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But I heard the telltale rumble of his truck before I saw it. The truck was coming toward me from the opposite direction. My gut twisted and my stomach dropped. My face burned with embarrassment and my heart thudded with relief.
Trask pulled up next to me, windows down. “I was gonna offer you a jump, but it looks like you need a lot more help than that.”
Tears sprung from my eyes. I didn’t realize how scared I’d been. “Hi.”
“Hey, baby.” He hopped out of his truck, standing a few feet from me. “I missed you.”
Get it together Eliza. You’re not a convenience, you’re more than a phone call to get to sleep, you’re more than some girl who waits around.“What are you doing here?” I asked.Way to go, Eliza. You even managed to keep your voice from shaking too much.
“We have a road trip to go on.” He reached out and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear.
“What about your internship?”
“Cristo accepted my application despite missing the original deadline.”
My heart did a little flip. “You’re going to be a restoration architect. What about your parents?” I swallowed hard.
“They’ll get over it.”
“What about me?” I whispered. He took a step toward me and I took a step back. “No!” I choked on a sob. “What about me? Ineededyou. You knew that. You said you wouldn’t leave me but you did. It wasn’t for Karina though. You chose your parents and their dream and you left me. You settled with what you wanted.”
“I shouldn’t have watched you walk away. I should have chased you down. But I didn’t and I’m so fucking sorry. But I’m here now.”
“Did you decide this before or after your ‘must be a good son’ duties were performed? Did you tell your mom happy birthday from me?” I didn’t bother hiding the sarcasm in my voice.
“I left them at the dinner. I rejected the application for Ken Denver’s project right in front of my dad. You should have seen his face. God, I’m sorry it took so long for me to choose you.”
“No!” I sniffed. “I wanted you to choose yourself. I wanted you to do what made you happy. And it was clear when you chose them I didn’t do that for you.”
“These last two weeks were the worst of my life! I went fucking crazy without you. I read your stories a hundred times, anything to feel close to you.”
“My book launch. Where were you? I was so nervous. You said you’d be there. I swallowed the last bit of my pride and asked you to be there.”
“I was there! There was no ticket, I searched everywhere, but I went anyway. I tried to break in. You wore a floral dress, your hair was down. You wore your boots, of course you did—”
“I was nervous!”
“And I’m so fucking sorry that you didn’t see my face looking back at you. I am so sorry. Your mom took the ticket—”
“My mom?”
He nodded. “Apparently she was looking for a spare key in the mailbox, instead she found the ticket you left me. She’s not—”
“Doing well. I know.”
“Eliza, I am so sorry.”
“How’d you know I’d be here?” I wanted to believe him. I wanted us to be okay because despite everything, my body relaxed in his presence and I didn’t want to let that go.
He gave me a small smile. “I wasn’t sure if you’d skip it or pass by and go straight to the painted hills.”
“I thought about it.”
“But I figured you’d like to rub it in my face, seeing the oldest bridge in Oregon without me.”
I sniffed, a smile escaping me. “Yeah.”
“I got in around two this morning. I caught your grandpa. He didn’t know where you were staying so I high-tailed it out here, hoping to intercept you, hoping you were going to stick with our plan.”
