Chapter Thirty-Five - Romantic Romano

"YOU'RE REALLY HERE. Alive!" I'm a blubbering mess, my legs refusing to cooperate as I try to both walk around and over the counter.

The first one to take my hand is Cam, who guides me around the remaining furniture and into his arms. "Was that ever in question?" he asks with a laugh.

"Yes!" I reach over to Cheddy who scoops me up off my feet. "You were eaten."

All four men blink at me in confusion.

"At least, I thought you were. See." In a panic, I dump out my purse, spilling not only what little remains of my life but also the four bagged cheeses. "They had these on a board, and they'd been eating them, and you didn't come back. I waited for fourteen days, and you didn't come back."

Roq shoves around the bags of cheese with a discerning snort. Cam picks up one that's oozed into the seams and tosses it to Brie. "I believe that one's you."

Catching it, Brie turns the bag around, then his eyes bug out. "It's green."

"Precisely like you on that sea voyage. And who was me?" Cam asks.

I point to the other runny cheese that's spread out like a hand. "Hmm… I seem to be rather grabby in this stage."

"Wow." Cheddy homes in on the bag holding the crumbs of cheddar. "I lost a lot of weight. Like all of it."

"That's what you get for skipping torso day, my friend." Cam slaps him on the back, his smile not dimming for a second.

I want to join in and laugh like they are at my foolish leap in logic. But I can't believe they're here. What if I turn my head too fast and they vanish? Or I'll wake up on the flight across the country and break my heart all over again.

Taking a slow breath, I look up at the last one. He hasn't said a word, only stared at the final cheese. Roq's eyes dart up. Without his glasses, the pale blue flecks in the steel field are an icy blast that pins me to the ground. "What happened?"

It's Brie's gasp, "Where is the store?" that damn near kills me.

"I didn't mean to. The place was, there was, all the cheese. My mother—" I yelp and bite down on my knuckle to stop the tears.

All four of them glare. "What about her?" Roq asks.

"Such a peach, that one. A proper gem of a genteel lady," Cam mutters with a sour face.

"She…she broke in. Or she made a copy of my key. I don't know, I didn't ask." I can't stop crying now, my ears ringing with every fault.

I should have stayed up. Guarded you. It's because of me the store is gone. I'm why the cheese is lost. Why all of this is over.

I don't know if I'm shouting my confessions aloud or not, only that I start to crumple to the ground.

"Violette," they all cry out. Arms catch me. It's Roq who lifts me up and places me on the counter.

Woozy, I try to sit up, but Roq holds my cheek. Cam cups my knee and Brie takes my hand. Last but never least, Cheddy brushes back my fallen hair and meets my eyes. "Start at the beginning," he says. "I've always found that's the best way to do this."

I suck back in the tears and look at each of them. With a hard swallow, I nod and begin again. I skimp on nothing. How my mother found me asleep on their piles of clothing. That I hid them downstairs, thinking no one would know. Then she returned while I foolishly slept, found all of the cheese, and threw it in the garbage.

"All of it?" Roq interrupts after they've been silent for what could be hours.

Biting my lip, I bob my head and stare at my fingers.

"Your vault… I guess they found a way in," I say. I didn't stop to question the hired garbage collectors even though I should have. There were a lot of things I should have done.

I brace for Roq's tongue-lashing, but he falls silent and turns away. Cam reaches over to hold my shoulder before he nods to me. "Then what? Were they the ones to empty this place?"

"They tried," I mumble. "I…I wouldn't let them. I shouted for them to stop, to-to bring back everything they put in the garbage."

Cheddy looks around the empty floor. "They failed miserably."

All I can do is shake my head. They didn't fail. I did, like I always do.

"What of your mother?" Brie asks.

"Yes, what of that wicked witch? Is she yet lurking in the rafters of an abandoned belfry?" Cam doesn't mince words.

"I…yelled at her." My jaw locks and brace myself. "Told her I never want to see her again."

The strangest thing happens. Three of them give a celebratory whoop. Cam smiles and shouts, "Finally," while Roq and Brie both pat me on the back. Only Cheddy nervously chews on his nail and keeps quiet.

"So you had the cheese returned, but also believed we'd been consumed?" Roq asks.

"A man, one of the workers, he was eating cheese off of a piece of slate. That one." I point to the charcuterie board like it's to blame. "They said they just found the cheese and I…I was terrified it was you. I waited until nightfall. Sat there hoping I was wrong. Surely, you'd pop up and we'd all have a good laugh."

My throat stuffs with brambles as the long horror of the past two weeks hits me. All the nightmares I had of them waking up with limbs missing, or half their body gone. The long, slow march of time never knowing if I'd see them again.

"You didn't," I squeak out.

"Violette," Brie gasps.

"My lady." Cam roves his palm over my cheek, then tucks me to his chest.

"Two weeks. Fifteen days, I waited, every night. I didn't know what to do. All the cheese was…starting to stink and turn green. Moldy. And you weren't here."

People don't come back from the dead. This is an illusion. You've lost your mind and you're going to get committed.

Pleading, I stare up at Roq and beg, "How are you here?"

The happy smiles are gone, their faces pale. They keep glancing from the sides of their eyes, and their lips move without making a sound. Fifteen days they were eaten, someone's lunch. Now they're whole, a miracle I have to understand.

Cheddy pauses in rubbing my back. "I think I know."

"You do?" Roq asks.

"How?" Cam adds.

He points behind the counter to the blue box. "We were in the safe."

"The…?" I spin around to double-check that it is the same ornate box I dragged up here. "What safe?"

Cheddy clucks his tongue, then heaves the box onto the counter beside me. "When we're in here…"

"Chedward," Cam warns him with a glare.

To all of our surprise, Roq clasps a hand on Cam's shoulder, then he nods to Cheddy. "Go ahead."

"When we're in here, we're cheese. Years can pass without us knowing. We don't age, we don't get moldy or fall apart."

"It's like cryogenics?" I mumble to their confusion.

"Yes," Brie cries out. "Like in Moon Men on Planet X when they're in that tube that freezes them before the trip. Of course, it fails and they wake to one of the crew turned into a skeleton, but that doesn't happen with the box."

Both Roq and Cheddy stare at him but Cam nods. "Ah, yes, the one with the quadruple-breasted women."

Glaring from the box back to Cheddy and Roq, I try to knock all of this jumbled information into a thought. "So, so someone put you in there."

"You didn't?" Roq asks.

I shake my head. "I thought we'd meet up the next night and plan what to do to appease my mother. She wasn't supposed to show up later that day."

Roq glances at Cam and they both clasp arms in a side hug. "Perhaps, for all our follies and failures, we do have a touch of the divine watching out for us after all."

"Of course we do. Look at this angel before us," Cam says and he swerves his hands to encompass me.

I nervously wind my hair into a rope and keep twisting it around and around. "So…so you're saying that you're real? Like, really real? You didn't die?"

Fingers dance under my chin. Cam tips my head back, his teasingly brown eyes dancing in mine. "You tell me," he whispers and bends down for a kiss. Leather, forests, satin sheets, and cold spring waters overwhelm my aching sense—it's him. It's all of them.

"Oh my god," I gasp. Fumbling, I press my fingertips into Cheddy's shoulders. He bends over and flips until his head's nearly lying in my lap. I kiss him and he toys with my lip as I drink in that shock of amber, old moss, bonfires, and effervescent orange.

As I pull away, Cheddy's eyes slide open and he grins wider than an ocean. "Hi."

"Hi." I laugh through the tears and wave to Brie.

Throwing down his moldy cheese, Brie leaps into my arms. "I never thought you'd ask," he whispers just as he takes me. A blast of sea spray, of afternoon sunshine, and old pages in a beloved book overwhelm me. I tease through his hair, pulling the fine blond locks closer until we're both hidden inside their curtains.

Gazing into my eyes, Brie's smile dips. He takes my hands and—without a second's hesitation—says, "I love you."

"I…"

"If I may?" Roq interrupts. Brie stares at him for a long time with barely suppressed anger. For me, their fight was weeks ago, for them it was moments. With a sneer, Brie gives me up by moving away from Roq.

My teeth start to chatter as I gaze up at the cheese of stone. His lips are locked in a tight frown, and his eyes burn.

"I'm sorry. I should have fought harder. If I hadn't slept, then—"

"Violette." Roq cups the back of my head and pulls me until my forehead meets his. "Hush," his lips whisper against mine before they press the hottest and sincerest kiss of them all.

A forgotten cave, a meadow teeming with flowers, pain, regret, and a small flame of hope fill me as I drink in Roq. I rove my hands over his wide shoulders, shocked to realize that below his granite exterior is an equally rock-hard body I have yet to take advantage of.

The second the thought pops into my head, he pulls back. Silence grows as they alternate between looking at me and catching a glimpse of each other. They don't know what to say, and I have no idea where to begin…or end.

"You're selling the place?" Cam's question cuts through the awkward shuffling. He yanks the sign out of the window and spins it around to face the others. One by one, they look at me and I bend over from the guilt pressing on my shoulders.

"I…I thought you were gone. I didn't know what to do without you." Fingers brush across mine, then tease them apart until he takes my hand. I tighten the hold and look up. Roq? He's staring around the room, but he doesn't let me go.

"Maybe…" Brie takes the ‘For Sale' sign from Cam. He taps it against his palm just above the trash can then sighs. "Maybe it's for the best."

"What?" Cheddy cries out.

"Perhaps it's time we moved on. Get out from under…this yoke at long last." He passes the sign to Cam who brushes his fingers over the letters, then gives it to Cheddy.

"Where would we go?" Cheddy asks.

"There is a great big world out there, Chedward."

Cheddy frowns at Cam's response. "And most of it's trying to eat us. We won't be safe without—"

"Brie is right." Roq drops my hand. He takes the sign and holds it closer to his face. "There is so much more to see and experience beyond these four walls."

"Isn't it dangerous?" Cheddy asks.

"Or were all of these dangers nothing more than an excuse to keep us on your leash?" Brie cuts back. "To imprison us in your never-ending cycle of cheese and work while the world moved on without us?"

Roq's head lists to the side and his eyes close. "Believe me or don't, but it was never my intention to trap you. All I wished was…" He gulps and looks past Brie to Cam. The dashing rogue's smirk falters. He blushes and turns away. "I can't ask you to forgive me or force you to stay. I don't blame you if you never want to speak to me again."

"Give me a reason why I should," Brie says, but instead of an angry rant pumped with venom, he's begging for one. All Roq does is stare at him with broken eyes.

The four men shuffle apart in the four cardinal directions as if they've already made their choice. I'm left sitting in the middle, watching this brotherhood of centuries fall to pieces.

"Because he loves you." Every head swivels and I clasp my hand over my mouth. Fire shoots up my spine at their disbelieving glares, but I can't… No, I won't dance around this anymore.

Dropping to my feet, I spin around to keep an eye on each of them while talking. "You love each other. You're a family." My voice chokes and I drop my head. Furiously scratching at my arm, my mouth runs away. "For a long time, I thought family meant suffering. That it was people who could pry open your skull with a single word and dump pain into your brain to poison your soul."

My nails stop and I pull away just before the skin breaks. "But you've taught me it also means compassion." I look to Brie. "Joy." Cheddy smiles wide. "Protection." I nod to Roq before landing on Cam. "And the occasional shit stirring to keep everyone honest."

Cam laughs then shrugs with a huge grin of pride.

"I don't know what it means to have a family like that. A family that cares and loves, but—"

"Yes, you do," Cheddy interrupts. The others all shake their heads.

"Chedward, no." Cam sighs.

"Did you meet her mother?" Brie asks.

Cheddy shakes his head. "Not that." He takes my hands in his and peers down at my eyes. "You have us. And we all love—"

Cam coughs loudly.

"Love to care, and care to love. Sometimes we fight, and sometimes we…love." Cheddy's earnest plea turns into an eager leer with a tongue click at the end. "You may not be cheese, but you're one of us."

He's lying.

"Do you mean that?" I gaze up into his always earnest face, then glance back to Brie and catch Cam just behind his shoulder.

"Of course I do. I wouldn't have said it otherwise," Cheddy declares.

"Yes," Brie says, clasping a palm over his chest. "With all my heart." He glances at Cam, who's tapping his foot and staring at the ceiling. "Well?"

"I most certainly enjoy the loving part of this arrangement," he says.

"Camembert!" Brie scolds him. All three men turn and slug him on the arm.

"Very well," Cam groans. "These months with you have been the most invigorating nights of my life, which is worthy of Eros' highest reward. Wait, don't hit me. I have more!"

He scatters away from the second punch wind up and cups my cheek. "You are a balm to a wound I ceased noticing centuries back. A light in the eternal night. I am a better man for having met you, and will be a poorer one without you."

I can't stop ugly crying, my lips fighting to smile even as I mash them together to hold back a wail. It's everything I never thought I'd hear and my heart struggles to take it.

Tracing down my cheek one last time, Cam pulls closer and kisses my forehead. With that, he steps back beside Brie and Roq. All three of them turn to glare at Cam. "Oh, fine. Yes, I love you. There, are you happy? Splitting open a man's ribcage with a judgmental look is dirty pool."

Then there is one.

Roq coughs. I curl my hands up and drop them to my sides. "You don't have to say anything," I tell him.

He smiles wanly. "That modus operandi has only wounded me and those I care most about."

Roq taps the sale sign once more, then he stands up straight. "Brie, Cheddy…" He swerves to catch Cam's eye and pain washes across his face. "Ber. For too long I've kept you trapped here and in other cellars, together. Not for your safety, but for me. Because…" Roq sputters and tears drip down his cheek. "I don't want to face the dark alone. But that's unfair."

Slipping the sign back into the window, Roq shudders. His shoulders quiver as he places a hand on the glass and peers out. "Go," he barely whispers. The window catches Roq's reflection, his face water-stained with centuries of swallowed pain. "See the world. Live whatever life you want either alone or together. Your lives, despite the mess I've made of them, are your own."

The three men go quiet as they stare questions at each other.

"What about you?" Cam asks.

"I…" Roq stands tall, his head nearly touching one of the pipes on the ceiling. "I will remain here." His eyes soften and he looks at me. "With the first woman I've trusted in an age."

"But she's selling the place," Cam argues.

"Even still. I'm tired of running and hiding. Whatever the world throws my way, I choose to meet it head-on instead of rotting away in my cave."

"Is he serious?" Cheddy asks.

"As sunshine," Roq says with an ironic laugh.

"But…but we need to move. To go somewhere else." Cheddy's trembling at the thought. "You always find the new place. Make the deal."

"Not this time, my friend. The door is there, the night is young. Go on, if you want."

Cheddy eyes up the whole world just past the glass. Then he shakes his head. "No. I'm not leaving you."

"But he lied to us, for centuries," Brie argues.

"I know, but…" Cheddy crosses his arms and widens his stance. "You don't abandon the castle just because a few parapets are on fire. He's my friend. I'm staying with Roq and Vi."

"This is madness," Brie fumes. "Come on, Cam. Let's get out of here before he changes his mind." With a jerk of his head, Brie makes for the door.

Cam glances at Roq then me. His eyes close and he softly chuckles. "I'm sorry." Turning, he faces Brie who's gripping the door handle. "But I'm remaining here with that damnable fool."

"What?" Brie gasps.

Instead of meeting Brie's look, Cam gazes at his other friends. He pats Roq's hand, then takes mine, before smirking. "Without me, this place won't survive to the morning. I fear it'd be less than an hour before Chedward drowns in a vat of milk and poor Roq burns off all of his hair in rage."

"I do not rage," Roq thunders.

Cam licks his fingers, hops up, and pinches a tuft of Roq's hair between them. "Got the spark. You're welcome."

Roq glares at him, but as he looks down at Cam's non-singed fingers, he suddenly takes the nape of Cam's neck. Pulling him close, Roq whispers, "Thank you," and kisses him.

"Woo!" Cheddy cheers. "We haven't seen that since Marseilles. Right, Brie? Oh, you're leaving."

Breaking his unexpected but enthusiastic kiss, Roq takes in the odd man out. "Brie…?"

"You don't think I can do it. That I won't be able to survive? That I'll…I'll get eaten on the first day. Or wind up in a gutter." He sputters, his fingers clamping so tight to the door pull they turn bone white.

"No, I know you can, Brie. You fought through so much to reach us." Roq sighs and collapses his hands together. "I only wish you didn't have to."

Brie gulps.

"But if you want to go, I hope you find all the joy you deserve out there."

A slow shudder warps Brie's breaths. He starts to swivel his head and I stand up taller. He's coming back. He has to. They love each other. He'd never…

Brie walks out the door.

"Oh," Cheddy moans.

"I see." Roq drops his head.

"Can't win ‘em all," Cam declares before he pats Roq's cheek. "Give him time."

"It only took you a few hundred years," Roq whispers back before kissing the tip of Cam's nose. Then he curls a palm around me, pulling me tighter into his embrace. My head lands on his shoulder while Cam holds my waist.

All four of us lean in together for a hug. For what we lost, for the future we cannot see, for those we love, and for those we could never stop loving.

A loud banging wrenches us apart. The Open House sandwich board sign walks its way inside. As it tips to the side, revealing Brie's concerted frown, he yanks the other For Sale sign out of the window. "We don't want to trick anyone into thinking they can buy this place." The signs clatter to the ground and he wipes off his hands. Gazing one by one at each of us before finishing on Roq, he asks, "Do we?"

Roq bows his head. Bending over, he picks up the small window sign. "It's not our place."

"Yes, it is." The words slip from my mouth, but my lips twitch up into a smile. Confusion abounds and yet, I've never been more certain of anything in my life. "You made this place, you guarded it. It's your home. It's yours."

I pluck the sign out of Roq's hands.

"Violette…?" he asks as I stand before the four of them.

The For Sale gleams up at me with a promise of wealth, but not security, or riches, or love. I can only find those in one place. With a giddy laugh, I bend the sign in half and rip it down the middle. As both halves hit the trash, I declare, "It's ours."

"Woo!" Cheddy whoops again. He's the first to reach me, hefting me into the air. I bend over to kiss him, clinging to his square jaw for balance before Cam swoops in.

"My lady," he whispers, bends me over, then puts my hand to his lips. "A promise for later."

"It's going to take a lot of work to fix this place up again," Roq says.

I glide my arm around the back of his neck and kiss his fretting lips. "I know," I say, and kiss him again.

"We need counters," Cam adds.

"And places to put stuff," Cheddy says.

My happy dance ends at Brie. I take his beautiful fingers and tug them back around my waist. "First, we need a new sign for our place. And I think I know the perfect man to paint it."

Brie laughs, then his voice softens to a tender love song. "I could never leave you," he whispers in my ear before kissing me.

Roq claps. "Let's draw up a list. Cam, fetch me a sheet of paper."

"Fetch it yourself," he says and manages to pop open a wine bottle that came out of nowhere. "We're celebrating!"

"All right," Roq says. "One glass, then we get back to work. Or maybe two. Three?"

"We're far too dressed for this occasion," Cam declares.

"But you're naked," I gasp as he hands me a glass.

"Not all of us," Cam says before peeling off my dress with his eyes.

"What?" Cheddy asks. "Oh, yeah! Yeah!" With another loud whoop, he reaches for my belt.

"I should call the realtor. Hang on." Wine sloshes up the glass and beads down Roq's chest. As I watch the scarlet liquid trace every channel of his muscles, Cam slides my hair and kisses the back of my neck.

"It's a night for celebrating."

"Miss Reely!" the realtor's voice cuts over the phone.

Cheddy runs his palms up my knee and around my thigh. Brie does the same on the other side, both of them sneaking under my dress.

"Any last questions for tomorrow?"

"I'm sorry Mister…ha!" I laugh, Cam tickling under my breasts as he sucks on the nape of my neck.

"Miss Reely?"

"I'm sorry Mister Walker, but I'm not selling."

"What? Miss Reely, I assure you…"

Roq takes my chin in his massive hand. Damn near growling, he brushes the tip of his finger over my lip. Just as I'm about to giggle, he kisses me. The phone falls from my hand, rebounding off of the open house sign. A tiny realtor screams at me for ruining his dreams while four men strip and devour me before the sun rises.