Lennon bugged her eyes out in mock disbelief, one hand slapping delicately to her chest. “Holly has a heart?”
I chuckled. “She does, something you’d find out pretty damn quick if you hurt someone she loves.” I reflected. “Or Mother Clucker.”
She twisted in her seat to face me. “Okay, what is the deal with that? Why a chicken?”
“Ask her yourself.”
Lennon pulled back, wrinkling her nose. “I’ll pass.”
“Suit yourself.” I glanced sideways at her. “You know the reason you two don’t get along is because you’re too much alike, right? If you really got to know each other, you’d be inseparable.”
“That is a terrible thing to say.” She flicked my thigh, making me laugh. “Why do you care if Holly and I are friends, anyway? I’m only here until the end of July.”
I didn’t want to think about that. Not her leaving, and definitely not why it might mean something to me for her to get along with people I cared about. “Just trying to prevent carnage, that’s all.”
“You know Holly started it, right? I have been perfectly pleasant.”
“Holly doesn’t warm up to anyone easily.”Especially not people she doesn’t trust. I pulled up to her cabin and cut the engine. “I’ll walk you to your door.”
“It’s ten steps.”
“I’ll walk you to your door.”
She was halfway out of the truck when she paused to smirk at me over her shoulder. “Are you going to give me a gentlemanly goodnight kiss?”
I shot her a look as I unbuckled, maintaining eye contact as I left the truck and came around to her door. “No.”
“No?” Surprise and disappointment flashed in her dark eyes.
I took her hand to help her down. “No. I’m not going to give you a gentlemanly kiss goodnight because I can’t be a gentleman with you right now. If I start kissing you, I’m not going to stop.”
Her face tilted closer to mine. “You could come in.”
Fuck, I wanted to. Saying no hadn’t ever been a problem for me and I didn’t understand why it was now.Yesshould feel like love. Safe and manageable. There was nothing manageable about what I wanted to do with Lennon. It was wild and ferocious.
My gaze dipped to her mouth, and I groaned. “I think you might be drunk, honey.”
“Not drunk. Tipsy. Still fully able to consent to this.” She nipped at my jaw. “If you want to.”
“I want to.” Fuck, did I ever. My hands flexed on her hips. “But I can’t.”
With a soft laugh, she ducked under my arm and headed for her door. “All right, Boy Scout.”
I shoved my hands into my pockets so I wouldn’t reach for her and followed her to her door.
She glanced back at me as she dug her key out of her bag. “That’s the weird thing about this place, you know. Everyone here is a Boy Scout.”
Her smile was fuzzy around the edges. Definitely tipsy. She swayed slightly, and I yanked my hands out of my pockets in time to steady her. Touching her was dangerous, but I couldn’t let her fall either. “What do you mean?”
“I mean…” She whipped the key out of her bag with a flourish, like she expected applause. “I mean,everyoneknows CPR. Not just the people who work here. The guests know CPR, too. That’s a Boy Scout thing, right?”
I stilled. “You don’t know CPR?”
“No, I don’t knowCPR.” She blew a raspberry. “That’s ridiculous. Where would I learn CPR?”
I stared down at her. She stared back, her doe eyes big and deceptively guileless, like maybe she really didn’t understand what she was telling me. I took the key from her, unlocked the door, and nudged her inside. “Get some rest, Lennon.”
I drove back to the lodge with my dick aching and my head a goddamn mess. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing with this woman, but one thing I knew for damn sure. You didn’t come out of the military without knowing CPR. The same applied to first responders.
