Page 23 of The Road Trip Romance

“Go ahead and lock up,” Tate suggests with a nod of his head, breaking the spell. I take one last glance at his hand covering mine before pulling it away.

“Sure…uh, I’ll be right back,” I mutter before running off to lock up the house and garage.

“Where are you off to?” George calls out from his yard.

“Just a quick trip to take my friend somewhere. The kids are at Mark’s this month. Would you mind watching the house for the next week?” I ask, half annoyed but also glad George will be milling around. He’s like a built-in security system. He probably picks up motion more than my video doorbell.

“Of course. Where are you kids off to?” he asks as he nods toward the men in my driveway.

“Montana, to visit my friend’s friend,” I offer because it’s not a lie and doesn’t give him anything to gossip about.

“I love Montana. Went fly fishing there fifty years ago. One time?—”

“George, I hate to cut you off, but I need to get going. Do you think we can catch up when I get home?” I ask with an apologetic smile.

“Of course, Sophia. You have a safe trip. Wanda and I will bring in the mail,” he says.

“Great. Thanks!” I call out before securing my front door and heading back to the car.

I get into the driver’s side and look around. Rex has the far back seat. Penn and Jordan are in the middle seats. And Tate is next to me.

Taking a deep breath, I look around the car once more. “Ready to get this party started?” I ask.

“Fuck yeah!” Penn yells.

Rex groans. “Yep.”

Jordan nods and I turn to Tate who is taking a deep breath. He looks…nervous?

I reach over and pat his hand. “You ready?”

He swallows and nods before turning to me. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

I give him an encouraging smile. “Let’s go win back your lady.” And I do mean it…but I also sort of don’t want to do it. I clear my throat as I try to sort out why I’m feeling this way, but then Tate turns on my sound system, and as Penn belts out a Nirvana song, I pull out into the street, trying to forget why I suddenly felt like bailing on this plan.Let the adventure begin, I think to myself.

CHAPTERTEN

Tate

“Uh, can you all tell me something normal about yourselves?” Sophia asks as she leans back in the passenger seat. I offered to drive the second shift after we stopped for lunch.

Jordan chuckles from the back seat. “I can assure you that there’s nothing normal about Penn.”

I hear a slap and I laugh. “Fuck off, Quinn. I’m hella normal,” Penn protests.

Sophia stifles a laugh as Rex chimes in. “Right. Like winning three triathlons is normal.”

Sophia’s head swivels to look behind us. “You’ve won three?” she exclaims.

“I mean, yeah,” Penn replies with a shrug as he reaches into the snack bag that Sophia said we absolutely needed to take with us.

“OK, but, like, what else do you do for fun?” she asks.

Penn is quiet for a long moment, and I have to press my lips together to keep from laughing. He totally doesn’t do anything but crazy athletic stuff.

“I surf,” he offers.

“Do you do anything that doesn’t involve physical activity?” Sophia questions.

---