Page 19 of The Road Trip Romance

I roll my eyes. “Seriously, dude? What am I even going to say if I somehow figure out a way to just roll up to the set in Montana?” I pause. “Oh, hey, Lacey, remember me? How about we try for a future you’ve clearly said you don’t want?”

Rex groans. “Well, if you start out like that, then yes, this entire mission is sunk from the start.”

Penn glances over at Sophia. “You’re the romance author? The one our boy here has been obsessing over for weeks?”

Sophia blushes. “Uh, guilty?” she says as if unsure of how to respond to that question.

Penn grins. “You don’t need to worry about what to say. We have a literal romance author to help us script your big ‘grand gesture’ speech. You just have to be able to deliver a line,” he states with a little nod of his head as if he’s some kind of evil genius.

I give him a deadpan stare. “Seriously? That’s your big plan?” I ask.

Rex glares at me. “You can’t hide from your life forever. You’ve been miserable since Lacey left. You almost got arrested over that fight with Warren. Your ass is lucky he didn’t press charges. And now, you want to give up on the one good thing you had going?”

I contemplate what he’s saying. He’s not wrong. None of it is wrong, and I sort of hate that. My brain momentarily goes to daydreaming about this idea. Could we make this work? Maybe Lacey would change her mind if I said the right things? I glance over at Sophia. She would know the right things to say. She barely knows me, yet it feels like she’s known me forever.Could she help?

“How would we even get there?” I ask as I begin to contemplate the reality of doing this.

Penn grins. “Fuck, yeah! Game fucking on!”

I hold up a hand. “Hold up, Double Oh Seven. I’m serious. This town is not near anything. They caravanned stuff in from like Cheyenne or something,” I point out.

“When’s the film wrap?” Jordan asks.

I shrug. “I’m not sure. Another week or two?” I haven’t spoken to Lacey. She texted me once about bringing in a package she had delivered, but otherwise, we haven’t spoken.

“So just fly there and rent a car?” Sophia states as if we have no brain cells.

Penn looks over at her. “I don’t fly commercial. I don’t want anyone getting wind of this. It would open up a media shitstorm, the likes of which you can’t even fathom.”

She nods and twists her lips as if deep in thought. “Uh, sorry if this sounds…forward of me, but aren’t you guys like super rich? Don’t you have access to private jets?” she asks.

Penn laughs. “You’d think…but the one we use the most belongs to a friend of ours and it’s out of commission at the moment for servicing. We could try to locate one, but the more we ask around, the more likely people will talk and that equates to another opportunity for a media shitstorm.”

Sophia frowns and nods her understanding. We all stand there for a long moment. Finally, Sophia’s frown begins to turn into a smile.

“What?” Jordan asks her.

“I’ve…got…a plan,” she says, impersonating the famous line fromTommy Boy.

Penn chuckles. “What’s your plan, M?” he asks. Oh God, Penn already has given her a nickname. It’s his thing. That’s how you know you’ve been accepted.

“M?” she asks.

“Yeah, like Double Oh Seven. You’re a mom…and you’re the brains of this operation, I feel it in my bones,” he explains.

She giggles and then looks around at all of us. “What if we rent you a car and you drive out there?” she suggests. “I mean, we took the kids on a road trip out that way a few years ago. You could easily get there in two days, three at the max if you make stops.”

Jordan’s head turns and he cranes his neck to look out the front window at Sophia’s giant, red SUV that seems way too large for her small stature.

“How about, you drive us out there, then?” he suggests.

Sophia’s eyes shoot up to his. “What? Me?” she asks, pointing to her chest.

“Yep. It’s perfect. You can handle all the front-desk hotel stuff. We can just sneak in and out of places. It’s great. No one would be the wiser,” he declares, strumming his fingers together as if he’s an evil genius.

“I…really? Me?” she questions as she looks at each of my friends and then back to me.

“Would you?” I ask as our gazes lock. Something about her being there seems comforting to me. Like, maybe I could do this if she’s there.

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