Chapter Seven
Ren stared in shock at the flight information.
Mars really did it. He’d really booked her a flight.
She’d gotten a notification a few minutes ago that a flight had been added to her airlines account.
Sure, she’d given him her member number and birthday, and full name just in case, but after the strange way he left earlier, she’d thought for sure he wouldn’t want her to go to Salt Lake City to meet his brothers now.
And yet…
And then there was the second surprise. He hadn’t just booked them a twenty-four-hour trip like he’d originally planned.
Nope. He had sent her the flight information where the departing flight was three days away from the return flight and then texted her a screenshot of her hotel information for three nights. The hotel looked really nice, too.
A thrill of excitement zinged up her spine.
Immediately, Ren texted her mom, asking for the time off work. She needed two shifts covered.
The flight was scheduled for tomorrow night.
Mind racing, she looked around the room, planning what to pack. She needed to do a load of laundry and probably drop by the store in the morning for travel sized toiletries. She hadn’t flown anywhere in years. She hoped their seats were right next to each other.
She texted him, hands shaking slightly. Should I bring dress clothes? Or is it just relaxed? Send.
Maybe bring one dressy outfit. I know a good steakhouse right in the city. We’ll probably only hang out with my brothers for an hour or so and then we can get a little time to visit the city. I’m from there, so I know some good spots I think you’ll like.
She squealed and kicked her feet. There was a red cotton maxi dress hanging in her closet right now with the tags still on it. She’d started to think she would never have a good occasion to wear it.
A video call came in from Mars, and she panicked and threw her phone across the bed. It bounced off the edge and clattered to the floor.
“Oh geez,” she muttered, scrambling to retrieve it. She answered it fast but caught a glimpse of herself in the camera and yelped and slammed the phone facedown. “Cold-calling someone on a video chat is ridiculous,” she said.
“You look fine. I need to talk to you before this trip. I won’t be able to sleep unless I tell you something.”
Ren narrowed her eyes and yanked the phone up. “Is this the part where you tell me you have a girlfriend, or a wife, or seven kids and I need to be a secret?”
“What?” he asked.
“I’ve seen so many documentaries on this.”
Mars pulled a face. “Okay, well you probably need to watch less of those. No, I don’t have a girlfriend or a wife or kids.
Where are you?” he asked, trying to peek around where her body was taking up most of the frame.
She’d already removed her wedding make-up and false eyelashes and looked so different from earlier.
If he noticed, he didn’t say anything though, God bless that man.
“I’m in my bedroom.”
“Show me. What does it look like?”
“Well, you could’ve literally had the tour earlier, but you did the kiss and run move, like a weirdo.”
“It’s not good for me to go in your territory. Smells too much like you in there.”
“Currently it smells like watermelon scented fabric spray. It was delivered today and I went crazy with it. The smell is giving me a headache.”
Mars snorted. “Your Cat is going to hate you for that.”
Ren gave off a nervous laugh. “Yeah. So probably it’s a good time for me to tell you something too, before we travel together.”
“You’re animal has trouble in confined spaces?” he guessed.
“Umm. How about you go first so I can formulate what I want to say and how I want to say it.”
“Right. So, you know how I keep mentioning a Rabbit?” he asked. Why did he sound nervous right now?
“Yeah.”
Mars looked up at something over the phone, and a slight frown took his face as he froze.
He shook his head and continued. “Well since you don’t know what it is, I have been putting off telling you so I can just have some time to figure this all out.
But that’s really dangerous and selfish of me to do…
” He looked up again and froze, eyes staring straight ahead.
“Hey, let me call you back,” he growled, standing.
“What’s happening?”
He was striding through a masculine-looking bedroom into a hallway. “I’ll call you back.” But now there was a snarl in his voice and he sounded pissed.
“Mars—”
Click. The screen went dark.
A snake of worry slithered through her gut. Something was happening at his house, but it was really late at night. No one should be there this late.
Ren turned the ring volume up and set the phone on her bed and paced the room, chewing on her thumbnail and watching for the phone to light up.
A minute drifted by. And then another. She grabbed the phone and texted him, You good? Send.
Three more minutes drifted by and she called him.
No answer.
She didn’t know where he lived, so she was stuck like this, waiting.
And waiting.
And waiting some more.
Something big was happening. Every instinct in her body told her so, but what could she do? She had no guess where Mars lived.
Are you okay? she texted again.
But an entire hour passed, and still…no answer.