Love Me (The Elites of Cheshire shore #2)

14. Rome

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

rome

“ A re you going to just sit there glaring the whole time?” I ask my brother. He hasn’t stopped sending his daggered gaze at Becks since he walked into my office with Henley.

“Well, that depends.” Luca pouts. “Am I going to be invited to this weekend’s get-together.”

Not this again .

“Hey, why are you blaming me?” Henley holds his arms up in mock defense . Because you’re the dumbass who always tells Luca . As head of Croft Racing, Henley has nonstop events during the racing season he needs to attend. But due to our little issue with his missing shipments, carving out time for our little meeting is a priority. Although, if Luca has his way, there really won’t be much shop talk because he is too worried about planning our next group get-together.

Becks rolls his eyes and sits back in his chair. “Who said anything about this weekend?”

“Flo told me this morning that the girls are going away—some girls’ spa shit. Why can’t we go too?” he replies, the FOMO rolling off him. Is this the kind of shit Zander puts Ryder through?

I stare at my brother through slitted eyes. “If you’re angling for a guys’ spa weekend…”

Becks scoffs. “Yeah, good luck getting Ryder to say yes to that one.”

“I could go for a facial,” Henley replies. “And once I tell Duke, he will totally go for it.”

“Okay, if Duke is invited, I’m demanding an invite,” Luca gripes.

Ryder is going to kill us.

Just as Becks laughs. “Oh, Ryder is going to fucking love this.”

Crashing the girls’ spa weekend sounds like a lot of fun and I’m always down to get a face mask. Livvy has really upgraded my skin-care routine, and I’m not ashamed to say, my skin has never looked better. Fucking with Ryder is going to make it even better. “I think Ryder might actually kill us,” I repeat.

Becks snorts. “We’ll say it was Anders’ idea, he’s a heck of a lot more tolerant with that guy because he’s Livvy’s friend.”

I look over at Luca typing away on his phone, no doubt messaging Flo with our newly laid plans. “Three, two, one.” I count down just as all our phones ping with a message in our group chat. News travels fast in our group.

I tilt my phone so I can see the screen as more messages continue to pile in.

Ryder

No fucking way

Leo

I’m sensing you’re really saying yes

Ryder

No, no, no, no

Leo

Yes, yes, yes

Duke

I’m in town. FUCK YES

Ryder

LEO, FUCK OFF

Luca

Duke’s coming, I’m coming

Zander

Ryder, don’t screw this up for me too—I’m coming

Ryder

I will exit this group chat again

Leo

Such funny threats

Henley

Remember you left the chat once but you came back for more

Rome

You secretly love us too much

Anders

Can I just say this was not my idea. I have to bail. I’m in London sorry guys. Next time.

Leo

I’m already making matching T-shirts

The room dissolves into snorting laughter as a photo Leo posted of our faces covered with clay masks pops up on our screens. He no

doubt just spent the last few minutes photoshopping onto our faces.

Ryder

Do group votes not count anymore?

Leo

They do. You’ve just been outvoted.

Rome

So shirts for everyone?

Ryder

*middle finger emoji*

I laugh. “Fucking with Ryder is so much fun.” For some reason, crashing the girls’ spa weekend and seeing Flo a bit more is exciting me more than it should. I was almost disappointed we weren’t going to be spending our Friday night studying her textbooks again.

“You’re not the one who has to put up with him whining for the next few days.” Becks rolls his eyes.

“Now that we have our weekend sorted…” I offer my brother a sarcastic grin, and look back at Henley and Becks, “some weird things have been happening.”

Beck’s eyes narrow. “What kind of things…”

“So far, small shit. Paperwork not in order. Shipments being delayed for no reason.”

“That’s odd,” Henley replies. The reason why he is in the room is because Ven Industries handles a lot of shipping of equipment for Croft Racing, and if we’re having these issues, I’d rather he know about it now before something bigger happens.

“And we need to find out—” Luca is cut off by a light rap on my closed door.

“Come in,” I call. Savannah opens the door and gestures for the person behind her to walk in.

“Nanai,” Luca and I say at the same time, jumping from our chairs to go over and kiss the woman who has been like a grandmother to us.

“Please bring an oolong tea in the floral cup and saucer.” I dismiss Savannah, surveying the room for the most comfortable spot for Nanai to sit.

“We don’t have oolong?—”

“In my private kitchen there is a box of oolong and the teacup is next to it,” I say through gritted teeth. I know we have the tea—I put it there myself, and I brought Nanai the cup she loves to drink her tea out of. The same tea and cup are at my place, too, for this specific reason.

Savannah nods and leaves.

“Not too hot, I like my tea at eighty-five degrees,” Nanai calls to Savannah’s turned back, and the room breaks into barely held snorts of laughter.

“You know she will get it wrong,” Luca says.

“I know, but we have to let her try.” Nanai laughs.

“What’re you doing here?” I place her down in my chair, it’s the best height for her arthritic knees.

“No need for the chair, I’m not staying.” I give Nanai a stern look. We’re not going to leave Nanai just standing there.

“Hi, Nanai.” Henley dots a kiss on her wrinkled cheek. “Nanai, do you remember Becks?”

“Of course.” Nanai smiles at Becks, who returns the action. Nanai scans the room. “Have I interrupted a meeting?” she asks, taking a seat.

“You’re never interrupting,” I tell her.

“Good, good.” She reaches into her bag. “I had to bring this to you.” She hands me a photo frame. While it’s not unusual for Nanai to visit us a work, her bringing us an old photo is slightly out of character. It must be a special photo. I take the frame from her and slowly take in the photo, my stomach twisting in knots.

Henley leans over my shoulder. “Well if that isn’t a blast from the past,” he says, staring at the over-a-decade-old photo. I haven’t seen this photo in a long time.

“Fuck, look how young and carefree we were then,” I mumble, running my thumb over the glass. Sometimes I wish I could go back to this day. My arm wrapped around Flo, her hugging my side. Yeah, I was seventeen and a dickhead—but I always knew Flo was special to me. I was even planning on doing something that night. I was going to finally ask her to go on a date with me. I was going to take her out to dinner and then a movie, I had it all planned out in my head. It was something I’d been dreaming about doing for a while, but Luca caught wind of it and lost his shit. And that was before I sat back and watched her dad die and did absolutely shit all about it—except stare at him like a gaping fish. If there was ever a lesson to show I’m not good enough for her—that was it. I haven’t touched the subject since.

“Yeah.” Henley sighs. “Look how happy Ev was.”

My eyes flick up to meet his, focused on the photo. Seeing his brother happy like that is probably bringing up a lot of memories I don’t think any of us are ready to revisit.

“Florence left this in my room the other day,” Nanai says.

My eyes meet hers. “Why are you giving it to me?”

“I thought it could be a cute addition to your desk.”

“What about me, Nanai? Do you have one for my desk?” Luca asks, making his green eyes puppy-dog wide.

“I didn’t know Flo kept this photo.” Henley takes the frame from my hands like he needs to see it up close.

“I’m glad you have it too. It’s one of her favorites. Don’t worry, Luca, I will bring you one as well.” Nanai winks as Savannah brings in the piping hot tea.

“I’ll make sure she gets it,” I tell Nanai.

Nanai smiles at me and pats my hand. “Good man. I’m so happy she’s moved in with you. Finally.”

Henley and Luca snicker.

Meddling woman . I almost groan, knowing she is enjoying this as much as Luca and Henley are.

Luca has never been the one to come up with great ideas, but crashing girls’ weekend has been one of my brother’s best ideas in a long time.

“Livvy is going to start to worry,” Ryder growls as Leo takes his phone and tucks it into his pocket.

Lucky Dante isn’t here, we all just managed to fit into the limo. “Can you move over?” I push against Henley’s bulky shoulders. Even though we fit in the limo, doesn’t mean it’s not cramped—especially with guys who enjoy shoulder day.

Henley shuffles a bit to the side giving me more room.

“You know, I’m thinking we should have gone long sleeves,” Duke mutters, looking down at the T-shirt Leo made for us.

“Agreed, it’s a little cold,” my brother replies. “Next guys’ night, long sleeves.”

“Although, I think we should use different faces, this one isn’t my best angle.” Becks sighs.

“Can you please give me my phone back?” Ryder asks, holding his hand out.

“We all made a pact we wouldn’t tell the girls we’re coming and you can’t be trusted when it comes to Livvy,” Leo tells Ryder.

“I need to at least check in with her, she suffers from panic attacks, you know. Screw the pact. Not replying to her messages might cause her unnecessary anxiety.”

“It’s only for an hour, until we get there.” Leo rolls his eyes.

“Let me tell her,” Zander cuts in, pulling out his phone before Leo leans across the seats and swipes his phone.

“How about. No. She will definitely know something’s up if you send her a message,” Leo deadpans. Henley hands Ryder a tumbler with a finger of scotch, which Ryder drinks in one swallow. Mental note: Leo takes a pact very seriously. A phone rings in Leo’s pocket.

“That’s probably her now,” Ryder grouses.

My own phone vibrates in my pocket. I straighten my leg trying to make room to pull it out. I glance at the screen and look at Leo. “It’s Flo, she’s asking about Ryder.”

“What?!” Luca gasps and pulls out his phone. “Why the fuck didn’t she message me? Tell her I’m mad. No wait, I’ll tell her.”

“No, you won’t.” Leo snatches Luca’s phone, adding it to his growing collection of phones. “Man, I feel like a teacher on school camp. Do I have to confiscate all your phones? Or can we be adults?”

I quickly type back to Flo, warmth expanding in my chest as my thumbs race over the keyboard.

She came to me. Not Luca .

“This side of the limo is more than capable of behaving ourselves.” Henley points to Duke and himself. “I can’t speak for that side.” One side of Duke’s mouth tips up in a smug smile.

“I can’t wait to see the girl who makes you grovel so hard you will need a spatula to remove your lips from her ass,” Ryder tells him.

“Not going to happen.” Henley crosses his arms over his chest.

Zander snickers. “I distinctly remember a certain other person saying that, now his balls live in a Dior handbag.”

My phone pings again, I read the screen out loud. “Livvy wants to know if Ryder is okay?”

Leo says, “Don’t answer that?—”

As Ryder says, “Tell her I’m fine,”

The limo comes to a stop, I pocket my phone, leaving Flo’s message on Read. There’s no point answering since we’re about to crash their dinner anyway.

We’re the last two to exit the car, after Ryder practically threw the door open and jumped out, the other guys piling out after him. “Flo is so dead to me,” Luca mutters as I close the door and knock on it twice, letting the driver know.

“What’s up your ass? Did the spa just tell you your mud wrap session has been booked out again?”

Luca levels me with an eyebrow-raised stare. “You already know I will be switching with whoever booked out my session. That’s twice now I’ve been bumped. Papa needs some sulfur in these pores.”