Sadie laughed. “I wish I could forget about that.”
“My condom stash has never been so organized,” Roman said quietly. “Or my socks. Or my shirts.”
“What else was I supposed to do in there?” Sadie asked like she hadn’t had the option to open the door and show herself.
Which, for the record, would have beenhispreference.
“Mom and Heather didn’t get off to a good start,” Roman said.
He wasn’t really sure why he said it. Just felt like it was important.
“Really?” Sadie didn’t seem to believe him. For good reason, seeing that his mother and Heather were tight as tight could be these days.
Careful not to shake the trembling foundation that he hoped like hell they were building, he slid his hand along the countertop behind Sadie. “She was pretty anti-Heather there for a while.”
“And how does she feel about me?” Sadie leaned into his arm like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Roman watched Sadie until she moved her gaze to him. Then he told the honest and raw truth. “She wants me to be happy. You make me happy.”
Sadie’s expression morphed into one that reminded him of the surprise of the woman he’d known when she’d gotten caught sorting condoms into packs of ten in his hotel room closet.
“Do I?” she asked in apparent disbelief.
He hated that she had to ask. “Yeah, Sadie. You do.”
“Rome…I…”
“You used to talk a lot,” Roman said, resting his elbows behind him on the counter. “Now, you seem to mostly think.”
“Which do you prefer?” Sadie asked.
“Both. But in all seriousness, I’ve missed you. All of you. Even when you get inside your own head.”
Sadie fidgeted with her champagne flute like she’d done with her red plastic cup on the truck bed. “Maybe I just spend time there because it’s easier.”
“Maybe you should come out and hang out with me more often.”
“Maybe.” She met his gaze. “I live in a world of keeping things confidential for my clients.” She focused on the surface of her drink once more. “Even if we decided tohang out, the secrets I’ve been told…you can’t know. Can’t know the clients I’ve represented. Can’t know how hard it was to represent them when I don’t understand why they’ve done what they’ve done and I don’t get to have an opinion because of my job.”
“I have my secrets, too.” With the level of clearance the government had given him, he had a whole truckload of things he could never mention again. Things that were best forgotten.
What was happening between the two of them had nothing to do with secrets and everything to do with good ol’ fashioned fear. “You know that just because it didn’t work out for your clients, doesn’t mean it won’t work out for you.”
“It doesn’t mean that it will, either.”
The rest of the room filtered away. Everyone else was focused on Heather and Jase and their soon-to-be new baby—as it should be. But Roman? He focused on the woman who he hoped like hell would be his future.
The tender looks she gave to those she cared for without ever realizing. The solid spine she had no problem wielding. Sadie was so much more than the brown-haired, brown-eyed woman who had captured his interest.
“Right here, right now, what do you want?” Roman asked.
Sadie didn’t respond.
“It’s just you and me here. You and me now,” Roman said as soothingly as he could manage.
“I don’t know what to do with that.” Sadie swallowed hard. “The you and me thing.”
“Let me in.”
