Page 51 of Me and Mr. Just Right

“Don’t worry. An entire life of scheming and planning has led me to this moment.” Rose looked around her boat, and Lia could see her brain whirring. Nerves flooded Lia as a Grinch-like smile spread across Rose’s face. Rose turned to assess Lia from head to foot. “How do you feel about really small spaces?”

Chapter 24

OnceHaydnhadsteadycell service, he kept refreshing his email to see if his editor had sent him a message. Finally, his editor sent him a short email:

We took the post down. Do we need to notify our lawyer?

Relief flooded Haydn, but it was short-lived. The post had been shared so many times, it now had a life of its own. Taking down the original wouldn’t stop people from knowing she’d come to Petersburg. It wouldn’t keep her from seeing it and thinking that he’d sold her out.

He groaned, a sudden headache pulsing behind his eyes.

Bennett rubbed his shoulders. “It’s going to be okay! We’re going to make this right!” he shouted.

But then the marina came into view, and Jules abruptly pulled back on the throttle. “That’s not good,” he muttered, taking in the crowd of people milling about the dock.

“Maybe they’re all tourists, here to take in our beloved Petersburg,” Bennett said weakly.

Jules and Haydn both leveled him with a look, before Jules pushed the throttle to full speed and headed in the direction of Rose’s boat.

They pulled up alongside it. Her boat was there already, so they got off, and Bennett took it over to his boat on the other side of the marina to tie it up.

Haydn banged on Rose’s door. “Rose! Are you there?”

Jules walked around to the other side. “All the windows are shut.”

Haydn tried the door, and it slid right open. Rose always forgot to lock her doors, something that made Haydn endlessly nervous, but he was grateful for it right now.

The cabin was dark and unmistakably empty. “She’s not here,” he called out to Jules.

“Do you think they went to the airport?”

“Maybe.” If anyone could successfully sneak Lia past all those reporters, it would be Rosie. His heart warmed with gratitude that Rosie had been with Lia when she’d realized her location had been discovered.

No, not discovered. Revealed by him. He’d doxxed the woman he was falling in love with.

“We need to go find her at the airport,” Jules declared. “Let’s go.”

They ran to Bennett’s boat first and yelled for him to grab his truck keys; then they raced to his truck. None of the reporters gave them a second look as they went past them.

“Where are we going?” Bennett asked as they all climbed into Bennett’s old truck. Jules scrunched himself into the back seat without complaint.

“The airport,” Haydn said, feeling determination rise in him. He had to get there. He had to explain himself and apologize. He couldn’t send her off thinking that yet another person had betrayed her … and right when she was starting to trust again.

“The airport it is!” Bennett’s wheels squealed as he took the corner out of the parking lot and got on the road to the airport. He flashed a huge, excited grin at Haydn. “I know this is all very serious, but I feel like I’m in a romantic comedy. That last scene where he has to race to the airport to get the girl!”

Haydn’s stomach was a bundle of nerves. In those movies, it always worked out. But he didn’t know if he’d be so lucky.

It didn’t take long to get to the airport, and they spotted Rose’s car in the tiny parking lot right away. Bennett turned into a parking space wildly, and Haydn jumped from the truck before it had fully stopped.

Before he realized that the plane was gone.

More reporters loitered around the airport, chatting with one another like they were all old friends. Anger rushed through him, and it took every ounce of self-control not to approach them.

Rosie came out of the trailer, her arms folded and a sour expression on her face. She stomped toward Haydn, but all he could do was watch the plane as it rose into the sky, completely out of reach.

Rosie shoved his shoulder. “What is wrong with you? Why’d it take you so long to get here? I stalled for as long as I could.”

“We came as fast as we could,” he defended. “Wait, how did you know we were coming?”

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