Closure.
Or damnation.
“I have no idea, but we’re going to find out real soon.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
AMIRA
The distance on the navigation is growing smaller, building up my anticipation as home gets closer.
I didn’t think we’d get here so fast. It’s barely eleven in the morning. Roman cut almost an hour off our time because he drives like a madman.
My leg is resting on the dash, with an ice pack wrapped in one of my t-shirts tied around the ankle, slowly bringing down the swelling I caused from bouncing it up and down.
I should be exhausted, sitting in a car for half of a day with nothing to do but stare at the passing of California’s most notorious Redwood trees. Instead, the only thing that’s tired is my ass… but my mind? I can’t get it to shut up.
Too many thoughts are whirling in and out of my head that I can’t take hold of a single one. It’s a war of voices and a battle of will.
Who will come out on top? Me or my nightmares?
“We’re almost there. Another hour and we’ll be within reach.”
“Can we stop?” I ask in a rush, one hand running through my curls while the other squeezes the hell out of the door’s handle.
I’m not ready to be back yet, not prepared for the tidal wave of emotions that will assault my senses the second my feet hit the familiar soil.
I know what will happen. I just don’t know how hard I’ll fall.
“Yeah, angel. We can stop. Here? Or?”
“Anywhere. Anywhere but home.”
Roman thinks for a minute, eyebrows pinching above blazing rings of gold and green while his lips purse tightly in their corners. I don’t know what is going on inside his head, but I see a light flash in his gaze.
Very quickly, Roman cuts across three lanes. Horns blare through the open window as fingers and slurs get hurled in our direction. It’s close, but we make it to the freeway exit.
“Where are we going?” I ask while I watch the speedometer shoot from seventy to ninety as we race off the exit ramp onto the entrance of a new freeway.
“It’s a surprise,” he responds, turning me into a puddle in my seat as he takes his bottom lip between his teeth, and boiling my blood as his long, curled lashes flutter in my direction.
I can’t help the little shimmy my hips dance before settling back and enjoying the ride.
It’s incredible to me how quickly Roman can shift my mood around. I don’t even know where we’re going, yet I haven't felt this excited in what feels like forever.
After another twenty minutes of driving, a gasp squeals out of me when the glittering ocean comes into view.
“Oh my God! Roman! This is amazing!” I say, face pressed against the glass as I watch the surfers ride along the towering waves.
I can see Roman’s expression reflected in the window. The soft smile tilting his lips as he watches the back of my head. There’s love in that smirk, and I want to swallow it whole.
Finding a parking spot at twelve in the afternoon is tricky, but luckily for us, we see an open space at the very end of the lot, in between an enormous camper and small Volkswagen beetle.
I waste no time getting out of the car once it’s stopped, hypnotized by the bright colors of the boardwalk, lured in by the sweet scent of fried food and cloyingly sweet desserts.
I drift ahead of Roman, not bothering to look back once.
Laughter and screaming ring out in the air from the children riding on the rickety old roller coaster while others play silly carnival games with their parents hovering nearby.
