook my head and shoved my hands in the back of my pockets.

  “The guy that smashed my head in with a bottle? He’s the one you think robbed the place?”

  “Yeah, and I don’t think he’s done. Losing your shot to get in an MC is a pretty big deal. You can handle whatever comes your way, Rome. The bar, the baby, that little spitfire you’re all wrapped up in, these are the rewards for living a life of sacrifice. You gave all you had for other people, this is the universe’s way of paying you back. You earned it all, son, so stop feeling guilty about it and goddamn enjoy it.”

  I was speechless. I lowered my head and let out a breath that felt like it held my entire life in it.

  “Brite …”

  “No, son. There doesn’t need to be a thank-you. I don’t want your gratitude just like I don’t want your money. This is the right thing, the only thing that can happen for you and for this bar. You neede
d each other, son.”

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Good, because half the time when you open your mouth, I wanna punch you. I’ll be around, kiddo, not that I think you’re going to need me.”

  I followed him out of the storage room still reeling. I was going to try to express my gratitude, my overwhelming appreciation, but Asa suddenly stuck his head around the corner and said my name.

  “Rome, you need to go outside.”

  I jerked my attention to him and scowled. “What?”

  He lifted a blond brow at me and frowned.

  “You need to go to the parking lot and take a look at your truck.”

  Brite and I exchanged a look and headed out the back door. It was easy to see as soon as my boots hit asphalt what Asa had been talking about.

  The big 4×4 was listing to its side, the windshield was shattered, all the headlights and taillights were busted out, and it looked like someone had taken a baseball bat to the entire body. It looked like an expensive but mangled red tuna can.

  Brite swore while I just stood there in stunned silence.

  “You want me to call the cops?”

  Asa’s drawl was more pronounced than normal. I hadn’t even heard him come up behind me.

  “Naw. Pretty sure it was the same guy that held you up the other day. He’s pissed at me and trying to send a message.”

  “Pretty hard message to misinterpret, Rome.”

  I nodded in agreement. “You aren’t kidding.” I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. “By the way, you just got promoted to bar manager.”

  Asa reeled back a little and Brite burst out laughing.

  “What?”

  “Apparently I own the Bar now but I also have a kid on the way, so that means I can’t be here all the time. I need someone to have my back, and I pick you.”

  Those amber eyes narrowed and I could tell he was trying to judge the validity of my statement.

  “You trust me to do that?”

  I shrugged a shoulder and fished my phone out of my pocket to call a tow truck. “I trust you until you give me a reason not to, Asa. If you are so inclined to fuck me over, you might want to remember all the ways in which I know how to kill a man.”

  I saw him gulp, and he turned around to head back into the bar. “Thanks, Rome. No one has ever really given me the benefit of the doubt before.”

  Brite motioned to the truck. “Want me to call the boys in the club?”

  “Yeah, but you might want to pass along if I get my hands on that little shit first, there isn’t going to be much left for them to regulate on.”

  We shared a laugh and he stuck out his hand for me to shake.

  “Thanks, Brite.”

  “You are more than welcome, son. Need a ride home?”

  I took him up on the offer to avoid the indignity of shoving myself into the Cooper. I had him drop me off at Cora’s and he refused to talk about handing over the bar. Apparently it was a done deal in his mind, even though it was still life-changing to me. Having something to do, something to invest my time and future in, had been my biggest fear since getting back home. In that single, selfless gesture, Brite had knocked it all down. It was amazing, and even though he said it more than once, I still wasn’t sure I really deserved it.

  I let myself into Cora’s house. It was always so sunny, so cheerful, just like her. I didn’t see Jet or Ayden, but my girl was in the kitchen singing along to something that might have been music if it hadn’t had a chick screaming at the top of her lungs.

  I propped myself up on the long bar of the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room and just watched her as she danced around between the stove and the sink. Her short hair was slicked down to her head today. She had on a short red skirt that was ruffly and fluffy that made her look like the princess in a punk-rock fairy tale. Her top was loose and flow-y over a belly that was just starting to round out in the barest hint of baby belly. The flowers on her arm, and the water and fire on her leg, looked vivid and exotic and I couldn’t imagine ever coming home to anyone that wasn’t her. I was in love with her. Plain and simple.

  “What are you doing?”

  She gave a little shriek and spun around to face me. Her eyes were big in her face and she put a hand to her chest.

  “You scared me. What does it look like I’m doing? Gymnastics? I’m cooking dinner.”

  I walked up behind her and put my arms around her waist. I flattened the palm of one hand on her stomach and spread my fingers wide. She put one of her much smaller ones over the top of it and ran her thumb over the scar that decorated my knuckles.

  “I didn’t know you could cook.”

  She snorted and turned in my arms to put her arms up around my neck. I liked that she was so short that she had to get on her tiptoes to get ahold of me. It made her skirt ride up higher and her curves press against me.

  “It’s not haute cuisine but it won’t kill us either. I didn’t hear the bike or the truck. How did you get here?”

  “Brite dropped me off.” I walked her backward until her back touched the counter. “I had a little car trouble.”

  She dropped her pale brows and squealed a little when I picked her up by her waist and set her on the flat top of the counter. Her legs parted immediately and I stepped between them. Her eyes were laughing up at me but got serious real quick when I ran my thumb along the curve of her delicate jaw.

  “Cora.”

  She curled her hands around the back of my neck and swung her legs so that her ankles were locked around my waist.

  “Rome.”

  “Brite sold me the Bar today and I’m in love with you.” That was my future in a nutshell; nothing else mattered.

  Her eyes got huge in her pretty face and her mouth dropped open in a little O. Her legs tensed around me, but that could have had more to do with the fact I was working my hands under her poufy skirt with every intention of getting into her panties than it did with the L-bomb.

  “WHAT?!”

  I dropped a kiss on her mouth and nudged her with my hips so that I had enough room to hook a finger under the lace trim and work her panties down over her hips and decorated thighs. She was always so soft and smooth, which was such a contrast to her prickly and sharp-witted personality. I tucked the lace in my back pocket and kissed her on the shoulder where the neck of her shirt dipped down. She always tasted so sweet.

  “I own a bar and I want you forever.”

  “Rome.” She was breathless and I could hear the undercurrent of fear working in her voice. I knew she wasn’t there yet. She still had reservations having to do with that douche from when she was younger, and because of my dumb-ass freak-out, she wasn’t sold on the idea that I would never do that to her again, but she would get there. I had no doubt. Besides there was no other option. She was it for me.

  I shook my head at her and flipped the edge of her skirt over my wrists and grinned down at her.

  “You don’t have to say anything, Half-Pint. I just want you to know what this is for me, that I’m not going anywhere ever again. I promise you that, and I’ll prove it to you no matter how long it takes.”

  Her eyes were luminous as she stared up at me. I could see a million and one questions chasing across the light to the dark, but she didn’t push me away when I bent down to kiss her like I meant it. Her fingers tightened in the hair on the back of my head and she pulled me closer with her legs. I wanted to sink into her, to remember this moment, the look on her face, forever. Whatever my future looked like, as long as she was at the center of it, I knew I could handle it, even the unknown.

  I was really getting into the kiss. I had my tongue in her mouth, one hand up her shirt and under her bra, and the other working on my belt buckle while she wiggled and squirmed on the counter in front of me when the timer on the oven dinged loudly and had her jerking her head away and panting to catch her breath. Her eyes were dazed and swirling with a heat that I was sure matched my own.

 
“It’ll burn. I have to take it out.”

  I leered at her. “I have something hotter you need to take out.”

  I adjusted the bulge in the front of my pants for emphasis, which made her laugh like crazy. When she bent over to pull the concoction out of the stove, it was all I could do not to grab her and throw her on the kitchen floor and have at that little peek of her bare ass under all that scarlet material. I would never, ever get tired of this girl; I knew it to the bottom of my soul.

  She plopped the glass dish on the stovetop and cranked the dials off. She tossed the oven mitt off to the side and whirled around so that she was facing me. I grunted in surprise when she launched herself at me. I caught her with a hand under her naked butt and hefted her up so that we were eye to eye.

  “As hot as the idea of you devouring me in the kitchen looking all handyman hot in your work pants and boots is, Ayden could walk in the door at any minute. And while I may have caught her and Jet in a compromising position on more than one occasion, it is not something I care to relive. Take me to bed, big guy.”

  I carried her to the back of the house toward her room. When I put her on the bed I hovered over her with my hands on either side of her head. We were almost nose to nose and she was smiling up at me. Right in that moment I knew that all was right in my world.

  “We need to find our own place.”

  “Excuse me?”

  I reached up over my head and pulled my shirt off with one hand.

  “If I want to take it to you in the kitchen, on the couch, in the middle of the goddamn living room, I don’t want to worry about being interrupted. This is it for me, Cora. We need our own place.”

  She might not be quite ready to tell me she loved me back, but the idea of being stuck with me for the long haul must not have been all that frightening because she lifted her hips when I tugged the skirt off and pulled her shirt off over her head. I kissed the slight swell of her belly and she tangled her fingers in my dark hair. I felt her sigh against my lips while I licked across the delicate skin covering our baby.