Roz knew she was stubborn. She knew there was nobody on the face of this earth who could be more stubborn than she could. Except Mick!
She looked at Mick. He was still staring at her, looking more pitiful than powerful, she thought, and she knew Charles was right. He would never start the conversation. Especially since he was more than willing to put all of their woes at her feet as if his ass didn’t do shit. But why she always had to be the one?
“He’s reaching a conclusion, Roz,” Charles said. “He may reach the wrong one. And you know how he is. Even if he comes to the absolute wrong conclusion, he’ll stand by it. He’ll let the chips fall where they may. For the twins if for no other reason, you’ve got to be the bigger person.”
Roz let out a frustrated exhale. She knew Charles was telling the truth. But damn! Why did she always have to be the conciliatory one, no matter who was at fault? Why was it always up to her?
But she looked at that brooding husband of hers again. And she knew, despite their major problems, he was worth it. She reached that conclusion the day she married him.
Charles sighed relief when she began walking toward Mick. Thank you, Roz, he inwardly said.
But Mick had a different reaction. He braced himself when Roz started heading his way. The last week had been hell for him, but it wasn’t the kind of hell he was used to. Emotions were involved, and his heart. Because that was what Rosalind was. His heart. The very core, the very beat of his heart. And he wasn’t ready for any kind of conversation. Fear gripped him as she walked toward him. And when she stood beside him, he realized just how unprepared for that kind of hell he truly was.
Charles saw it too. That was why his relief turned into a frown when he saw what Mick did. Because as soon as Roz walked over to Mick and stood beside him, and before she could get a word in edgewise, Mick’s stubborn ass pushed away from that backwall and walked away. He walked away! Charles could have killed him!
But not before Roz got in a shot. She couldn’t believe it either. He just walked away from her like reconciliation be damned. She was being the bigger person. She took the first step. She took her heart and handed it to him once again, and he handed it right back. She knew she should have left it alone! She looked at Charles with pure anger in her eyes.
But then she looked at Mick. In truth, she was even more heartbroken than angry. And she was scared out of her mind. What if Mick was over it already? What if what happened over the past few weeks changed their lives forever and there was no going back to what used to be? He was the kind of man who discarded people all the time. What if he was ready to discard her?
But before she could even consider that awful possibility, she heard someone yelling her name over the loud music. “Roz? Roz!”
When she turned around, she saw that it was Trina Gabrini, the wife of Vegas casino mogul Reno Gabrini. “Come on, girl,” she said. “We’re having a dance-off. Old school versus young bloods. Come on!”
The last thing Roz wanted to do at that very moment was dance again, let alone have a dance-off. But she wasn’t about to let Mick’s stubbornness get the best of her. Not today! She’d had her fill of drama and his refusal to even talk about it and she just wanted to have some fun.
She looked over at Mick, who was leaned against another back wall on the other side of the ballroom, seemingly not giving her a second thought. Why should she mope around worrying about him? She went back to the dance train. She even called upon her immense acting abilities and managed to smile a great big beautiful smile, although she was hardly joyous.
But Charles was so upset he couldn’t even fake it. He walked over to his younger brother. “What do you think you’re doing? She came to apologize!”
“Sure about that?” Mick said.
“Yes, I’m sure! Why else would she go stand beside your bitter ass?”
Mick had a darn good reason why, but he wasn’t sharing it with his brother.
Charles exhaled. “Don’t be an asshole, Michello,” he said.
A part of Mick hardened. He wasn’t accustomed to anybody speaking to him that way. “Don’t know what you mean by that,” he responded.
“Don’t be an asshole on Amelia’s wedding day. That’s what I mean! Our baby sister did you one big, wonderful solid. She changed her wedding song to help you and Roz.” And Amelia had. Their kid sister had changed her aisle-walk song to Stevie Wonder’s version of For Once in My Life, which everybody knew was Mick and Roz’s song, when news broke around the family that the couple’s marriage was in freefall. Nobody knew what was wrong, except Big Daddy, but they all had eyes, and they all could feel the chill a mile away. “Amelia deserves to know that you two are at least having a conversation before she leaves for her honeymoon,” Charles added.
“This has nothing to do with Mandy,” Mick said. Amanda, Mandy, and Millie were all Amelia’s nicknames. “This has nothing to do with you either, Charles. This is between Rosalind and myself.”
“Like hell it is!” Charles responded. “People make mistakes, Mick. Just like your ass do all the time. But when it was you who was on the other side of the grill, Roz would at least hear what you had to say. You need to talk to her.”
“I don’t need to do a gotdamn thing,” Mick said in that harsh tone he was known for.
“Watch your language with me, boy,” Charles fired back in a tone he was known for too. “If I say you’re doing something, you will do it,” he made clear.
Mick quickly looked at Charles and they exchanged a hard, cold look. Only one man on the face of the earth would ever speak that way to Mick the Tick. And he was staring at him.
And Mick knew, deep down, that his big brother was right. He looked over at Roz once again. She was dancing and shaking those hips in such a sensual way that it was giving even Mick, despite their problems, a hard-on. What in the world was it doing for those other men in that room? And what about Billy Lancer, who wasn’t in that room, but Mick was certain he wanted to be?
But before he could even dwell on that particular problem, yet another one of those good-looking wedding invitees, another young hothead who worked in Hammer’s nightclub that Mick didn’t know, managed to find his way by Roz’s side. And Mick’s jaw tightened. Roz wasn’t the youngest woman in that room by far, but she had that special way about her that drew people to her. But always the wrong people, in Mick’s view.
And just watching her, and watching those guys far younger than Mick undressing her with their eyes, caused that ache deep inside of him to return. But what could he do? Turn back the hands of time? Pretend what happened didn’t?
He exhaled sadly. “That ship has sailed, Charles,” he said to his brother. “She wants to do what she wants to do.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Charles asked him, scared of what Mick was about to say. Although everybody knew Mick as the very definition of unemotional, Charles knew him best and had a totally different take. Mick, to Charles, was all emotion. Be it anger, hate, love, sadness, emotions were all he was about! And he never figured out how to handle any of them. That was, to Charles, Mick’s fatal flaw.
But when Mick didn’t respond to his question, Charles looked at him. That was when he realized Mick was distracted.