Roman chokes up. “I love you, too, buddy. I’ve had the best time with you.”
When Maverick leaves his father’s embrace, he beelines to me. “Bye, Irish.”
A lump rises in my throat. “Bye, Mavvy. I had fun with you this week.”
Vanessa prompts, “Thank Iris for all the fun stuff she arranged for you, honey. She went above and beyond for you.”
“Tank you, Irish.”
“You’re very welcome. I’m sure I had even more fun than you did.”
Maverick squeezes my legs. “I love you,” he says out of nowhere, like it’s the most natural thing in the world to say—and then, as my heart explodes and my eyes prick with tears, he leaves me in the dust and traipses off to his grandparents next.
“I love you, too, Mav,” I choke out, my voice cracking with emotion. “So, so much.”
I look at Roman, smiling through tears, and he looks every bit as emotional as I feel. There’s nothing I want more than to say those same three little words to Roman: “I love you.”But, obviously, I can’t say them first. Certainly not when I don’t know if Roman will say them back. For crying out loud, I don’t even know if Roman will invite me to stay with him in LA longer than two short weeks.
“Are you okay, baby?” Roman asks, glancing from the highway through his windshield to me.
“Hmm?”
He adjusts his hands on the steering wheel. “You seem awfully quiet over there.”
We’re riding in Roman’s squeaky-clean fancy sports car, driving from the airport to his brand-new digs in Malibu, the affluent, oceanfront city Roman selected as his new home base in California.
“I’m just tired,” I reply with a tight smile. “I was too excitedabout coming here today to fall asleep last night.” It’s the truth, but not the full truth. I am tired, yes—but Vanessa is the main reason I’ve been so quiet during this drive. She was so freaking beautiful, I could have stared at her for days in a trance. Also, so warm and vivacious, I’d want to be her good friend, if we’d met under different circumstances. Why didn’t it work out with Vanessa and Roman? I can’t understand it, especially when I think about Maverick being a big reason to give a romantic relationship a shot.
I look out the window at the passing cars on the freeway and try to wrangle my spiraling thoughts. I knew Maverick’s mother would be a supernatural beauty, given how gorgeous Maverick is, but I didn’t expect her to bethatbeautiful. And certainly notthatsweet. My brief encounter with Vanessa made me realize in a visceral way that Roman truly can have literallyanywoman he wants. So, naturally, I’m now wondering how long I can reasonably expect Roman to remain interested in me,especially when he’s about to be stretched to the max in every direction.
Oh, God, I don’t even want to think about the horrible, mean, clickbait headlines if my romance with Roman doesn’t pan out after my two-week stay in California. By now, the world has seen multiple photos of Roman and me together, both in Hawaii and Orchard Blossom. If those sightings suddenly dry up, and if Roman is suddenly seen with a new, far more beautiful woman on his arm, the internet will be brutal toward me. In fact, I’m sure the day the Runaway Bride gets dumped by Roman “Ribbed for Her Pleasure” Maguire will practically become a national holiday for my haters. A reason to pop champagne.
The navigation voice on Roman’s phone draws me from my wandering thoughts.
“Turn right,” the robot lady commands.
When Roman follows her instructions, he turns into a longdriveway with a stunning two-story oceanfront house at the end of it.
“This is your house?” I breathe out.
“You like it?”
“Of course. It’s spectacular. I can see why you picked it.” In Orchard Blossom, Roman called his new digs in Malibu his “dream house,” but that’s all he said about it. But now I can see that Roman’s dream house is a cliffside, oceanfront mansion with sleek, modern lines that could easily pass for a small, boutique hotel.
“Why so big?” I ask with a laugh.
Roman audibly shrugs as he parks his car at the end of the driveway. “This is gonna be my home for a long time. Maybe even forever. So, I figured I should get a place that’s big enough to host my entire extended family on holidays.”
Roman opens his car door, so I do the same on my side.
“Welcome home, Rome,” a guy in a suit says, greeting us as we pile out of Roman’s low-slung car.
“Hey, Mac. This is my girlfriend, Iris. Iris, this is Mac, my head of security.”
Roman’s got a head of security?“Nice to meet you, Mac.”
“Likewise,” Mac says. “Roman’s told me some wonderful things about you, Iris.”
He has?I look at Roman in surprise.When? What?
