AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lauren’s lips softened and she dropped her hands to her sides. “Oh. Mine preferred a lecture hall.”
Mal’s eyebrow spiked, but he didn’t say another word.
Lauren’s attention went from the overbearing Mal to Denver. She waved. “Sorry about that.”
Denver pressed her forehead into the edge of the door. Discretion was a fifty-cent word she couldn’t buy today.
“What? We all need a quickie now and then. I can get it whenever I want. You have to drive.”
Ryan pushed Denver through the door and into the hallway. “Thanks, Lo. You’re all heart.”
West hurried to Lauren’s side. “Don’t mind her.” He glanced down at her with a tight smile. “She didn’t mean to shout that across a family restaurant.”
Lauren’s eyes went really wide and she slapped her hands over her mouth.
Denver laughed as Ryan shoved her down the tiled hallway into the group of friends who had become her family. She bore the brunt of their teasing as everyone loaded back onto the bus because she couldn’t deny what they’d been doing.
That, and she loved seeing the easy smile on Ryan’s face.
Eating should have sated the beasts who lived on her bus, but the closer they got to Vegas, the more gregarious they got. Mal and West were barking orders at Alexa to play ridiculous songs from the seventies, then the nineties. Lauren and Jules started chiming in with Bell Biv DeVoe songs. Everyone was having fun.
Except her.
By the time the final signs for Vegas came into vie
w, Denver’s gut was a hot mess again. Every time she thought she’d gotten a handle on her fear and her memories, they came rearing back.
There might as well have been a switch in her brain screaming turn back. But she couldn’t do that, because this was her job.
She took a swig of her iced tea. Normally her watermelon mint—yes, she was mildly obsessed—did the trick. Ryan fed her addiction, finding crazy teas for her to make.
And there it was, more Ryan in her brain. More Ryan infiltrating every piece of her life. Okay, so tea wasn’t that big of a deal. Except for the fact her entire life fit in a battered backpack and hardback suitcase, so tea was one of the few things she allowed herself to indulge in.
He’d even moved in on that.
Oh, and she couldn’t forget the heart part. Because she was terrified that walking away from him was going to be nearly impossible.
She pushed her hair out of her face and fisted her shaking fingers before curling them around the steering wheel. Traffic took all of her concentration as she fought her way through the main drag. Tourists crawling down the street because they were oohing and ahhing over the lights of this palace of neon in the desert. Busses full of people hoping to win big. And of course the pedestrian traffic, which was a mix of frenetic regulars bustling into the next shop or casino, and the tourists with their cameras, out snapping memories.
By the time she pulled into the parking structure for the hotel, her shoulders were tight and her head was throbbing.
The band filed out and were in full play mode. She tried to put on a smile, but Ryan came up behind her and rubbed her shoulders. “Okay?”
Shocker, he’d figured out she was wound up again. There was something to be said for men who were clueless. She had to get involved with an attentive one.
She patted his hand. “Just shitty drivers and pedestrians. Give me the open road any day.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Well, let’s go upstairs to my hotel room and I’ll give you a nice long massage.”
She felt the first real smile tug at her lips in hours. “Yeah?”
They were alone now, and he turned her seat to face him, crouching in front of her. “I know something’s eating you. Not just a long day of travel.”
She leaned forward and touched her forehead to his. “Maybe we can talk about it upstairs.”
He slipped his fingers into her hair at the base of her skull and rubbed. “Fair enough.”
Before her eyeballs could cross, she pushed him away. “Keep that up and I’ll be out like a light.”
