Page 27 of The Road Trip Romance

“Tate?” I say loudly.

The other door opens and we’re standing face to face…or my face to his chest because this man is tall, and I am most definitely not. And every time we stand by each other, I’m reminded of this.

“Sorry, all they had left were adjoining rooms,” he explains with a shrug.

“Oh, uh, that’s fine. We can just keep the doors closed,” I say, and I swear a look of disappointment crosses his face.

“Right…I should go and meet Penn. He was getting us tickets or whatever you have to get to go to the top of that building. You sure you don’t want to go?”

I shake my head vehemently. “Nope.”

I watch as Tate presses his lips together, but the twitching corners are a dead giveaway that he desperately wants to laugh at me.

“Laugh it up, buttercup. It isnot funny. I hate heights,” I say as I narrow my eyes at him.

He puts his hands up in defense. “OK, OK. I’ll see you later…at dinner?”

“Sure,” I reply as I shut the door and head downstairs to meet Jordan.

“How far is this bean thing?” I ask him as we begin to walk. He’s wearing a ball cap and sunglasses, which I suppose is some sort of celebrity disguise.

“Not far. Maybe like a mile,” he guesses as we turn the block.

“Can I ask you a question?”

He turns toward me and nods. I consider my words carefully. I don’t want to come off like I’m secretly crushing on Tate, a man I met a mere three days ago.

“Do you really think Tate and Lacey can work it out?” I ask and then bite my lower lip before quickly releasing it because that seems like weird body language.Shit, why am I overthinking this?

Jordan’s quiet for a beat and I wonder if he’s considering what to say because I don’t really know Tate. I’m an outsider still, and I get that. But I feel like I’ve known these men for years after just forty-eight hours. We’ve laughed, teased each other, and shared so many life stories in the nearly one thousand miles we’ve covered so far. I silently ponder if they feel the same way about me or if this is all one-sided. Like how I felt being held in Tate’s arms yesterday when I fell. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel something. I wanted to stay there all day. I know I shouldn’t feel that way. Maybe I just need to date more or maybe it was the wholeI got rescued by a movie starthing?

“I don’t know,” Jordan finally responds. “It’s complicated. Tate wants things that she doesn’t. But they were so good together. I don’t get why she didn’t try to make it work. I can’t imagine leaving Alisha without trying.”

I smile at the way he talks about his wife. “You guys seem very happy,” I interject as we walk by a bakery, and I smell the coffee and pastries.

Jordan grins. “You smell that?”

I nod and he pulls me by the arm inside the shop. When we have fancy lattes in hand along with donuts, we continue on our walk.

“Does that whole Clark Kent thing actually work for you guys?” I ask him with a raised eyebrow. We managed to get coffee without anyone coming up to us, but a few people did double takes.

He shrugs. “Outside of LA, it works a lot better. People aren’t always expecting to see me somewhere else. But every once in a while, I get spotted.”

“Is it…scary?” I ask, trying to figure out what it would be like to be swarmed by a bunch of random strangers.

He purses his lips as he considers my question. “At first it was…uncomfortable. But now, I’m used to it. Most of us typically have security with us, so that helps.”

I frown. I hadn’t even thought about that.

“Why don’t you have that now?” I ask, looking around us and wondering if I should be nervous because we are out here in the wilds of middle America with no bodyguards.

“Well, Tate clearly went off the grid, so that explains his decision. The three of us wanted to be low-key as well. Trust me when I say, I’ve had several not-so-pleasant conversations with both my agent and my head of security. Neither of them is pleased with my disappearing act,” he admits.

“Are we…safe?” I ask, the words spilling from my lips before I have time to think about them.

He stuffs the last bite of donut in his mouth and gives my shoulder a friendly squeeze. “Don’t worry, all four of us have been through some pretty intense training both for films and for personal reasons. We won’t let anything happen to you,” he assures me.

“No, I mean…thank you…but I was talking about you four. Should I be worried for you?” I question as I look around us again as if I’m going to see random people running at us like ninjas.

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