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Behind me, Britta clears her throat. “Doesn’t Sophie have a spare room in her house?”
“Yeah, but it’s been full of books since the mobile library broke down,” Alec says.
I try to smile. “I can go to the other motel.”
“No.” He clears his throat, his stare boring into me. “You can stay with me tonight.”
Chapter 14
Alec
The moonlight is bright on the white of the sand and the formal landscaping around the resort. Birds are chirping and it’s unseasonably cool as I lead the way to my cabin, which is a welcome respite for my sudden nerves. I hadn’t meant to offer what I did, that she could stay the night at my place.
It was a rash decision and now I’m freaking out about many things. Namely, what was I thinking? Those sheets on the guest bed are clean, aren’t they? And, did I leave my socks under my man cave chair again?
It was lucky that I happened to be in the lobby when she showed up—I’d been in Sebastian’s suite upstairs, playing poker with him, Oliver, and Oliver’s girlfriend, Sophie.
Okay, so it’s not so much poker as it is a weird, goofy version that Sophie made up with all kinds of unexpected rules. And we only gamble with dollar bills. Regardless, I was playing terribly, so I decided to cut my losses earlier than I normally would on a Friday night.
When I saw Britta talking with Oakley at the front desk, an apology on her face, I knew there weren’t any rooms left for her, thanks to the weirdo who defiled our perfect resort yesterday. He took a lighter to the contents of his bathroom garbage can, but didn’t take into account the roll of toilet paper hanging nearby, and once that went up in flames, the rest was history. We’ve now got four rooms that are out of commission thanks to smoke damage. Luckily the smoke detectors alerted us and we were able to get there before any more rooms were damaged.
“I can’t believe I’m walking in the woods to some shack out here. Creepy.” Her voice is animated, and she offers a laugh, but there’s an undercurrent of awkwardness between us as we walk along the dirt path in the moonlight.
Also? I’m not at all sure about this situation, so I’m feeling grumpy about it.
“You’re welcome to go to the Motel 6 in Tollark if you’d like,” I offer, hefting her bags up higher on my back.
“No, no. This is great.” I only hear our footsteps on the path for a moment before she asks, “How much farther is it?”
“The uphill part is only for another minute or two, then it flattens out and you’ll be able to see it. Not far.”
I’m leading the way to my place and the path is mostly smooth. On a scale of difficulty for hikes, this one would probably rank at a three, only because of the steepness at the beginning. The part of the path we’re on is one of the rockier, less tame sections, and when I remember that, I turn back to offer her a hand. But not in time to catch her as she trips over an exposed root from a pine.
“Oof!” She lets out a grunt and I hear her shoulder bag tumble to one side. I drop her other bags and kneel to her.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” she assures me, sitting back on her heels and brushing her hands along her the front of her jeans.
When I see that she really is okay, I can’t help but tease her. “And you thought I was a dork for tumbling off the treadmill.” That was a debacle. It was a hard fall and I still have the remnants of bruises on my forearms to remind me. But I figure the more I talk about it, the less shame-inducing it might become.
“It was your fault you fell, running on an unhappy triad injury like you did.” She stands and I steady her elbow with my hand. “It’s not my fault there was a tree root the size of New Jersey right here.”
I chuckle and we resume walking. “Can I be real for a second?” I ask.
She answers with an “uh-huh.”
“I’ve never had a woman in this house before.”
“And you’ve lived here since September?”
“Don’t sound so surprised. I’ve told you before that I don’t really date. I like my simple life out here. By myself, no one bothering me, and no one to bother.” Even as I’m saying it, I know that’s not completely true. I wasn’t always like this. I wasn’t always this introverted.
“How did you hike up and down here when your knee was bad?”
“I didn’t very often. I only started coming to the resort every day since Sebastian started giving me more responsibilities the last few months.”
“So you sat up in your Bigfoot cabin, alone and in pain?” I can hear her shudder.
“What else was I going to do? The resort wasn’t finished yet those first few months, and even if it was, I wasn’t about to take up a spot from a paying customer. My place isn’t bad. It’s been perfect for me. Besides, if you’d had a career-ending injury, you’d feel like avoiding a lot of contact with people, too.”
