Page 27 of Falling for You
“Tough assignment. We’ll talk about it later. I’m here to help you move in with Roman. Something I’m too tired to really wrap my brain around right now.” He squeezes me one more time and whispers to me, “Missed you, baby sis.”
“I missed you too, Coop. These other assholes are too much.” I pout up at him.
“So I get this beauty now? Can’t have me taking up the big cabin permanently anymore.” He laughs while he takes in the construction zone that was my cabin.
“Wait, are you staying for real this time?” I ask with a big grin spreading across my face, and Mom jumps up to join us.
“For a longer while for sure. I emailed my boss about restructuring my job. This last assignment felt like I was lied to, taken advantage of, and it was rough. I need a break, but we’ll see what he says.”
Mom hugs him tight. “I’d love to have my baby boy home.”
“Hey! I’m right here, you both know that right?” Wyatt purses his lips at the lack of attention he’s getting.
“Yeah, the boxes are waiting for your big old police officer muscles to pick ‘em up and load ‘em in the truck.” I hand Coop a donut, and a bottle of pre-made shitty coffee.
“Fuck you.” Wyatt laughs, passing me and grabbing his own bottle of coffee from the cooler.
“Tell us about this assignment. Why were you tricked?” Mom asks, concern lacing her face. She even let Wyatt's comment slide.
“Ugh. My boss basically sent me on a political mission. Which isn’t something we’ve ever done. But with what’s happening in the Middle East he sent me to some off the beaten path bed and breakfast. What I didn’t know was that it’s housing people from the larger cities who lost their homes due to war. He wanted me to interview them. Interview the owners. And it was justa lot. We weren’t spared from the fighting either. Then I couldn’t get out. I had to somehow get to Turkey and then Greece to get a flight out. It turned a weekend trip into a month-long political assignment which is not what I signed up for. And my boss was so thrilled with thehappy accidentthat I know he lied to me about what I was doing. There was no way he didn’t know.” Cooper sighs and rests his head back on the couch.
“Coop! Why didn’t you tell us?” I ask.
“For what? So you could all worry about me? Not be able to do anything but worry? Stress out when you couldn’t get a holdof me because reception and Wi-Fi were spotty at best? No. I wasn’t doing that.” He shakes his head.
“At least you’re home now and safe.” Violet taps his knee.
“Alright you saps. Let’s get a move on. I want to go home and sleep.” Wyatt grabs a box and opens that damn silent front door.
I roll my eyes. “He’s so grumpy in the morning.”
“If I recall, so are you when you don’t get sleep,” Mom defends him.
“Yeah, yeah.” I smile. I appreciate Wyatt coming to help after he was on night shift and drove to Portland to get Cooper.
Out of all my brothers, Wyatt is the silent one. He downplays all that he does for us, and squirms under compliments. He masks his insecurities with humor and sarcasm.
Now that we’re all loaded up and driving over to Rome’s house the nerves are back in high gear. I know he’ll be gone all day but that doesn’t stop me from worrying about the awkwardness when he does come home.
I don’t know how I’m supposed to act. Do we go back to just being friends? Is the underlying tension going to be a constant? What happens if he brings someone home? Am I supposed to babysit while the love of my life goes on a date?
Fuck. I can’t do this. I should just turn around now and go back to my renovation cabin with Coop. We can be roomies like when we were kids. That sounds much safer.
I put the final pillows on my new bed, and stop to give Fiona a little scratch behind her ears. She hasn’t left my side since my family left me alone to unpack. The first thing we did was put the sheets and blankets on the bed for a little pittie-pup snuggle session.
She didn’t complain one bit about being cradled in my arms for a nap.
“Well girl. I’m all unpacked. Is this the biggest mistake or what?” Fiona lifts her head to face me and gives me a wet sloppy kiss on the cheek.
“I’ll take that as a no.” I chuckle at her as she snuggles back under the blanket I gave her.
Grabbing my bag full of toiletries, I head down the hall to the bathroom to unpack my final bag.
Rome gave me the room between him and Olivia because it’s the larger of the two guest rooms. Currently Olivia only has a pack-and-play in her room.
I mentally add setting up a nursery for her as nanny duty number one.
Pulling the shower curtain open I get more bad news. Inside the shower areallof Rome’s items. The soap smell that lives in my dreams infiltrates my nose as I lean in to place my own items. I turn to face the sink and notice his toothbrush and toothpaste, the cap still off from this morning.
