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IF CARA WERE TO GUESS a million scenarios of how this evening would play out, it wouldn’t be with Roman De Marco eating one of her veggie sandwiches and asking her about her high school boyfriend. Strangely, Roman seemed really interested in her answers. Was he being polite? Was he this friendly with everyone, or just the staff working for him? Maybe this was a superficial background check of sorts?
“Harvey is way in the past, and he’ll stay that way forever,” Cara said, not sure why she was being so chummy with this man. “Even though my mom keeps bringing him up. Apparently Harvey’s single now—divorced from the woman he dropped me for in high school.”
Roman blinked at her, then the edge of his mouth lifted.
Had she mentioned this man had a beautiful smile? And that his dark eyes were hard to look away from? In addition, his lean physique made her think that he was active in some sport, or went running on a regular basis. Some people just had the looks . . . and Roman De Marco was one of them.
“Harvey, huh? Sounds like he missed his one and only chance.”
“Oh, for sure he did.” Cara gave a half laugh. “I mean, I am quite the catch.”
Roman chuckled.
“Unfortunately, as a chef,” she continued, “I don’t like leftovers.”
Roman’s brows shot up.
“Uh, I didn’t mean it like that,” Cara said. “The fact that he’s divorced is life, right? But he broke up with me once for a reason, and I’m not interested in begging for someone to love me, or the other way around.”
Wow . . . this was way too deep for a first time chat with her temporary boss.
Something in his eyes flickered, but it was unreadable. “I absolutely agree. Begging only makes the relationship lopsided, you know. Not balanced. It’s never good if one person is more invested in a relationship than their partner.”
“True.” Cara nodded along with what he was saying, wondering why his tone sounded wistful. His wife had been great. Beautiful, devoted, talented, and probably nearly perfect. Surely, he knew how to pick the woman he wanted to be with the rest of his life. Of course, there had been a tragic end, but that almost made it all the more heartfelt—a romance between two soul mates cut short.
“A toast?” He held up his water bottle.
They tapped bottles, then Cara sipped hers.
“Hey, I thought you and Jerry might want to tell the rental car company to cancel your rental after they pick up the broken down car,” Roman said. “We have enough vehicles at the ranch to get you around, and one of us can take you back to the airport.”
This sounded fine to Cara. “All right. I’ll let Jerry know—it’s under his name.”
Roman’s phone chimed with a text. Looking down at it, he released a sigh.
“Everything okay?” Cara asked, mostly to be friendly, but she was also curious. Not that she expected him to divulge anything personal.
“It’s Stacy.”
Cara paused. Stacy was the beautiful blonde actress he’d brought to dinner in Newport. She was also a member of the cast . . . “Does she need something? I can fix her food if she’s hungry.”
“No . . .” Roman scrubbed his other hand through her hair. “She wants to talk.”
“Ah.” Cara didn’t say any more, acting like she understood, even though she didn’t. “Have you been dating for a while?” She was totally going out on a limb here, but she’d told him about Harvey . . .
Roman lifted his gaze and rubbed at his chin. “We dated a little while, but it wasn’t anything serious. We called things off last week. I don’t want to move to anything permanent with Mia being so young. I just . . .” He released a breath, then started again. “Stacy wants to stay in the picture, even if we’re broken up. She wants to be more than friends, though. I was serious when I told her only friends.”
He drummed his fingers on the table.
Cara didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t give him advice, really. “Does Mia like her?”
Roman’s brow wrinkled. “Yeah, I mean Stacy is kind of inexperienced in the nurturing department. You connected more with Mia in a few minutes than Stacy has in months.”
Cara’s mouth dropped open, then she clamped it shut.
“Not that . . .” he said.
Was he blushing? His cheeks were certainly redder than they had been a second ago.
