No beautiful Elise to cling to him while she slept. No soft, sweet, shy girl to look at him as if he’d hung the moon.
No one ever looked at Rome Lozada like that. He was addicted to it already.
“I like it here, J,” Rome warned him. “I’m just getting back on track after doing time.”
His brother sighed. “I know, man. That’s why I’m here to warn you. Lie low. Get rid of the bike if you have to. People remember a guy like you driving something like that through.”
He nodded, though there wasn’t much he could do about the bike. He didn’t have the money to rent a car. “They asking about me?”
“Of course. You’re their baby boy.” Jericho’s mouth twisted ruefully. “And I’m guessing they need help with another scam of some kind. With our luck, Dad watched too much Breaking Bad in prison and now wants to set up a meth lab or something.”
Rome snorted. That did sound like something John Lozada Senior would do. “I don’t want them to find me.”
“Then it’s a good thing I told them I heard you were in Austin.”
He looked at J in surprise. “You did?”
“Sure. You’re my little brother, and despite things, we’re family.”
He gave Jericho a skeptical look. “Family doesn’t have a lot of pull where I’m concerned.”
“Can’t say I blame you. It’s your own fault, though. Mom uses those tears on everyone she knows will fall for ’em. If they show up again, you gotta be strong . . . and then check your shit thoroughly. And this time? Don’t take the fall for them. Swear to god. That was f**king stupid of you last time.”
“I know it. I know.” He’d ruined his life for someone who didn’t give two shits about the fact. It ate at him every damn day.
“Anyhow, I’m kicking around the area.” J shrugged. “Wanted to make sure you were doing okay, was all. Ask if you needed anything.”
Rome gave his brother a questioning look. “I’m good, thanks.”
“But even if you weren’t, you wouldn’t tell me, right?”
Rome pointed, as if to say “bingo.” “Learned my lesson already.”
Jericho grinned and chugged his coffee, then put the mug down. “Well, I’ll buy you breakfast at least. No strings attached. And you can tell me all about why you’re so attached to this place. You working with a hot girl?”
“Even if I was, I wouldn’t tell you,” Rome told him. The last thing he wanted was anyone in his family finding out about Elise.
“Huh. Well, maybe I’ll stick around for a bit. Was thinking about heading back out to Marfa, but this place is kinda growing on me. There’s a bed-and-breakfast in town, too. I hear it’s pretty reasonable.” He flipped the menu over, studying it.
Rome stiffened, picturing Elise bounding down the steps of the Peppermint House once she saw a Harley pull up, assuming it was him. “Stay away from that place.”
“Uh oh, the plot thickens.” Jericho shook his head and waved the waitress over. “Sounds like I found out why my little brother’s so interested in sticking around all of a sudden.”
Rome glared at his brother as he ordered his food. He waved off the waitress when she looked to him for his order, and then she disappeared again.
J shook his head, as always, amused at Rome’s bad attitude. “Don’t be so angry. I’m not the one who turned you in last time.”
Yeah, but he was family, and Rome had learned the hard way not to trust those. Behind Jericho’s smiling, familiar eyes was the same con artist Rome had grown up to be.
• • •
“So what are your plans?” Grant flipped through Elise’s photos as she toyed with layouts on her computer. She’d showered, taken a nap, and then woken up in time to go to lunch with her brother and Brenna that afternoon. They’d returned to the lodge and Grant had invited her to borrow Dane’s desk so she could work on the brochure he wanted for the paintball course. So she’d set up her MacBook atop a mountain of papers on Dane’s desk, between old chip bags and who knew what else, and tried not to watch the door in case Rome came in.
“Hmm?” Elise asked, glancing over at her brother.
“Once we have the brochures done, are you heading back home? Or are you going to stick around?” He picked through the printouts she’d made for him, casting one aside and then picking up another and scrutinizing it. “Do you think we should have some action shots?”
“We can do some action shots,” she agreed, getting up from the borrowed desk to peek over his shoulder at the photos he was discarding. “And I’m not sure I’m ready to return home yet.” Home was living with Mom and Dad like she was a twelve-year-old girl. It was past time for her to move out, but there’d been no hurry, really, and her mother panicked at the thought of Elise being on her own, as if she couldn’t take care of herself for some reason.
“Well, if you’re not going back anytime soon, you can go thrift store shopping with me,” Brenna said from her desk. Elise looked over and Brenna was playing Minesweeper instead of working, her puppy on her lap. Typical. “I wanted to get some ideas for the wedding. I bet we could find some cute dresses at Goodwill.”
“No,” Grant said in a warning voice. “You are not having a Goodwill wedding.”
“Why not?”
“Because my mother will die of a heart attack at the thought.”
Brenna snorted. “Oh, she will not. Elise?”
Elise grimaced and raised her hands. She knew her mother’s thoughts on used clothing, but she wasn’t about to get in between these two. “I’m staying out of it.”
“We could always get married in Bride and Groom T-shirts.”
“Still no,” Grant said, then pointed at one of Elise’s photos. “I like this one. We should put it on the cover.”
She picked up the photo. It was a long-distance shot from up the hill of the valley, showing the landscape and the built-up forts and the castle in the distance. “I like that one, too, but if you want an action shot, we should probably put it on the cover. It’ll be more dynamic.”
He nodded. “So how do we get action shots?”
“Invite some townspeople in for a dry run of the course?”
“Invite the Waggoners,” Brenna advised. “Colt’s brothers would probably love the chance to shoot some guns, and they won’t care that it’s nothing but paint coming out of them.”