Page 133 of Wrong For Me

Leo

Rose is the first thing I see. She’s sitting with her mom, both of them wrapped in a quilt, in a porch swing in front of an old farmhouse. Just the sight of her sitting there, looking cozy and relaxed and so fucking beautiful has my heart clenching in my chest.

“Be thankful Uncle Daltrey isn’t out here,” Will says at my side. “Pretty sure you’d have a black eye by now.”

It would be worth it. Anything would be worth it to get this glimpse of her. But the knowledge that this might be my last chance to see her cuts through me.

Rose is just staring at me, apparently shocked. I don’t blame her. Will and I had gone back and forth for a while on whether or not to call ahead. Since we didn’t want Daltrey and River—and hell, probably Daisy, too—to block off the driveway before we arrived, we decided surprise was the better option.

Now I’m not so sure. Rose kind of looks like she might pass out. Her mom leans over and says something to her, too quiet for me to hear, and Rose finally stands, letting the blanket drop from her shoulders.

“Good luck, man,” Will mutters as she makes her way down the steps. “I think you need it.”

I’m going to need a lot more than luck, but I don’t give a shit. I’ll do whatever it takes to get her to talk to me.

She finally reaches us, stopping a few feet away. She’s still staring at me, her eyes wide, like she’s not sure I’m real.

We both speak at the same time. “Rose—”

“Were you wearing a blindfold?”

“Uh, yeah,” I say.

Will scoffs beside me. “That was this idiot’s idea. Insisted, in fact. Wore the damn thing all the way from the airport.”

“Why?”

I run my hands through my already messy hair, frustrated. This isn’t the way I planned this conversation to start. “I thought it would be better if I didn’t know how to get here,” I explain, feeling silly.

She blinks at me a few times, confusion mixing with the surprise on her face. I hate that she’s standing so far away and I hate that I’m not touching her right now. I’m also not a huge fan of her cousin hovering, listening to us. Or her mom up there on the porch, unashamedly watching. Her dad and brother will probably be out here soon, too.

“Can we go somewhere?” I ask. “I just want to talk to you for a bit.”

She blinks some more and I start to wonder if maybe I’ve sent her into shock. Finally, she shakes herself and nods. “A walk would be good.”

Relief rushes through me. She’s not kicking me out yet.

I follow a few steps behind Rose as she walks around the house towards a line of trees. Once we pass the porch, another house comes into view at the top of a nearby hill. I stumble a little. The place is a mansion, all glass and stained logs. It looks nearly as big as the resort we stayed at in Colorado.

“Will didn’t mention you had neighbors.”

“That’s my Uncle Cash’s place. Well, Reed and Lennon, too, but Cash is the one who hired the designer and made it look likethat. He has an ostentatious streak.”

There was a time I would have gone into defensive mode from the sight of that house, from the reminder that this family is wealthier than I can even wrap my mind around. That old bitterness would rise up in me, choking me, shutting me down.

But not right now. Right now, I don’t give a shit how much money Rose’s family has or how famous they are. All I care about is getting her to talk to me.

We’re quiet for the rest of our walk. I get the impression Rose has a destination in mind, and I figure I can use this time to try and get my thoughts together, come up with a plan for what to say. I’m not very successful. Being near her like this, being able to look over and see her, to pick up her lavender scent, to see the way her chest rises and falls as she breathes…it’s hard to think about anything else.

After a few minutes of silent walking, I hear the sound of rushing water close by. A moment later, we step out of the trees in front of a river. It’s not very big, maybe twenty feet across. The water is crystal clear and I can see all the way to the bottom as it gently rushes over the rocks of the riverbed.

Without saying anything, Rose sinks to the ground and I join her, both of us sitting cross legged a few feet away from each other. I expect the ground to be freezing—late fall in the mountains is a lot colder than I imagined—but the bed of soft pine needles we’re sitting on cushions the chill.

“This is pretty,” I tell her, and she nods.

“It’s my favorite place on the property.” Finally, she turns to face me and my breath catches at the sight of those huge blue eyes peering at me. “How did you get here?”

“Uh, Will helped me,” I explain, wondering how much detail I should go into. I could tell her about the hour Bodhi and I spent calling every Ransome cousin he had in his contact list—which was a ridiculous amount, by the way. He’d been sure Everly was going to be the one to help us, since the two of them have become chummy, but she surprised us both with the vehemence with which she refused. She told Bodhi, in no uncertain terms, that I could go fuck myself, and that he could too if he was on my side.