Caleb worked hard in his life to avoid making bad decisions and being actively stupid.

But he’d screwed up and he knew it.

He honestly hadn’t thought about how it would look to Sadie, him having the file. He hadn’t thought of it because he’d had no intention of ever reading it. Except that by not telling her, he’d hurt her.

He’d made a mistake, a bad one, and he had to fix it. Not quite sure how yet, wanting to honor Sadie’s request that he be gone when she got home, he went to his office. His plan was to cancel his day and figure out how to make things up to Sadie. He needed to somehow convince her that even though he was an idiot, he was worth taking a shot on.

He was exiting the elevator on the penthouse floor of his offices when his cell buzzed an incoming call.

Sadie.

He picked it up so fast his head spun. “Sadie,” he said in huge relief. “You okay?”

He heard a soft sigh.

“Okay,” he said. “You’re not. Where are you, I’ll come to you and—”

“No. Don’t. I’m . . . fine, but I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to have this discussion with you, but I realize now I have to.”

The foreboding that filled him and made his knees wobble. “Sadie—”

“I need you to know that I’m not that same person I used to be,” she said. “I’ve grown up a lot and moved on, and I don’t want to be defined by who I was.”

He was straining to hear her quiet voice while being followed by two admins and a sister from the elevator to his office, all of whom wanted a piece of him before the morning got started. He shook his head at them all, signaling he needed a moment, and then shut himself in his office. “No one should be defined by who they used to be,” he told her.

“That’s easy enough to say when you don’t know who I used to be,” she countered. “The file in your possession . . . It undoubtedly exposes things that I never wanted exposed, things that will change how people think of me. How you think of me.”

Sienne opened Caleb’s office door and tried to come inside but he pointed at her to get out. This time he locked the door. He’d pay for that later, but at the moment he didn’t care. “Sadie, to me you’ve never been, nor will you ever be, whatever that damn file says,” he told her. “The file’s been deleted from my computer. From my server, in fact.” He’d done that first thing. “No one can ever see it, including me, I promise you that.”

There was a pause while she hopefully considered the fact that he was being honest, that he’d truly never read the file and never would.

“But at least one of your sisters knows everything in it,” she said.

He closed his eyes. True. And he’d promised not to lie to her. “Yes. But—”

“See, the thing is that secrets don’t work,” she said. “We can’t . . . we can’t do what we were doing with your sister knowing things about me that you don’t.”

“I don’t care about that,” he said.

“But I do,” she said. “Secrets hurt, Caleb. I’m not going to be the reason maybe something happens to your relationship with your family. I told you about the cutting. About how my parents caught onto me when I was fifteen. How they freaked.” She drew a shaky breath. “I told you about me being forced to get help.”

It was the second time she’d used the word forced when she’d talked about that time in her life, and he sat down—again—because he realized she was going to tell him what he was missing, and that he wasn’t going to like it.

“What I didn’t tell you was that I was detained under the 5585 hold,” she said. “It’s a psychiatric hold—”

“For minors,” he said quietly, feeling anything but quiet. A 5585 hold was an involuntary hold for seventy-two hours minimum, and could be done against the minor’s will. For someone who was at risk or in danger from themselves, it was a good thing. But for a teenage girl who hadn’t been suicidal, just mixed up and trying to figure out how to navigate a family who hadn’t understood her, it would have been . . . Jesus. He couldn’t even imagine. Terrifying probably didn’t begin to cover it. “How long did they keep you?” he asked, unable to keep the emotion out of his voice.

“The first seventy-two hours were to evaluate my so-called mental health crisis,” she said. “But because I was”—she let out a mirthless laugh—“stubborn, to say the least, and refused to communicate, I was held for an additional fourteen days before being able to convince my medical professionals that I could be released on my own recognizance and not be a danger to myself.”

Two weeks in a strange place with medical professionals deciding your every move and no say or control over anything. For anyone, it would have been a living nightmare. For a girl like Sadie, who thought and acted outside the box, who’d been misunderstood all her life and felt like she had no one on her side, it would have nearly killed her.

“If I wasn’t certifiable before,” she said, “I was certainly close after.”

Her voice sounded hollow and he felt furious and also devastated for her. And sick that he’d brought it all back to her. “Sadie—”

“I assume that something like that is exactly what your people are supposed to weed out, right?” she asked. “So consider me weeded out, Caleb.”

And then she disconnected.

Christ. He’d done this. Driven a wedge between them, made her feel like she couldn’t trust him. And he had to pay the price for that. He unlocked his office door and opened it. As suspected, Sienne nearly fell inside.

She took one look at his face and closed the door at her back. “What is it?”

He pinched the bridge of his nose and drew a deep breath.

“It’s that bad that you’re trying to figure out how to tell me?” Sienne asked.

“No, I’m trying to figure how to kill you and get away with it.”

Sienne made a show of looking at her calendar for the day. “Sorry. I don’t have time to be murdered today. Want to schedule it in for next week?”

“Don’t.”

At his tone, she dropped her playful one and stared at him. “What’s wrong?”

“Mission accomplished.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You did it. You wanted to make sure I was protected, and you did. Because when Sadie found the file you sent me, she dumped my sorry ass.”

“Oh shit.” Sienne moved further into the room and dropped into the chair in front of his desk. “What was she doing in your email?”

“I had my laptop open at my kitchen table.”

“Are you shitting me?” she asked. “We put all these safeguards on you to keep you protected and you do something stupid like leave your laptop open where anyone could get their hands on it? Seriously?”

“It wasn’t just anyone, Sienne. It was Sadie.”

“Okay,” she said. “That was bad, but surely if you explained—”

“—Explain what, exactly? That you ran her life through background checks more regimented than the military, even after I promised her I wouldn’t do that?”

“Well, that was a stupid promise.”

“The file brought up bad memories for her about her past, very bad. As I’m sure you know.”

Sienne’s expression softened. “She told you?”

“She felt she had to. She didn’t want to be a secret between you and me.”

Sienne sighed. “Dammit.” She shook her head. “I like her. I like her a lot.”

“She dumped me.”

“Oh, Caleb. I’m so sorry. Maybe if I called her—”

“Don’t even think about it,” he said. “What I need from you is what I already asked you for—stay the hell out of it.” His phone buzzed. It’d been buzzing consistently all morning, which was nothing unusual. “I’m canceling today. I only came up to yell at you. I’m out—”

“You can’t cancel the whole day. Or at least you can’t cancel this morning. The NASA guys are already in conference room A. You need to make that deal happen and then you can go to Sadie.”

“No. As of right this minute, you’re in charge.”

Her mouth had dropped open. “Of the meeting?”

“Of the entire project. You wanted to take more on, you’ve got it.” He headed to the door. “Don’t blow it.”

“But—”

But nothing. He shut the door and hit the elevator. He was going to find Sadie and do whatever he had to do to get her back.

When Sadie hung up with Caleb, she left the day spa and strode through the courtyard. She had an hour before she had any clients on her books, which was good because she needed sustenance—the only cure for heartbreak that she knew.

Actually, nothing was a cure for heartbreak, but it might help her survive it.

She walked straight to Ivy’s taco truck. She’d texted ahead so Ivy was waiting for her. At the moment, The Taco Truck was up and running early, serving breakfast and lunch only, closing by early afternoon. When Sadie arrived, Ivy finished serving the two customers ahead of her and then handed Ivy an egg, potatoes, and chorizo taco.

Her favorite. Sadie felt her eyes fill.

“Oh shit,” Ivy said. “This is more serious than I thought.” She added a second taco. “On the house.” She came outside the truck and was wiping down the two picnic tables where her customers often sat and ate. “Tell me everything.”

“He betrayed me.”

“What?” Ivy gasped in shock and clear surprise. “Caleb?”

“No the tooth fairy. Yes, Caleb! ”

Ivy was instantly on her side without any details, the sign of a real friend. “That ratfink bastard!” she said angrily. “Why do men need to sleep with more than one woman at a time anyway? I’ve never understood—”

“No.” Sadie shook her head. “He didn’t sleep around on me.”

Ivy looked confused. “Okay. Then what did he do?”

“He allowed his sisters to do a background search on me. A deep one.”

Ivy stopped wiping down a table and looked at her. “I don’t understand.”

“They looked into me like I was applying for credit, only this wasn’t for credit, it was to see if I was worthy enough to date Caleb Parker!” Sadie was stuffing her face with tacos and crying at the same time. “I’m just so mad.”

Ivy brought her a stack of napkins and gave her a minute. “Honey, you know who he is, right? He’s like . . . Elon Musk. And there’s a lot on the line with a man like that. Surely you can understand why his people would be very, very careful.”

Sadie just kept eating.

Ivy just watched her for a moment, and then sat. “Sadie—”

“Hey,” said a man coming up to the food truck. “I need tacos.”

“And I need a million bucks,” Ivy said.

“I mean it.” He went hands on hips. “I can’t go to work until I’ve had your eggs, avocado, and queso fresco tacos with a drizzle of your amazing chipotle crema. I can’t get it anywhere else, not like you make it.”

Ivy nodded. She got that a lot. “Two minutes,” she said. “They’ll be worth the wait, I promise.” She turned back to Sadie. “Okay,” she said quickly and quietly. “I want you to just listen and not react for a minute. Can you do that?”

Since Sadie wasn’t actually sure, she took another bite.

“Is it possible you’re just really scared here and maybe, possibly, looking for a way out?” Ivy asked.

Suddenly full, Sadie put down her taco. “No.” She paused. Dropped her head to the table. “Maybe, yes.”

“Aw.” Ivy stroked a hand down her back. “The best of us are.”

Sadie lifted her head. “Not all of us. Caleb’s got his shit together. He’s faced his demons and beaten them back. He doesn’t let the dark get him and he doesn’t angst. He lives. There’s nothing messed up about him except for one thing.”

“What’s that?”

Sadie felt her eyes fill. “I think he loves me.”

Ivy gaped at her and then turned to the guy waiting on her. “You know what? We’re going to have to make that five minutes.” She shifted back to look at Sadie.

“Shut up,” Sadie said.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You said it with your eyes.”

Ivy smiled. “Okay, if you’re so smart, what did I say?”

“That I’m completely overreacting and most definitely using this as an excuse to run-not-walk away from one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.”

“Hey,” Ivy said, lifting her hands. “That was all you.”

“Not helping.” Sadie once again dropped her head to the table and this time banged it a few times.

“Stop, you’re going to knock something loose.” Ivy slid her hand between the table and Sadie’s forehead. “Look, we both know we don’t need someone in our life to make it complete, but let’s be honest. Having someone who knows your dark and angsty side and yet isn’t scared off . . .” She shook her head. “It’s the greatest gift ever.”

“Is this from personal experience?” Sadie asked, knowing it wasn’t. Ivy’s past hadn’t been good or easy, and she was possibly more dark and angsty than Sadie and that was saying something.

“Not personal experience,” Ivy admitted. “It’s from reading a whole lot of really great romance novels. But that doesn’t make it any less true.”

“She’s right.” This was from the guy still waiting on the drizzle of chipotle crema. “My wife reads romance novels all the time. She gets good stuff from them. Especially the bedroom stuff.”

Ivy looked amused. “Good for you,” she told him. And then she looked at Sadie. “You gotta follow your heart.”

“And your good parts,” the guy said.

“That’s actually true,” Ivy said and turned to Sadie. “You know what you’ve gotta do, right?”

“No.”

Ivy went hands on hips.

“Okay, fine,” Sadie said. “I know what I have to do.”

Ivy narrowed her eyes. “Do you really?”

“Sure.”

Ivy shook her head. “You don’t have a clue, do you?”

Sadie’s eyes filled. “No,” she whispered.

“You follow your heart .”

“And your good parts,” the guy said again. “That’s important too.”

Sadie stood up and hugged Ivy in thanks. She didn’t hug the chipotle crema guy, but when he held out a closed fist, she bumped it with hers in solidarity.

“Good luck,” he said with sweet sincerity.

She was going to need it, because the truth was she had no idea how the hell to follow her heart, an organ she hadn’t made much use of and had actually never listened to.

Caleb got stuck in a traffic gridlock due to a construction blockage on the way to the Pacific Pier Building. He could’ve walked the four miles faster than he made it by car. By the time he strode through the courtyard, heading toward the day spa, an hour and a half had gone by since he’d spoken to Sadie on the phone.

He didn’t often let emotions get the best of him. It was counterproductive and a waste of energy. But his emotions were getting the better of him now, all of them.

He entered the spa and about fifteen women’s heads swiveled his way, both staff and waiting clients, some of whom he realized he knew. The women were sitting around the plush couches sipping champagne beneath floating balloons that said Happy Birthday Elle!

Great.

Sadie was with them. She had the spa’s brochure in one hand and a bottle of champagne in another to serve the women as she was explaining what their day at the spa would entail. At the sight of him, she stopped midsentence and met his gaze, looking surprised.

And the not the happy kind of surprise.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

He hesitated, mostly because he still hadn’t worked out his strategy in Project Grovel, and in the silence came several whispers from their peanut gallery.

“Looks like he’s in trouble . . .”

“When they’re packaged like he is, they’re always in trouble.”

“I always thought he was so smart . . .”

Caleb ignored them and had eyes only for Sadie. “Can we talk?”

Everyone’s gaze swiveled to Sadie.

“I’m working,” she said, gesturing with the brochure and the champagne.

“I can wait.”

Sadie gave a slow shake of her head. “After this I’m going to work at the Canvas Shop.”

“I can give you a ride home after.”

“I’ve got my car back, remember?”

She could avoid him forever if she wanted. They both knew that she was stubborn enough to do it. And the longer she managed to put him off, the easier it would be for her to forget what they were to each other. Which meant he needed to get through to her now, right now, and make sure she knew she was numero uno in his life, no matter what her past entailed. Not matter what her future entailed.

All in front of a live studio audience.

He drew a deep breath. “I made a mistake,” he said. “A big one. I’m probably going to make a lot more because, well . . . I’m male and also sometimes an idiot. But I’m incredibly sorry, and if I could take it back, I would. I love you, Sadie. Ridiculously. And I think you love me too.”

“I think so too,” someone in the group whispered.

“Hell, I love him, and I’m already happily married,” someone else whispered.

Caleb concentrated only on Sadie. “What we have is way too important to blow on my stupid mistake,” he said. “I don’t want to lose you.”

No one moved. No one blinked. Including Sadie.

“Maybe you should say the part where you’re an idiot again,” someone helpfully suggested. Tina, he thought.

Sadie bit her lower lip, whether to hide her amusement or agreement, he had no idea, but she stood up. “Excuse us a minute.”

“Ah, man, she’s going to take it outside,” someone complained. “We’re going to miss it.”

“No worries, the windows are open,” someone else said.

Sadie shut the windows hard enough to rattle them and then jerked her chin at Caleb, gesturing to the front door. He stepped outside with her and the last thing he heard from inside before the door was shut was “ten to one his body’s never found.”

Sadie had been practicing all her life at playing it cool, at making sure no one knew when she was ruffled, much less down for the count, but all her skills had deserted her.

Caleb not only had admitted to making a mistake and apologizing for it, he wanted to make it up to her. But even that was eclipsed by what else he’d said.

He loved her.

He’d even said so in front of a bunch of people. He wasn’t afraid of the emotion nor of letting anyone else know about it.

The magnitude of that—he’d chosen her!—had her heart overflowing so that she could barely breathe, much less speak, but she had to try. “First,” she said, “you’re not the only one who’s made mistakes.”

She absolutely had his attention. His eyes held her prisoner, his entire body still. “I’m not?”

She gave a slow shake of her head. “I used what happened as an excuse to run away. And actually, that’s a bigger mistake than yours. Because your mistake showed faith in me, in us. Mine showed a distinct lack of faith. And that’s what makes it so bad because it’s not true. I have faith in you, in us. I was just scared.”

“Sadie,” he breathed quietly, reaching for her hand to pull her into him. “I get being scared. What we have took us both by surprise, you’re not alone there. But you need to know that what you’ve told me about you, about your past, whatever you haven’t told me about your past . . . none of it could ever change my opinion of you. If anything, what you’ve gone through makes me feel even more for you. You’re one of the strongest people I’ve ever met.”

She stared up at him, afraid to hope. “I’m pretty sure I’m going to make a bunch more mistakes too. It’s how I’m programmed—”

“I love how you’re programmed.” He cuddled her into him and she looked over his shoulder at Lollipop who was lying in a toasty sunspot, looking like she had no plans to move unless she was physically relocated or until she burst into flames.

Sadie felt the exact same way being in Caleb’s arms.

“Do you have any idea what you mean to me?” he asked, sliding a hand to the nape of her neck, thumb extended to nudge up her chin. “Everything,” he said in a heart-stopping voice. “You mean everything to me. I didn’t know how to face the fact that I might have scared you off forever.”

A not-so-small lump formed in her throat. She’d spent so much time ignoring her feelings for him, and in return it seemed she’d also managed to ignore his feelings for her. She’d convinced herself that this was just a diversion, but it was so much more. She shook her head, marveled at the fact that she had this man in her life. “I can’t believe I almost let the guy I love walk right out of my life.”

He stilled and pulled back to see her face. “You love me?”

She froze in shock that she’d said the words, and he smiled. “You do,” he breathed. “You love me.”

She dropped her forehead to his chest. “Maybe a little.”

He lifted her off her feet. “You love me.”

“Yes,” she whispered, terrified, throwing her arms around his neck. “I love you, okay? I never meant to, but I kept feeling all the little broken pieces of my heart give themselves to you. It’s terrifying, Caleb,” she said to his smile. “I’ve never really given my pieces away before, at least not to someone who could protect them and take care of them.”

He kissed her gently. “I’ve got you, Sadie, I promise you. Give me all your pieces, I can take everything you’ve got.” He kissed her again, long and deep, until she broke off, breathing heavily.

“We get to have a round of makeup sex now, right?” she asked hopefully.

“Sadie, this is leading to a lot more than just a round of makeup sex,” he said, voice thrillingly rough.

Her heart hitched. “Two rounds of makeup sex?”

He smiled. “More.”

She bit her lower lip and stared at him, taking in the affection and teasing in his gaze. And love. So much love. She was never going to get tired of that. “As much makeup sex as I want?”

“Yes,” he said on a sexy laugh. “But tell me that you want more from me than just makeup sex.”

“I do,” she said very seriously now, sliding her fingers into his hair to pull his head down to hers. “I want it all.”