From Best Friend To Fiancé (Savannah and Roman) novel Chapter 395

Chapter 395

Savannah

My nerves were a wreck.

Not the cute, fluttery kind. The ugly kind–the kind that made my palms slick with sweat and my chest feel too tight for proper breathing. My entire body

everything. felt like it was bracing for impact, like I was standing on the edge of something I couldn’t yet see but knew would

Beside me, Roman drove like we were headed to brunch.

One hand loose on the wheel. The other rested casually on his thigh. He was whistling under his breath–some old tune I didn’t recognize, something light and almost cheerful. The complete opposite of the storm raging inside me.

I watched him from the corner of my eye, incredulous. “You’re not nervous?” I asked suddenly.

He glanced over, the corner of his mouth lifting in a lazy smile before his eyes returned to the road. “No. Why would I be? We’re only going to see your

parents.”

I let out a soft, humorless laugh. “Why wouldn’t you be?” I countered. “This trip alone is reason enough. We don’t know what we’re walking into. We don’t know what we’ll find. Or how it’ll end.”

He shrugged, calm as ever. “And worrying about it changes that how? Relax your mind, baby.”

“That’s not the point.”

Roman’s expression softened. “Sav, if you spend your time imagining every possible way things could go wrong, fear starts running the show. I don’t let fear

drive.”

I opened my mouth to argue–to tell him that it wasn’t that simple, that fear wasn’t something you could just decide not to feel. But the words stalled somewhere between my chest and my throat.

Because part of me knew he was right.

I leaned back against the headrest and closed my eyes for a moment, drawing in a slow, deep breath. Then another. And another.

“You okay?” he asked gently.

I nodded, even though I wasn’t sure it was true. “I will be. I’m trying to be.”

He reached over then, his hand warm and grounding as it squeezed my thigh. “Don’t stress yourself, my love.”

I turned my face toward the window, watching the scenery blur past us. Fields. Trees. Familiar stretches of road that felt like echoes from another lifetime.

This road.

Memories crept in quietly, uninvited.

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Chapter 395

The first time Roman and I had driven this way together, we’d been nothing more than best friends. Two people about to lie their way through an entire town. Lovers in name only. Pretending for my survival, for revenge, for reasons that felt flimsy now.

And somewhere along the way… Something shifted. Right here. In this car.

I glanced at the backseat, and memories flared vivid and unfiltered. I looked at the window and felt heat creep into my cheeks. I stared straight ahead and

felt the weight of just how much had changed since then.

We were engaged now. In love. And I was carrying his child.

The thought still felt surreal, like something I’d borrowed from another woman’s life. If someone had told me be my reality–that Roman Blackwood would be the man I was going to marry, that I’d be pregnant with his

Roman and I? Impossible.

He’d only been my best friend. My safe place. The man who knew all my secrets and still stayed. Reliable. Steady. Constant.

Ridiculously handsome? Yes. That much was obvious.

en I first met him that this would

e laughed in their face because

Charming. Wealthy. Completely out of my league. I wasn’t blind to any of that.

But none of it had ever sparked desire in me. Not then. I didn’t look at him that way. I never allowed myself to. He was Roman–off, virtue of how

important he was to me. So when had it changed for him? Had he ever looked at me and seen more?

“Sav?” Roman’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

“What’s on your mind?”

I turned to face him, studying his profile–the strong jaw, the focused eyes, the man who somehow felt both familiar and brand new all at once.

“Did you ever…” I hesitated, choosing my words carefully. “Did you ever think of me as more than a friend? Before we–you know, before New Hope?”

He stiffened.

It was subtle. Anyone else might’ve missed it. But I knew him too well. His jaw tightened. His fingers flexed on the steering wheel.

And then he looked at me.

God.

The look on his face stopped me cold. It was the look of a man caught off guard. Exposed. Almost guilty.

My eyebrows shot up. “What was that look?”

“What look?” he asked quickly, a little too quickly.

“That one,” I pressed, pointing at his face. “You made a face.”

“I didn’t make a face, Savannah.”

“Yes, you did.”

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Chapter 395

He sighed. “You’re imagining things.”

“Then answer the question,” I said softly but firmly. “Truthfully.”

Silence stretched between us.

“Roman, did you have feelings for me before New Hope?”

“Sav-”

“Just answer,” I insisted. “Please.”

“Yes.”

The world stopped.

“What?” I stared at him, certain I’d misheard. “You–you had feelings for me? Before?”

“Yes,” he said again. “I did.”

I laughed a sharp, disbelieving sound–and pressed my hand to my forehead. “That’s not funny.”

“I’m not joking.”

“When?” I demanded. “How? Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

He exhaled slowly. “Does it really matter now?”

“Yes,” I said immediately. “It matters to me.”

He glanced at my stomach, still flat, still barely hinting at the life growing inside me. “You’re carrying my child, Savannah. That means I won in the end.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“I loved you the first time I saw you,” he said quietly.

My breath caught.

“And before you ask why I didn’t tell you,” he continued, “it’s because you never looked at me like that. Everyone else did. I was used to being the one chased. I’d never been the one doing the swooning.”

I swallowed hard. “Not even with…” I hesitated. “Dahlia?”

He looked at me then, genuinely stunned. Then he shook his head. “No.”

My heart thudded violently in my chest.

“You’re the first woman I ever fell this hard for, Savannah.”

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