Page 211 of Romeo

Me: A few times.

Jasper: A few?

Me: Maybe.

His next response came quickly.

Jasper: Now I know something’s wrong.

I stared at it too long before forcing my attention back to the road.

Me: Why?

Jasper: Because normally you’d make me work harder for that answer.

Tears blurred the lights ahead of me.

It shouldn’t have surprised me anymore. Jasper noticed things, even tiny ones. A shorter answer. A missing joke. Some change in the way I normally sparred with him that almost anyone else would’ve ignored.

Me: I’m just tired.

Jasper: Fiona.

I pressed my lips together.

Me: Jasper.

Jasper: What happened?

By the time I pulled into Granny’s driveway, my breathing had gone shallow again. I put the car in park but didn’t turn it off. The headlights washed over the garage door while I sat gripping the wheel.

Me: Nothing.

Jasper: Those little one-word answers might work on everybody else.

Me: I’m okay.

Jasper: Didn’t ask if you were okay. Asked what happened.

I closed my eyes.

The man’s face appeared immediately. His smile when I tried to step around him. The gun visible at his waistband only after Frank arrived and the stranger finally turned away.

My stomach rolled.

Me: Frank handled it.

The phone rang and I jumped at the sound, then stared at Jasper’s name on the screen. His contact picture showed him laughing at something I had said the day I took it, completely unaware I had my camera aimed at him.

For a second, my thumb hovered over decline.

I answered instead.

“What the fuck did Frank have to handle?”

His voice wasn’t demanding. If anything, the quiet certainty behind it was worse. Jasper had already figured out I was going to tell him. He was simply waiting for me to get there.

“It really is over.”