Page 16 of Roman

“I need a background check.”

“Little girlfriend has herself a man you don’t like does she?” intuitive asshole.

“Can you do it or not? I’d rather not have to call Wiz.”

“Still sore your girl had the hots for him? You sure know how to hold a grudge brother.” It might have been over a decade ago but if I’m being honest, I don’t like Wiz just for the simple fact Pria did, but I’m not being honest.

“I’ll text you the details I have on him. Get everything, dig deep with this fucker he doesn’t seem right,” I tell Reek before I end the call. I take one last glance behind me to where Pria and Rhylee are sitting at the table still, smiling and laughing at each other. I don’t go back inside, instead, I walk away from the apartments and out onto the sandy beach. It’s getting later in the day so there are people claiming their spots on the sand. It might be cooler out and windy as fuck but that doesn’t stop the people from covering the space of the shore. I stand there and watch the waves come in and out, dragging back the foam film that accumulates on top.

“I found a therapist that will see Rhylee today. We’ll be going there soon.” Pria says as she comes up behind me.

“I was born in Hawaii. I ever tell you that?”

“No. I sure can’t picture you as a surfer Hawaiian boy.” She laughs getting one out of me too.

“Because that wasn’t me. I hated the water. My dad always tried to get me on the boat, but I never would give in.”

“Do your parents still live there?” she comes closer now, right by my side. The sweet scent of her shampoo hits me over the sea salt and I breathe it in.

“As far as I know. I left when I was eighteen. Never looked back.”

“You don’t talk to them anymore?” I shake my head rubbing at my buzzed scalp.

“No. After my sister died everything changed.” Her hand touches my arm and I resist the urge to jerk it away.

“I never knew you had a sister either.”

“I haven’t talked about her in years. Seeing that picture of Rhylee brought back a whole slew of memories. It was like I was looking at a ghost, she looks exactly like her.”

“She looks exactly like you.”

“Makes sense. She was my identical twin.” Pria lets out a breath and steps closer tilting her head so it leans on my shoulder. Her arms are wrapped around my arms as if she is trying to hug me that way.

“I can never tell you how sorry I am Roman, really.”

“Let’s just drop all of that shit. I don’t want to discuss the past anymore.” I tug my arm away from her grip, regretting it the second I do. The hurt she tries to hide on her face is nothing I haven’t seen before, it’s just something I haven’t seen in a while. It’s been years since I made her feel this way. And it’s always intentional. Every fucking time I pushed her away it was because I wanted to, it was because I had to. She needs to stay far away from me. “Do you need a ride to the doctor? I still have the rental.”

“No. It’s only a couple of blocks away. We are going to walk. Feel free to go back to the apartment. Help yourself to whatever is in the fridge. We will be back in a few hours.” Her hands go up and rub her arms when a hard gust of wind comes barreling down the coast. I force myself from reaching for her as she starts walking away. “You know what Roman?” She says, spinning around and squaring her shoulders. “You, are an asshole.”

“Agreed Pria.”

“No, let me finish.” She points at my chest. “For years you flirted with me, made me think that I was something special to you. Then after I finally gave in you went and tore my heart to shreds without even blinking. I can’t be too mad at you because it got me Rhylee but damn it Roman, whatever war you have going on inside your head you need to let someone win because you can’t keep being the way you are. It’s bullshit.” I let out a humorless chuckle.

“The way I am? Let me tell you why I am the way I am.” I step closer to her, lowering my voice. “It’s because women can’t take a damn hint. You want this and that but when you get it you throw a fit when it doesn’t go down the way you want.” Her hand comes up and slices me across the face.

“Like I said Roman… Bullshit.” She spins around and takes off back toward the apartments making me want to slapmyselfacross the face.

17

Pria

I half expect to find Roman gone by the time me and Rhylee get back to our apartment, but he is still here. “Roman!” Rhylee goes bounding up to him as he stands in the kitchen. Her arms wrap around him, and I don’t miss the slight flinch his body does. He doesn’t move though, doesn’t even put his arms around her. “I thought you might have left.”

Roman clears his throat and then his arms slowly go up and wrap around our daughter. “Um, na… I decided to stay a couple more days.” She snuggles into his chest and my heart cracks open at the sight. While I want her to bond with him I also don’t because when he leaves, I know exactly how it will feel. It’s happened to me too many times and I want nothing more than to shield her from that pain.

“Awesome.” She pulls back to beam a smile up at him. I didn’t go into therapy with her but when she came back out, she seemed a bit lighter. I hope it helps. She still has yet to say anything about what happened when she was taken. She darts off to her room with a bounce to her step leaving me and Roman alone.

“She’ll be happy to spend more time with you,” I say cautiously stepping beside him. It's way past noon and since we didn’t stop anywhere on the way home, I’m sure Rhylee is hungry.

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