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“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.”