Page 71 of Love Unexpected
My eyes narrowed. “You already knew.”
“I guessed,” he said simply. “And I was right.”
I turned away from the photos, taking in the room with new eyes. Rosie had lived here. Rosie loved Red Renegade as much as I did.Shewas the artist behind the work that had initially caught my attention.
I walked toward the four-poster bed in the middle of the room, noticing the beanie hats that adorned each post. They were the first beaniesRandom Ihad ever produced. I’d designed them and ordered them from a wholesaler myself, dropping the first six grandRandom Ihad made with nothing but a hope that my fledgling fanbase would decide they liked me enough to wear stuff that had my name on it. For the first year, I’d handled the shipping out of my parents’ garage, printing mailing labels off the same printer Dani had used to print her acceptance letter from the fashion design school she’d attended in New York.
Six grand had only bought me two thousand beanies, five hundred of each color.
Rosie had one of each.
Which meant Rosie had been watching my show a very long time.
Something like a laugh bubbled up inside me and moisture pooled in my eyes. I dropped onto the bed, laughing and—was I crying?—shaking my head. I almost couldn’t make sense of what was happening in my head, and more importantly, in my heart. More than anything, what I felt wasrelief.
“What’s the word, man?” Tyler asked, likely worried about the amount of dead time I was adding to his shot.
I looked up and smiled, sniffing in a way that couldn’t be attractive. But I didn’t care. Rosie was everything I’d ever wanted in a woman. Her smarts, her wit, her humor. Her love for Red Renegade. Her funky glasses and killer curly hair. But even though I hadn’t realized right away—not until she’d challenged me back at Marley’s house—she was also everything Ineeded.I needed someone like Rosie to balance me out. To keep me grounded. To help me remember what really mattered in life. My voice cracked when I finally spoke. “I wanted it to be her,” I said, wiping my eyes. “I...” I laughed and pressed my hands against my face. “I just can’t believe it. It was her. It was always her.”
Tyler’s shoulders lifted as he chuckled. “I’ve never seen you like this, man.”
I shrugged. “I’ve never felt like this.” I motioned to Tyler’s camera. “Hey, can you turn that off?”
He immediately stopped recording and lowered the camera onto the dresser before coming to sit next to me on the bed.
“You okay?”
I sniffed. “Yeah. Just... surprised. And relieved, I think? So many more things make sense now that I know.”
“I bet.”
“Is her name really Ana?”
Tyler nodded. “Yes. Ana Rose Crenshaw.”
That was good. It was comforting to know she hadn’t lied about her name. At least not directly. “Who else knows?”
“Alex, Jade, and Greta. I didn’t know when the trip started, but after filming you guys all day, I got suspicious and confronted Rosie.”
“At the hotel in Nashville?”
“Yeah.”
It was the first clue I’d gotten regarding my true feelings for Rosie. When I’d seen her sitting on the park bench with Tyler, jealousy had practically swallowed me whole. It was crazy to think that I felt that strongly after one day in the car. Less crazy when I thought about Rosie being Ana. Because I’d been getting to know her via direct message for over a month. My mind hadn’t known they were the same person, but we’d connected so easily, the vibe between us almost electric. Maybe in some way, my heart had already known it was her.
“What are you going to do now?” Tyler asked.
That was a good question. “I don’t know.” I suddenly wondered how this moment would have played out differently had I not been such a jerk to Rosie at her cousin’s house. Would she have followed me up the stairs to her room, waited for me to look around and make the connection on my own? Or would she have just told me? Would I have kissed her again here, right in the middle of her room? Would Tyler have filmed it?
A momentary twinge of sadness over the fact thatthatwould have made a very good conclusion to the road trip video washed over me, but it was quickly replaced by a much more pressing disappointment.
Rosie wasn’t here. And she could have been. She could have been in my arms right now.
Except, would she want to be? Is that why she’d left? She’d told me in no uncertain terms that she wouldn’t be okay with the way I lived so much of my life for my fans. But I didn’twantto live my life like that anymore. She’d woken me up to that. Helped me see that I’d been prioritizing all wrong. I’d just never had someone like Rosie to challenge me on it.
I ran a hand across my face. I reallyhadbeen dating the wrong kind of woman.
I stood. “I have to go home.”
