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Christ.
Was I really thinking things like 'down the road'? With regard to a woman?
Seemed like I was.
A couple minutes later, the door slowly opened and into the doorway stepped Roman, as if my musings about him had somehow summoned him. He had on slate gray slacks and a deep blue dress shirt, his hair mussed like he had been raking his hands through it. And, judging by the tightness of concern around his eyes, I imagined that was exactly what had happened.
"Else..." he exhaled her name as he looked at her.
Elsie looked up, a strange, humorless smile on her lips. "Let me guess... Dad called you."
"Else, why didn't you call me?" he asked, looking like he wanted to cross to her, but either my presence or her uncharacteristic coolness was keeping him just inside the door.
"It's late," she went with, though we all knew what a bullshit excuse that was.
"Hey, babygirl," I called and she looked over at me and, if I wasn't mistaken, it was almost reluctantly. What the fuck was that about? "I'm gonna go to the hospital pharmacy and fill your scripts. You guys talk. I'll be back in twenty."
Walking past, I clamped a hand down on Roman's shoulder. His head turned to me and I could see he understood the meaning: figure out what is wrong with our girl.
With that, I took the scripts and headed toward the pharmacy.
When I got back the promised twenty minutes later, Rome was on the bed beside Elsie, his hand on her knee. She was curled slightly into herself, but had rested her head on his arm. When she looked up, she seemed almost shocked to see me. Feeling unsure, and not liking it one bit, I held up the bag, shaking it slightly so the pills jiggled in their containers.
"They discharged her," Roman provided, releasing her knee and moving to stand. "Talk to you for a minute?" he asked, but it was a demand seeing as he moved past me and out the door.
"Here, baby," I said, handing her the bag before following Roman out.
"What's up?" I asked as the door clicked closed.
He moved a couple steps down the hall so, presumably, Elsie wouldn't hear us. "She thinks you're going to dump her."
"What?" I said, a little too loudly seeing as two nurses across from us at the desk jumped. I gave them an apologetic smile then turned back to Roman. "Say that again."
"She said you're being weird and she thinks this was too much, too soon for your relationship and she was pretty sure that when you left to go get her meds that you were just saying that and weren't going to come back."
"Fuck," I sighed, running a hand down my face. That explained it. She was being distant and quiet because she didn't want to lean on someone she thought was going to try to shrug her off. "Did she tell you everything that happened tonight?"
"Pretty much word-for-word. Can't believe Elana stole from me."
"Elana stole from you?" I asked, brows drawing together.
Roman snorted a little. "Guess she hasn't filled you in on all the juicy details yet. I had a shipment of cold medicine go missing a little while..."
"Got it," I said, nodding. Didn't need more than that. Any idiot could see they were cooking meth in that warehouse. And everyone knew the main ingredient in meth was pseudoephedrine which was what you found in cold medicine. "Christ..."
"Yeah. So you need to get your ass back in there and make it clear you aren't leaving her. If I get so much as a whiff of you not doing what you should be doing to get her through this, I have no problem stepping back in. She deserves someone who will treat her right."
"I feel you," I said, nodding. Maybe a lesser man would have been pissed. He had outright just declared that if I slipped up, he planned on stealing my woman out from under me. But, that being said, no woman could be stolen if she was being treated right. So if I ever lost Elsie to Roman or any other man for that matter, it was my own fault. I had no right to be angry that someone else picked up what I had put down.
"Good. Now go get her home. She won't say it, but she's hurting and she needs sleep."
"You're a good man, Rome. I'm glad she has you in her life," I said. And I was. I hoped to fuck there were more men like him out there, men my sisters could come across and settle down with, men who would do the right thing even when there was nothing in it for them.
Rome nodded and turned away and I felt a small stab of regret for being a dick to him that night he admitted he loved Elsie.
