Page 17 of Final Cost

I hit another couple of buttons on my phone and call Todd, the supervisor at the campus restaurant where I worked as a server all through undergrad.

“I didn’t expect to hear from you again,” he says when I explain the situation. “I thought you were gone forever. I wish I’d known. I just hired someone new the other day. And things are quiet around here during the summer. You know that. I can’t use another server right now.”

“No worries,” I say, my morale now firmly in the negative digits. “But maybe you could keep me in mind if something opens up? I could really use the extra money right now.”

“Absolutely. Gotta go.”

“Bye,” I say, putting my phone on the table, slumping against the back of my chair and covering my face with my hands. “Shit. Fuck. Shit.Fuck.”

“It’s not that bad, is it?” comes a voice from the hallway.

Oh, God.

I drop my hands and sit up in time to see Lucien’s brother Roman stride in with his own breakfast and coffee. Rearranging my features into a pleasantnothing to see heresmile takes a bit longer because I’m so busy giving myself a swift mental kick in the ass. Why didn’t I go upstairs when I had the chance? And why is it so hard to find a quiet common space on this giant estate? That’s another of the problems with Ackerley, along with its eeriness at night: it’s overrun with Winter brothers. And they’re both hot and sexy. Roman, for example, has most of Lucien’s height and broad shoulders, although he’d never be as darkly intriguing as Lucien. On the other hand, he’s got an easy smile, wavy sandy hair and big blue eyes that make a lot of engaging crinkling around the corners.

“Roman. Hey.” My awkwardness is intensified by the fact that I don’t know him well at all. I met him the other day and spent a little time with him before my unceremonious dumping. Oh, and then there’s the fact that, unbeknownst to him, Lucien and I caught a glimpse of him enjoying a vigorous menage a trois with a couple of curvy hotties out on the pool deck the other night. There’s nothing like secretly seeing a man’s impressive package (yes, he’s got plenty to be proud of, not that I stared or anything) for making your cheeks flame and your ears burn. “Good to see you.”

“Good to see you.”

He puts down his plate, and there’s the answer to my question about where all the food goes around here at Ackerley. He’s got most of the buffet well represented on that china. Then he leans in and kisses my cheek, his lips warm and the bristle from his unshaven jaw causing little sparks of sensation along my skin. Luckily, he pulls back quickly and settles opposite me at the table, his expression open and engaging and so unlike his brother’s. “I heard you were back.”

“Not for long, hopefully.” I give myself another swift mental quick kick. The last thing I want to do is sound ungrateful. “I don’t want to impose, I mean.”

“Yeah, what was all that about on the phone?” he says, shaking out his napkin and digging into his food with the gusto of a man who’s missed his last five meals. “Didn’t mean to overhear.”

I hesitate, fighting the urge to confide in him. I need to remember who he is. His loyalties are and always will be with Lucien. I have no real allies here at Ackerley, and I’d better remember it. “It’s fine,” I say, waving a hand and trying to sound upbeat about my situation. “I just want to get settled back in the city and get out of your hair as soon as possible. I’ll figure something out.”

He gives me an incredulous look over his sip of coffee. “Tamsyn. Look around. It’s figured. We have plenty of room. You can stay here as long as you need to.”

“Yeah, but I’m not sure it’s good for me,” I say before I can stop myself.

“Oh.” He nods, his expression darkening. “Well, you’re being gone isn’t good for Lucien.”

I’d taken my own sip of coffee, but now he has my full attention. “What do you mean?” I say, trying to act like this is only of passing interest to me.

“I mean, I don’t know what happened between the two of you, but he’s been a fucking mess since you left. That’s why I’ve been sticking close.”

Yeah, okay. I thought he was serious. “Lucien doesn’t do messes,” I say around a derisive sound.

He stares at me long and hard. There seems to be a lot going on behind his eyes, but it’s been long established by now that I suck at reading the Winter brothers. “You’d be surprised.”

“Okay.” I impatiently shake out my napkin and put it on the table, now eager to be done with this pointless conversation. I’d dying to escape back to my room, but I don’t want to be rude. “If you say so.”

“I’m hoping you can work things out. You’re good for him, Tamsyn. He’s alive again.”

If only that were true. On the other hand, if only Roman seen how coldly Lucien excised me from his life the other day. Then he wouldn’t be talking about this nonsense. “There’s nothing to work out, Roman. And I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t want to talk about Lucien anymore. Okay?”

He leans in, hunching over the table. “Bear with me for a minute because I don’t think you understand. You light something up inside Lucien that I’ve never seen before. Don’t roll your eyes. I’m dead serious. Don’t get me wrong. I was skeptical when he told me he’d met someone. But now I’ve seen you together. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. I’ve seen the way you make him laugh. How easy the two of you are together. You think he was like that with Ravenna? Let me assure you. He wasn’t.”

I hesitate, my head spinning with all this information and my cheeks on fire. My disbelief is every bit as strong as my desperate desire for it all to be true. “You’re his wing man. You’re supposed to say stuff like that.”

“Fuck that.” Roman gives me a hard look. “Between the marriage screwing up his head and Ravenna’s unsolved disappearance tying him up in knots, I don’t think I’ve seen Lucien laugh—really laugh—in four or five years. Do you get that? My brother needs you.”

“Then why did he push me away, Roman?” I demand before I can stop myself.

“Maybe he did it to protect you. Especially after the fire. Did you ever think about that?”

I hastily look away because Ihavethought about it. And I don’t know if that possibility makes things better or worse. Lucien loves me but he was willing to live his life without me? He loves me but he was willing to ruin my life by brutally rejecting me and expecting me to bounce back in a day or two? After he swooped into my life when I was minding my own business and made me love him? Made it impossible for menotto love him? How isthatsupposed to work?

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