Page 68 of Romeo

“No,” she repeated. “I don’t gossip, Romeo. You know that. I don’t talk about people’s business, especially not when it’s painful, especially not when it’s not mine to share.”

I rubbed my thumb over the steering wheel. “Then you know why I’m asking. I need to understand so I can protect her, so I can make sure no one ever⁠—”

“So you can what?” Sugar interrupted. “Charge in like some avenging angel and fix problems she’s already learned to handle on her own? Romeo, listen to me. Fiona has been through enough. She’s been hurt in ways that would break most people, and she survived it. She’s built a life for herself, found a family, made a home. And she did all of that without you.”

That one landed squarely in my chest. I didn’t like hearing it, which was probably why I needed to.

“What she needs from you,” Sugar continued, “is patience. She needs you to let her open up when she’s ready, to trust that she’ll tell you what you need to know when the time is right.”

“But—”

“No buts.” Sugar’s tone shifted into the one she used when she’d decided the conversation was no longer a democracy. “You want her to trust you? You want her to let you in? Then you prove to her that you’re safe. You prove that you’ll wait, that you’ll listen, that you won’t push her before she’s ready. Because if you push too hard, if you let her see how dark and possessive you really are before she’s ready to handle it, you’ll lose her. And I know you, Romeo. Losing her would destroy you.”

My hand went still on the wheel.

I hated when my family made sense.

“I don’t know how to do this, Sugar,” I admitted. “I don’t know how to be patient when every instinct I have is screaming at me to claim her, protect her, make sure no one ever hurts her again.”

“You do it the same way you’ve been doing it for the past few months,” Sugar said, gentler now. “You text her. You talk to her. You let her set the pace. You prove to her that you’re worth the risk of letting you in. And you trust that what you’re building with her is real enough, strong enough, to survive the wait.”

I dropped my head against the seat. “What if it’s not?” The words escaped before pride could kill them. “What if I wait too long and she finds someone else? Someone closer, someone easier, someone who doesn’t come with all the baggage I bring?”

“Then she was never yours to begin with,” Sugar said simply. “But I don’t think that’s going to happen. I see the way she looks at her phone when you text her. The way she smiles at the screen. She’s falling for you, Rome. She just doesn’t know it yet. And when she figures it out, when she’s ready to admit it, you’ll be there. Just like you promised her you would be.”

Falling for you.

I knew better than to take Sugar’s opinion and turn it into a certainty.

Didn’t mean I wasn’t tempted, though.

“You really think she’s falling for me?” I asked.

There went the last of my dignity.

“I know she is,” Sugar said, and I could hear the smile in her voice. “Just keep doing what you’re doing. Keep being patient. Keep proving to her that you’re worth it. And, Romeo?”

“Yeah?”

“When the time comes, when she’s ready, don’t hold back. Don’t hide who you are or what you feel. She’s stronger than you think. She can handle the intensity of what you feel for her. She just needs time to get there.”

“Okay,” I said. “Okay.”

“Good. Now take a breath and go back to work. And, Romeo? Don’t do anything stupid. Fiona doesn’t need you to fight her battles. She just needs you to be there when she’s ready to let you in.”

“Thanks, Sugar.”

The call ended and I sat there for a while longer, my phone resting against my thigh. My first instinct was still to fix it. Find the counselor. Find out exactly what she’d said. Make damn sure nobody put that kind of doubt in Fiona’s head again.

Sugar had drawn a line through every one of those options.

Fiona’s past was hers.

If she wanted me to know it, she’d tell me.

That should’ve been obvious, but apparently being obsessed with a woman did terrible things to common sense.

I opened our text thread. Her last message was still there.