Page 60 of Made For Romeo
“You should put a couple up before the barbecue,” I urge him, and he just shakes his head.
“No way.” He closes the box. “I’m going to put this in the garage.” He turns and walks out of the kitchen to the side where the door leads to our three-car garage.
When he decided he wanted to make Dallas his home base, it shocked me. I was secretly making peace with the fact that we would be moving back to LA. I knew it was important for him, and I also knew I would do what I needed to support him. What I wasn’t expecting was for him to tell his parents he was making Dallas our home. From the minute he said it to the minute we got home two weeks later, it was a whirlwind. The first thing he did after telling his father was have me FaceTime my own father, who was happy to see me and then glared when Romeo came into the picture with me. He asked him if he could move in with me. My father, in pure Stone fashion, said no and hung up. I couldn’t stop laughing, especially when he tried to call him back, and he was rejected each time. Three days later, he finally called me back and again told me no, but then also told me I was an adult and he couldn’t stop me. It was the closest thing I was going to get to a yes.
As soon as we touched back down in Dallas, he moved out of the Ritz-Carlton and into my house. That lasted maybe two days before he came into the house with envelopes from my aunt Zoe. It was twenty-seven houses to visit. I was baffled as to why we couldn’t live in the house I was in, which he scoffed at and said he needed to pay for it.
So now here we are in a five-bedroom, eight-bathroom home that is way too big for us, but he paid for it, so there is that. “What time did you tell everyone to come?” Romeo asks when he walks back into the kitchen, going to the massive stainless-steel fridge he had custom made.
“Your parents will arrive in about twenty minutes,” I say, looking at my watch. “I don’t know why they aren’t staying with us.”
He shakes his head. “Not going to happen. I like to have sex with you, and I don’t know if I can do it with my parents down the hall.” He uncaps the bottle of Gatorade and takes a sip.
“I mean, they could be having sex themselves.” I roll my lips while he spits Gatorade out of his mouth and then coughs.
“Are you trying to kill me?” He walks over and grabs a wet rag to clean up his mess. I wrap my arms around his waist and kiss his neck.
“Not yet,” I tell him, “but who knows? Besides.” I smile up at him. “I’ve got a great lawyer.” I wink at him. “Have you spoken to your sister?” I ask, and he just shakes his head.
I can’t help but groan and put my head back. “You have to talk to her. My family cannot know about what happened.”
“You don’t think I know that?” Romeo shrieks. “Your father literally took me on the ice the other day and told me a story about a guy getting his throat sliced while on the ice.” I put my hand in front of my mouth. He’s about to say something when the front door opens, and I hear huffing and puffing. Both of us share a look before walking over to the entrance of the family room, looking straight at the front door.
“Oh, hey,” Ryleigh says, blowing her hair out of her face as she dumps her handbag on the table by the door. My eyes go to her luggage. “I had to literally sneak into the gate,” she informs us, walking into the house and looking at us. “I didn’t know the code.”
“That’s the point,” Romeo retorts, and I just shake my head.
“You didn’t tell me you were even coming,” I tell her as she walks to me and kisses my cheeks before glaring at her brother.
“Did you get my gift?” she asks as she looks around the family room, seeing the pictures that we do have up. The latest addition is the one of me with Abigail at the hospital, right after she gave birth to the biggest baby of all time. Almost eleven pounds. Her face and mine are streaked with tears for two different reasons. Mine because of how big his head was and hers because she probably felt every single tear to her vagina.
“We did,” I confirm happily, “we are going to put them up tomorrow.”
“We are not.” Romeo shakes his head. “But thanks for nothing.”
“On a scale of one to ten,” Ryleigh says, folding her arms over her chest, “how nervous are you?”
“Why would I be nervous?” Romeo says nervously.
“The meeting of the families.” She chuckles and takes off her sweater, leaving her in blue jeans and a white body suit that molds to her amazing body. “It’s a big deal.”
“About that,” Romeo starts to say, “we need to—”
I cut him off. “You can’t tell my family about what happened,” I instruct, hoping that because I’m asking, she’ll respect it.
“Keeping secrets isn’t healthy,” she replies to me.
“It’s not a secret,” I tell her, looking at Romeo.
“If it’s not a secret, what do you call it?” she asks, and there are times when I wish she wasn’t so quick-witted.
“It’s a private situation between the two of us,” I say, pointing at Romeo and then myself.
“So a secret,” she says, laughing. “Relax, I won’t say anything to them.” She looks at Romeo as I do a sigh of relief. “If I’m here when the crime occurs, I’m an accessory since I knew of the crime that was going to be committed.” She does her lawyer speech. “But just so you know, secrets have a way of coming out.” She holds up her hands. “Not from me. But like secrets in general. Unless.” She puts her finger to her chin. “You end up offing everyone who knows the secret.”
“No one is offing anyone,” I say, chuckling. “This is going to go smoothly.”
Romeo looks at me like I’m crazy. “You have met your family, right?” he says. “And then you add this one.” He points at Ryleigh. “It’s going to be fucking nuts.”