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I was swamped at work,and my hours outside of the coffee shop were spent with Romeo, either training or wrapped around one another.
But tonight, Joey had asked Romeo to make sure that none of us were there for practice, which meant they were going to probably push him harder than ever. We were leaving for Las Vegas next week, and he’d be tapering back soon.
I couldn’t wait for him to get a break from all of this.
I realized that the entire time that we’d been together, he’d been training for this fight. I wondered what it would be like when we didn’t have that going on and we could just relax.
Leo had upped his trash-talking game, and I’d become his favorite topic in most of his posts, all in an effort to get under Romeo’s skin. I did my best to ignore it, but he’d been finding photos of me on social media and resharing them. He was a disgusting human being. His favorite topic was that I was going to leave Romeo after he humiliated him in the ring.
It took everything I had not to respond. I wanted to tell him to go to hell. That he was the scum of the earth. But that was what he wanted me to do.
Leo Burns was not only a fighter, but he was a showman. He wanted to drum up drama before the fight, and it didn’t help that people were responding to it.
His posts constantly went viral, and everyone in Magnolia Falls was appalled, yet they were following him and talking about it, so his plan was working.
Romeo only seemed concerned about me. He constantly asked if all of this was too much for me or if I was upset by it. I knew he was angry, but he did his best to keep it from me. The amount of stress that he was dealing with was unbelievable.
All while training for the biggest fight of his life.
There was a knock on the back door, and I moved through the kitchen and opened it to find my father standing there. We weren’t on good terms, not after the last time we spoke.
I hadn’t bothered to talk to my dad about my visit with Slade. My mother had gone to see him after I’d shared our conversation, and they were working on repairing their relationship. I was far more forgiving of my brother than I was of my father. Slade showed a lot of remorse over what happened, and my father had yet to show any.
“Hey. What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I just took Mom to dinner after our therapy appointment and wanted to stop by and see if you were here.”
“I’m here,” I said.
“Can I come in?”
“Yes.” I stepped back and invited him in, and he took a seat at one of the tables, and I sat across from him. “Of course.”
“I wanted to talk to you about Ronny,” he said, and I groaned. He was actually the least of my worries at the moment. I’d hoped my dad was coming here tonight to talk about apologizing to Romeo and River.
“Of course, that’s what you are most concerned about.”
“Demi. I messed up, and I admit that. I didn’t realize how serious this was with Ronny. Hell, maybe I didn’t want to hear it. But my attorney gave me a heads-up that he’s heard some rumblings that Ronny is angry that these other women have come forward now. He blames your boyfriend for this going public.”
“You’re aware that that’s the problem, right? He’s so busy pointing the finger at everyone who talked or shared what he did with the wrong person instead of focusing on his own actions. What he did was disgusting. And obviously, I wasn’t the first person he’d done it to. Perhaps he should try owning his mistakes and stop trying to find a scapegoat.”
“Agreed. But I wanted to give you a heads-up that Sam Simmons heard he’s trying to find a legal loophole to blame Romeo for defamation.”
I rolled my eyes. “Are you kidding me? He came into my coffee shop. He could have just left, but he chose to start the argument outside, calling everyone names, including me. He shouldn’t have been there at all. It’s not Romeo’s fault that people filmed Ronny having a meltdown. Romeo was protecting me, which I’d think you’d appreciate, since no one else was looking out for me.”
“That’s why I’m here. I’ve done a lot of thinking, and you’re right. I owe Romeo an apology and a thank-you for what he did for you. It’s been—” His voice cracked, and he looked away. Vulnerability was not something I saw often in my father. He’d always been strong. Confident. “It’s been hard knowing I’ve let the people I love down. Your mother doesn’t know if she can forgive me. I have to live with what I’ve done. So, all I can do is try to be better moving forward. I can’t change the past, Demi. I’m here to tell you to warn Romeo that Ronny is a spiteful man. He wants to blame someone, and unfortunately, he has his sights set on your boyfriend.”
“And what do you suggest we do about this? Can you help him, Dad? Seeing as he was protecting me.”
“I have Sam putting out feelers to see what Ronny’s next move is. I told your mother what I’d heard, and she thought I should come straight to you and tell you. I don’t know that he will do anything because he has a lot of heat on him at the moment. So, I’m sure his legal team will tell him to stay out of the spotlight and keep to himself until they go to court and deal with these other charges.”
“He’s such an entitled asshole. Did you know that he is the one who introduced Slade to opioids and to almost every drug that he’s taken to date?”
My father looked like he’d just been punched in the gut, his eyes wide as they searched mine. “Who told you that?”
“Slade. We went to see him for a family therapy session.”
“We?”
