Adrian Hadley looked straight at her. "Aunt Scarlett, I want you to have another option."

In an instant, Scarlett Summers understood everything. The tenderness hidden inside this boy's heart.

Her chest filled with a tangle of feelings — guilt, self-reproach, a quiet warmth, and something she couldn't name. All of it collapsed into a single embrace. She rarely held Adrian like this; he was older now, practically a young man. But she pulled him close and held ...