Page 138 of Late Nights & Love Lines
“How do you marry someone accidentally?” Alexei asks.
Leo flops down onto the sofa. “We were young and drunk. I’d moved to Vegas, but I was already missing Tabby. When her sister came to visit with the guy she was seeing, I told her I was going home to marry Tabby. Somehow, we got it in our heads that doing a trial run would ease my nerves. I was worried Tabby would say no because I’d already left her once. I practiced a proposal speech. We met a guy who told us how to get a license, we went to the chapel and talked about how Tabby would walk down the aisle, and then everything gets a little blurry. Her sister went home the next day with the guy she was with, and I thought that was that. It was supposed to be a rehearsal, but somehow, a wedding license showed up at her parents’ house a few months later.”
“Jesus, Leo,” I mutter.
“But my point is, I was too chickenshit to fight for Tabby for too many years. I left her to experience that hurt and betrayal alone. If you don’t know what’s going through Rowan’s mind, then you need to go to her before it festers and rots the foundation you’ve built. You have to get her back.”
“She’s coming back.” At the sound of my little girl’s voice, I jump to standing. I didn’t want her hearing this shit, but now she stands in the doorway with Tabby, her chin trembling withuncertainty. “She told me our dresses will arrive tomorrow and to hang them up.”
“What dresses?”
“We bought matching dresses for the talent show at camp. We picked them out when we got her gala dress. We’re going to do a song together, so she’ll be back, but her parents aren’t very nice people. I wouldn’t want to visit Mom alone, so I don’t want Rowan to visit hers by herself either. She needs us, Dad.”
My mouth is dry, and there’s an uncomfortable tightening in my chest area. She bought a dress for an event that’s nearly two months away. She was making plans and putting down roots even if she didn’t realize it.
“Wait, how do you know she’s going to her parent’s house?” Leo asks.
Seren holds up her cell phone. “She posted on Instagram. It took me forever to find her profile, and she literally has no followers, but I found her. She posts a lot of signs and nature pictures. And she just posted one of a sign that says ‘Welcome to Dover, New Hampshire,’ and she said, ‘sometimes going home is the only way to move forward.’”
A set of keys hit my chest, and I look up to see Pappy staring at me. “Looks like we’re taking a road trip, son. I’m not sure what’s running through our girl’s head right now, but she’s ours, always has been. I’m not letting those assholes hurt her again, are you?”
“No, we’re not,” Beck says, standing from his chair before I can even open my mouth and texting feverishly before lifting his head. “We can take my plane.”
“Nope. We’ll drive,” Pappy insists. “I’m not missing out on this—she means too much to me, and there’s not a chance in hell I’m getting into a tin box that hurtles through the air. It ain’t natural.”
I knew he hated to fly, but I never knew he was actually scared to. All my life I thought he wasn’t afraid of anything.
“Well, let’s go,” Alexei says, gesturing wildly toward the stairs.
“We can take my car,” Leo says. “It’ll be more comfortable.”
“It’s at least a fifteen-hour drive to New Hampshire,” I point out.
“And there’s five of us to split the drive,” Beck says, tapping away on his phone again. “It’ll give you time to work on your grovel speech.”
“What am I groveling for?” Suddenly the potential for this night to fall into varying levels of disaster keeps me rooted in place.
All four guys stare at me as if I’m the idiot. Maybe I am.
“For letting her go in the first place,” Leo mutters. Followed by a “jackass,” under his breath.
“I’ll stay with the kids,” Tabby says cheerily.
Beck holds up his phone. “Stella will come over in the morning to help.”
“What are you waiting for, Seb? Get your ass moving,” Pappy calls when he’s halfway down the stairs.
“Go, Dad.” Seren gives me a gentle nudge. I have a moment’s pause knowing that Mya is in the area, but she doesn’t know what town we live in, let alone our address, so she can wait one more day.
Wrapping my little girl in my arms, I kiss her head. I hate how mature she is but love the woman she’s growing up to be.
“I’ll call you when we get there,” I tell her, then jog down the stairs to find everyone already crammed into Leo’s Suburban.
A road trip is great in theory, not so great in practice. It’s just before five in the morning when we finally pull over to get gas. Five grown men in a Suburban in the middle of the night is not my idea of fun.
Pappy insisted on riding shotgun and immediately fell asleep. Alexei bounced his knee next to me for six straight hours. Leo whistled—loudly. And Beck sat hunched over his laptop, trying to find a way out of the mess I’ve put us all in.
“I should have talked to you about Coleman before I pulled out,” I say to Beck at the gas pump.
