Page 89 of Rowdy Hearts

A soft knock on the outside door made my head pop up from my phone, and I tossed it on the table in front of the couch and shot up off the couch to get to Rowdy.

All the stress that’d been building up inside me eased at the sight of his smile.

“Hi—Whoa, hey. You okay? What happened?”

I threw my arms around his shoulder and clung as soon as I’d opened the door. His arms wrapped around my back, holding me tight against him. Shoving my face in his neck, I breathed him in. He smelled like mint and lime and his still-damp hair clung to my fingers as I wound them around the strands.

With his foot, he pushed the door shut behind him, then lifted me off my feet and walked to the couch.

“Tressy. What’s going on? Talk to me.”

“I can’t stay.”

Idiot.Why the hell had I blurted that out? It wasn’t even what I’d wanted to say. Not really. But it was true.

Rowdy stilled for a second before his hand on my lower back began to make small, soothing circles.

“Like, you gotta leave right this second? I thought your car wouldn’t be ready until Monday. Or are you talking about forever?”

My breath caught, and I had to remember to breathe.

“And if you’re talking about right now, I’d say, I’m sure you could at least wait until morning. And if you’re talking aboutforever, well… Why not? It’s not like people don’t move out of New York City. I mean, smart people move out of the city all the time.”

I huffed out a laugh and shook my head, rubbing my cheek against the soft cotton of his long-sleeved t-shirt.

“I think you might be biased about the city.”

“You do know there’s more than one city in the country, right? Like, Philadelphia’s a city. Pittsburgh, Harrisburg. We’ve got several just in Pennsylvania.”

“But none of them are where I live. Where I work. Where Krista goes to school.”

His body tensed. I could tell me didn’t want to talk about this. Not now. Probably not later either. But he had to know.

“We can’t hide here forever.”

“That’s what you’ve been doing? Hiding?”

“That’s what it feels like.”

“Why? Because you didn’t announce to everyone that you were on a TV show more than a decade ago? It’s not like people here don’t know your name.”

Okay, when he put it like that, I started to feel kind of ridiculous. But that still didn’t solve the underlying problem.

“I can’t just pick up everything and move here on a whim.”

“Why not? People do it every day.”

Everything he said sounded so logical, even though I knew it wasn’t. I couldn’t move to another state after spending just a few nights in this small town. Could we?

I pulled back so I could look at him. “Our entire life is in New York.”

Those words sounded so final. And, from the look on his face, he knew I meant them.

The muscles in his jaw clenched, but otherwise, his expression didn’t change. I didn’t know what I’d expected from him, but it wasn’t this slow nod. “Okay. So, when are you planning to leave?”

No argument? No charm? No fight?

“The mechanic called and said he got the tires today. I guess…tomorrow sometime?”

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