Page 364 of Romeo

“You’re impossible,” she muttered.

“Yet incredibly satisfyin’.”

Her mouth fell open before she smacked my shoulder. “Oh my God.”

I laughed and tightened my arms around her when she tried to step away. “What? That could’ve meant anythin’.”

“It absolutely did not mean anything.”

“You got a dirty mind, Mrs. DuBois.”

“You gave me one.”

“Best weddin’ gift you got.”

She stared at me for a second before the corner of her mouth twitched. “Pretty sure Granny’s ring was better.”

I looked down at the thin band on her finger, and the joke softened inside me. That ring had been on Martha Steiner’s hand for decades before she put it into mine and told me to give it to Fiona. My own wedding band had belonged to my father. Somehow both of us had ended up carrying pieces of people who loved us into a marriage neither of us had planned more than a few days before it happened.

“Yeah,” I admitted, lifting her hand and kissing the ring. “Granny wins.”

Fiona’s expression softened, but only for a second before she slid her fingers beneath my chin and tilted my face upward. “You’re getting sentimental.”

“Don’t tell anybody.”

“I’m calling Gator.”

“That motherfucker already knows too much.”

She laughed and leaned down to kiss me. I kept it light because if I didn’t, breakfast was going to get abandoned and I had already learned that Fiona had absolutely no objection to eating cold food two hours later.

Probably because I kept distracting her.

Worth it.

When she pulled away, I let my hands linger at her waist before finally releasing her. “I gotta walk the perimeter after we eat.”

Her expression changed immediately—not frightened exactly, but more attentive. “Why?”

“Because we’ve been here almost two weeks and I haven’t done a full sweep since yesterday mornin’.” I reached for a piece of fruit and popped it into my mouth. “Ain’t expectin’ to find anythin’.”

“Because of the SUV?”

“Because I’m not stupid enough to hide somewhere and then quit checkin’ whether it’s still hidden.”

She studied me for a second, and I knew exactly what she was doing. Trying to decide whether I was minimizing something for her sake.

I’d earned that suspicion.

“There’s nothing you’re not telling me?”

“No.” I held her gaze. “King still has nothin’. Gator hasn’t heard shit. Nobody’s askin’ about you that we know of. I’m checkin’ because that’s what I do.”

Her shoulders loosened.

“Okay.”

I reached across the table and caught her hand before she could pull it away. “And you stay here.”