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“I’m glad,” I say. But I don’t go further than that because I’m conflicted.

I do want her, and I’m finding it very hard to step away from the feelings that tell me to grab her and pull her into me. When I felt her body pressed against mine, I got hard and hot, and my brain ran ten million miles a minute.

“Do you want to listen to some music?” I ask her as we get into the car, and she shakes her head.

I pull out and hit the road, and I notice she’s staring out of the window. I wonder what she’s thinking about. I wonder if she’s also conflicted about the position we’ve found ourselves in. Or maybe not. Rosie does not seem like the sort of woman who’s conflicted by anything. She’s direct, she’s honest, and I love that about her, though it does put me in a very complicated situation.

As I pull up outside of her apartment, she turns to me with an impish expression on her face.

“So, am I going to see you tonight, Brett?” she says, lowering her voice.

She reaches over and touches my thigh, and I practically jump at the softness of her fingers as they run down my leg.

“Why would you be seeing me tonight?”

“Maybe because we both want to have some fun.”

“Rosie, if things were different, maybe, but we can’t go there.” I turn off the ignition and turn to look at her. “Look, I’m sorry if I’ve given you any mixed signals⁠—”

“But I just think that we’re both adults, and if we want to explore something between us, we can.”

“We are both adults, and we’re both old enough to know this is not the best move for either one of us. I’m definitely tempted to say yes, but …” Her eyes light up as she glances at me, and I immediately know those were the wrong words. “But it’s just not going to happen, Rosie.”

“Can I ask you a question, Brett?”

“Of course. Anything. What is it?”

“Can I ask you about your childhood?”

“My childhood?” I frown as I stare at her. “Why do you want to know about my childhood?”

“I was just curious. Lucia mentioned to me that you grew up quite wealthy, but maybe you had a weird childhood, and I was just …”

Oh, I should have known Lucia would talk about me. I didn’t expect Rosie to ask me so directly.

“So, my family is definitely well off. My great-grandfather started a corporation called the Selleck Corporation, and we do a lot of import-export business.”

“Ooh, anything I’d know?” She looks at me eagerly. “Chanel or anything?”

“No.” I can’t help but chuckle. “My grandfather got involved in a lot of commercial real estate and imported a lot of building materials.”

“Oh, okay, nothing I’d want to wear or anything?”

“Nothing you’d want to wear.”

“Pity. So, you run it with your granddad?”

“No, my dad runs the company with my grandfather. My granddad wanted me to take over, but I don’t see it in my future. I’m the black sheep of the family. I didn’t follow the same path.”

“What do you mean?”

“My granddad went to Yale, my dad went to Harvard, my mother went to Princeton. They had ideas about what my life should look like, and I didn’t necessarily agree.” I shrug. “I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, but didn’t want to lead that life. They didn’t like that. They expected me to hang out with a certain class of people.”

“Oh, so they’re kind of snobby?” she asks, tilting her head to the side.

She makes a face as she thinks, and I know she would never be like that.

“You could say that. I just didn’t see myself going to the Ivy League and marrying someone just because of who their parents were. I know I was very blessed to not have to worry about money. I decided to take a different path. I went into the military, and that obviously upset my parents greatly, even though I did advance.” I pause, thinking about the arguments I had with my parents, the shouting matches, the tears my mother cried. I stiffen. Bad memories come floating back as I think about them. “We all have complicated childhoods,” I say finally. “Mine was no better or worse than most people’s. Probably a lot better.” I clear my throat. “What about your childhood?”