Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 122514 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 408(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122514 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 408(@300wpm)
Reese: Fuck it, woman. Wake up. I’m bored. Send me new questions.
I laughed, rolling over, still on his couch, and typed back.
Me: I slept in. Awake now. Are you in the air?
I sent my response an hour after his last one, and when he didn’t buzz back right away, I left my phone on the couch and got up for the day. After showering and dressing, I was heading out when my phone buzzed.
Trent: I’m coming back this week. The team canceled their last couple days, so I have free time. Want to do something fun? I’ve got nothing planned.
I frowned and called him.
“You’re not with Owen and Hadley, are you?” he answered.
I needed to check on my fishing cabin, so I was heading that way. “No. Why?”
“Because I sent them texts too. What are you up to?”
“I’m heading to my cabin right now. What were you saying about canceling or something?”
“Yeah. I was scheduled to come in for a last motivational talk for them at the end of the week, but they’ve been changing the days a lot lately. The last change came in this morning. In three days they’re done at camp.”
“They’re done?”
Reese hadn’t said a word.
“Yeah, but the reason I texted is because I had them scheduled for later in the week. My manager moved things around in my schedule, but I still have those days off. So now, after flying in and doing their speech, I have four days clear. You want to do something?” He paused. “Hold on.” His phone buzzed.
A second later, he came back on. “Uh, what’s going on with you and Reese Forster?”
I stopped mid-stride. I was between the last cabin in Reese’s village and my fishing cabin, a good five hundred feet ahead.
My stomach clenched. “Uh, what do you mean?”
And did his voice have a certain disapproval in it? Flashbacks of my father came to me. He’d tried to get me to leave Damian years before I did.
“I just got a text from Owen. They have time off from Keith, but he didn’t know if you’d be able to or not. Something about being busy with Forster?”
Owen. Seriously.
“Nothing’s going on. We’ve just become friends. That’s all.”
He was quiet a beat. “Friends? You and Reese Forster? The ball player, right?” His disbelief was evident.
I didn’t know how to answer that one. Yes, to convince him, or yes, to defend myself?
I started forward again. I hadn’t gone to my own cabin for two days, and the times before had been just to dash in, my nose plugged, as I grabbed what I could and dashed back out.
When I got to my cabin, I waited. I couldn’t talk and not breathe at the same time, so I sat on the front porch, my feet dangling off the side, facing the lake. It was just beyond the tree line and a dip down to the edge, which was lined with rocks. The nice beach area was on the other side of the island. Still, it was pretty. The sun was shining, a sparkling line clearing right through the trees and making the water look like it was glistening.
I hadn’t taken the time since coming here to appreciate the island. Most of my time had been spent avoiding things or being busy. Or with Reese. Sitting here, with Trent quiet for a moment, I took it all in.
A piece of me settled. Calm.
“I thought you went to camp to get away from another guy situation?” Trent said.
“Technically, I was fired and dumped, but let’s be honest here. Lucas and his grandpa weren’t really anything, and neither is Reese. Friends, Trent. Like you and me. Friends.”
I might’ve been lying a tad bit, but that was between me and the fish smell.
“What were you thinking about doing?”
Shit. Not that I was making much money, but that meant I was losing four days of wages. That could’ve covered a weekend of laundry.
“I don’t know. Some of the others aren’t far away. I was thinking we could do a road trip. Janet mentioned having a new house. We could go there, see her. Dinner. You know, just spending time together. She has walking trails by her place too.”
I glanced to the left of my cabin. There was a better walking trail right here.
“I don’t know. You know I don’t get along with Janet.” She was one of the gossiping friends. I’d melted out of the scene so she couldn’t talk shit about Damian. Though she didn’t know that. So maybe the whole not getting along was more on my end, but her tongue could be razor sharp when she talked about her ‘friends.’ I’d heard more than I needed to. Why let myself be a target for her?
But Trent, he loved her. Trent loved everyone.
“Charlie.” His voice dipped. We were going real talk here. All these people in my life, all they wanted to do was converse seriously about things. What was the fun in that? Could we not adult in other ways?