Finding Family Read online

  Roman was always amazed at how she kept an upbeat demeanor. “I remember, but people are people, Momma. As long as I need them, I’m the low man on the totem pole.”

  Bethel looked at him with a sympathetic look. “Have you tried any other banks in the area?”

  Roman shook his head and let out a sigh. When he thought about all of the applications he had sent out and how all of them had been rejected, it made his head spin.

  “I’ve tried all of them within a twenty-mile radius,” he said, trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice. “I’ve got to think about the here and now. Focusing on what we have and working hard is going to get me back to where I was.”

  “You know I’ve got money, Roman. You can use it as seed money and—”

  “I won’t,” Roman said with finality.

  “You know I loved your father, but you and he had the same stubborn streak. If I have money you can use, go ahead. I'm not planning on going on some big cruise anytime soon,” Bethel said imploringly.

  How could he explain to her that she had already done so much? The fact that they were even having this conversation was almost more than Roman could take. He wasn't sure what he was going to have to do or how it was going to get done, but he had to find a way so his mother wouldn't be worried about giving him money. Besides that, the money she was referring to was a part of her retirement money. It wasn’t easy to get to, nor was it as plentiful as it needed to be considering her medical issues.

  Roman decided he would speak to Daniel and see whether or not there were any other jobs he could do or any extra projects he could pick up to build up his nest egg. Roman’s goal was that when he finally got enough money, he would open up his business again. While his old contacts were willing to deal with him once he was set up, it seemed as though nobody wanted to help him get set up. Roman didn't know if he blamed them or not. No businessman wants to be affiliated with a person with a shady past and have that color their business reputation because, business was business.

  There were a lot of things that were unclear in Roman’s mind, but the one thing that was certain for him was that he was never going to take his mom up on her offer, no matter what else he had to do.

  Chapter Three

  Margo reached for the lamp on her desk and realized that the sun was starting to set outside. So, instead of turning on her desk lamp, she decided to pack it in for the night. She took a peek out her door and saw that Kinsey had already left. Last night, Kinsey had stayed as long as she had. Margo explained to her that she wasn’t expected to stay as long, and Kinsey had practically bolted.

  She was packing up her briefcase when she looked outside of her window. A tarp had been put to cover his work area, and she could see a white light moving underneath it. The building across the street had wanted an extension of their entranceway, complete with lights and frosted glass.

  Margo believed in striking while the iron was hot. This was the third day she had seen him out there. All of her plans hinged on Roman, so it was better to find out if this was going to work sooner rather than later. She placed her briefcase in her car, and then she went across the street to see Roman.

  “Have you thought that maybe you need an assistant?” Margo asked. Roman looked at her over his shoulder then went back to his work.

  “No, I don’t think so because then I’d have to answer questions when I need to be getting my work done,” he grumbled.

  Margo looked around and took a seat on a pile of concrete bags. When a few minutes had gone by, Roman stopped and turned to her.

  “I take it you aren’t here for a job,” he said as he blatantly looked at her from head to toe. “You’ve walked into this construction area. That means your sneakers are shot beyond reason, and the longer you stay, the deeper the dust will embed itself in those very expensive pants.”

  Margo raised her eyebrow. “I like a man who recognizes quality.”

  He pulled off his gloves and stood up. “Okay, what game are you playing? Did you think you could come tempt the poor blue-collar worker by offering him the company of one of the town’s most attractive and influential women?”

  While his tone left a lot to be desired, she was definitely encouraged by the fact that he had been looking at her enough to give her a backhanded compliment. She uncrossed her legs and then stood up.

  “Maybe I came to judge what kind of company you’d be,” she teased.

  “Don’t tease the help,” he warned. “I had you pegged for a justice fighter. I’ve heard that you take on cases on the underdog. In fact, anytime you go to the diner I hear stories of how you’ve taken on a case that has little financial reward. Don’t destroy the image.”

  Margo sighed. “I came here to do my own assessment of the man I saw working so hard around town. Maybe I should have told you not to destroy my image of you. I don’t see you any differently than any other man in town. You’re the one who keeps mentioning that you are the help. Money isn’t everything.”

  Margo turned to leave, thinking that maybe she had been wrong. Maybe Roman wasn’t the man she thought he was. It didn’t matter. She made it to her car and pulled open the door, and that was when her musings about Roman stopped.

  Her mechanic had told her the battery needed to be replaced, and she had maybe one more jump in its lifetime. She got in the car and tried to turn it on, but, sure enough, the comforting purr of the engine running didn’t happen.

  “No, no, no, this can’t be happening,” she moaned as she rested her forehead against the steering wheel. It was a few minutes later that she jumped when she heard the light tap on the window.

  The man looked amazing no matter what, and Margo knew that him coming so soon meant he was watching her as she got into the car. It was hard to tell with Roman what his age was. She thought someone said his father was from an island somewhere, and he had the honey skin to prove it. With hands that showed a callus or two, his tap on the window was gentle.

  Margo liked the idea that he could control his strength. He wasn’t just a muscle-bound builder; she could tell from his attention to detail and the way others spoke about him that he was intelligent and thoughtful. She had to laugh at herself. How had she found all the attributes she was looking for in a partner right here in her town?

  Maybe he would stay with her until Ava or Karina showed up.

  “If you can give me ten minutes, I’ll take you home,” Roman said.

  Margo was stunned. The only thing she could do was nod her head. He opened the door and gave her his hand. She looked at it for a moment and then Roman pulled it back.

  “Sorry, I forgot I had been working . . .”

  “No, please put it back out. I’m not used to men helping me out of cars,” she said.

  Roman extended his hand and Margo placed hers in his. “If men don’t recognize the lady in you, then maybe you need to change the caliber of men you hang around,” Roman said.

  After that statement, Margo would have followed him just about anywhere. True to his word, he wrapped up in ten minutes. They walked a block to his truck. It was a black Ford Explorer. It had just enough room for them, and the rest of the truck was flat to carry his equipment. Margo thought the car was surprisingly clean, but he still laid a jacket over the seat before he let her get in.

  “Sometimes, there’s a fine film of dust on the seat from me working, and I didn’t want you to get dirty.”

  She nodded and took a seat. Roman couldn’t be real and still be unattached. She needed a partner for what she planned, but he had to be human.

  When they got into the car, he glanced at her floral sneakers with colorful laces and smiled.

  “I have to say I’m a bit surprised by your footwear,” he told her with a smile on his face. “I’ve heard that you spend a lot of time in court. Do you have another set of shoes in your office?”

  Margo looked at her shoes and smiled. “Nope, these are the only shoes that I wear all day long. I happen to like wearing sneakers with flowers on them. I have sneakers with smiley faces, and I have sneakers with balloons.”

  Roman looked at her and then started the car.

  “I would have never picked you as a woman who wore sneakers at all.”

  “We are really going to have to work on these stereotypes that you have. I am your average, everyday woman who likes sneakers.”

  “And you get those sneakers from the mall?”

  Margo raised her eyebrow at him as he pulled out of the parking spot.

  “I get these sneakers from a store. I don't know if they have an outlet in the mall, but I suppose they could have.”

  Roman laughed.

  “Since we are making assumptions about one another and talking about things that are very personal, I'd like to ask you a question.”

  “Are your sneakers personal?”

  “Intensely.”

  “You can ask. I'm not sure that I'm going to answer, but there's nothing that stops you from asking.”

  “I see you working. You seem to be working all of the time. When do you have time to socialize?” Margo asked.

  “Socialize? Some of us have to earn a dollar to live,” Roman said defensively. Margo was surprised by his change in tone. “I have responsibilities, and no one is going to help me with that.”

  “I understand,” she said.

  “Do you? You’ve got your friends here. You and your friends just opened a project planning company. Congratulations, by the way,” he said.

  Margo frowned. “We all worked to get that together. It wasn’t like it was given to us. They are my friends, and it just worked out for us. It was the right time and the right place.”

  “It’s like that for some people. They get all the breaks while others get all the sticks,” Roman murmured as they rolled up in front of Margo’s house.

  Okay, he was human, and he was wrong about her and her friends. He came around the car to get her, but she got out on her own and slammed the door.

  “You know, I’ve worked for everything I’ve ever gotten. There were no favors, connections, or golf games to get me where I am,” Margo said. “If you want to pick on me about something, make sure you have your facts correct before you start throwing accusations around. You weren’t there when I had to knock door to door to get a job, and when I finally did get a job, my boss paid me less than everyone else.”

  “No, I wasn’t here for that. I was here to see you and your friends get together and decide that a midlife crisis could be fixed by opening a company.”

  “That is infantile in an assessment. You don’t know my friends or me!”

  “You’re right, I don’t. I can only tell you what everyone sees from the outside.”

  “You know the inside of donut! I can’t believe that I thought you were one of the nice guys who had been overlooked.”

  “Maybe I am. It’s just people who take for granted the resources and friends around them that make me antsy,” he said.

  “Then it’s self-pitying, classist men who make me want to remind them that they could have what I have if only they were decent human beings!”

  “Are you saying I’m not someone you’d associate with? You don’t see me that way?”

  “I’m not saying you’re not a person I’d associate with, not that it matters, but—” Margo said. Then, before she could finish the sentence, Roman bent down, and without touching her anywhere else, he kissed her.

  It started out rough but then it softened. She could taste spearmint on his lips, and when he pulled away, he looked at her and sighed.

  “Get in the house, Margo. I’ll watch you go in, but I don’t think I should tempt fate walking you to your door.”

  Chapter Four

  After Margo closed the door, Roman leaned his head back against the headrest. What had just happened? How had that whole situation just spiraled out of control?

  It was true Margo was a very goal-oriented person. She was surrounded by friends who had bonded with her over good times and bad times. When he told her he had seen her as a justice fighter, he hadn't been exaggerating.

  That was the problem. He imagined Margo with a cape saving people by being able to reveal what their true assets were. Tonight, he met the Margo who was a woman. It was the woman who had come into his private space while he was working. It was the woman who he decided to drive home. The problem was that as they drove closer to her house and he saw the neighborhood she lived in, looked at the clothes she wore and even the company she had just opened, Roman made a realization.

  The amazing woman he had seen around town with the heart of gold was way out of his league. Once upon a time, they would have been able to see where things could go, but he wasn’t that man anymore, and tonight, he felt it more than he usually did.

  He would have to apologize for what he said. Those words weren’t for her; they were for him. She had been right when she had said he spent his time in self-pity. He had told her she needed to review the caliber of men she was around. Tonight, Roman proved he was in that group that needed reviewing.

  The interesting thing about the whole scene was he had expected her to move away and possibly have some scathing words for him. Instead, she had kissed him back, and the both of them had pulled away in shock over what had occurred.

  That Roman needed to practice control had been drilled into him since he was ten. Tonight, a kiss had strained that control. But as he started the car to go to his apartment, he wondered if that was the truth. The kiss hadn’t strained his control. What it had done was remind him of what he once had.

  It wasn’t his fault that he had lost it all, but that didn’t matter to Roman. What mattered was he had lost it. He had refused to look at anything or anyone that he thought was part of his former life. He had spoken to his friends only through email. His business partners conversed on LinkedIn only.

  He had avoided looking at what remnants remained of his past since he was released from prison. Coming out of prison with a proclamation that he had been erroneously jailed for a year didn’t give him license to pick up his life where he had left it. Although in truth, he wasn’t so sure he wanted that life anyway. His fiancée had left him as soon as the conviction had been upheld. She had told him that she couldn’t deal with the stress of being with a man who had a record.

  When he had walked out of the processing center and saw his mother coming from behind the wheel of a car by herself, he had stopped dreaming and settled on the fact that you couldn’t trust people to stay by you through thick and thin. Everyone said they would stay with you, but they all changed their tune when something bad happened, leaving only your blood to remain true.

  Roman had to admit that he had spent the first three months after his release sending all types of correspondence to people, associates, and supposed friends to let them know he was out and had been exonerated. He had received numerous generic congratulations but no invite to interact with them further.

  Roman had been at his lowest. He stayed out at night and slept on benches, not wanting to go home to face his mother, who always said, “Things will get better.” He hadn’t believed that, but she had, with the resilience of a mother who refused to give up on her child. Bethel had talked to legal aids to find out what options there were for him as a wrongly convicted person.

  His parole officer reached out to a man named Thomas, who knew Daniel. Both Thomas and Daniel agreed they could use the skills of a man like Roman. They would need him to relocate, though. With nothing holding him to his old life, they moved to Cooper’s Sand.

  Roman hadn’t been on board with the plan in the beginning, but he wasn’t going to say no to the woman who had given so much for him. Roman smiled sadly. Not once had his mother given up on him. Even on their way to Cooper’s Sand, she was upbeat.

  “You’ll be able to work with your hands again and we’ll both start over,” she had told him. “Maybe you’ll find a nice woman who can see the good man you are instead of judging you by your gross income. It’s not too late to open another company. I know you don’t think it’s a possibility now, but after a couple of months, when you get back to your old self, you will see.”

  She had mentioned it almost every day when they first arrived. Finally, four months later, he had pulled himself out of the doldrums and told her he would try again.

  Since then, he hadn’t looked back. He saved every penny for the goal. He took on extra projects and side projects. He taught at the local hardware store how to do DIY projects, and it was slowly coming together.

  Roman worked with Daniel and Thomas enough to know that if he had a suggestion, they would listen. They didn’t treat him like an employee. Instead, they treated him like a peer when he really needed it. Roman always gave them 150% of effort so they would know they hadn’t made a mistake taking a chance on him.

  With so much going on in his life and his goals so narrowly focused, he wasn’t sure how the kiss with Margo had happened. He finally made it home, and as he was getting something to eat and drink, his mother came out. But his mind was still on the kiss with Margo. He was still shaking his head over it when he practically ran into his mother.

  “So, do you want to tell me something?” she asked with a smile on her face. Roman raised his eyebrow and shook his head.

  “I don’t know what makes you think there’s anything to tell you,” he said, trying to brazen it out.

  “Well, I think something is going on because you just poured salt into your coffee instead of creamer.”

  Roman looked down at his cup and then back at the counter, and sure enough, the salt box was there instead of the creamer he liked.

  “The day was long,” he said.

  “Ah, really?”

  “Yes, and we are not doing this. I’m not a teen anymore,” he said jokingly.

  “You have to forgive this old woman for getting her hopes up. Usually, when a man is that distracted, a woman is involved.”

  “If I really am that distracted, I need to pull myself away from the distraction. You know how focused I’ve been on my goals, and to come this close and not get there because of a woman seems reckless.”