Page 45 of Road Trip

I’d never even had an allowance. But then again, I’d barely had a dad when I was twelve. But that was about to change. I wondered idly if me and my dad could build a Millenium Falcon together.

No, that was stupid. My brain was being stupid. My dad wasn’t going to want to build a Millenium Falcon with me. Like, first we had to get to know each other again. And even if I’d wanted to build a Millenium Falcon—which I didn’t—I wasn’t going to be all,Hey, Dad, it’s been, what? Ten years? Buy me someLego because I’m broke?That would be weird. Too weird even for me.

But it would be kind of funny if it did happen. Then I could tease Jacob about it because he clearlydidwant to build a Millenium Falcon.

Except he’d be at college on the other side of the country.

My stomach dropped at the reminder, and the warm glow I’d been basking in disappeared. This was our last night together before he left me to go back home. And I wasn’t ready for this to be over, not when it had barely started.

Jacob nudged me, dragging me out of my spiraling thoughts. “How do you know how much the Millenium Falcon costs? You hate fun things.”

“That doesn’t mean I don’t know stuff.”

He propped himself up onto an elbow. “No, seriously, how do you know it’s even a thing? You don’t like Lego.”

I knew because I’d looked at it for his birthday last year in the hope of it being on sale. Because Jacob had always been a big secret Lego-loving weirdo.

“Maybe I loveStar Wars,” I said.

“You don’t loveStar Wars.” He narrowed his eyes for a moment in thought, and then his face lit up. “ButIloveStar Wars, so that means you love me!”

My heart squeezed.

It was the sort of thing he could have teased me about a week ago—and he had—and we both could have laughed it off. But the words hit differently now we were both lying here naked, smeared in cum. My first instinct was to deny it like I’d always done, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Jacob’s grin faded, leaving a thoughtful, soft expression on his face. “But you love me and I love you. Right?”

And because he’d said it too, admitting it was as easy as breathing. “Yeah. You love me and I love you.”

“Then we’ll make this work,” Jacob said. “We’ll visit as muchas we can. And we’ll text, like, all the time. And we’ll send so many dick pics.”

I swallowed around the lump in my throat. “Sure,” I said. “Somany.”

I was going to miss the fuck out of him.

But I knew if anyone could make this work between us, it was Jacob. When we talked about a long-distance relationship, even though a million things could go wrong, I knew that Jacob wouldn’t let them. Because when Jacob gave his word, he meant it. And I believed him.

CHAPTER

FIFTEEN

JACOB

172 miles to go

Yuma, AZ, to San Diego, CA

Whoever said parting was such sweet sorrow was full of shit. Partingsucked.

Like, we hadn’t even left the hotel, but already imagining the drive back with an empty passenger seat had me all tied up in knots. How was I meant to live without Matt’s constant presence for the next four years?

I mean, don’t get me wrong. Matt would get to spend time with his dad and reconnect, which was awesome. For him. But it sucked forme, the guy he was leaving behind—especially since I’d only just figured out that I was in love with him.

Maybe Matt was right about me being slow on the uptake.

I stuffed my bathroom bag into my backpack, giving it a hard shove when I couldn’t get it to fit. I got it in there, although the zipper creaked ominously when I closed it. I took a last look around the rest of the hotel room, checking for phone chargers and airpods and shit like that, but the room was clear and I didn’t have any more excuses to stay.

“Can we go now, or do you need to check that you didn’t leaveany ass hair in the shower drain?” Matt said, shifting his duffel from hand to hand.

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