“It’s not just the wedding planning,” she said softly. “I’m sad.”
“Because we left the manor?” I still couldn’t believe her fascination with the place and the desire to remain.
“Everything just felt right there.”
“And it will feel right again.” I pulled her into my arms and kissed the top of her head. She snuggled herself into me as if her life depended on it. Her delicate hands clung to my back as if she were never going to let me go.
“Promise me,” she said. “Promise me we won’t lose ourselves in the madness still to come.”
“I promise.”
Roman
“It’s about time you graced us with your presence,” Kenneth teased as all the managing members of Spiked Roses took their seats around the table. “We were about to send a search party after you.”
“Good to be back,” I said. “Thank you all for holding down the fort while I was away. What I did needed to be done.”
“And is everything fine now?” Harley asked, no doubt curious if he needed to step in to help matters his way.
“Everything’s fine now. Cheri handled the situation far better than I ever could have imagined. Because of her, I seriously doubt I’m going to have to deal with The Iron Colt Brotherhood again.”
“We can always hope,” Alec added. “Best to lay low with those fuckers.”
“Can we all try to not have any dealings with them in the future?” Matthew asked. “I’m getting sick of their shit.”
“Agreed,” Lennon added. “I’ve never been a member or had any interaction. Well unless you count the wealthy as fuck men I have stolen from. Guilty as charged in that regards.”
“I’ve had my fill of them as well,” Victor added. “Let’s move on and not bring up that archaic group again.”
Kenneth began the meeting by going over our numbers. We all brainstormed for different themes for the next Tasting. He discussed some future repairs that needed to be done, and informed us that we had passed all the inspections that had come in. I tried to focus on the business, but my mind kept going back to Cheri. It had been a day since I dropped her off, and it felt like a lifetime. I was so used to seeing her every single day and having her body at my beck and call. I fucking missed it. I fucking missed her.
After the meeting was over, I was the first to leave the room, anxious to see my fiancée. We had been apart for long enough.
“Roman,” I heard being called out from behind me.
I turned to see Tennessee approaching. “You better get your royal butt over to that house of crazy. I agreed to help with the wedding planning when Cheri’s mother asked, but I did not agree to be the psychologist and babysitter. That girl hasn’t gotten out of bed since she returned, and her mother is about to lose her damn mind.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “Is she sick?”
“Who the fuck knows. But I can’t get her out of bed, and we have a shit load of wedding planning to do. I need her help. Oh and while I have you,” Tennessee reached into his man bag he was carrying and pulled out a manila folder, “I need to know what style of tux you want. What picture calls to you?” He opened the folder to a stack of photos.
I wanted to say I couldn’t care less, but I had learned a long time ago that me acting like I didn’t care, minimized the feelings of the person asking. So scanning through the photos, I pointed to one and said, “This one unless Cheri wants something else. She’s the boss.”
“Cheri can’t even brush her own damn teeth let alone be a boss. You better get over there and knock some sense into her. Give her mother an elephant tranquilizer while you’re at it.”
Tennessee didn’t have to ask me twice. I expected Cheri to have an odd transition back into her normal day life, but I hadn’t expected it to hit her so hard. She was not one to wallow or be depressed, so to hear this troubling news had me rushing out of Spiked Roses without even saying goodbye.
It didn’t take me long to reach Cheri’s mother’s house. I was going to just enter the house and charge up to her room, but decided to give her mother the courtesy of asking permission to enter. I was surprised when it was her mother answering the door.
“Oh thank goodness you are here, Roman. I am beside myself.”
“What’s going on?”
“Ever since you dropped her off from your vacation, she hasn’t gotten out of bed or eaten a thing. I understand that jet lag can be awful sometimes, but I’ve explained to her that we have her dress fitting tomorrow, and we have nail appointments and hair before that. There is no time for her to be sleeping. I even offered to have a nurse come to the house with an IV if she felt dehydrated or thought it would help fight the lag.”
I knew there was no jet lag since we hadn’t even left Louisiana, but it was best to have her mother think what she did.
“I’ll go check on her and see what I can do,” I said calmly while giving her mother a reassuring pat on the upper arm. “Keep the appointments tomorrow. I’m sure she will be fine by then.”
“Thank you. Maybe she’ll listen to you.”
Oh, she’ll listen to me.
“Go ahead and do whatever you had planned for the afternoon. I’ll stay with her and make sure she gets something to eat.”
Her face lit up with glee as if I had just freed her of a jail sentence. “You are going to be such a wonderful son-in-law. I couldn’t ask for a better one.” She turned on her heels and left me quickly. Maybe she was afraid I would change my mind.
I hated hearing that there was something wrong with Cheri, and I would do anything for her. But first, I needed to go see what was going on.
Chapter Nineteen
Cheri
A thundering storm by the name of Roman Cassian swooshed into my bedroom. There was no polite knock, no asking if he could be let in, not even my mother standing by his side allowing his entrance. He marched over to where I lay in my bed feeling sorry for myself and sat on the edge with concern washed all over his face.
Placing his hand softly on my cheek, and then my forehead, he asked, “What’s going on? Are you sick?”
I shook my head. I wasn’t sick, though I was pretty sure I looked it.
“Tired?” he asked.
I shook my head again.
His brow furrowed. “Then what? Why haven’t you eaten or gotten out of bed. You have your mother and Tennessee in a real tizzy. They both are two seconds from strokes.”
He smirked, and normally hearing his words teasing my mom and my dear friend would have made me smile in return, but I felt nothing but a thick blanket of darkness.
The smile left his face when I didn’t show any emotion at all to his comment. “Cheri, what’s wrong? Tell me?”
I took a deep breath and fought the urge to just pull my blankets over my head and hide from his questions. “I just need time.”
“Time for what? To sleep?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I just feel sad.”
“Because we left the manor?” he asked.