Crap.
Chapter Seven
I was not preparedfor this. But there was nowhere to run and he was almost in front of us.
“Hey, sorry to interrupt,” he said in that smooth, deep voice. “I was hoping we could talk, Calla.”
My throat felt completely parched despite the drink in my hand.
“Sure,” I said unsteadily before gesturing to the chair across from us. “Join us.”
He looked to Arnie and then back to me before scratching the back of his neck. “I was kind of hoping to talk, just the two of us. There’s a fire pit outside on the deck. I heard the stars are beautiful out here.”
He held out his hand, offering to help me up. I placed mine gingerly in his. No point in making this weird, right? He just wanted to talk. No big deal. A few minutes of conversation and then he’d realize I wasn’t all that interesting.
“I’ll see you later,” I said to Arnie.
Eli tipped his head at him and then tugged my hand lightly toward the glass doors. I expected him to drop myhand immediately, but his touch lingered. I gently pulled away, pretending I needed that hand to straighten the bottom of my sweater. He held the door open for me and we stepped outside. The air was cool, but not in an uncomfortable way.
“Here,” Eli said, handing me a blanket that he’d pulled from a bin to the right of the door.
I thanked him and wrapped myself in the soft gray fleece. Gazing upwards at the sky left me stunned. Eli hadn’t been kidding. The night sky was adorned with thousands of bright stars—more than I had seen in my entire life.
“It’s beautiful,” I murmured before shaking my head. “You know, this might sound silly, but I didn’t even realize we were allowed out here.”
He chuckled. “We’re allowed anywhere with cameras.” He pointed to the exterior wall of the lodge by the door. “They’re mounted everywhere.”
“Makes you feel like you’re in a fishbowl,” I said, looking up at them.
The gas fire pit, already ablaze, was encircled by concrete and a handful of plush seats—all just large enough for two. I hesitated, silently hoping Eli would take his seat first so that I could create some distance between us. But he remained standing, waiting expectantly.
Reluctantly, I sank into one of the seats before he settled in right next to me. As I inhaled the crisp evening air, his scent mingled with it. He smelled both enticing and unfamiliar. It beckoned me to lean in closer.
I shifted instead, positioning myself as far away as the seat would allow.
“So,” I started. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
He let out a breath of a laugh and his face broke out into the prettiest smile I had ever seen on a man. His reputationdidn’t surprise me at all anymore, because if he gifted me a few smiles like that, I would likely follow him anywhere.
“You get straight to the point, huh? I just want to get to know you better.”
“We chatted for a while yesterday,” I pointed out, like that would have been enough to tell him everything he needed to know about me.
“Barely.” He ducked his chin and forced my eyes to meet his. “I want to know more about you. That’s the point of all this, isn’t it?”
“After today, I think the point of all this is to embarrass us all horribly on national TV,” I said, cringing at the thought of all the footage they now had of me.
His grin widened. “Arnie did you dirty, sending you through the mud like that.”
“Right? Thank you!” I exclaimed. “Like I was really going to fight off those goats just to finish first.”
His laughter rang through the otherwise-silent night. “Not very outdoorsy, I take it?”
I scoffed. “Ifnot very outdoorsymeans I can’t go toe to toe with a farm animal and don’t enjoy crawling through dirt, then yeah. I guess you could say I’m not outdoorsy.”
Eli’s expression sparkled with amusement.
“I’ve lived in Chicago my whole life,” I admitted before sticking a finger up. “But I have been camping. Once. It was in the eighth grade for a science field trip, and I wasn’t half-bad at it.”
