She had no idea where that instant dislike for her had come from, but Justin had told her he was like that with any girl he got serious about, so she was willing to bet it was more of a Cooper problem than a Dawn one.
‘It’s not what I want that matters,’ Cooper said. He left the fact that Justin obviously wanted her out of his life unsaid, which was possibly the nicest thing he’d ever done for her.
‘My point is, it’s quite hard for me to, say, up and leave the country to start over somewhere else while Justin has my passport.’ Never mind that she had no intention of leaving the States if she didn’t have to, especially since it would involve her traipsing back to Britain and her parents with her tail between her legs. If Cooper needed to believe that she was on her way out of Justin’s life to tell her where he was, then he could believe that.
He didn’t need to know that her passport wasn’t the only thing Dawn wanted from Justin. The answers she needed were none of his business.
Cooper sighed, his broad shoulders sinking slightly as he realised she wasn’t going to give up. Dawn stood firm, staring him down, not giving him a second to rethink that realisation.
‘Listen, Dawn, Justin said in his note that he needed to get away, he needed time to think. To refocus himself, he said. He needs to be away from everyone right now—family, friends and especially you. You need to give him that time.’
‘Time to think,’ Dawn echoed, a thought of her own crystallising in her brain.
‘Exactly.’ Cooper sounded relieved. He shouldn’t. ‘Why don’t you spend some time with your family, while they’re over here, try and relax too? I mean, this must have all been very stressful for you.’ The disbelief was strong in his voice on that last point, but it didn’t matter. He’d already told Dawn what she needed to know.
There was only one place Justin went when he needed to get away from everything and think. He’d told her on their third date at that hot new restaurant that served everything with kale.
She knew where she needed to go.
‘I could do that,’ she said agreeably. ‘Or I could head over to your family’s beach house in the Hamptons and find Justin.’
Cooper’s eyes widened, just enough for her to know she’d guessed right.
‘I think I know which I’d rather do, don’t you?’ Dawn smiled triumphantly and enjoyed seeing Cooper’s face fall.
At least she’d come out on top once today.
* * *
‘I didn’t say he was at the beach house,’ Cooper said as soon as he gathered his wits again. How could she possibly know that? He felt in his pocket to make sure the letter Justin had written him was still there. He wouldn’t have put it past Dawn to have pickpocketed it from his jacket when they were investigating the trunk of the Caddy. She’d obviously already stolen the car keys from his bag, so thievery wasn’t beyond her. Not to mention the millions of dollars she had hoped to take his brother for.
Dawn slammed the trunk closed. ‘You didn’t have to. I know my... I know Justin.’
For a moment there, Cooper almost thought he heard sadness in her voice as she failed to find a word to describe his brother in relation to her. He wasn’t her husband, that was for sure. And she couldn’t possibly still think of him as her fiancé, or even boyfriend, now, could she?
Except he had a very bad feeling that if Dawn went to the beach house to find him she’d go out of her way to convince Justin to be exactly that once again. That was what a gold-digger would do, right? She’d invested too much time and energy in Justin as a prospect to give up now. She’d probably even try and talk him into eloping to Vegas and making things official as soon as she had her passport back.
Her passport. She didn’t have her passport. And she wasn’t a US citizen or a permanent resident, so she would need it to fly across the country to the Hamptons where Justin was holed up.
He would have flown, Cooper realised. Anything else would have been crazy. Which meant he’d probably already be there, and Dawn’s belongings were in some long-stay car park at the airport, locked in his car. Even if she had the keys, she’d have to hunt through several thousands of cars to find his. But that, he suspected, wouldn’t stop Dawn from heading to New York State to find Justin.
‘Even if he is at the beach house—and I’m not saying he is,’ he added quickly, off Dawn’s smug smile. ‘Say he is there. How, exactly, are you planning on joining him, given that he has your passport?’
That wiped that smile off her face. But only for a moment.
Grinning widely, she held up the keys to the Caddy. ‘I’ll drive.’
Since she hadn’t been able actually to open the door a few minutes ago, Cooper doubted that she was capable of driving forty-eight straight hours or so across the entire continental US, but the determined gleam in her eye still gave him pause.
‘Really. You, all on your own. Across the whole of America. Alone.’
‘If I have to,’ Dawn said stubbornly. ‘If that’s the only way to get to Justin, yes.’
Yeah, this wasn’t about her passport at all, was it? She wasn’t setting off on this absurd road trip to get her stuff and hightail it back to Britain.
She was doing this to get Justin back. And he simply could not allow that.
‘Give me the keys.’ He held a hand out across the bonnet.
‘No!’
‘The car is hired in my name,’ he said patiently. ‘If I call and report it stolen, the cops will have caught up to you before you even get out of the state. Besides, how much have you had to drink?’
‘Not much,’ she mumbled, sounding less certain. ‘Fine, then I’ll hire another car.’
‘With what proof of ID?’
‘I’ll take my dad’s rental.’ She was getting desperate now, he could tell. And that was bad. Desperate people did desperate things.
‘No,’ he said, making what might possibly be the worst decision of his life. ‘We’ll take this car. Now, give me the keys.’
‘We?’ Dawn asked, dropping the keys into his open palm.
Cooper crossed to the driver’s side and unlocked the car.
‘We,’ he confirmed. ‘And I’m driving.’
CHAPTER THREE
DAWN WOKE UP as they drove through what she thought must be San Francisco.
They.
She and Cooper.
How the hell had that happened?
She kept her eyes closed, so Cooper wouldn’t know she was awake, while she tried to figure it all out.
It might be Ruby’s fault. These sorts of things—crazy, unpredictable, ridiculous things—usually were. If she hadn’t forced that Prosecco on her then Dawn would have been clear-headed enough not to get into this position. Possibly. Okay, fine, but at least she’d have been able to open the car door the first time and drive herself away from her nightmare of a not-wedding.
Of course, if Cooper hadn’t intervened, she wouldn’t have known where she was going, and who knew how long it would have taken her to figure out that Justin had run off with her passport and suitcase?
Justin.
Of course. It was Justin’s fault. All of it.
She felt a little better for deciding that, so risked opening her eyes.
‘Sobered up yet?’ Cooper asked without looking at her. ‘There are some painkillers in the glove box.’
‘I had, like, two glasses of Prosecco, Cooper.’ Even if they hadn’t actually been in a glass. And probably not as good as the champagne Mrs Edwards had ordered to go with the wedding breakfast her guests would be sitting down to eat around now. ‘I wasn’t drunk.’ Was that the only reason he’d insisted on driving her? Because he thought she was too drunk to do it herself?
Cooper sighed. ‘Well, there goes the only justification I could come up with for this crazy road trip.’
‘What’s crazy about it?’ Shifting
in her seat, Dawn tried to get comfortable and work out the kink in her neck from sleeping with her head against the window. How long had they been on the road, anyway? If the bright lights around them really were San Francisco, it must have been about an hour since they’d left the venue.
‘Everything,’ Cooper said flatly.