I’d taken the girls’ advice and looked up a support group in the area. It had taken two weeks for me to gain the courage to attend my first meeting, but by the time it ended, I was so glad I did.

I hadn’t felt comfortable enough to share my story just yet, but listening to those other women talk about what they went through and how they’d finally started to heal from their trauma moved me in a way I didn’t expect. I cried with them, held their hands, offered words of comfort. It was like we were all taking the steps together, and I hadn’t realized just how much I needed them until I finally had them.

The meeting had been an emotional roller coaster. I was totally drained, but in a good way.

I pulled the rental car I’d been driving for the past several weeks into Mace’s driveway and cut the engine. Sucking in a deep breath, I pushed the door open and climbed out.

“Hey, Goldie,” Mace called once I stepped into the house. I followed the sound of his voice into the kitchen, where he was sitting on a barstool at the island with his laptop open in front of him.

“Hey.”

He took his eyes from the computer screen and graced me with a smirk that was sexy without him even having to try. “You get anything good at the mall?”

“Oh, uh….” I stumbled over my words, feeling guilty for having lied to him about where I was, but I just wasn’t ready to tell him the whole truth yet. I would. One day. Just not today. “Nothing really caught my eye. So, what are you working on?” I asked in an effort to change the subject.

“Nothin’ really,” he answered, closing the lid of the laptop and giving me his full attention. “I was just checking out some job listings in the area.”

My brow furrowed. “Job listings? For what?”

Reaching around, he rubbed at the back of his neck in discomfort. “Well, uh, for you.”

“For me?”

“Yeah. I mean, it’s been great having you here, and I’d really like you to stay, but I figured if you were gonna do that, you’d want a purpose in your life other than just keepin’ me sober. You need something for you. I knew you got your degree in liberal studies, so I was just checkin’ around to see if there was anything you might like.”

Oh shit. I was going to cry. “I can’t….” I did my best to swallow down the lump forming in my throat. “That’s incredibly sweet,” I whispered, moved beyond words by the thoughtful gesture. “But, um, Mace… a liberal arts degree has a pretty broad spectrum of career possibilities.”

“No shit,” he grunted in frustration. “Started lookin’ and thought my head was gonna explode. If I’m gonna keep lookin’, you’re gonna have to narrow the parameters for me, baby.”

In a matter of minutes, Mace had shown he cared for me in a way Daniel hadn’t in our entire relationship. He wanted me to have something just for me, where Daniel believed I existed for the sole purpose of taking care of him.

Unable to control the riot of emotions swirling inside me, I moved closer, taking Mace’s face in my hands. My voice came out ragged and scratchy as I said, “Thank you.”

His hands hit my waist and his fingers pressed in deep as I drowned in those ocean eyes. “It was nothin’, sweetheart.”

“It was everything. Believe me, I know,” I said with conviction. We stayed just like that as seconds bled into minutes. Finally I forced myself to lower my hands and take a step back before I entered into territory I risked getting lost in forever. “I was actually thinking of taking some graduate classes. I don’t know what in yet, but I figured I have time to decide. No need to rush.”

A hopefulness washed over his expression, and at the sight of it, that warmth I’d grown used to bloomed in my chest. “Does that mean you’re stayin’?”

“Yeah,” I replied with a smile. “I like Seattle. But I do need to go back. I’ve worn every article of clothing I have with me so many times they’re going threadbare, and I want my car. The rental is in better shape, but Will worked on that car for me, and I’d like it back. I need to talk to Stone also, work out transferring full ownership of the garage to him, and talk to the leasing office about dropping my apartment.”

He took my hand, pulling me back into the spot I’d vacated seconds ago. “You sure you wanna do all this, Goldie? It’s a pretty big decision.”

The fact that he cared enough to be about me to ask that question spoke volumes. It was more than I’d ever gotten in my relationship with Daniel, and if I hadn’t been sure before I would have been right then. “I’m sure. I feel like this could be good for me, kinda like a fresh start.”

There was no missing how happy my statement made him. “Then I’ll go with. We can drive the rental down and drop it there, then drive your car back. Take a couple days to hang with your folks.”

I was filled to the brim with excitement. “Road trip!” I squeaked, clapping giddily. “This is gonna be so much fun!”

* * *

I’d created the absolute perfect playlist for our road trip, and we were currently on hour three of Badass Classic Rock. I’d started our trip with an audiobook of my favorite romance novel, but when Mace asked me to stab him in the ear with the straw from my Big Gulp thirty minutes into that, I put him out of his misery and switched to music.

I was currently singing Journey’s, “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” at the top of my lungs, my feet bopping on the dash while I played air drums with a passion that would’ve made Garrett proud.

“Please, god, if you care for me at all, kill me now,” Mace grumbled over the music.

With a giggle, I reached for the volume knob and turned it down but not off. “Oh come on! It’s a classic.”

He gave me a look that spoke to how much he disagreed. “I’ll give you every penny in my bank account to never, ever play Journey with me in the car again.”

“Oh, you big baby,” I teased, but then I let him off the hook, grabbed my phone and switched to the next song, Blue Oyster Cult’s “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.” “Better now?”

“I guess,” he answered with a crooked smirk as he watched the road. “It coulda used a little more cowbell though.”

At that, I burst out laughing, nearly choking on the Red Vine I’d just taken a bite of.

“Oh my god,” I gasped once I was able to talk. “Please, please. You guys have to write a song with a cowbell. I’ll love you forever if you do that for me.”

“What, you sayin’ you don’t love me now?” He shot me a wink, and I knew he was just messing around, but I nearly choked again, because god, he was right. No matter how hard I tried to fight it, tried to convince myself it was wrong, I couldn’t help but fall for him all over again.

Alcoholic or not, heartbreaker or not, he was the sweetest, most thoughtful, caring man I’d ever met. He managed to show me a million different ways that he was better than Daniel simply by existing.

“Ooh! Pull over there,” I cried, not only because I wanted to change the subject but because we were on a road trip. And road trips required copious amounts of fatty food.

“Are you serious?” he asked in bewilderment, but he still slowed the car down and flipped the blinker. “You’ve eaten an attire thing of Red Vines, a pack of Twix, and a full-sized bag of crunchy Cheetos. Now you want a burger?”

“Hell yeah, I do,” I declared. “It’s the number one rule of the road, man. You have to binge on junk. It’s illegal not to.”

“Yeah?” he asked with a low, raspy chuckle as he drove through the fast food restaurant parking lot toward the drive-thru. “A real law, huh?”

“Yep. The laws of Lyla. Trust me, you don’t want to break them. Now quit your bitchin’. I want a double cheeseburger with bacon, and a large fry. No! Super-sized.”

“Christ, baby. You’re giving me a stomachache,” he quipped, but that didn’t stop him from placing my order and getting something for himself.

* * *

You’re a pig, you know that?”

I looked over at Mace with an exaggerated frown. “Am not,” I managed to say after shoving the last of the Snickers bar into my mouth and tossing the wrapper on the floorboard.

He glanced from me to the floorboard and back again before aiming his gaze at the road and mumbling, “Uh-huh. Sure.”

I swallowed the last of the candy bar and washed it down with more soda. “Hey!” I snapped, pointing at my feet. “I’m not a pig. That’s just where I’m stashing the trash accumulated during the trip before we pull over somewhere and I can throw it out. Another rule of the road: designate one place for garbage.”

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “That explain the Big Mac containers, gum wrappers, and empty water bottles scattered in the back? You go on another road trip I didn’t know about?”

I turned to the back seat to see that he might’ve had a point, but I wasn’t going to admit that. Instead, I shot him a glare and crossed my arms over my chest. “I can’t be perfect in every aspect of my life, thank you very much.”

He smiled at the windshield as he turned the car into my parents’ neighborhood. “True enough, baby. At least you’re cute as hell. Makes this sty more acceptable.”

“Whatever,” I muttered. “Can you drive any faster? I gotta pee so bad my eyeballs are floating.”

He burst into laughter. “Man, someone gets cranky when we reach hour twelve,” he needled playfully. “Remind me to dose you with Nyquil or something on the way home.”

“Shut up,” I snarked, but I couldn’t stop the smile from stretching across my face.

We finally pulled up in front of my parents’ house, and the front door swung open before Mace had the car in Park.

“Mom!” I shouted excitedly as I jumped out of the car and dashed up the front walk. We ran into an embraced like we hadn’t seen each other in years. “I missed you.”

“Missed you too, baby. I’m so happy to see you.”

After a long hug where we swayed back and forth, we finally pulled apart. “Daddy!” I cried, launching myself into his arms.

“Hey there, baby girl. Glad to have you home. How was the trip down?”

“Enlightening,” Mace answered, coming up behind me. “Good to see you again, Mr. Tolliver.” He reached for my dad’s hand, shaking it before moving to my mom and giving her a hug. “Mrs. Tolliver.”

“Oh please,” she chastised lightheartedly. “If we’ve told you once, we’ve told you a thousand times. You’re family, sweetheart. No need for such formality. We’re Cindy and Jon to you.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Mace replied with a charming smile.

“So,” Dad cut in. “She eat everything she could get her hands on between here and Seattle?”

“Dad!” I shouted, but before I could stop him, Mace chimed in.

“How someone so small can pack away that much junk blows my mind.”

“Mace!”

“Tell me about it,” Dad laughed. “Any time we took a family vacation, I worried she’d eat us broke before we even got to where we were goin’. And the mess. Dear Lord, could the girl make a mess.”

Mace and Dad barked with laughter as I scowled on, but the corners of my mouth trembled in an effort to fight a smile.

Who would’ve thought a road trip with Mason Keller could be so much fun?