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He quickly shut the lid, cleared his throat. “It’s, uh, personal,” he said because everyone was clearly waiting for the big reveal. “Tell Vita thanks,” he added, and hoped it sounded sincere.
He wasn’t.
Did the woman expect him to be having sex while he was in the hospital? Good gravy. He really had to do something to tone down his badass reputation.
“Is it an egg with poop on it?” Mila asked. “Because my mom likes to send stuff like that. She gave me chicken poop earlier when—” She stopped and suddenly got very interested in looking in the empty bag that had once held the gifts.
Roman didn’t think there was anything else interesting in there, but he did wonder why Mila hadn’t finished. And why Vita had given her chicken shit. He had no intention of asking her either of those things—he could probably find out from Sophie, anyway—and besides, they were interrupted.
A nurse stepped into the doorway. Not the Busby sister, but it was someone Roman knew well. Alicia Dearman. He’d lost his virginity to her way back when, and judging from the smile she gave him, she was remembering that in great detail. Roman remembered, too, and it wasn’t something he wanted to repeat.
He could almost feel his testosterone levels drop with that thought.
Still, Alicia was a barracuda in bed. And yes, teeth were involved, and even if he hadn’t just had surgery, he wasn’t looking for sex. He wanted to focus on his son.
Even though Vita obviously thought the sex would win out.
“How are y’all doing?” Alicia asked. She spared Belle, Mila, Sophie and Tate only a glance and kept her attention on Roman.
Roman adjusted his badass expression and added a bunched-up forehead so it would look as if he was in pain. He was, so it wasn’t that hard to do.
“Poor baby,” Alicia said. “I’ll see about getting you some meds. For now, though, I need to borrow this little guy. Dr. Woodliff wants to see him.”
That was a name Roman didn’t recognize, but he figured it was the therapist. “Can I go with him?” Roman asked.
“No, that’s okay,” Tate quickly said, and Alicia made a sound of agreement.
Roman tried not to let that sting. Especially since it would have been hard for him to get out of bed right now. Still, he wanted to know what the therapist was going to say to Tate. And vice versa.
Especially the vice versa.
Tate might tell the doc that the reason he took those pills was because he hated his dad. Hell, Tate could think Roman hated him. He didn’t. But for some reason, Tate just wasn’t feeling the love. Maybe because he was feeling Valerie’s rejection even more.
“I’ll just walk with them,” Sophie said when the nurse wheeled Tate out into the hallway. “That way, I can maybe find out how long Tate’s session will take.”
Roman thanked her. Sophie wouldn’t listen at the door or anything, but she might be able to get a sense of how Tate felt about all of this. His son was far more likely to open up to his aunt, or even to the janitor, than he was to Roman.
“I should be going, too,” Mila said. She headed for the door, but Belle practically scurried off the bed to stop her.
His mother looked in the hall and shut the door. She also pulled Mila closer. “I had one of those life-changing moments when I thought I was dying,” Belle said to her.
His mom probably thought she was whispering softly enough for Roman not to hear her. She wasn’t.
“I’ve heard that can happen.” Mila glanced at him as though he knew what this was all about. Maybe Belle was going to give her some safe words, too. If so, he hoped they were better than bumfuzzle or Dippity-do.
“It got me thinking,” Belle went on. “I stopped living my life when I lost my husband. It was as if I buried myself right along with him, and I want that to change. I’m only sixty, not a hundred and sixty.”
Mila gave him another uncomfortable glance, but his only response was a “you’re on your own here” shrug.
“Anyway, I know you love those online fantasy sites,” Belle went on. Now, that got his attention, and Roman found himself trying to quiet his pulse just so it wouldn’t drum in his ear and he could hear better.
Fantasy sites? Maybe this had something to do with books. After all, Mila did own a bookstore.
“I’m off those for a while,” Mila whispered. Her voice was considerably softer than Belle’s, but he still heard it.
“Yes, the Buttercup fiasco. I heard you talking to Sophie about it on the phone. But that was just one negative experience out of a dozen or more, right? And honestly, as pretty as you are, no wonder Wesley wanted to get in your pants.”
That really got his attention. Was this Wesley guy real? From the sound of it, yes. And also from the sound of it, he’d done something to Mila to upset her.
“I want the name of the site,” Belle went on. “I want to have a 10 movie experience. You know, Bo Derrick running down the beach with her hair braided.”
Mila shook her head. “I’m not familiar with that—”
“’Cause you’re too young, but I remember it.” His mother made what appeared to be a dreamy sigh. “And I always wanted to do it. I want to do that beach scene where the seaweed washes over the kissing couple, too.”
What the hell?
Roman must have made some kind of sound, probably a grunt of uncomfortable confusion, because both women looked at him.
“Did you hear us?” Belle asked, her tone one of pure shock. He wasn’t sure why it was hard to believe he’d heard her since he was only about ten feet away.
“I heard some of it. What’s this about, anyway?”
Mila couldn’t have looked more uncomfortable if he’d put wet Pop Rocks in her panties. “Nothing. Just a way to keep myself entertained.” She brushed a quick kiss on Belle’s cheek. Waved an equally quick goodbye to Roman. “We’ll talk tomorrow,” she added to his mom, and hurried out.
Roman waited for Belle to explain. And waited. And he waited some more. When it was obvious she wasn’t going to spill all, he opened his mouth to ask her about it. But opening it was as far as he got.
“Bumfuzzle,” she said. His mother made a locking motion with a key over her lips and got back in bed.
Heck. Roman hadn’t expected the safe word to work in her favor. But he didn’t press it. One way or another, he’d just get the truth from Sophie.
CHAPTER FIVE (#ue2624a61-937f-5731-bb4f-ac9624daaae2)
“WHAT DO YOU mean Roman was asking about my sex life?” Mila asked Sophie, who was on the other end of the phone line.
This wasn’t exactly a conversation Mila wanted to have while walking across the hospital parking lot, but it wasn’t something she wanted to put off, either. Anything about Roman, especially Roman mentioning her, had a way of capturing her complete attention.
“He heard you talking to Mom about the fantasy stuff,” Sophie explained, “and when I went to see him earlier, he worked it into the conversation.”
“How the devil did he work that in?”
“He asked if you were still a virgin.”
Mila wasn’t sure why that caused her to blush. Everybody in town probably talked about that, but it caused a little tingle inside her to know that it was something on Roman’s mind. It likely wasn’t a deep interest for him, though. More like a curiosity.
“I told him yes, you were still a virgin,” Sophie went on, “and that he was the reason for it.”
Mila gasped and nearly dropped her phone. “You didn’t.”
“No. Just kidding. But it’s the truth.”
In part, and in a very roundabout way, it was the truth. Mila put her hand to her heart to try to steady it. She needed to regain her composure and get rid of the flushed cheeks before she went into Belle’s hospital room.
Where Roman would be.
Mila had wanted to wait to have this conversation with Sophie’s mom until after the woman got home, but Belle had called earlier and asked her to come over on her lunch break.
“Admit it,” Sophie went on, “no man has ever lived up to Roman in your eyes. Though I don’t have a clue why you feel that way. He’s pigheaded and sullen.”
Yes, but he was also alarmingly handsome. The kind of handsome that made a woman stop breathing. Stop thinking. And start feeling warm in all the secret places of her body. The Grangers were all good-looking, but in her opinion Roman was at the top of that good-looking man-heap.
And now he was here. And hurting.
Not just from his surgery but because of what’d happened with Tate.
“How was Tate when you saw him earlier?” Mila asked.
“Changing the subject. You always do that when I talk about Roman. But in this case I’ll give you a pass because I know you’re worried about Tate. So am I. The doctor said the pills didn’t do any harm, but that he’ll need to keep seeing the therapist.”
Mila had expected that. “Did Tate say how the first therapy session went?” She stopped outside the hospital doors since she didn’t want to continue this conversation while she went through the waiting room.
“He grunted when I asked. Have you noticed that Roman’s and his grunts are identical? It’s weird.”
Yes, she had noticed. For some reason, even the little things about Roman jumped into her head and stayed there.
“One more thing, and I’ll let you go,” Sophie said. “If you help Mom set up one of the fantasy dates, give Clay the guy’s name so he can run a background check on him. The way we do for you.”
Clay did indeed do that for her. He’d started it shortly after one of her “dates” had gotten drunk and broken into the bookstore. There’d been no real damage, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Mila assured her that she would, ended the call and made her way into the hospital. The waiting room was packed, making her wonder if these people all needed medical attention or if they were there to find out what was going on with the Grangers. Sometimes, it was tough being the richest family in town. People admired them, wanted to be them, but there were some who would probably like to see Sophie and her family brought down a peg or two.
And they had been.
Only two years ago Sophie and Garrett had nearly lost the family business when one of their accountants got involved in money laundering. It’d been a huge scandal. In part, because at first the main suspect was their CFO, Billy Lee Seaver. Since Billy Lee was also godfather to Sophie and her brothers, it had made the gossip even juicier.
Shortly after that, Garrett’s then-wife had gotten caught having sex with another man. That had fueled the worst of the busybodies for a while, but now that Garrett had divorced her and was engaged to someone else, it appeared that Roman and Tate would be the next up in the gossip barrel.
Mila would do what she could to nip it in the bud.
In part, she could do that just by being seen in public with her mother. Vita had a way of diverting attention simply by showing up. A way of making Mila uneasy, too.
Bad juju, her mother had said. An ill wind blowing.
Well, it had blown, all right. That’s why Mila was visiting three people she cared about in the hospital. She doubted Vita had known what was going to happen, but people did have gut feelings about this sort of thing. But if so, what gut feeling had prompted her to give Mila the condom?
And to say that Mila was going to have her life turned upside down and lose her virginity in thirty days?
Yes, definite unease, considering that Roman was back in town and that he was probably the only man in the universe she’d take to her bed.
Mila made her way to the hall of the hospital ward, and she immediately spotted Belle. Not in her room, but sitting in a wheelchair just outside the door. She wasn’t wearing a gown, but rather a dress.
“I’m waiting for the doctor to say I can go home,” Belle said right away to her. She moved the wheelchair toward Mila, halving the distance between them.
Mila glanced at her watch. “Why didn’t you just wait in bed?”
“Because Tate’s been out of the room most of the morning at appointments, and I’ve already had to use my safe word with Roman three times. My son certainly knows how to start a fight.”
Yes, and so did Belle. Mila kept that to herself, though. And she wondered about safe words. That wasn’t something she’d expected Belle to say, but Sophie’s mother was a little like Vita. You couldn’t be certain what would come out of her mouth.
Like now.
“Why would a man want whipped cream sprayed in his boxer shorts?” Belle asked.
Mila was certain she got a deer-in-the-headlights look. “I’m not sure,” she settled for saying. “Why?”
“Because that’s what Roman was going on about yesterday when he was waking up from surgery.” She took Mila’s hand, pulled her closer. “You think women have been doing that to him?”
Mila suspected that women had done a lot of things to Roman. Probably whipped cream along with other edibles. She might be a virgin, but she wasn’t clueless.
“That nurse, Alicia, has been flirting with him,” Belle went on. “I told her to take care of my bedpan. I didn’t have a bedpan, mind you, but I thought it would remind her that she’s not there to play under the sheets with my son. Will you talk to her about it?”
Mila would rather eat a cactus. But she nodded. If Roman gave her any hint that it was a problem, she would say something to Alicia. What, exactly, Mila didn’t know, but Roman was here to recover. That might not happen if Alicia managed to give him an erection.
“Now, to the fantasy,” Belle went on. “Did you bring me the webpage address?”
Mila nodded and took the paper with the info from her purse. She didn’t hand it to Belle right away, though. She moved the woman closer to some chairs and sat so she could make eye contact with her.
“Are you certain you want to do this?” Mila pressed.
“Of course. Didn’t you hear what I said about wanting to live my life? Lordy, I can hardly wait to get started. I’ve missed so much.”
Mila knew the feeling. But she also knew something else. “The fantasies can be fun, but they shouldn’t be a substitute for a real relationship. If you want to start dating, I’m sure there are several men in town who would love to go out with you.”
One man, anyway. Billy Lee Seaver. Mila didn’t think it was her imagination that the man had stars in his eyes when it came to Belle. Probably the only reason he hadn’t asked her out already was because she’d been his best friend’s wife.
Belle just stared at her. “You let the fantasy dating be a substitute for your life,” the woman pointed out.
“Yes. But I’m not doing that anymore. I’ve put the fantasy dating on hold.” Maybe permanently. It only made her feel even emptier when she went through the motions.
“Does that mean you’re going to date for real? I hope so.” Belle didn’t give her a chance to answer. “That’s why I copied this for you. One of the nurses let me use her computer. Not the one swishing her tushy around Roman. But one of the other ones.” She took a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to Mila. “It’s three dating sites.”
Mila recognized them since they were the very sites she’d recommended to Sophie a couple of years ago. Sophie had gone on one date, and it hadn’t worked out so well. Besides, Mila really wasn’t up to going out with a bunch of men with the hopes of finding a prince among frogs.
“I don’t know about this.” Mila couldn’t have sounded more uncertain if she’d tried. But what she really felt was unconvinced, and nothing was going to get her to change her mind.
“Well, how about someone local, then?” Belle asked. She smiled, a sneaky little smile. “There are plenty of men in town who’d love to go out with you.” Belle didn’t add gotcha, but she could have.
“I’m thinking more about a hiatus from dating,” Mila said.
