"Falon." I brush past Caleb to reach out my hand to her. She takes it easily. "These are my brothers."
"Gabriel." Gabriel turns and extends his hand. Falon looks down at our intertwined fingers before she lets go to take Gabriel's hand in hers for a quick shake.
"You and I met." Caleb walks up behind me. "Nar-Con meeting. It was years ago."
My jaw drops. I look at Falon's face before I turn to look at Caleb. "You've gone to a meeting?"
"Meetings," he replies. "Too many to count. Your beautiful friend wasn't at them all, but she was there, at a few."
"I usually go to the ones in Brooklyn," she offers in a small voice.
"Is there coffee any better than that shit they serve on Morningside Drive?"
She chuckles. "No, it's just as bad."
"I'm Roman." My dad moves so he's standing directly in front of us. "You're the girl who loves white roses."
Falon blushes but her eyes never leave my dad's face. "I do. How do you know that?"
"Asher's mother told me," he divulges. "There were white roses in his hotel room in Philadelphia. He told her they were for you, for his girlfriend."
She finally looks up at me. "You had roses in the room? I didn't know that."
"They're your favorite."
She nods softly, her hand reaching back for mine. "I'm going to go home now. Will you call me later? Once you've talked?"
I want to ask her to stay. Fuck, I want to beg her to stay. My father and brothers don't drop in for Sunday night social calls. I know I have to face this alone but I don’t want to let her go.
"My driver, Charles, is downstairs, Falon." Gabriel scoops his phone out of the pocket of his jeans. "I'll call down. He'll drive you home."
"I can take a cab." She turns to look at him. "I don’t want him to go to any trouble."
"No trouble. He'll take you home."
She nods, before she leans up to kiss me quickly. Before she pulls back, she rests her head against mine. "I love you, Asher. I cherish you."
***
"To what do I owe this pleasure?" I sweep my hands in the air. "It's not often that all of us are in the same room. What's going on?"
Gabriel brushes past me towards a leather chair. He sits down, crossing his legs at the knee. "I don'
t have a clue. These two showed up at my door and pulled me away from my wife. It better be worth it."
I turn back towards Caleb. "He did the same to you? He showed up and ordered you to come here with him?"
"Not quite." Caleb adjusts the front of his dress pants. "I picked him up from the airport two hours ago."
I shouldn't be surprised that Caleb knew where he was the entire time. He's protective of dad. He's the one who still sends him a box of expensive cigars on his birthday.
"How long have you known that he's been on his way back here?"
"I came as soon as your mother called." My dad steps towards me. "She called the office of the Cruise Line. She said it was urgent. They patched the call through to the ship."
"So you raced back here?" I hear the sarcasm in my voice. It's dripping with anger and disappointment. "I've been trying to call you for weeks. You couldn't return one of those calls?"
His eyes drop to the floor. "I turned my phone off. I was on a retreat."