Page 101 of By the Letter

“It does, it does,” Roman rushed out. “I’m sorry. This is unexpected, and I’m being a dick. Being so far away is wearing on me.”

“I get that,” Adrian conceded. “If it’s any consolation, Shira handed me my ass right before you called. I’d say she’s doing just fine.”

Roman’s mouth twitched. “You did? What happened to killing him with kindness?”

“I tried that. It failed.” I grinned at Adrian. “So I handed him his ass.”

The three of us talked for a few more minutes until Roman had to head to a meeting. Once we hung up, I invited Adrian to join me for breakfast, and this time, he accepted. Though, when I tried to get up, he scowled at me and told me no fucking way.

So Adrian brought breakfast to me, splitting the pastries between us. He made me coffee too, but only after looking up online if I was allowed to have caffeine.

I could only laugh. The Wells brothers had their differences, but they were definitely cut from the same cloth.

We were eating for a few minutes before Adrian sipped his coffee then spoke. “We were abandoned by the people who were supposed to love us the most. Our mother was there one day, gone the next. I was a child at the time, but when I search my memories, I can’t find any warning. She left without a goodbye and never came back.”

He set his mug down beside his plate. “Our father never picked up the slack. He was addicted to his job, his focus always on getting the next fix. For him, that was making billion-dollar deals. I’m not sure he loved us at all, so I understand why my mother left him, but not why she left us.” He shook his head. “Roman stepped in. He shouldn’t have had to, but he decided taking care of us was his job. He made appointments for us, signed permission slips, set up carpools so we’d have rides to the activities he’d arranged for us. He started doing all this when he was twelve, and to be frank, he’s never stopped.”

“He’s a caretaker,” I whispered.

“He is,” he agreed. “So, I wasn’t surprised he jumped in with both feet when you told him you’re pregnant. That’s who he became after our parents abandoned us. Me, on the other hand…I grew wary. It takes time for me to trust anyone new in our lives—and that’s when they arrive without baggage. He’d told me a lot about your background, what he’d thought was true at the time anyway, so when he gave us the news, my instinct was to protecthimsince I knew he wouldn’t protect himself.”

“That makes sense.”

“I was wrong about you, Shira. I knew that before you told me everything you went through. I’m sorry I’ve treated you in such a way you felt you had to expose your past for it to stop. It’s not fair for me to judge what your marriage was or wasn’t from the outside.”

He scoffed, brushing his hands together. “I run a sex club, so I know a thing or two about judgment. I’m disappointed in myself for being so close-minded. I know better. That isn’t who I am. It won’t happen again, and you can trust your son will never see me setting you aside or ignoring you. He’ll be safe around me. You both will, I promise you.”

“Thank you.” I believed him, not because of what he was saying, as lovely as it was, but because he was here. Roman’sorder for him not to speak to me might’ve been wack, but he trusted Adrian to be here for me. That meant a lot to me, and it made it easy to forgive him and let go of how we began.

I stuck out my hand. “Hi. I’m Shira.”

His brow crinkled as he looked at my hand, but he quickly understood what I was doing and slipped his palm against mine, squeezing.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Adrian.”

“There. We started over. A clean slate.”

He cocked his head. “That easy?”

“Why not? We’ve both said what we needed to. Now we can move on.”

“Yeah.” Something clouded his gaze, a thought or realization. “He chose well. He might not have meant to make the choice, but he did, and he did it right.”

It took me a few beats to understand he meant me. He thought Roman had done well in choosing me as the mother of his child.

That was lovelier than anything I could have hoped for.

Chapter Thirty-five

Roman

I had a fewmore days before I made it back to Denver, and I was climbing the walls. Adrian wasn’t making it any better with the shit he was telling me.

“You should have seen it, Ro. The mother started bawling, then Shira was bawling, and all the kids joined them. It was a mess. It was…one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever witnessed.”

Turned out, this was why I hadn’t wanted Adrian to speak to Shira. Now that he’d gotten over himself, they were becoming friends, and she’d invited him to be there with her for the final walk-through of the house Building Dignity had rehabbed for a family in need. I’d been sent pictures and a video, but it wasn’tthe same. I didn’t want to be jealous of my own brother, but I was, and there was nothing I could do to fight it.

“You’re right, I should have seen it.” I rubbed my jaw, exhausted from the days of never-ending meetings. Where I’d once lived for the thrill of negotiation, all of it felt tedious. “What the hell am I doing here again?”

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