Page 37 of The Summer We Made Promises (The Destin Diaries #3)

L acey paced a narrow figure-eight around the bedroom, chewing her bottom lip and eyeing her phone like it might buzz to life if she glared hard enough.

But it didn’t. It hadn’t. Not since yesterday morning, when Roman left to tell his adoptive parents the truth. And it was darn near five o’clock now.

She flopped onto her bed, then sat back up. Then lay back down.

“What if it went badly?” she muttered out loud, to no one but her growing panic. “What if they’re mad? What if they blame me?”

Not that this was about her—but she was somehow at the center of this drama and felt responsible for how it all unfolded. She was the one who found him, then pretended to be his girlfriend, then secretly introduced him to his birth mother.

She was the girl who stirred the pot. The one who overstepped.

She groaned and rolled onto her stomach, face down in a pillow.

Why hadn’t he called? It wasn’t like him. Since they’d been…whatever they were…he texted frequently, called twice a day, and even sent her silly reels from Instagram that made her laugh.

Roman had communicated from Day One. Now? Radio silence.

What if the whole thing with his parents had made him rethink…everything? What if they told him to stay away from Tessa entirely? What if they hated what Lacey had done?

What if…

She sat up, heart pounding. “Okay. I’m spiraling.” She stood and yanked her shoes from the closet, deciding a long walk was in order. Something. Anything.

Forty minutes later, she was still clutching her phone, marching along the beach like she had a destination. Finally, she folded to the sand and looked up to the blue sky, and her whole hand vibrated with the happy, happy buzz of a text.

One look and she nearly squealed with relief.

ROMAN: Hey, I’m back. Come over?

Yes, yes, yes! He’s back. He wants to see me. Her brain immediately followed with a fresh worry: What if it’s to tell me goodbye?

“Nope. No spiraling. You’re going.”

After a quick reply, she ran back to the house, sneaked into the front and grabbed her keys from the entryway bowl, risking no license and no purse—and no questions from anyone—and slipped out to the driveway.

Thank God her car wasn’t blocked and that Roman’s rental was just a few minutes away.

When she pulled into the driveway, nerves flared again. But then the front door flew open.

He walked toward her in sweatpants and a T-shirt, arms spread wide like he was about to catch the game-winning touchdown.

“Hey, you,” he said, wrapping her in a big, warm hug and lifting her off the ground. “I missed you.”

Lacey melted. Literally melted. “You did?”

“I did.” He lowered her and added a kiss, brushing her hair back, his own gold locks damp at the ends from a shower. “You’re covered in sunshine.”

“And sweat. I’ve been walking the beach…and waiting.” She finally let out a breath as her heart settled for the first time in two days. “And worrying.”

His expression changed just enough to know that maybe that worry was warranted.

“What?” she asked, searching his face. “What happened? Are they upset?”

Huffing out a breath, he led her toward the house. “I’ll tell you everything.”

With a hitch in her heart, she followed him into the Florida ranch house perched on a canal. He kept the sliders wide open to let in fresh, briny air that mingled with the scent of soap wafting from his bedroom.

“Whoa, that’s a long drive to make twice in two days,” he said, heading to the fridge. “Water? Beer? Wine? Soda?”

She just shook her head. “Please, Roman. I’m dying here.”

He pulled out two bottles of water, handing her one. “Outside. Let’s sit.”

Fighting a groan, she settled next to him on the rattan sofa that faced the canal, turning to pin him with a demanding gaze.

“Are they mad?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head as he opened the water bottle. “My parents don’t get mad, to be honest. They weren’t even all that surprised—both of them expected me to try and find my biological parents at some point. Everyone is secure in our relationship.”

“Okay, then why do you seem so upset?”

“Because my mother, who is honestly one of the wisest people I’ve ever known, thinks we—no, no, I —made a huge mistake in not telling Tessa who I am.”

Lacey just looked at him, feeling her face crumple.

“Please don’t say, ‘I told you so,’” he said with a sad smile. “’Cause you kind of did tell me so.”

“I went along with your wild scheme,” she said. “What did your mother say, exactly?”

He sighed again, taking a deep drink of water before answering. “She said it was deceitful and showed a lack of judgment on my part.” He winced. “She said it wasn’t like me at all, and I should have known it was wrong and kind of selfish to try and get to know her under false pretenses.”

“Oh, doesn’t mince words, does she?”

He shook his head. “She’s honest and a terrific judge of character. But, whoa, it made me worry about…that discussion.”

“Well, it’s done now,” Lacey said, her whole body tense when she imagined that conversation. “All we can do is tell Tessa the truth.”

“Yes, now. Immediately.” He ran his hand through his hair with yet another heavy sigh. “I’m sorry I didn’t call or text you.”

“That’s okay. Well…actually, it’s not,” she said, wanting to be totally honest. “I’ve been stressing and it would have been nice to hear what happened.”

He closed his eyes and when he opened them, she could see a swirl of emotions in the depths of the gold. “I talked to my mom about you, too.”

She swallowed, not sure she wanted to hear the rest. “And?”

“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 we haven’t thought 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’re not weak, 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 an us . 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. ”

She couldn’t speak, but the tears in her eyes were probably communicating everything.

“I knew I liked you,” he continued. “How could I not? But when I talked to my mother this morning, she said I’ve never talked about any girl like this and that scared her.”

“Yeah, well, it terrifies me,” she said, only half joking.

“Probably not for the same reasons,” he said with a wry smile. “You think you have a crush on me and I’m going to disappear, go back to the NFL, and date…whoever you think I date.”

“Well, aren’t you?”

He blew out a breath. “I’ll go back, obviously, and play ball. But…Lacey, I don’t want this to end. And if Tessa gives you some kind of ultimatum like ‘it’s me or him,’ I know you. You’ll pick Tessa.”

Oh. She never considered that .