Page 49 of Personal Escort

His answering groan is everything I didn’t know I was missing, and all I need.

CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE

TOBY

CARA CALLS HER NANA FIRST. She burrows under the lush cotton sheets, so only her head is peeking out, and she screws her face into a tight wince as she waits for her grandmother to answer the phone.

I gently rub the back of her neck.

“Nana,” she says softly. “It’s Cara. I have some news.” She bites her lower lip. “I got married today. I’ve eloped.”

She nervously rolls her ring around her finger as her grandmother reacts.

“Well, that’s the whole point of an elopement. Not telling anyone.” She swallows hard. “I didn’t want a big wedding.” She glances at me as I squeeze her shoulder gently in agreement. “We didn’t want a big wedding.”

“You and Alex?” That response is clear enough for me to hear through the phone, and I try not to laugh.

“No…Not Alex.”

There’s a pause, then the response is sharp and crystal clear. “Cara, marriage is not something to play around with.”

“Are you sure? Because you were pretty happy to push me into one that I didn’t want.”

I lean in to catch Nana’s response. “I don’t understand. Who did you marry today?”

Cara gives me a half-smile. “Someone I’ve had a crush on for longer than I realized. Someone who is an amazing friend to me.”

“Another mystery man?”

She lifts her eyebrows in question to me. I shake my head and she laughs gently. “No, Nana. Not a mystery any more. I’ve fallen in love with Ben’s friend Toby.”

Then she tells her grandmother what I said earlier. How we’ve had a long-distance friendship that turned into something more serious without her fully realizing it, and as she started dating Alex, she found herself thinking about me more and more.

God, I hope that’s true.

“We’re both coming to the beach house for the Fourth of July, I promise,” she says before ending the call.

She launches herself into my arms, burying her face in my neck.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” I murmur against her hair.

“You can call Ben.” I hold out my hand, and she gives me her phone. Then she steals it back. “No, I should do it.”

I circle her hand with my fingers. “Or we could do it together.”

She nods. “Okay.”

She finds his name in her contacts list, then puts the phone on speaker as it begins to ring.

“Hello?”

I clear my throat. “Hey, Ben.”

“Toby?” I can practically hear him pull the phone away from his ear and look at the screen. “Why are you calling me from Cara’s phone?”

“Funny story,” Cara says, leaning her head against mine. “Toby’s in Toronto right now.”

“Did you drag him out for dinner?”

---