Page 100 of Wrong For Me

Finally, he smiles. “You’re not getting rid of me, Rose Ransome.”

* * *

Leo’s flightis scheduled two hours after mine, but he insists on coming to the airport with me. “I have a bunch of homework I can catch up on after you board,” he says when I try to argue that he should stay and enjoy the resort for a few hours.

Secretly, I’m pleased. My silly little heart is already aching at the thought of being away from him while we head home on different planes. The thought is so unpleasant that I float the idea of trying to transfer my reservation to his later flight.

“Nah,” he says, holding my hand in the back of the hotel shuttle to the airport. “I have a long layover in Seattle. It’d be silly to give up your direct flight.”

I gape at him. “Leo!”

“What?”

“You’re already going to be waiting around the airport in Seattle this afternoon and now you’re coming early just so you can wait around some more in Denver? Why the heck didn’t you stay at the hotel?”

He looks down, expression almost shy—a complete departure from his normal confident coolness. “I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to you yet.”

I have to swallow a few times before I can speak. “Who knew?” I finally whisper, throat tight. “You’re a big ol’ romantic, Leo Malone.”

He smirks over at me, looking much more like himself. “Told you.” He picks up my hand, kissing the tip of my pinkie. “Wrapped right around this finger here.”

When he turns to the window to look at the mountain scenery, I pull out my phone and change my ticket. There’s no way in hell I’m getting on a flight without him. He grumbles a little when I show him, but I think he’s secretly pleased.

“If you were going to do that, we should have just stayed at the hotel,” he says. “We could be banging right now.”

I snort with laughter. “Banging? Are you a teenager?”

His eyebrows go up. “Are you saying you’re attracted to a teenager? Gross, Rose.”

I smack his arm, but inside I’m grinning like a loon. This was one of my favorite parts of our night in Lake Tahoe—the easy teasing. It makes me happy to think that this is how we’ll be together.

Together. Leo and I aretogether. We didn’t exactly spell out all the details last night, but it had been pretty clear that we’re on the same page. He promised he isn’t going anywhere, and that’s enough for me.

Since we have time to kill, we park ourselves in a burger place in the terminal and enjoy a lazy lunch, where he teases me mercilessly for using a fork for my fries. In turn, I quiz him about his eating habits and discover that in addition to his disturbing milk-before-cereal position, he also has a thing about not letting different foods touch on his plate. Weirdo.

When we finish our food, we find an empty corner near our gate to spread out our text books and quiz each other for our upcoming exam in Stats. On the flight, I pull up some episodes of Murder Pals that I’d downloaded to my phone, and we each use one of Leo’s ear buds to listen to the podcast.

It all feels so…normal. Like we have a routine. Less than twenty-four hours since we slept together and I already feel like we’re an established couple.

By the time we finally land at LAX, I’m exhausted but content. While we wait for the plane to reach the jetway, I turn my phone’s data back on—and see half a dozen text messages from Will.

“Crap,” I mutter under my breath.

“What’s wrong?” Leo asks, leaning over my shoulder.

“My cousin was supposed to pick me up. I texted him that I was on a later flight and I’d get an Uber, then I turned my phone off. Guess I should have waited for him to respond.”

But I hadn’t waited on purpose. Just like I hadn’t turned the data on when we got to the airport in Seattle for our layover. I knew Will was going to ask questions, and I wasn’t ready to let the real world intrude on our little bubble yet.

“He’s worried?” Leo asks.

“Not worried. Curious.”

He studies my face. “That makes you uncomfortable.”

I blink, not liking the slightly flat tone to his voice. “No. Why do you say that?”

He shrugs. “Seems like maybe you didn’t want him to know you changed your plans to be with me.”