Page 40 of More Than Nothing
“I didn’t know that.” His dad smiled.
Elenie ducked her head and grimaced, then shot Roman a sideways glance and mouthed, “Sorry.”
“What for?” He leaned toward her, his voice a low rumble to keep it between the two of them.
“For coming out with such a boring-ass fact,” she muttered.
His lips twitched and he was grateful for the moment of levity. “You are many things, but boring isn’t one of them.”
Elenie’s smile was golden. It caught him like a gentle brush of fingers around the tight muscles in his chest and soothed. The waning sun seemed warmer, the colors of his parents’ backyard more vibrant. What did it matter that his head was a little scattered, the atmosphere a little forced, and his mother’s attitude toward Elenie reserved, though not wholly unfriendly.
He was just beginning to think the afternoon could still be saved when, in an instant, it all went to shit.
Chapter 19
Elenie
Roman had rolled up the sleeves of his casual shirt and those sun-kissed forearms, all dark hair and sexy muscles, were exposed for Elenie to drool over.
He didn’t seem like himself today. He’d been distracted from the moment he’d climbed into Caitlyn and Milo’s car outside the most stunning A-frame cabin Elenie had ever seen. Torn between out-and-out begging to go in and look around and noting the subtle signs of strain on his angular face, she’d opted to stay quiet, wondering how much he regretted asking her to join them. The worry burned at her skin like poison ivy.
Full to bursting but determined to finish her pie, Elenie found it harder and harder to keep her eyes off him. Every now and then, he looked her way, lifting an eyebrow to check she was OK. Each time he did, her heart gave a thump. She felt like she’d been picked up and dropped into a parallel reality. There had never been an afternoon like this one in her whole life. Although she’d dated a little, no one had ever taken her home to meet their family. And Elenie had never had a close friend who’d asked her either.
She tried to think of anything that linked Ava to her mother or Elias to Frank, but came up short. They were as different as apples and bicycles.
No one laughed in the Dax household unless it was at someone else’s expense. Conversation never went both ways because no one wanted to listen. The affection that Roman’s family shared hung in the air, as obvious as the food on the table or the sun in the sky.
It wasn’t about money, because the Martinez house was far from grand. And Frank and Athena didn’t struggle for money themselves. Yes, it was a bit all or nothing. Cash either spilled out of Frank’s pockets, or he lost himself in a funk for a couple of weeks when things got tight. There was certainly enough that their house didn’t have to be so dirty, scuffed, and soulless. There could be food in the fridge or nice meals on the table. Things didn’t need to be broken or neglected. It was just that no one gave a shit.
Never had Athena teased her the way Ava teased her children. Never had she tugged her close with a careless, loving arm and pressed a kiss to her cheek. Pet names and casual touches flew between each person around the table and it was intoxicating. The desire to have a different life hit Elenie again like a sucker punch. If there could be a home and a family like this in her future, she wanted it with an intensity that made her heart hurt.
Looking up, she found Roman’s eyes on her face. He was tapping again, muted stress in the rhythmical movement of his fingers. It brought her out of her reverie. She was just about to ask him if he was OK when Elias flung out his hand in an expressive gesture, upending Florence’s glass of sangria down her front. Red wine spread from her neck over the pale cream of her lacy top. Florence shrieked and leaped to her feet; Elias too, apologies abundant. Thea grabbed a paper napkin while Ava ran for a cloth, scolding her husband over her shoulder as she disappeared indoors.
Roman’s eyes were fixed on Florence’s neck and the brilliant stain of red. He swallowed roughly, the movement of his throat jerky and pained. His breath lodged in his chest. Skin waxy, he had the look of a man drowning on dry land.
“Roman?” He gave no sign of having heard her. “Roman?” Elenie gripped his arm and found it solid and chilled, like an iron bar beneath her fingers. She dropped to her knees in front of him, placing herself directly in his eyeline and blocking Florence out behind her. Her hands on his face, she forced him to look at her. The grate of his stubble rasped against her palms. “Roman, you need to breathe.” Those inscrutable eyes of his, tortured and burning, finally met and held hers. He took a long, wheezing gasp of air and then another. “That’s good,” she said. “Really good. It’s alright. You’re alright.”
Everyone else faded into the background. Elenie forced him to watch her, breathing loud and slow so he could hear and copy her. She could see the shudder of Roman’s heart as it thumped beneath the cotton of his shirt, and hers pounded in tandem. He buried his head in shaky hands, struggling for control. She glanced around. Florence, his parents, and Thea were all busy in the kitchen.
Milo stepped up to Roman’s shoulder. “You alright, bro?” He sounded at a loss, quiet concern in each unfussy word.
Elenie made a swift decision. “Let’s go for a walk.” She took Roman’s hands from his face and pulled gently. “Stand up,” she told him. He rose to his feet without a word. “Come on—I’d like to see the backyard.”
Luke handed her a bottle of water and Elenie shot him a silent smile of thanks. She threaded her fingers through Roman’s, the action so alien and yet so right as they descended the steps onto the grass. Their shadows led the way—his tall and rangy, and hers pressed close to his side. She gripped his hand without speaking and kept their strides slow.
Ava and Elias’s yard was wide and long. They walked over mown grass through well-tended borders and into an area left more natural. The end boundary seemed to lie beyond an assortment of greenery, dwarfed by an old, gnarled chestnut, out of sight of the house. The tree had thrown out one long bough, parallel to the ground, at the perfect height to sit on.
“Want to keep going?” Elenie searched Roman’s face, relieved to see his color had returned.
“No, let’s sit.” He slumped onto the chestnut’s limb with a ragged exhale of breath. Elenie perched next to him, her shorter legs swinging. The bark was barnacle-rough against her thighs, even with the material of her dress in between. Roman gripped the back of his neck with both hands, staring up at the sky—and, damn, if his beautiful biceps weren’t extremely distracting even as she examined his face with concern.
Five minutes passed. The breeze through the leaves was a soothing whisper in the air. Eventually, he met her gaze, weary-eyed but present again. She handed him the bottle of water without speaking.
Roman unscrewed the lid and took several long swallows. He studied the label. “Have you spent much time in Detroit?” he asked eventually.
“None at all. I only know what people say about it.”
“Most of it’s true, although some areas are getting the attention they deserve. There’s a lot of regeneration but there’s a long way to go. It still has one of the highest violent crime rates in the country. Almost everyone carries a gun.” His breath remained unsteady. “I spent most of my time in the worst parts, where it’s a chaotic mess of gang wars, drug use, and debt. Streets that look like they’ve been hit by a natural disaster. Block after block of abandoned houses. A few families living in amongst the mayhem.” He picked at a piece of bark. “There were so many bodies. People who were just in thewrong place at the wrong time. Who died because of it. And every time I crouched beside another one, every time I broke the news to another family, the cases we solved, the cases we didn’t—they all built up on top of each other, higher and higher. Until it reached a point where I just couldn’t do it anymore.” Roman’s eyes met hers. They were flat and honest and open.
