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PROLOGUE
Nine years ago
Ronan
From: Emerson Grant
To: Ronan Kade
Subject: Investment Opportunity
Ronan,
I’m looking to start a new company, and I’d love to meet with you regarding an investment opportunity. I can give you more information during our meeting, but I have reason to believe this would be a fitting addition to your corporate shareholding portfolio, for financial andpersonalreasons.
Please call me at your earliest convenience.
Hope you’re doing well, friend.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Emerson Grant
“Ronan, are you listening to me?”
I glance up from my computer screen to see Shannon standing teary-eyed in the doorway, watching me with anguish on her face. Fuck, I didn’t even see her walk in. What an asshole I am.
Just a few moments ago, she tried to tell me it was over between us and rather than facing the truth, I escaped to my office. I told her I needed a moment to think. Instead, I started checking emails, as if anything in my inbox could erase the pain of losing yet another woman I love.
Quickly, I click the monitor off and rise from my seat.
“I’m sorry,” I reply as I cross the room to stand in front of her.
“See?” she mumbles, taking my hands in hers. “We’d never make it. You’re obsessed with your work and I’m obsessed with you. I have a daughter to look after, Ronan, and she deserves my attention more.”
“Bring her to Briar Point,” I reply with a desperate plea. “Let me take care of you both. I promise I’ll work less.”
She squeezes her eyes closed, a tear slipping through and running over her beautiful cheek. I wipe it away, pulling her against my body, wanting to shut out the world and just hold her.
It’s been so long since I’ve loved a woman this much and fallen in such a short amount of time. Shannon came out from Indiana to Briar Point six weeks ago to settle a real estate deal, and we met on a whim. Her two-week trip tripled as we fell hard and fast for each other. But we knew eventually, this affair would have to end.
Not even my last wife could steal the heart out of my chest the way Shannon does. But Shannon isn’t like the other women I’ve been with. She doesn’t care about the money or the security. All she truly wants is to be by my side, and the best I can give her is a sliver of my time.
I’m a fool.
“I can’t,” she whispers against my chest, “I need to go home. It’s bad enough I’ve been gone all summer. But Daisy deserves a normal life and a mother who puts her first.”
“You know this makes me love you more,” I mumble, tilting her face up so I can gaze down at her. Even with her bloodshot blue eyes and blotches of pink on her pale white cheeks from crying, she’s still breathtaking. Her love is written across her features, love for me and for her daughter—she’s a woman being torn in two.
Unable to hold back, I gather her tightly in my arms, squeezing her against me as if I can avoid the truth: that this whirlwind of a summer must come to an end, and when Shannon leaves for good, I’ll be alone again.
Anguish and desperation are building inside me, and I feel the need to make it right. To fix it. To throw money at the pain in hopes that it somehow disappears. Gently, I pull away. “Let me give you something.”
She shakes her head with her eyes shut tight. “No, Ronan. Please. I don’t want your money.”
“I can’t stand the thought of you wanting or needing anything, Shannon. Please,” I plead.
She opens her eyes, tears still streaming as she forces a sad smile onto her face. She takes my hands in hers again, squeezing tight, and the words that come out of her mouth obliterate me. “No, Ronan. I love you for free.”
