Page 56 of Romeo

“Romeo...”

“She’s mine, Sugar.” I stood and paced toward the window. “I knew it the second I saw her. The second she walked into the ski resort with Josie.”

“Knew what?”

“That she’s the one.”

I looked out across the dark clubhouse lot. “The curse, Sugar—it’s real. And it’s her.”

Nothing but silence came through the phone. Then, quieter, Sugar asked, “The La Croix curse?”

“Yes.”

“Romeo, that’s⁠—”

“I know how it sounds.”

Hell, I knew exactly how it sounded. Like I’d lost my damn mind.

“I didn’t really believe it either,” I continued, resting one hand against the window frame. “I thought it was family folklore. Something Mama told us because it made every questionable decision in this family sound romantic instead of insane.”

Sugar made a soft noise that might’ve been agreement.

“But then I saw Fiona.”

I didn’t know how to explain that moment without making it sound bigger than it had been. A woman I didn’t know walked through a doorway and looked at me with her silver eyes and my whole fucking world flipped upside down.

Then I heard her voice. Saw her smile and her heartbreak.

“I’m not playing with her,” I said, returning to the bed and sitting on the edge. “I’m courting her. The old-fashioned way. Because she’s young, and she’s been hurt, and she deserves better than some asshole who just wants to get in her pants.”

Sugar was quiet for several seconds. “You really believe it’s the curse?”

“I know it is.”

“Mama met Daddy when she was seventeen,” Sugar said slowly. “Ran away with him three months later. Granny nearly had a heart attack.”

“I remember.”

“And your mama married young.”

“I know.”

“Aunt Marabella too.”

“I know, Sugar.”

She sighed, and I could picture her shaking her head at me. “Why didn’t you think it would happen to you?”

I looked down at the floor. That question was harder.

“Because I’m not exactly built for happily ever after.”

Sugar went quiet again.

I rubbed the back of my neck. “I’ve lived a life that doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for something pure.”

“And yet here you are.”