Page 53 of Romeo

I laugh lightly, and a bit of the darkness that had descended on me just before he came in dissipates.Even as guilt over how I’d treated him earlier settles in.“Good.Though the first aid kit is under the sink if you need it.”

Riley chuckles and starts slicing the mushrooms I’d already washed, dried, and left sitting on a cutting board.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

I turn toward him.“Earlier.I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that.I appreciate everything you’re doing, and I’m sorry, Riley.”

“It’s fine, Jules.”He smiles.“I can recognize when something isn’t necessarily about me.”

The guilt lessens slightly.“Well, it still wasn’t right for me to yell like that, and I am sorry.”

“Noted but unnecessary.So how are you doing?With being here?”

“Fine.It feels strange—but nice in a way.Like I’m close to him when I’m here.”

“I get that.”He’s silent a few minutes as I remove the first batch of beef tips, then add the second batch into the melted butter.“Do you want to talk about what Odie said to you on the porch?”

I turn to look at him.“What?”

“I can read body language,” he says.“And I had Tucker check the security footage.”

I should be mad.Furious at the invasion of privacy.But he confesses it so candidly that I can’t imagine he’d care even if I was.“Why am I surprised that you watched it?”

“I needed to get a better read on the situation.Plus, now Tucker has access, so he can help us watch the house.They’ve set up a remote feed by tapping into your already-existing cameras.”

“I have no idea what you just said.”

He laughs.“Same.I’m just repeating what Tucker told me.He’s the smart one.”Riley slices the mushrooms like a professional, moving fast and consistently, each one the same thickness.“I pried, and for that I’m sorry.But I need to know where Odie stands.”

“Odie is disappointed.”

“Odie is a bully,” he counters.

“It’s hard to accuse someone of something when you don’t have all of the facts,” I tell him.My way of skirting around a topic I really,reallydon’t want to get into.

“I know that whoever you were before is in the past.You don’t do those same things, so holding you to that standard is unfair and a manipulative way of keeping you beneath his thumb.”

After removing the second batch of beef tips, I add in the third and final batch to brown.“My grandfather used to say something similar.”

“He sounds like a smart man.”

“He was.”

“Then what is Odie’s deal?What’s his real issue with you?”

“It’s complicated,” I reply.“They had high hopes for me, and I broke their hearts when I let myself get lost.”

“A broken heart can be mended,” he replies.“As long as you don’t let it keep breaking.He keeps breaking yours.”

Once again, his words are spoken candidly.Worded as fact.And, what’s more, he’s not wrong.Odie does break my heart.Over and over again.Reshattering it into the pieces I’ve tried so hard to keep up.

“I truly believe he means well.”

“Doesn’t excuse the behavior.”

Beef browned, I remove it from the pan and melt some butter in the bottom of the same pan.Every movement is therapeutic to me.Cooking has always been that way.I can even remember how, right after my mother passed away, my father brought me home from her funeral, and we made dinner together.It was the first time I smiled since she died.