Chapter 17

When Rose finally gets ahold of herself she puts her hands up in front of her as if to ward him away and starts taking slow steps backwards, as if he won't be able to notice her putting distance between them.

Rose's thoughts are racing and her heart might beat out of her chest. This is the person she's running from! He seems harmless? Surely it can't be. How did they bump into each other like this? How did fate put them together at this dirty rundown gas station in the absolute middle of nowhere. Was he following them? No, he was here first.

As realization sinks in she holds her stomach, trying to ward off the nausea she feels. Cal? Could it have been Cal? He wouldn't do this to her, they can't possibly know each other. Surely he didn't set her up to be here...

Her thoughts are racing a million miles a minute while this man stares at her intently with his beautiful smoldering eyes.

Cal must be in on this somehow, until she figures it out she can't go back with him, she starts to turn around to bolt for the woods behind the gas station and realizes she'll never be able to outrun this guy or Cal. She comes up with a plan and quickly pulls herself together and smiles at him.

"Well, I'm caught a little off guard. The chances of us accidentally running into each other seem like a million to none so I'm sorry I'm a little flustered." He flashes her an understandable smile and closes the distance between them, grabbing her hands in his own. " I know it's weird for me too. We just need to sit down and talk. I want to know what you've been told is 'expected' of you and I want you to know it's not what you think. Can we please sit and have dinner tonight?"

Rose smiles at him gratefully, "I think that's a perfect first step." Just then Cal walks up to them, he flashes her a questionable look and she says, "It's a long story." And laughs. Watching his facial expressions carefully, trying to read him. She looks back at the man and says, "You know my name. What's yours?" He pauses for a split second but it's enough to give Rose a giant red flag but she doesn't show her emotions, he gives his award winning smile again and says, "It's Ezra."

She cocks her head at him, still playing fan girl and goes, "Ezra... that's perfect for you."

He listens to his name roll off her tongue and feels his groin twitch in response but continues on as if he was unaffected. "What do you say Rose? Dinner tonight?" She smiles at him and looks at him as innocently as possible under her dark lashes and shyly says, "Okay. I will have dinner with you tonight Ezra."

Relief is evident on his face as he pulls his phone out and asks for her number. She gives it to him, knowing he will call her on the spot to make sure it's her real number.

And he does. Right away. Her phone starts ringing in her pocket and she cocks her head as if to say, "Yup it's my real number."

She glances at the gas station and says, "I'm so sorry I really need to run to the bathroom, I'll be right back and we'll talk about what time you can pick me up." She winks at him and starts to walk away, making sure to sway her hips on her way in, feeling his eyes boring into her. Once she gets inside the gas station, she bolts for the bathroom and runs inside and closes and locks the door. Leaning her whole body weight against it, and lays her head back as well. Taking deep breaths. Trying to calm her still racing heart. She feels tears prick her eyes and walks over to the sink. Staring at her reflection. She blinks them away, determined to be strong right now.

She glances at the window in the bathroom, that was her escape plan. She hoped the bathroom had a window, but when she was on her way in she saw a back door to the gas station and decided she'd use that instead. Seemed faster and it was distanced enough from the front of the store that no one would notice her departure.

She opened the bathroom door a crack to make sure she wasn't followed inside the gas station and as she steps a foot outside she sees Ezra walking in the gas station. Gasping she quickly closes the door back as quietly as possible.

"Crap crap crap!" She thinks to herself. "Okay. It's fine. Everything is fine. Totally fine." Biting her lip she glances up at the window again. "Screw it." She climbs up on the back of the toilet and unlocks the window. She slides it open. It's a small rectangular shaped thing. It's gonna be a tough squeeze, but she'll make it.

As she starts pulling herself up on the ledge to slide out, she hears a knock on the door. Her first instinct is to be quiet and not say anything, but that's dumb, she's supposed to be in here. So she calmly calls out, "Sorry, just a minute!"

Going in super speed now she gets up on the ledge and peeks out, there's no one outside at all. She slips her legs out first and then shimmies the rest of her body out next. She lands on the ground with a thump, and wasting no time at all, she bolts for the woods.

It's a longer run than she thought. Her lungs are on fire, but she doesn't stop running until she hits the wood line and even then she gets a burst of energy and keeps sprinting, deeper and deeper and deeper into the woods.

Authors note: Thank you all for the love. If I can get 5 comments or 5 people to add to their collection I will release two more chapters tonight. ♥️