Page 63 of The Road Trip Romance

“Yes,” Tate says emphatically. That blush rears its ugly head again as I shrug.

“About damn time,” Rex mutters.

I lift my head and stare at him, our eyes meeting in the rearview mirror. “What does that mean?” I ask.

He groans. “It means, we’ve all seen how you guys are basically two halves of a whole this entire week. I’m surprised it took you this long to figure it out.”

“He has a point,” Jordan adds.

“Guys…I…Tate and I just met, so this is…and besides, we were on this trip because of…Lacey,” I stammer as I try to find the right words.

“Uh-oh, Tate, your magic dick has made our resident author speechless. She’s lost her words!” Penn says, slapping the sides of his face in mock surprise.

I glare at him. “Haha,” I say sarcastically.

Penn turns to look at Jordan. Jordan reaches into his wallet and pulls out a hundred-dollar bill, handing it to Penn.

“You guys bet on us!” I yelp.

Penn looks over at me. “Uh, yeah, obviously. I said you’d all shack up before we got back. Jordan here said maybe later this year and Rex thought once we got home.”

I look at Tate and he laughs. “I mean…” He looks torn between laughing with his friends and pretending to be as offended as I’m pretending to be.

I lean back against Tate who wraps an arm around my shoulder while I lean on his. It feels so natural as if we were always destined to be like this. I’m playing with a loose thread on the neck of his t-shirt. He grabs my hand and brings it up to his lips, planting a gentle kiss on the tips of my fingers.

I smile, feeling contented for the first time in a long time. I listen to all the banter between the guys. Part of me doesn’t want to leave this cocoon, this bubble of happiness that we’ve created. The real world awaits. And the plan is that we’ll get in late tonight or early tomorrow morning. I swallow hard at that thought. Am I ready to face my new reality? It’s a lot to take in.And shit, what do I tell the kids?

I feel like Tate and I have some things to talk about but I push aside that thought for later. I don’t want to consider real life until at least tomorrow. It’s been so long since I felt like this, I want to relish it for a few more hours.

As the day ticks by, I feel myself growing more anxious. I feel the panic start to set in when we stop for lunch outside of Chicago. We decided to take a more northern route back.

“What’s wrong?” Tate asks as we eat at a park bench. I had secured us all sandwiches, so we could eat out here away from prying eyes.

“I…” I pause as I consider my words. “We’ll need to figure out a lot of things when we get back,” I admit.

He presses a kiss to the side of my head. “And we will. Let’s just enjoy our trip, OK?” he says, trying to reassure me. He’s so calm as though he has relationships with non-movie stars all the time.

“Right,” I mutter, biting into my sandwich because I’m more rational when I’m not hangry.

Penn clears his throat, and we look over at him. “Sooo,” he starts.

“This should be good,” Rex teases.

Penn grins. “I mean, I think it’s good.” He pauses which feels more like he’s building anticipation than trying to collect his thoughts. He turns his phone over and shows us a map of our route home. “When I was filming outside Cleveland, there was this state park on the lake with a nice beach. I thought maybe we could take one extra night so we could be there at sunrise,” he says.

We all look at each other and no words are spoken but it’s clear what we’re all thinking. “If it means we get burgers from that local drive-up place, I’m in,” Rex says.

“You had me at one more night of escaping real life,” Jordan jokes.

Penn shoves his shoulder. “Whatever, at least you have Alisha to go home to.”

Jordan cocks an eyebrow. “Well, well, well. It sounds like we have a topic of discussion for the afternoon car ride.”

Rex chuckles as he finishes his sandwich. “Which topic is that? You wanting to go home to your wife? Or Penn suddenly deciding monogamy is good? Or Tate and Sophia finally seeing the light?”

“What about you finally deciding to commit to that girlfriend of yours?” Penn questions.

Rex flicks him off.

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