"Fred and Anna Corners. They want to meet me," I tell him. I sneak a peek at Ryker, he looks right back at me, but he looks slightly uncomfortable.
"Wowzers," Cameron mutters then asks, "When?"
Shoot, that's a good question. I turn to Ryker, but I don't have to ask.
"Actually, Fred is heading out on a month-long business trip. They were hoping to meet you this weekend."
My jaw hits the floor.
Cameron lets out a whistle.
"This weekend?" I repeat.
Ryker looks sheepish when he replies, "Yeah, I told them I didn't know. You'd have to miss some classes, but they really want to meet you. Now that you know you exist, they are chomping at the bit."
"Where do they live?" Cameron asks, and Ryker answers while I mull all of this over.
I've only known about them for a few months, but in those months, I've dreamed about meeting them. I was worried they wouldn't want to have anything to do with me, but it feels like that's not the case at all.
This is all so fast, but isn't that better?
The boys let me think. Ryker stands quietly next to me, Cameron still on the table. Just as I'm about to tell them I'm ready, Cameron whistles again.
"So, bad news. Airfare to Texas is stupid high."
I bite my lip. "Like how high?"
"Like eight hundred a ticket. It's normally more like three hundred." He's still scrolling through his phone.
Ryker leans on the sill beside me. "Have you ever flown before, Zella?"
I pinch my lips together as I turn my head and shake it. "No, it's on my bucket list, but I'm not sure I'm mentally and emotionally ready to just hop on a plane in two days."
His gentle smile matches the soft feel of his fingers as they brush mine where they rest on the sill between us. My eyes briefly flicker to our touching fingers then back up to him.
"I get it."
"You could always road trip it," Cameron offers still staring at his phone completely oblivious to the moment Ryker and I are having.
"I don't have a car." Mother was unwilling to let me bring my car with me since she said I was betraying her by leaving. So, Cameron and I packed up my life into his tiny sedan and called it a day.
Ignoring me, Cameron adds, "You'd want to leave tomorrow though. Stay in a hotel somewhere, then finish the drive Friday morning. If you leave Sunday afternoon, you'll make it back Monday night. You'd miss three days of class."
"Cameron, I don't have a car." He knows this. No way would he let me take his for a road trip.
"Duh, Zella. But Ryker does."
I straighten.
I'm scared to look at Ryker, what Cameron just suggested is crazy. There's no way. I laser focus on Cameron; he and Ryker are having some kind of silent conversation. Cameron is fighting back a grin. Maybe he did catch our moment earlier.
Ryker looks at me, his face impossible to read. "I'll take you."
I take my time replying. I don't want to sound hopeful, because the last thing I want is for him to be taking me out of pity. But if he wanted to take me because he wanted to be there with me, that has me hopeful. "You would take me?" I ask carefully.
"I was planning on it, whether it was on a plane or driving you myself."
"You were?" I swallow the lump in my throat.
"Yeah, Blondie. I'm in this one-hundred percent. I've already mapped out the trip."
I fight back tears because I don't want to scare him away with my emotional state. But what he's done for me and still doing means the world. So, I offer him a watery-eyed look.
Cameron clears his throat breaking through the silence. "Then it's settled. You two are heading to Texas. You sure you're good with missing so much class, Zella?" A laugh plays on his lips. I detest missing class, or even being late to class, but this is a huge, life-changing event. Meeting my biological parents is so much more important than three days of class.
"I'm okay with it, as long as I can find people to take notes for me, which shouldn't be a problem."
"All right, well, I'm gonna get out of here. I need to take my car in for an oil change and get packed. Meet me in front of your building at eight tomorrow morning." Ryker smiles and pushes off the window sill. He nods to Cameron as he passes and walks right out of the tower room.
I let out a huge sigh, my hair lifting gently from my face. I look at Cameron, and he's wearing one of his up-to-no-good grins. "What?"
"Nothing, Blondie." He emphasizes the name, laughs, and jumps off the table. "Come on, let's get out of here and get you packed."
His use of Ryker's nickname doesn't have the same effect on me. Which he senses because he chuckles as he grabs my bag.
"I just want to make sure: you know, you just agreed to go on a five-day road trip with a dude you've known for a little more than two months, right?" He closes the tower door behind me.
I narrow my eyes at him as we descend the three flights of stairs.
"What? I'm just making sure you know what you are doing." He shrugs.
"I'm pretty sure you're the one who brought up the road trip idea in the first place. You know darn well I don't have a car." I push his shoulder with my finger.
He gapes. "Are you insinuating I set this whole thing up?"
"No, I'm suggesting you wanted him to offer to take me. Don't play the concerned best friend right now, Cameron."
His lips twist, before he speaks, "I could tell it wouldn't take much. He clearly digs you and would have offered to go with you anyway. I just helped it along."
I shake my head. I can't be annoyed though. There are more prominent emotions swirling around inside me: shock, excitement, nervousness, and something else I'm not entirely familiar with.
How am I going to spend the next five days, alone, with Ryker Stone?
10
Ryker
We've been on the road for almost two hours now, and Zella is a fucking mess. She was relatively quiet for the first hour, but in the last thirty minutes or so, she's been all over the board. I figured she'd have some excitement mixed with nervousness, but I wasn't expecting this.
Right now, she's feeling really fucking guilty about meeting her birth parents.
"I shouldn't be doing this. Oh, my God. What have I done?" She's barefoot, her legs are pressed against her chest, and her face buried between her knees. "Mother will be so disappointed in me."
In a few minutes, she'll tell me meeting her birth parents is the right thing and that her mother did the wrong thing by lying to her. Then she'll revert back to this blubbering mess. We have approximately eight more hours of driving time today; I need to move this mental break down along.
"Blondie." My voice is firm. She needs some tough-love right now.
She turns her head my way, keeping it rested on her knees.
"You need to snap out of this," I tell her, keeping my eyes on the road. "Did your mother lie to you about being adopted?"
"Yes," she squeaks.
"Did she make you spend the past twenty years under lock and key? Keeping you from being able to experience normal, growing up experiences?"