Page 66 of Love Unexpected
By the time I made it outside, Tyler was leaning against the car, his feet crossed at the ankles and his phone in his hand. Rosie was nowhere to be found.
“Where’s Rosie?” I asked, a feeling of dread already pooling in my stomach.
Tyler looked up and sighed. “She’s gone.”
“What do you meangone?”
“I mean an Uber just picked her up to drive her to the airport. She’s going home.”
My phone dinged with an incoming message and I yanked out my phone, feeling intuitively that it was Ana.
@Briarsandthorns: I hope you aren’t going to be disappointed...but I fear you’re going to be just the same.
I swore under my breath and leaned against the car. “Why did you let her leave without talking to me?”
Tyler shot me a snide look. “Why did you relegate her to the backseat and spend the entire morning pretending she didn’t exist?”
That was fair.
The majority of the crowd that had gathered for our restaurant stop had dissipated, but the parking lot still felt uncomfortably full. Suddenly, I didn’t want to have an audience. “Can you drive?” I said to Tyler.
“Not if I’m filming,” he answered slowly.
“I don’t care about filming. I just want to get out of here and I...I don’t want to drive.” I was too keyed up. Too...overwhelmed. Because I was pretty sure Ana and Rosie were the same person. And I couldn’t figure out what that meant.
“Give me the keys, man,” Tyler said, his tone shifting. “I’ve got you.”
We pulled out of the parking lot and drove in silence for several minutes. “Did she say anything about why she was leaving?” I finally asked.
“Only that you guys had a falling out and she didn’t want to make the rest of the trip uncomfortable. What happened?”
I leaned back in my seat and pressed my head into my hands. “I kissed her.”
Tyler choked out a laugh. “I can’t say I didn’t see that coming.”
I shot him a look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, whatever. You were in the car yesterday. You guys were all flirty and couple-like. You were obviously into her and she was obviously into you.”
“Obviously not, because she left. If she were actually into me, why would she have done that?”
“Gee, I don’t know. Maybe because you’re on your way to meet another woman? Or because you kicked her from the co-pilot seat mid-trip and probably made her feel embarrassed and stupid in front of me?”
Tyler made very valid points. And made me wonder whether or not Ana and Rosie really were the same person. I’d been a jerk to Rosie. She had every right to leave. Was it just wishful thinking that had made me believe they were one and the same?
“Where are we going, Isaac? Am I driving to Kansas City?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I have to see this thing through.”
“Do you want to stop in St. Louis like we planned? I think Alex had one more—”
“No,” I said, cutting him off. “No more stops. Not unless we’re charging the car or grabbing fast food to eat on the way.”
He nodded. “And no more recording?”
I’d never been so certain that I didnotwant to spend any more of my day on camera. “No. Let’s just get there.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
