“I’m not telling you to walk away, Lauren. Quite the opposite. We’ll always be here. Just go spread those wings. But I do have one favor,” I said. “The affair? It stays between you and me. Jude has no idea, and I intend on keeping it that way. Dad wasn’t around as much in our childhood, and Jude has this fairy-tale image of our parents. I don’t want to ever ruin that for him.”

Lauren nodded. “I wouldn’t want that either. He deserves that.”

Feeling like I was going against every instinct in my body, I walked toward the woman who, in another life, had my father been a decent man, could have been family, and I opened my arms out to her. She came willingly, and I held her like a child.

Like a sister.

After the tears had dried up and the emotions leveled, Lauren took me up on my offer in a heartbeat. Although I wasn’t sure I could really consider it my offer anymore since Cara now had me writing an email to HR, explaining why we had to give one of our favorite employees a severance package.

After several hugs and a bit of help down to a waiting taxi with a box full of stuff, Lauren took her last glance at Cavenaugh Investments.

It was a happy one.

“You did a good thing here today,” Cara said as the taxi pulled away from the curb.

“I’m not always a bad guy,” I replied with a shrug, turning toward her.

The rain had lessened, and the sun was about to set. Cara rubbed her hands together, feeling the temperature drop with the sun.

I moved, intent on warming her, but stopped.

Would she want me to touch her?

“Why did you come today?” I asked, taking a tentative step forward.

“I wanted you to know the truth. About Lauren,” she answered, the breath with each word forming white wispy vapors in the air.

“That’s all?” I took another step closer.

“I don’t know,” she said, angling her chin forward, as her eyes darted away from me. “You hurt me, Roman. You lied and cheated, but worst of all, you didn’t fight for us. You let me walk away. I needed some time to work through all of it… to decide if you were going to leave holes in my life.”

“Holes?” I questioned.

“You had to be there. I’m not saying that I’m not still mad at you for what you did, but I knew the man I was falling for the minute I knocked on your door, armed with bagels and—”

I cut off her words, making her gasp, as my hands snaked behind her back, pulling her toward me. My mouth slammed against hers. For a split second, I could feel her hesitate before she surrendered.