Page 207 of Romeo

Winchester dropped into the chair across from me and folded his arms over his chest. “Is it true?”

I picked up my beer. “Is what true?”

“You having an old lady.”

The bottle stopped halfway to my mouth.

Winchester watched me with the same expression he used when a prospect tried to bullshit him. There wasn’t any judgment in it, only the expectation that I answer.

Fiona wasn’t technically my old lady.

Not yet.

That didn’t make my answer any less certain.

“Yeah.”

Winchester nodded as if I’d confirmed something he already knew. “Figured. You’ve been glued to that phone for months.”

“That obvious?”

“To anyone paying attention.” He leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. “So why hasn’t there been a vote?”

I glanced toward the bar.

King sat beside Grace with a beer in his hand, looking considerably less homicidal than he had the last time Fiona’s name came up between us. The man had given me one instruction beneath all the yelling and threats.

Do this right.

I’d thought I already understood what that meant. Then Fiona kissed me and made the distinction even clearer. There was a hell of a difference between knowing she wanted me and deciding what she wanted next.

“It isn’t time.”

Winchester’s eyebrows rose. “Brother, you’ve been obsessed with this girl since Christmas. If you’re serious, what the hell are you waiting for?”

“Her.”

He frowned.

“She knows I want her now. I’m pretty sure she knows I’m serious too. That doesn’t mean she understands everything that comes with becoming an old lady.”

“You think she’ll say no?”

I looked down at my phone.

Fiona had already admitted there was something she wasn’t ready to tell me. I didn’t know what it was, and the fact that she believed it might change how I saw her bothered me more than the secret itself.

“No. I think she has enough people in her life deciding what’s best for her. I’m not becoming another one.”

Winchester studied me for a moment. “This about her past?”

“Partly.”

“She tell you?”

“Pieces.” I took a drink. “The rest will come when she’s ready.”

My phone buzzed again.