“She’s worried that if this doesn’t go well with Tessa, we’re doomed.”
“Doomed? What do you mean?”
“Done. Finished. If you have to pick her or me?—”
“Why would I have to pick either one of you?”
“My mother thinks Tessa’s going to be furious, Lacey. She put herself in the woman’s shoes and…they didn’t fit. She has the highest regard for her—a lifetime of gratitude for the choice Tessa made and the gift she gave my parents.”
Lacey moaned. “She’s not going to be happy, but?—”
“If she wants nothing to do with me, then she’ll want you to have nothing to do with me.”
“Do you think that’s a possibility? That she’d want nothing to do with you?”
He looked out at the water, thinking. “My mom sure does. The fact is, Lacey, Tessa never made a concerted effort to find me and she never told a soul—not even her twin sister—that she’d had a baby. She didn’t tell you, either, remember? You guessed it. And she asked you not to tell anyone and she certainly didn’t tell you to go looking for me.”
The words smacked her, one after another, all of them quite…real. And right. “What do you think is going to happen?”
“I don’t know, but she might not want a son,” he said, his voice gruff. “She really might not want her family to know that she had a baby with someone whose name she doesn’t remember, and she really might not want the complication of having that history back in her life in any capacity.”
“Whoa.” She dropped back on the cushion with a thud. “I guess wehaven’tthought this through.”
“Again, no ‘we’—this was me pushing my agenda and my curiosity. You wanted to tell her that first night.”
She appreciated him taking the blame, but couldn’t let him have all of it.
“But I’m the one who broke her trust and found you,” Lacey said. “And one barely-there kiss from you and I was all in. Weak and willing.”
He smiled at that. “You’renotweak, and you were only willing because I was a like a fullback blasting through the defensive line.”
She thought about it all for a moment, finally opening her water but not sure she could even swallow one sip. She put it to her lips because her throat was parched.
“This could be the end of us,” he said—and she nearly choked on that sip.
“The end…” She got the water down, shaking her head. “Roman, I know that you love to pretend we’re not lying and I fully understand that it’s been easy, fun, and there have been some pretty sweet kisses, long conversations, and hand-holding. But…there isn’t anus. Not really.”
He looked hard at her, that same whirlwind of emotion in his eyes. “There isn’t?”
She stared back. “We’re playing a role and you know it.”
“I don’t know that at all,” he said. “Yes, it started out…dishonestly. But not now. And when I talked to my mom about you, well…”
“Well what?”
“She said she never saw me this way over a girl.”
Her jaw dropped, making him laugh.
“Why are you surprised?”
“Because…” Because she felt the same way about him, and that was scary.
“Hear me out, okay?” he said, turning to her and taking her hand. “First of all, I wouldn’t have suggested it if you weren’t beautiful and I didn’t instantly want to know you better. You have to believe that.”
She didn’t have to, but the way he said it made her trust him.
“And then I got to know you, Lace. I’ve had a chance to really see you. I’ve watched you have compassion for your family, always putting them first. I’ve gotten to know your character,your work ethic, your good, good heart. I’m kind of…in awe of you. So you’re not just beautiful and smart and witty…you’re…” He swallowed, his expression serious. “You’re what I’ve been missing in my life and I didn’t even know it.”
