Page 65 of Lost Without You

Chapter Eighteen

Ryan

I was riding a high and on cloud nine.

The woman I loved, loved me too, and we were minutes away from playing house for the foreseeable future.

“You’re sure that’s ok? I don’t want to put you out,” Mitch said, standing at the kitchen island. He showered at the hotel and changed into clean clothes before coming, but had laundry to do before his next shift in thirty-six hours. He was adamant about staying six feet away, so I stayed on the outskirts of the kitchen.

“No, you’ve been here by yourself for the last few months and now with everything going down, I don’t want to put you out by you staying at a hotel. I’ll keep paying my half of the rent, so don’t worry about that—”

“I wasn’t,” he chuckled.

“—but then you don’t have to spend extra on the hotel, even if the hospitalists are covering a fraction of the costs. Savannah and I are good.”

“I can’t believe you were at the cabin when she got there. Talk about timing...”

I couldn’t agree more. “I’m glad she went. And I’m glad I was there.”

“You two have gotten your heads out of your asses then?”

I shrugged a shoulder and grinned crookedly. “She loves me.”

“Anyone with eyes could see that. The fact that you didn’t was annoying as fuck.”

“Why did you sign me up for the show then?” I was genuinely confused. If he knew that Savannah loved me, and he’d had ideas that I was hung up on her...

“Shit or get off the pot, man. That’s why. It knocked you around some, did it not? Made you realize what you hadn’t been paying attention to?”

On that note, he was right. “True.”

“And, further, it got Savannah to confront her feelings, right?”

“True, again.”

“Great. Then go live with her for a bit while I work with this virus. We’ve had younger people coming in with symptoms and it’s truly scary. Makes me wish I’d stuck to baseball.”

“They postponed the season though, so you’d just be stuck at home with the rest of America. Hell, the world.”

“After dealing with what we’ve been dealing with, and it’s only the beginning, I almost envy the sitting around, stuck at home. Anyway. I’m going to shower. Again. I can’t shower enough, it feels like. I’m guessing you’re heading to Sav’s soon?”

“Yeah, the food I ordered should be arriving to her door in about twenty minutes.”

“Awesome. See you.” And with that, he pushed away from the counter and went to his half of the apartment.

I was just pulling my large suitcase out of my room and to the front when there was a knock on the door.

“Impatient, much?” I asked, laughing, as I opened the door, assuming it was Savannah.

“Hey, Ryan,” said not-Savannah.

Stunned, I said nothing for a solid ten seconds. “Bella. What are you doing here?”

She shrugged a shoulder while keeping her A-list, quiet smile on. “I was in LA for the finale and thought I’d drive this way to talk.”

Considering that was a two-hour drive on a good day...

“We didn’t get a chance to on Monday night,” she finished.

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