Page 96 of We Met Like This
“Do you road-trip a lot?” he asked.
“Not much. You?”
“I’ve done my fair share. Growing up, my parents made it a mission to take us to as many national parks as possible.”
“That’s cool. I’ve only been to a few. What are your top three favorite?”
“Yosemite, Zion, and Glacier,” he said like he’d answered that question a hundred times. Maybe it was a first-date go-to.
“I’ve never been to any of those.”
“You’ve never been to Yosemite? You live in California!”
“I’ve been to Joshua Tree.”
He laughed. “Are you claiming that’s the same thing?”
“No, I’m claiming I’ve been to at least one national park in California so you don’t think I’m uncultured.”
“Are you trying to impress me?” he asked.
“Only if it’s working,” I said.
At one point I had thought Oliver was easy to read, but I had been fooling myself, because I had no idea what he was thinking.
My phone buzzed in my backpack with an email notification. I reached for it to make sure it wasn’t Kari with some last-minute instructions.
It wasn’t Kari.
“Another query,” I said.
“Number two?”
“This actually makes five.”
“Five? That’s great!”
“Yes,” I said. “It is pretty great.”
“Any promising candidates?”
“So far, no.” I held up my phone. “But maybe it’s this one. I should read it. Do you want to hear it?”
“Yes,” Oliver said. “Desperately.”
Those words made me want to kiss him all over again. I turned my attention back to my phone. “Okay, get ready to be blown away by a love story.”
CHAPTER 28
“That was… really good,” he said.
My eyes hadn’t left my phone and they were still there as I scrolled back through the first five pages of the manuscript that Marissa, the author, had included in her email. “It wasverygood, Oliver.”
“Keep reading.”
“That’s all there is. It’s part of my submission requirements: just the first five pages.”
“You’ll ask for more?”
