Page 20 of The Road Trip Romance

“I guess so. How many days are we talking? I can’t be gone for more than two weeks,” she muses as I watch the cogs begin to spin in her head.

“Six or seven days tops,” Rex states.

She lets out a breath. “Come on, let’s grab a beer. We need to do some planning if you all are serious about this,” she declares as she walks past me into her kitchen.

I look at my friends and they are grinning like idiots. “Come on, Taint, let’s go plan your grand gesture,” Penn teases as he slaps me on my back. I hate that nickname and that fucker knows it. I turn and watch my friends mill into the kitchen and grab beers from Sophia before one by one marching out to her fire pit.

"You coming?" Sophia asks as she holds out a beer.

“Yeah,” I answer, taking it from her and following her outside. I have no idea why I just agreed to this crazy-ass plan. I mean, what could go wrong? Four movie stars, a romance author, and an insane cross-country road trip to help me win back my ex-girlfriend…fuck, I don’t even think Hollywood could make up something like this.

CHAPTERNINE

Sophia

Blinking, I stare at the four men sitting around my fire pit. I want to ask Tate to pinch me because I’m pretty sure I just fell into some sort of alternate universe. I take a moment to look at them, while Penn relays the funny story of how they all got here, with one of them getting a ride from a D.C. set where they were filming to another taking the train from New York, and the third hopping on a plane and trying to be incognito.

Penn looks like every interview or media clip I’ve ever seen of him. He’s got this laid-back, adventurous vibe. He looks like he just walked up from surfing or participating in one of those triathlons I hear he competes in. His sandy-brown hair is slightly longer and falls a little over his brown eyes. His skin is sun-kissed and freckles dot his cheeks. He’s in his thirties but looks much younger. His muscled forearms are just as I’ve seen them in his superhero movies. Lex and Anissa would shit their pants right now if they saw him sitting here.

Rex is giving British professor vibes in his suit with the top button of his white Oxford undone. His blond hair is neatly trimmed and styled. He’s muscular but in a tall, toned runner sort of way. He looks like the spy he plays in films, sophisticated and worldly. I think I could listen to him speak all day long with his British accent, which is a little muted probably from him living in the U.S. for so long, but it’s still there.

And then there’s Jordan. He’s the oldest of the four of them. But like his friends, he doesn’t look his age, probably from being in shape for all of those action-hero movies he makes. I hear he does his own stunts. He’s a little shorter than the others, but his large biceps look like he could crush a man with his bare hands. He has the shortest hair of the four, and I wonder if it was cut for a recent military film he made. His dark hair has a few grays and his dark eyes seem to constantly be scanning his surroundings.

As they sip on their beers, I notice that they each seem to relax a bit more as if being here in this circle of their closest friends…and me…is a place where they can finally let down their guard. What must that be like, never being able to be truly yourself?

My phone buzzes at the same time as Tate’s and we both look down to read incoming messages.

Marti: WTF? Tate is at your house and so are Rex, Penn, and Jordan? Carol just called me.

I look up from my phone and Tate’s eyes lift to meet my gaze.

“Carol knows,” he mutters and then glares at his friends who all give him sheepish looks.

“As does Marti,” I add, holding up my phone so they can read the message.

“Uh, who’s Marti?” Penn asks.

“My agent,” I reply with a sigh.

“Shit, will she keep this under wraps?” he inquires as he sets his beer down on the arm of his chair.

I nod while texting her back.

Me: Yes. Please don’t tell anyone. I’m guessing Carol called you?

Marti: Uh, yeah. She is hella pissed. Tate better call her ASAP. And I NEED details, STAT!

I press my lips together to keep from giggling because I can hear that text in her voice inside my head.

“She’s good. She and I have an NDA,” I further explain as I look up to see Tate sighing heavily and standing. He pulls a SIM card out of his wallet and switches it out with the one in his phone before he walks off to a far corner of my yard with the phone held to his ear. I can hear a woman’s voice talking loudly.

“I’m guessing that’s Carol?” I whisper to the others.

Rex laughs. “Yeah, she’s a trip, and also very controlling. Between her and Tate’s PR team, it’s like Fort Knox getting information about him. I had to white lie to Carol to get anything out of her. Fucker didn’t even tell her why he wanted the address. We had to put two and two together from the Air Tag,” he says before taking another sip of beer.

I hear Carol’s voice screaming through the phone and I grimace.

Jordan waves off my concern. “She’ll get over it. She just went through a nasty divorce with her wife, so she’s a little more on edge than normal,” he explains.

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