Page 76 of Roman and the Hopeless Romantic
Cassie barely heard them as she jumped from the car, slamming the door behind her. She ran up the driveway, elation racing through her. She’d done it. She’d walked through Target without freaking out.
Annie would be proud.
She hadn’t texted her therapist yet, not when there was someone else she needed to see while this courage still raced through her. She burst through the front door.
“Rome?” she called.
No one answered.
“Roman!” She raced up the staircase and knocked on his closed door.
After all this, he wasn’t home.
Her shoulders sagged as she tried once more. Her knuckles hit the painted wood, and the door popped open. No light spilled into the hall.
She knew it was wrong to go inside when he wasn’t there, but something told her she had to, that this was important.
Pushing the door open farther, she felt along the wall for the light switch. Fluorescent light flooded the room. The empty room.
The pounding in Cassie’s chest stopped abruptly, and she couldn’t breathe. Her eyes scanned the lonely space, taking in the bed that had been stripped of sheets and the open top dresser drawer. Peeking inside, all she found was the oak bottom.
Gingerly, as if scared of what she’d find, Cassie opened each drawer. Tears built in her eyes as she opened the closet, finding it empty as well.
Her legs shook, and she sat on the bare mattress. Roman was gone. Had her dad sent him to his parents in Estonia? Had he left without saying goodbye.
She wiped a tear from her cheek, knowing she was too late.
Roman’s smiling face flashed through her mind. He’d been her best friend, then nothing, then everything. Nothing was ever simple between them.
But this was supposed to be.
She buried her face in her hands as her back shook.
“Cass?” Jesse’s worried voice came from the doorway. “What are you doing in here?”
She lifted her tear-stained face to her brother. “He’s gone, Jess.”
Jesse sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her into a side-hug. “He had to leave. I didn’t want him to either, but I get why he did it.”
“This was his choice?” She lifted her gaze to his.
Jesse nodded. “It’s going to be okay.”
“How can you say that when your best friend is stuck in some foreign country without us?”
“Foreign country? Cass, I know Wentwood seems like another world sometimes, but just because the uber-rich live there doesn’t mean they’re any different from us.”
She sat up and turned her entire body to face him. “What are you talking about?”
“What are you talking about?”
She spoke slowly, so he’d understand. “Roman went to live with his parents.”
A grin spread from one side of Jesse’s face to the other, and she wanted to slap it off. “He didn’t.”
“What?”
“He moved out of our house, but he didn’t leave Gulf City. The Gibsons offered to let him stay there.”
