LOL: Laugh Out Loud (After Oscar, #2)(62)

She pushed the french toast pan off the heat and turned to fully face me. “You have a strong personality, Roman. You need someone who can stand up to you. Pete took all your bullshit and swallowed it wholesale. And he didn’t have the balls to stand up to the media and tell them where to put it.”

I stared at my sister. She’d never said one negative thing about Pete in the time we dated.

Earl’s hand came down on my shoulder. “What she means is, it’s good to see you so happy and relaxed. You’ve been working too much lately. It’s about time you took some time off and enjoyed yourself with a nice person.”

“Also,” she said, pointing a wooden spatula at me, “Pete would have never stood up on the bed and defended you the way Earl said Scotty did.”

Earl’s face cracked into a wide grin. “He hissed at me, Roman. Hissed. And his fists were like angry little…” He made two fists and shook them at me. “Like this. He wasn’t going down without a fight. That man was going to defend you to the death.”

I glanced back toward Scotty, who was now sitting in a chair with both girls on his lap telling him how to fix his hair. Two sets of little sticky fingers tugged and pulled at the blond curls, and something about the scene made me feel like my chest might explode right there and then.

“You do like him,” Diana said in a surprised whisper. “Look at your face. Aww, Roman.”

I don’t know why I felt the need to deny it. What was the point? She was right—why was I fighting against it? “You might be right,” I conceded under my breath. “I think I’ve got it bad, Di. He’s such a sweetheart.”

Diana handed the spatula to Earl and came over to hug me. She must have been the same height as Scotty because her head fit under my chin the way his did. I squeezed her tight, reminded once again how grateful I was to have such a supportive and wonderful sister in my life.

She squeezed me back and then stepped away, patting me on the shoulder. “Then let’s get this breakfast done so we can show that sweetheart how to ride a horse.”

The girls must have heard that last part because they started chanting, “Ride a horse!” Nay-Nay even began bouncing up and down on Scotty’s knee like she was already riding a horse.

I winced, expecting to see Scotty calmly putting up with my nieces’ exuberance, but when I caught his eye, there was nothing in it other than pure happiness. It caused my heart to catch.

Who knew how long I stood there staring at the stunning man, but suddenly I felt the sting of a spatula across my ass. “Ow! What was that for?” I asked, rounding on my sister.

“Breakfast is ready. Take this to the table,” Diana said with a smirk, handing me a giant platter of french toast.

Once we were all seated around the table, passing orange juice, platters of bacon, bowls of fruit, and bottles of syrup, I realized how happy I was. I’d enjoyed Christmas morning breakfast with my family and hadn’t really expected to see them again after that until a visit in the summer for Nay-Nay’s birthday. So having them here, along with Scotty, was a special treat. And it was a reminder that my “normal” life in the city was very, very solitary.

I didn’t like being alone, I suddenly realized. Perhaps I’d convinced myself I did out of necessity, because I preferred spending time at home out of the eye of the paparazzi, and being home necessarily meant being alone. But wanting to avoid reporters wasn’t the same as wanting to be alone. I preferred being surrounded by this sense of family, the low buzz of kids and teasing, the clink of glasses and dishes.

Scotty caught my eye across the table and winked. It was like a cupid arrow into the fucking heart. I thought about what my sister had said.

Scotty wasn’t Pete.

Clearly this was a bubble situation unlike real life, but that didn’t mean I had to assume someone like Scotty would balk at the media attention the way Pete had. At the very least I could give him the benefit of the doubt to at least be willing to try.

I could at least talk to Scotty and let him decide whether or not he wanted to try to make things work between us longer term than a Vermont vacation fling.

Scotty’s smile faded and his eyebrow went up. “You okay?” he mouthed.

I nodded and smiled in reassurance. “I’m okay,” I mouthed back. And I was. Honestly, I’d never been happier.

Until Lolo and Larry turned up that is.





19





Scotty





Ski Season’s Hottest Styles On The Slopes In Stowe



“Oh thank the Lord, we’re saved,” Lolo claimed, arriving in a blur of bright red synthetic fiber. “I’m so hungry, I could eat cow… boy.”

“What are you wearing?” Roman asked.

Lolo looked down his nose at him. “Rossignol. Larry and I are hitting the slopes after breakfast. So kind of you to have someone come in and cook for us.”

He sat at an empty seat and began serving himself from the platters and bowls in the center of the table.

Larry shuffled in a moment later, fighting the zipper in a pair of tattered ski bib overalls that looked like they were from the 1980s. Overstretched elastic suspenders held them up on his shoulders over an off-white waffle-weave long-underwear shirt. It couldn’t have been more opposite of the sleek, designer outfit his significant other wore.