“You do not honor love by running from it, Royce. And you do not protect yourself from heartbreak by refusing joy. All you do is cheat yourself out of something good before it even has a chance to grow.”
Damn.
Only Nana Hope could put words together like that and make them land right in the middle of your chest.
“I just don’t want to hurt her,” I said quietly.
“Then don’t lie to her,” she said just as quiet. “That’s where hurt starts half the time. Not with betrayal. With silence. Withmaking somebody stand outside your heart guessing what’s going on in there.”
That one hit harder than I wanted it to.
Because that was exactly what I had been doing.
After a minute, Nana Hope squeezed my hand and let it go.
“How your brother doing?” she asked. “I know your sister-in-law’s anniversary coming up. Roman don’t say much, but I know this time of year sit heavy on him.”
I nodded. “He took a trip. Trying to get away for a little while.”
“That’s good.”
“Yeah.” I paused, then smirked a little. “Funny thing is, Melissa ended up out there too.”
Nana Hope’s brow lifted. “Melissa?”
“Yeah. The same one from the club. The one I told you about.”
Now that got a full smile out of her.
“Well,” she said, leaning back in her chair, “look at God working when ain’t nobody ask Him to.”
I laughed. “Nana.”
She shrugged. “What? That man done been drowning in grief long enough. Maybe the Lord figured it was time to put something soft in his path.”
I shook my head, still laughing a little, but deep down I knew what she meant.
Roman deserved something soft.
Something real.
I just hoped if Melissa was about to be that for him, he didn’t scare her off before she got close enough to matter.
Ishould have known peace was never going to last too long for me.
After that little walk with Roman earlier, I spent most of the day doing my best to keep my distance from him. I stayed on the beach for a while, ordered food to my villa, talked to Fee for a little bit, and tried my hardest not to look across the walkway every five minutes like I had lost my mind.
But Roman Blake had already gotten under my skin, and I hated that for me.
By that evening, I was feeling restless in a way I could not shake. My mind was all over the place, and being in that villa by myself was starting to feel too quiet. It was too still, too empty, and it gave me way too much time to think. So I threw on a littledress, fixed myself up just enough, and decided I was going to go sit at the resort bar, have a few drinks, and mind my business.
At least, that was the plan.
The bar sat right off the beach with low lights, soft music, and people laughing and talking like life was easy. I found me a seat toward the end, ordered a drink, and pulled out my phone just so I would have something to do besides sit there in my own head.
The first drink went down smooth.
The second one hit a little harder, but not enough for me to think too much of it.
