Page 25 of Innocent Princess

Cameron clears his throat breaking through the silence. "Then it's settled. You two are heading to Texas. You sure you're good with missing so much class, Zella?" A laugh plays on his lips. I detest missing class, or even being late to class, but this is a huge, life-changing event. Meeting my biological parents is so much more important than three days of class.

"I'm okay with it, as long as I can find people to take notes for me, which shouldn't be a problem."

"All right, well, I'm gonna get out of here. I need to take my car in for an oil change and get packed. Meet me in front of your building at eight tomorrow morning." Ryker smiles and pushes off the window sill. He nods to Cameron as he passes and walks right out of the tower room.

I let out a huge sigh, my hair lifting gently from my face. I look at Cameron, and he's wearing one of his up-to-no-good grins. "What?"

"Nothing, Blondie." He emphasizes the name, laughs, and jumps off the table. "Come on, let's get out of here and get you packed."

His use of Ryker's nickname doesn't have the same effect on me. Which he senses because he chuckles as he grabs my bag.

"I just want to make sure: you know, you just agreed to go on a five-day road trip with a dude you've known for a little more than two months, right?" He closes the tower door behind me.

I narrow my eyes at him as we descend the three flights of stairs.

"What? I'm just making sure you know what you are doing." He shrugs.

"I'm pretty sure you're the one who brought up the road trip idea in the first place. You know darn well I don't have a car." I push his shoulder with my finger.

He gapes. "Are you insinuating I set this whole thing up?"

"No, I'm suggesting you wanted him to offer to take me. Don't play the concerned best friend right now, Cameron."

His lips twist, before he speaks, "I could tell it wouldn't take much. He clearly digs you and would have offered to go with you anyway. I just helped it along."

I shake my head. I can't be annoyed though. There are more prominent emotions swirling around inside me: shock, excitement, nervousness, and something else I'm not entirely familiar with.

How am I going to spend the next five days, alone, with Ryker Stone?

10

Ryker

We've beenon the road for almost two hours now, and Zella is a fucking mess. She was relatively quiet for the first hour, but in the last thirty minutes or so, she's been all over the board. I figured she'd have some excitement mixed with nervousness, but I wasn't expecting this.

Right now, she's feeling really fucking guilty about meeting her birth parents.

"I shouldn't be doing this. Oh, my God. What have I done?" She's barefoot, her legs are pressed against her chest, and her face buried between her knees. "Mother will be so disappointed in me."

In a few minutes, she'll tell me meeting her birth parents is the right thing and that her mother did the wrong thing by lying to her. Then she'll revert back to this blubbering mess. We have approximately eight more hours of driving time today; I need to move this mental break down along.

"Blondie." My voice is firm. She needs some tough-love right now.

She turns her head my way, keeping it rested on her knees.

"You need to snap out of this," I tell her, keeping my eyes on the road. "Did your mother lie to you about being adopted?"

"Yes," she squeaks.

"Did she make you spend the past twenty years under lock and key? Keeping you from being able to experience normal, growing up experiences?"

She whines another affirmative.

"Then what's the worst that can happen? She finds out you found and met your real parents, disowns you, and never speaks to you again?"

"Why would you say that?"

I steal a quick glance at her. Her head has lifted in alarm, but I don't pause.

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