LAUREN'S POV

 He let out a small smile after that moment of hesitation. It wasn’t hard to tell that he was a little embarrassed to admit it, the way his eyes darted to the side for a second and his fingers rubbed against each other gave it away.

 “It was when I was still trying to find out everything I could about you,” Roman said finally, his tone soft but steady. “So I called a friend of mine who’s really good at digging into people’s pasts. He looked into it and was able to find some things that weren’t in the media anymore.”

 My heart gave a tiny leap. That’s...