Page 95 of Does He Know?

“You good, Em?”

“I’m good, Forty. I just wanted to say that I’m sorry.” I know I should be doing this in person, but I need to tell him now, and I’m not so sure if I did this face-to-face, I wouldn’t spill the beans about being in love with his best friend.

“Sorry for what, kid?”

“Being distant the past few months. School and clinicals kicked my ass. I didn’t mean to shut you out. Don’t hate me.”

“There is nothing you could do that I would ever hate you for. Nothing, little sister, you hear me? We’re anchored,” he says, referring to our tattoos.

“I love you, Forty.”

“I love you too, kid. Now, who’s going to convince this caravan we need ice cream?” he asks.

“Me obviously.” I smile even though I know he can’t see me. My heart feels a little lighter already. Now all I need to do is come clean to Roman. Toss out the truth and see where we land.

He laughs, and the sound makes my heart happy.

“I’ll take full responsibility. Since you’re leading, pull off two exits up. It’s a small mom and pop shop that has the best ice cream I’ve ever eaten. I’ll tell everyone I called in the stop.”

“Got it, captain.” He chuckles, and the line goes dead.

Forrest and I are going to be okay. His words replay over and over in my head. I know in my heart that I could tell him anything. Our plan was perfect. Roman got cold feet, but it’s hard to be mad at him when I know that his decision was made for me.

I think I need to apologize, but with Roman, it needs to be in person. Just like Monroe said, I’ll go into the conversation with an open mind, and we’ll just have to see how it goes.

ChapterTwenty-Three

Roman

I stare through the blinds of my bedroom window and watch the sunrise. I didn’t sleep at all last night. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Gabe with his arm around my girl, and my anger would spike.

Not at him. I know that he’s innocent in all of this.

No, I fucked up, and now I’m paying for it.

I don’t know what to do. On one hand, I think I should just let her go. Let her be happy with this guy. On the other hand, I know I can’t do that. There has to be a way to fix this. There has to be a way to get her to pick me.

She did once. Surely, I can convince her to do it again.

Knowing I’m not getting any sleep, I toss the covers off and head to the shower. To make matters worse, today is my off day. I have nothing planned, so I’m going to spend the day trying to come up with a way to win her back. Maybe I can ask Legend to help me? He knows about us; he might have some insight. Maybe my parents? They’ve been married a long damn time. Surely, they have words of wisdom to pass on to me.

After a quick shower, I toss on shorts and a T-shirt and venture out to the living room. I don’t feel like cooking, so cereal it is. Grabbing my laptop, I sit at the kitchen table, scarf down my bowl of cereal, and pull up a search engine. I can’t believe I’m looking to the world wide web on ways to win my girl back, but I’m a desperate man.

With the notes app pulled up on my phone, I make lines and lines of notes. Even the ridiculous ideas like standing beneath her bedroom window with a boombox. It went on the list. It worked in the movies. Who’s to say it won’t work for me? I hope I don’t get to that point of desperation, but I’m not passing anything up.

Three hours later, I’m overwhelmed. I stare down at my phone and the mile long list of ideas. “This is stupid,” I mutter to myself. I just need to go see her. Forrest is at the shop today, so if she’s home, we can talk just the two of us. That’s what we need. Some face-to-face time to really talk and see where we both stand.

Until I know how serious she is with this guy, I can’t really form a plan.

Ten minutes later, I’m in my truck and headed to their house. When I pull into the driveway, I exhale a sigh of relief that her car is here. Sure, she could be out with Monroe, but I’m hoping that things are falling in my favor. Rushing out of the truck, I race up the front steps and knock on the door. A few seconds later, the door opens, and she looks surprised to see me.

“Hey, baby girl.” I smile. Fuck, it’s good to see her.

“Rome. Hi. I wasn’t expecting you.”

“Is now a bad time?”

“Forrest isn’t here.”

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