Perfectly Accidental (Accidentally Perfect Book 2), page 1
Perfectly
Accidental
ALSO BY ELIZABETH STEVENS
unvamped
Netherfield Prep
the Trouble with Hate is…
Accidentally Perfect
Keeping Up Appearances
Love, Lust & Friendship
Valiant Valerie
Being Not Good
The Stand-In
Popped
Safety in the Friendzone
No More Maybes Books
No More Maybes
Gray’s Blade
Royal Misadventures
Now Presenting
Lady in Training
Three of a Kind
Some Proposal
Royally Unprepared
Royals in Dating
Wishing You a Merry Misadventure
Pithy Pooka Shorts
the Romeo + Juliet Experiment
the Bright + Shiny People
Heaven & Hell Chronicles
Damned if I do
Damned if I don’t
Damned if I know
All Devilbums Go To Heaven
Perfectly
Accidental
ELIZABETH STEVENS
Sleeping Dragon Books
Perfectly Accidental
by Elizabeth Stevens
Print ISBN: 978-1925928433
Digital ISBN: 978-1925928426
Cover art by: Izzie Duffield
Copyright 2022 Elizabeth Stevens
Worldwide Electronic & Digital Rights
Worldwide English Language Print Rights
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any form, including digital and electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the Publisher, except for brief quotes for use in reviews. This book is a work of fiction. Characters, names, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This one’s for the Roman fans,
This book wouldn’t exist without you all.
Thank you for loving him as much as me.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter One
Like I need another reminder.
“You know the drill, Roman,” Officer Daniels said to me as she nodded to the chair beside her desk and picked up her phone receiver.
I fell into the chair, dropped my cuffed hands in my lap, and stretched my neck to wait while she dialled the number. The Sergeant saw me and rolled his eyes before sharing a silent look with Officer Daniels. She gave him a very ‘I know’, look in response.
“Oh, Mr Lombardi,” she said into the phone mere moments later.
She shared her surprise with me. Surprise that he’d picked up so quickly. She knew I didn’t care, but we’d done this dance numerous times before. We’d built up rapport, unintended though it was. We didn’t like each other, more we shared in a set of specific circumstances during which we’d become familiar. One of those specific circumstances was him not answering his phone.
“Yes,” she continued. “It’s Officer Daniels from the Waketon Police Station.”
I didn’t need to hear him to know what sort of things he was saying to her. But I saw Officer Daniels’ face and knew he was using his most colourful language. Between me and him, the woman put up with her fair share of shit. And that wasn’t even taking into account the other fuckwits in this backwater town.
“I understand,” Officer Daniels said into the phone with a nod. “Yes. He was picked up at a party.” She nodded again. “Fighting. No, we didn’t get anyone else.”
Here, she threw a look to me, and I shrugged a What do you want me to do about it?
Yeah, Rio had been with me. He was the closest thing I had to a best mate and we were firm believers that friends never let friends get into shit alone.
Officer Daniels knew he’d been there and I knew he’d been there. Fuck, my father probably knew he’d been there. But no way was I ratting Rio out. He knew the drill; first sign of lights or a siren and he runs. I was the one with the lawyer for an absentee father, who disagreed with the notion of parenting but was quite happy to keep me out of gaol to avoid any potential embarrassment to him and the new trophy wife’s perfect life.
I sometimes wondered if I let myself get caught so often because I wanted to see if we’d get even one of those headlines he was so scared of seeing: Prominent Sydney Lawyer’s Son Arrested For [Insert Any Old Crime Here]. Personally, I doubted he was as prominent as he liked to think he was. Still, he managed to get me out of trouble, time and time again. I’d long since stopped caring why he did it. He did, so I got to live whatever life I wanted.
“Of course, I’ll pass him over.” She pulled the receiver from her ear and held it out to me. “He wants to talk to you.”
“I’ll bet,” I said as I took it, my lip stinging in protest. I gave her a polite nod because I wasn’t a total heathen. “Rocco,” I said into the phone.
“Respectful as always, Roman,” was the first thing he said.
“Respect where it’s due. Isn’t that what you taught me?”
“I don’t know why I bother,” he said to me. “Why do I waste my time?”
It was the same thing I’d heard my whole life. Accidentally broke Mum’s vase when I was four? I was stupid and useless. Put my dishes in the sink instead of the dishwasher? I was lazy and useless. Had the flu for two weeks when I was seven? I was lazy and stupid.
“How should I know?” I replied. “You’re the one who insisted they call you when they picked me up. Maybe your child bride has given you a taste for drama.”
“Annika is old enough to be your mother,” was the old man’s favourite retort.
“Mmm… I seem to recall you saying Paris having a kid at that age was scandalous,” I reminded him.
“Paris is still a child.”
“You’re just making my point for me,” I told him, throwing a victorious wink to Officer Daniels.
Needless to say, she did not share my enthusiasm for antagonising my father.
“Of the children I expected to breed before reaching the age of majority, I’d put you firmly in the lead. But, no. That would require some effort. Whereas you will never amount to anything.”
I grinned, but it was anything but humoured. “Oh, I put in plenty of effort, Rocco. I’m just not as stupid as my sister.”
“No. Stupider, I’d say. You’ll never change, Roman. At least I won’t have to see the day you become a deadbeat father.”
I shouldn’t have done it, but I rose to his bait. “Oh, really? How’d you figure that?” I sneered.
“No one would want to be around you long enough. You ruin everything you touch.”
It wasn’t the first time I’d heard those words, and I’d bet his fancy fleet of Porsches that it wouldn’t be the last.
My jaw clenched and I looked at Officer Daniels. “Are we done with him?” I asked her, ignoring the lovely things my father then had to say to me.
She nodded. “We have what we need.”
I gave her a curt nod and dropped the receiver back onto the phone, hoping that it clattered in his ear.
“Do what you’ve got to do,” I told her.
She looked around the room for her partner. She threw him a nod and he grabbed the keys and started heading out to the car.
Officer Daniels helped me out of the chair, undid my cuffs and led me out to the car.
“First time seeing the new place,” I commented dryly. Inwardly, I was seething.
“Best you keep your mouth shut, Roman,” she advised. It was firm, but there was no malice in it.
Officer Daniels was a lot of things. She was professional. She was bored and annoyed by my shit. She’d written me off alongside everyone else who’d ever met me. But she wasn’t mean and she wasn’t rude.
As we drove up to our new house, I noticed all the lights were out. All but the security light at the front door. It was then that I remembered I was supposed to be at dinner with Mum at the neighbours. I was almost disappointed I’d miss it. But then, I wasn’t sure that putting me under that roof was a very good idea.
“Are you sure someone’s home?” Officer Daniels asked, as though there were anyone but me and Mum to be at home.
“She’s next door,” I told them.
Officer Daniels held the door open for me and a thought hit me.
“I don’t suppose you’d do me one teensy favour?” I asked, piling on all my charm.
“What?” Officer Daniels asked me, obviously thinking this was going to be good.
“I know the girl who lives next door,” I started. “And I’d love to give her a good impression of me.”
“Uh huh,” Officer Daniels said.
“Can you pretty please put the cuffs back on for me?”
She raised her eyebrow. “You want the cuffs back on?”
I nodded. “Yes, please.”
“I’ll make you a deal. I do this, and I don’t want to see or hear about you for a month.”
I pretended to think about it. Finally I nodded. “Okay. Deal.”
I put my hands behind my back and she redid the cuffs, muttering about idiotic teenagers and the things she was willing to do for them, then she and her partner frog marched me to the neighbours’ front door.
When it opened, it was more than I could have hoped for.
There she was.
Little Miss Popular.
The smile on her face died as she looked me over. Her big grey eyes went wide as they scanned my face like she’d never seen someone with a split lip before. That pale brown hair tumbled over her shoulder in a thick ponytail, the end of which she played with nervously as she chewed her lip.
Were she anyone else, I would have said that she’d dressed up. But it was her and she always looked unnecessarily put together. It was just a fitted dress and sneakers, but she could have worn a cardboard box and I still would have had the most impure thoughts about her. There was something about the look in her eyes, something about the way she bit her lip. It got to me. Got to me like no one else had ever got to me before.
“We’re looking for Mrs Lombardi?” Officer Daniels told her.
Piper’s eyes finally left my face and flew to Officer Daniels.
“Uh, sure. I’ll just… Carmen?” she called. Her body turned in the direction she was calling, but her eyes were glued to me again.
A moment later, my mum and hers were walking into the hall. I watched as the happiness on Mum’s face fall when she saw me. The moment didn’t last long. No sooner was she over her concern at the state I was in, than she was exhaling in frustrated exasperation. I didn’t blame her. She really ought to have known better by now.
“I’m so sorry, Officer Daniels,” Mum said as she approached the door. “What was it this time?”
“Fighting,” Officer Daniels replied. “Mr Lombardi dealt with it.”
Anger welled in me again. “Couldn’t possibly embarrass the old man again.”
Mum’s look told me in no uncertain terms to keep my mouth shut. You’d have thought that she and Officer Daniels were in on it together. They both should have known better than expecting me to do what I was told.
“What?” I snapped. “He’ll pay my bail but not for the house? It’s not fucking–”
“Thank you for bringing him home,” Mum spoke over me, shooting me one more shut up look.
Officer Daniels undid the handcuffs and I stretched myself out. I was plenty used to it by now, but it still stiffened me something shocking. Much like the young woman in front of me, who was still staring at me like I came from another planet or something. What I wouldn’t do to her given half the chance. Maybe putting me under her roof could be a decent idea after all.
“Just in time for dinner,” I said with a wry smirk.
Mum seemed to suddenly lose her appetite for some reason. “Thank you, Officers,” she said again, then turned to Piper’s mum. “I should get him home.”
“Oh, are you sure? There’s plenty,” she replied.
“Thanks, Bree. But I think it’s best if we…”
Piper’s mum clearly thought she knew more than my mum was saying. I wondered just what in the hell these people had talked about while I was supposed to be there and quite clearly not. Then I remembered, they were in book club together. Plenty of opportunities to gossip.
Bree smiled. “Of course. No problems.”
“Thank you for the wine,” Mum said. “We should finish this sometime.”
“When you’re all settled,” Bree said with a warm smile that, disconcertingly, seemed to include me. “It was good to see you, Roman.”
I’ll bet it was. Women usually did like to see me. But I did give her a nod of acknowledgment. Again, not a total heathen.
“Night,” Mum said before grabbing my arm.
Just before we left, Piper looked back at me. My gaze took the whole of her in. The good girl that she was, she wore a simple but classy blue dress, perfect for dinner with the neighbours. It had short sleeves, a fucking cutesy arse collar, and went down past her knees. Her legs were bare, ending in plain, blazing white sneakers that looked like they’d never even heard of the concept of dirt.
In the space of a heartbeat, I took her all in. I drank deeply of that nectar because lord knew I’d never find it anywhere else, no matter how many girls I lost myself in. Piper Barlow was one of a kind. She was the kind of girl you looked at, longed for, but didn’t touch. As fucked up as I was, I knew better than to risk fucking her up.
Then I felt Mum squeeze my arm, then she was dragging me home.
She’d never been one to air her baggage if she could help it, so she didn’t say anything until the door was closed and locked behind us. She nodded for me to sit at the kitchen bench as she went about warming up some leftovers. And by leftovers, I did mean pre-planned meals that we’d brought from the previous house because Mum had suspected that we wouldn’t be ready to cook for ourselves for a couple of days
“What about when Maddy gets here?” Mum asked me. “Is it going to be like this, then?”
“She’s not my kid,” I answered.
“No,” Mum said sarcastically, and she seemed to mirror Rocco’s gratitude on that one. I chose not to take offence. “So, of course it’s nothing to do with you. You couldn’t, for once, help your mother out.”
“Always with the guilt trips, woman,” I said, but softly.
She knew me and she knew I wasn’t being difficult. This time. She sighed and gave me a weary smile. “You said you’d try.”
I nodded. “Yeah. And I will.”
“When?”
“When she gets here.”
“Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?” she muttered, frustration rising, but love winning out.
“Exactly.”
She sighed again and patted my arm. “Lord knows I love you, Roman.”
“Because no one else will?” I finished for her.
She gave me a look. I couldn’t tell if she truly believed that or just fiercely hoped it wasn’t true.
“Maddy will,” she said.
I huffed a rough laugh. “No. I don’t do kids,” I told her.
“We’ll see,” she said as she passed me my bowl of leftover pasta.
We ate in silence, and I thought about all these changes.
The new house.
Maddy moving in.
Of course, the latter prompted the former. Our previous place wouldn’t have accommodated a brooding, lazy teenager and an excitable, boisterous five-year-old. Not that I was complaining. I wasn’t looking forward to the intrusion my niece would be on my life, but because of her and my sister’s poor life choices, there was a strong chance in Hell that I’d get to see Piper Barlow every single fucking day.
I wandered up to my room, nudging an unpacked box out of my way. I looked over at the house next door – the only house for fucking miles – and felt a smile rising. I saw her in her window, a silhouette against the light shining brightly.
I’d always enjoyed the reaction she had to me, but tonight it had been so much more.
When she’d seen me unpacking the back of my ute after school, the look of confusion on her face had been priceless. There had been a moment where I wanted to know what she was thinking. I’d wanted to know how she felt about me moving in next door. She’d always seemed…flustered around me. She wasn’t flirty or simpering or needy. She wasn’t awestruck or intimidated or particularly shy.
