“I absolutely would. River and Milo are going to lose their minds.”
He glances at me, and there’s something warm in his eyes that makes my breath catch.
“I missed this,” I say, before I can stop myself.
The warmth fades. Not all the way, but enough that I want to kick myself for ruining the moment.
“Cara...”
“I know. I’m sorry. I just—” I take a breath. “It’s nice. Talking to you. Like we used to.”
He’s quiet for a long moment. The mile markers flash by, counting down the distance to a destination that suddenly feels very far away.
“It is nice,” he finally says. Quiet. Almost grudging.
But he says it.
And I’ll take it.
A few hours later,my phone buzzes with a text from Theo.
Theo:How’s the drive going?
I roll my eyes and type back.
Cara:I know what you did.
Theo:I have no idea what you’re talking about. My back is VERY injured. I can barely move.
Cara:Lucas sent me the same angel emoji. You two are the worst liars.
Theo:
Another text, this time from Lucas.
Lucas:For the record, the forced proximity trope has a 94% success rate in romance novels. We did the research.
I choke on a laugh.
“What?” Nate asks.
“Nothing. Just—” I hold up my phone. “Your co-conspirators are checking in.”
“They’re not my co-conspirators.”
“They literally orchestrated this entire road trip to force us to spend time together.”
“That doesn’t make them my co-conspirators. That makes them meddling assholes.”
“Meddling assholes who read my books, apparently.” I text back a middle finger emoji to Lucas and turn my phone face-down on my lap. “They quoted my trope success rates at me.”
Nate sighs. “They’ve been reading those books out loud in the living room since you got back. I know more about what you think alphas do in the bedroom than I ever needed to hear narrated by Theo Holt.”
I stare at him. “They read them out loud?”
“Theo does voices.”
“Oh my god.”
