Page 56 of Temptation at His Door

Keely squeezed her knee. “The truth is an ugly thing, baby girl.” Keely rested her forehead on Joa’s knee before sending her a sympathetic smile. “You need to be brave, Ju. You need to take a chance onsomething. And you need to start living in the real world, not a pretend one.”

The truth was undeniable, but it wasn’t fun. Or fair. Or easy or nice. But it was the truth. And if she wanted to look at herself in the mirror with any sense of self-respect, she had to face it and deal with it.

A few months shy of her thirtieth birthday and she finally, emotionally, felt like an adult.

Ronan taped down the bubble wrap on Thandi’s portrait and looked at the bare spot on the wall. He’d expected to feel sad, but really he just felt...content. Like it was time to let his wife go.

Thandi wasn’t in a picture on the wall, she was in Sam’s smile and Aron’s eyes and in the million memories Ronan had of her.

He felt Carrick’s hand on his shoulder and Finn moved to stand on his other side, and he was grateful for his brothers’ presence. He’d unhooked pictures off walls and taken them off sideboards and tables and corkboards—leaving the silver frame containing the picture of Thandi and Sam—Aron in her huge tummy so he was there—on the table between his boys’ beds. Ronan had removed all the photos from his own bedroom and put Thandi’s notes from the fridge in a shoebox, along with the other unframed photographs he found along the way. The framed photographs were packed into the cardboard boxes at his feet.

But he’d needed help to take Thandi’s massive portrait off the wall and there were only two guys he could ask to help him with that.

Carrick looked at the bare spot and grimaced. “You definitely need a painting to cover that spot.”

“Can’t think where we might be able to source one,” Finn replied, his tongue in his cheek. The attic at their family home, the house Carrick inherited and lived in, was crammed with art.

Correction, the house Carrick and Sadie now lived in. And Carrick was so besotted with his new fiancée that Ronan knew he could ask for anything and Carrick would hand it over...

“I’ve always been partial to the landscape on your bedroom wall.” Ronan teased, knowing it was one of Carrick’s favorite paintings.

“Let me think about that...” Carrick held up his index finger, “mmm...no.”

Oh, well, it was worth a try.

Ronan shrugged. “I’ll find something.” He looked at the empty space on the wall, hauled in a deep breath and folded his arms. “What do I tell the boys when they ask where their mom has gone?”

“If they even notice, you tell them the truth. That there’s a photo of her in their bedroom if they need to look at her,” Carrick replied. He nodded to the big boxes containing the rest of the frames and photographs. “Do you have space to store these boxes or do you want them to go into the vault or up into the attic at the house?”

Ronan was grateful that neither of his brothers suggested getting rid of the photographs. They understood that Sam or Aron might want them someday. Hell, he might want to look at them again, although he had copies of all of them in his cloud account.

“I’m not sure yet,” Ronan replied, rubbing the back of his neck. “Can I let you know?”

“Sure.” Carrick walked into the great room and headed straight for the cupboard in the kitchen where Ronan kept a bottle of Jack. After grabbing three tumblers, he poured them each a shot. Passing the glasses out, he raised his. “To Thandi. May she rest in peace.”

Ronan nodded, touched. “Yeah.”

Finn tossed his drink back and rested his forearms on the granite counter of the island. “Are you going to tell us what prompted this, Ro?”

Ronan pushed his hand through his hair. “A combination of things. I thought it was time to say goodbye, to let her go. Partly because of Joa...”

“How’s that?” Carrick asked.

“Well, it can’t be fun walking into your lover’s house and seeing his dead wife on the wall. Oneverywall.”

“Fair point.” Finn agreed. “So, does that mean you are going to try and work it out with her?”

Ronan shrugged. He’d missed her terribly these past two days and couldn’t wait to see her later. But he wasn’t sure if he was rushing into things. Maybe he just thought he was in love with her because she was the one who’d broken through his icy walls. He explained his dilemma to his brothers, both of whom took a minute to give him their considered and thoughtful opinion.

“Bullshit.”

“Horse crap.”

Well, okay, then. Carrick poured another shot, but Ronan shook his head. It had been a hell of a day already and his boys would be arriving any minute from their weekend away with Tanna at the Lockwood estate. And later, they’d all be going out to eat. He most definitely needed his wits about him.

“You’re looking at this wrong, Ro. Maybe she was the one who broke through because she was the only one who could. Despite being our resident charmer, you’ve never been a player. You’ve always taken love and relationships very seriously.” Carrick held up his hand. “That’s not a criticism, just a statement of fact. You take a while to fall in love but when you do, nothing much budges you off it.”

“Yeah, Joa has to be special for you to do all this. To move on,” Finn agreed. “If she wasn’t, you wouldn’t be doing this. And I think Thandi would approve. I think that, had she met Ju, they’d be friends.”

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