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“Deal,” she breathed. “How fast can you get to New York?” she asked.
“I’ll book my ticket as soon as I get back to the beach house and pack. I should be there in a day or two. In the meantime, I’ll put on a show for the others—moping around and letting on that I’m lost without you. I’ll make up some romantic story about wanting to go to New York to sweep you off your feet. They’ll eat that shit up,” Colter said.
“Yeah, I’m betting Ginger and Savannah will actually swoon,” she teased. “Thanks for doing this for me, Colter. I really appreciate it.” He wanted to tell her that he wasn’t doing this all for her. A part of him was hoping to break down her defenses as he helped her fool her friends, but he couldn’t count on that. No, he was going to have to come up with a good plan to get past Norah’s walls if he wanted his shot with her. And right now, that was all Colter wanted—a shot with Norah.
* * *
After dropping her off at the airport, Colter headed back to the beach house, going over the story that they had come up with to cover the plan that he and Norah hatched together. He really wanted to go back to the house and tell the guys the truth—Norah was trying to avoid her best friend’s pressuring her to be with him, but honestly, he was looking forward to playing along with her plan. Lying to the guys might not be something that he usually did, but he really had no other options if he wanted his chance to get closer to Norah.
He found Brooks in the kitchen with Savannah, and he almost avoided that room, even though he desperately needed a cup of coffee. His caffeine addiction won out and he walked into the kitchen, smiling at his two friends. Colter poured himself a cup of coffee and waited for the barrage of questions.
“Did you get Norah to the airport?” Savannah asked.
“No, she’s sitting out in the car,” Colter joked. Brooks knew him well enough to know that he was kidding. His friend rolled his eyes at him, and he couldn’t help but laugh.
“Wait—what?” Savannah asked.
“He’s kidding, honey,” Brooks insisted. “You didn’t leave her in the car, right?”
“No, I dropped her off at the airport, as instructed,” Colter said. “She’s safely on her way to New York.”
“Thanks for doing that,” Savannah said.
“Yeah, no problem,” Colter said. “I’m just wondering why I had to be the one to drive her to the airport. You both said that you had plans for the morning, yet here you are, standing around, drinking coffee. Why couldn’t one of you take her?” Savannah looked about ready to choke on the sip of coffee that she just took, and Colter couldn’t help but smile. He had caught them both red-handed. This was all part of their plan to get him and Norah together, but no one wanted to come right out and say it.
“Our plans were canceled,” Brooks said. “We were supposed to meet with the caterer, but they pushed the appointment until tomorrow.” Brooks and Savannah were getting married at the end of the month, so Brooks’ cover story was actually a valid one, not that Colter bought one word of his friend’s excuse.
“Well, that’s convenient,” Colter mumbled more to himself. “I’m going to get some sleep. Norah was up half the night packing and I’m exhausted.”
“Wait,” Savannah said, “how was Norah? You know, when you said goodbye at the airport, did she seem okay?” Savannah was fishing for specific details that he wouldn’t share even if they had happened. There were no grand sweeping declarations of love and definitely no hot kiss shared between the two of them, as Savannah seemed to be hoping for.
“She seemed fine, why?” he asked. “Does this have anything to do with the fight she and Ginger had this morning before we left?” He was turning the tables on Savannah, and from the look on her face, she didn’t seem to like it at all.
“Not at all,” Savannah said. “I didn’t even know that they had a fight.” That was a lie. Their argument was so loud, the entire house must have heard the two of them going at it. Hell, neighbors probably heard that Norah was a virgin and that the rest of the crew was pushing her at Colter to help her to be as happy as they were.
“Okay, well, I’m going to let that one go. I’m tired and don’t have time for this. Norah seemed fine. If you’re so worried about her, text her. I’m sure that once she lands, she’ll be in touch.” He didn’t wait for whatever Savannah planned on asking him next. Colter walked back to his bedroom and shut the door. The room felt empty without Norah. Maybe their plan was Norah’s crazy way of conning her friends into leaving her alone, but he didn’t care. He saw her plan as his way to finally get his in with her—and he was going to take it.
Norah
Norah had spent almost a week throwing herself into her work, trying to forget how much fun she was missing out on at the beach house. She had started her plan, calling both Savannah and Ginger to tell them that she was lonely, especially at night. She really laid it on thick, telling them that she had gotten used to sleeping in the same room with Colter and that she missed him most of all. Of course, her friends tried to coax her into coming back to the beach house early, but her job had asked her to stay on for at least another week, and that worked for her. Colter had some hang-ups at work that had him postponing his plans to meet her. He promised to meet her at the Newark airport on Saturday, which was only two days away. Why she felt butterflies in her tummy every time she thought about him joining her was a mystery. She never felt nervous about spending time with Colter, so why was it different now?
Colter offered to get a separate room in the very pricey hotel that her company had her in, but she insisted that he share her suite. It had two queen beds and was bigger than the room they were sharing at the beach house. She convinced him that sharing a hotel room would give them time to finish hatching their plan, at night after she got home from work. He agreed to stay with her and now, she was rethinking her whole proposal. What did she plan on accomplishing by pretending to be with Colter? Sure, it would get her friends off her back for a few days, possibly more, but then what? When they got back to DC, Ginger and Savannah would both realize that she was lying to them and then, she’d have a lot of explaining to do.
Norah got out of work late today and by the time she grabbed her to-go order from her favorite place and got back to her hotel suite, she felt about ready to drop. She inhaled her food and decided to take a hot shower to help her relax, and then, she was going to climb into bed and sleep until she just couldn’t sleep anymore. She was looking forward to catching up on her sleep and doing a bit of work over the weekend to help get back on track for the coming week.
By the time she got out of the shower and pulled on the shorts and t-shirt that she usually slept in, she was too tired to dry her long hair. Instead, she pulled her wet hair back into a messy bun, deciding to deal with it in the morning when she woke up. Norah crawled into bed and groaned at how good it felt, when someone knocked on her hotel room door. She grumbled something about not needing any more clean towels and got out of bed, pulling the door open to find Colter standing on the other side.
“You’re not the guy from the front desk,” she said. Norah sounded as though she was accusing him of wrongdoing.
“Does he usually come up to see you at night?” he asked, bobbing his eyebrows at her. “If so, then you probably don’t need me here.”
“No, he usually comes up to bring me clean towels,” she insisted.
“I’m sure he does,” Colter said.
“Stop turning this into something that it’s not,” she loudly whispered. “What are you doing here, Colter? I thought that I was supposed to pick you up tomorrow afternoon.”
“I thought that I’d surprise you. I said I’d be up as soon as I could get away from work and catch a flight,” he reminded. “Plus, you sounded pretty busy with work, and I didn’t want you to have to drive two hours up and back to pick me up. I got a rental car.”
