11. James
CHAPTER 11
JAMES
I make my way behind Hallie, laughing when I see there’s only one bed in the room. Between the Uber, the plane, and the bus ride to the ranch, I feel like my body has been cramped and bent all day, so I drop our bags on the ground and kick off my shoes, belly flopping down right into the middle of the king-sized bed. Stretching out feels good, especially on the soft mattress and expensive sheets. I could easily take a long, luxurious nap right here, but I assume Hallie has a tight itinerary that doesn’t involve me sprawling out in the middle of the bed.
“So,” I say, rolling onto my side and propping my head up. “What side of the bed do you want? Closer to the window and closer to the bathroom? Do you get up to pee a lot at night? You seem like you do.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Hallie asks, shaking her head.
“You’re constantly hydrating,” I point out, gesturing to the giant Stanley cup tucked under her arm. “You must pee pretty often. So, what do you say? Closer to the bathroom?”
“Oh. Hell. No,” Hallie replies, shaking her head. “This isn’t happening.”
“Fine, then take the window,” I say, rolling over onto my back. “But I like to sleep with the shades open. There’s nothing better than waking up with the sun on your face, don’t you think?”
“I emailed the ranch,” Hallie huffs, already scrolling through the phone. “I discreetly asked for a room with two beds. How the hell did this happen?”
“You get what you get and you don’t get upset,” I reply, unable to refrain from taking a little enjoyment out of her discomfort. “Come on, it’s a huge bed. It’ll be fine.”
“No, I’m calling down and getting us switched to a new room,” she says, shaking her head.
“Seriously?” I reply. “You’re going to be a Chase, complaining to the front desk? And what if someone overhears or finds out we demanded a room with two beds? Won’t that look suspicious?”
“How is anyone going to know?” Hallie asks, looking up from her phone.
“I have no idea,” I shake my head. “But is it worth finding out? We have to make this look real or else what’s the point of me being here?”
I watch as Hallie considers this for a moment, her eyebrows furrowed, and her nose scrunched up. Most of the time she looks like she has a stick up her ass when she’s unhappy about something, but right now she looks like a little forest creature—a rabbit or a chipmunk. It’s actually pretty cute.
“Okay, you make a good point,” she finally concedes.
“I usually do,” I tease her, patting the bed next to me. “This bed is really comfortable, by the way. Why don’t you come join me? We can kill time the old-fashioned way.”
I know it’s wrong to keep baiting her like this, but if I have to go all the way to Wyoming to avoid my father, I might as well make the most of it.
“You’re insufferable!” Hallie grunts, finally putting her phone down. She stands at the foot of the bed, her arms crossed over her chest, glaring at me. “Don’t forget our ground rules.”
“I already have,” I shrug at her. “Remind me—what were they again? No peeing into the wind? Don’t feed a Gremlin after midnight?”
“We are not sharing a bed!” she shouts, catching herself with a glance towards the door before turning back to me, her cheeks flushed. “You are sleeping on the floor.”
“Oh, that’s a terrible ground rule,” I tell her. “Although, it’s funny because it’s literally a ground rule.”
“What are you talking about?” Hallie asks.
“Like, sleeping on the ground…ground rule?”
Her mouth hangs open for a second as she tries to find the words to respond, eventually just shaking her head at me.
“Come on, it’s a wood floor,” I point out. “I’m never going to get any sleep. And the rule about not sharing a bed was dependent on there being a couch or chair, remember?”
Hallie glances around the room and then looks down at the hard wood floor. I can see a flash of sympathy in her eyes, so I sit up and press my hands together, pretending to beg.
“Please? I’ll be good.”
“Fine,” Hallie groans. “But we’re taking all these pillows and stacking them between us as a divider.”
“Fine by me,” I reply. “If that’s the only way you can trust yourself sleeping so close to me.”
“Oh my god!” Hallie exclaims, reaching for a pillow and throwing it at me as I laugh.
As Hallie moves to grab another pillow to throw at me, I jump up from the bed, noticing a large welcome basket sitting on a table in the corner of the room.
“Wow, look at this,” I say, sifting through the contents—a bottle of Winter Brother Vineyards wine, chocolate covered pretzels, an array of fruit and crackers. There’s a card tucked into the front of the basket, and I lift it up, laughing at our names printed on the envelope. “Hey, look at this. Our names look pretty good together. Do you think you’ll change your name when we get married?”
“Excuse me?” Hallie scoffs.
“I mean, we’ve been together for almost a year,” I shrug. “I’m sure I’m due to propose soon. You’ll start dropping hints when we walk past jewelry shops, your friends will tell me if you prefer a round or square cut diamond. It’s bound to happen any day now.”
“Will you please shut up?” Hallie sighs, taking the card from me and pulling it out of the envelope. “The first event is a welcome cocktail reception at 6:00 pm.”
“Great, then we have plenty of time,” I note. “What should we do? Take a nap or go exploring?”
“I’m not a good napper,” Hallie says under her breath, rereading the card, most likely to commit it to memory in her mental itinerary.
“Then let’s go explore,” I suggest. “This place is huge. I can’t wait to check it out. The brochure looked amazing.”
“You read the brochure?” Hallie asks, her eyebrows gently lifted.
“Uh yeah,” I reply. “Isn’t that why you gave it to me?”
“Well, sure,” she says. “But I didn’t think you’d actually do it.”
“Why do you always think the worst of me?” I ask, putting my hands on my hips and shaking my head.
Hallie silently raises one eyebrow, staring back at me.
“Okay fine,” I concede. “But I did read the brochure and I’m excited to go check this place out.”
“Alright,” Hallie agrees. “I just want to change first.”
“Good idea,” I nod.
I grab my bag from the ground where I left it and open it on the bed, pulling out a fresh button down. As I lift my t-shirt up over my head, I notice Hallie quickly turn away, averting her eyes. I can’t help but smile, amused that she won’t even look at me with my shirt off. It’s not like I dropped my pants.
With her back turned, Hallie opens her giant suitcase on the floor and pulls out an outfit that’s neatly folded right on top. I don’t say anything, but I’m pretty sure she packed chronologically, putting the clothes she’d need sooner at the top of the pile. Gathering her things, she heads to the bathroom.
“Are you really going to go in there every time you have to change?” I call after her. “It’s not like I haven’t seen a naked woman before.”
She ducks her head out from the bathroom doorway.
“You haven’t seen me.”
“Yet,” I reply with a wink.
Giving me one of her signature eyerolls, Hallie goes back into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.
While she’s changing, I pull on a pair of comfortable jeans. I’m buttoning up a corduroy shirt when Hallie emerges from the bathroom in a new outfit. Right away, her eyes land on my chest and I notice how she lets her gaze linger without looking away this time. Well, I guess I’m making progress, I think to myself. The woman may talk a good game and preach self-control and restraint, but it’s obvious she finds me at least a little bit attractive—and I can work with that.
“I’m ready when you are,” Hallie says, finally looking away as she picks up her purse from the desk by the door.
While she’s facing away from me, I let my own gaze linger for a moment on her ass, appreciating the jeans that fit so well, it’s as if someone sewed her into them while she was changing in the bathroom. I knew she had a good body, but these jeans take it to another level. I can’t take my eyes off of her.
Hallie looks up and does a quick double take when she catches me staring at her.
“You can stop looking at me like that,” she sighs. “We’re alone. There’s no one around to care.”
“I’m just practicing so it will look natural when we are with your co-workers,” I reply, clearing my throat.
“Look, I was serious about the rules,” Hallie says, her voice firm. “I’m not going to be another notch on your bedpost, although I’m pretty sure you’ve already run out of room on all four posts.”
I step towards her, still looking at her shapely legs, letting my eyes drift up to the sweater that hugs the curves of her breasts.
“Then it’s a good thing I’m a woodworker,” I reply in a low voice. Feeling my gaze, Hallie crosses her arms over her chest, but she doesn’t back away from me as I get closer.
“Come on,” I tell her, gesturing to the door with my chin. “Let’s get out of here.”
I take one more glance at her ass as Hallie turns and starts to walk away from me. When she pauses to open the door, I give her butt a playful swat and she gasps and whirls around at me.
“What the fuck?” she hisses. “We’re still alone.”
“I’m just practicing,” I shrug innocently. “I can’t help it if you look hot in those jeans.”
“Jesus…” Hallie sighs. “This is going to be a very long week.”
“I wouldn’t mind doing some fishing while we’re here,” I say as we pass by a group getting ready to go fly fishing on the river.
“I love to fish,” Hallie replies, waving to someone standing with the group, holding a fly-fishing pole.
I stop short at this, giving Hallie a skeptical look.
“What?” she says.
“ You like to fish?” I ask.
“Yeah, I do it every summer with my family,” she says.
Cognizant of people watching us, Hallie starts to loop her arm through mine, but then hesitates for a moment. I hold my arm out to her, and she quickly takes it as we continue on.
“I just don’t see you as the fishing type,” I say, keeping my voice down.
On our way to the stables, we pass by the archery range and Hallie stops to watch an older woman aiming at a target in the distance.
“Have you tried that before?” I ask.
“No, but I’ve always wanted to try,” Hallie replies as we watch.
“Shooting at things with pointy sticks? That I can believe,” I laugh.
Hallie gives me a dirty look as the woman pulls the arrow back and releases it, hitting the upper rim of the board.
“Well done!” Hallie calls out, waving to the woman, who grins and waves back.
“You’re pretty popular in your company, aren’t you?” I ask.
“I don’t know about popular, but I’ve been around for a while and I try to be nice to everyone,” she shrugs.
When we get to the stable, there’s a woman in one of the stalls, brushing the horse. She looks over at us and nods, finishing up and coming out to greet us.
“Hey there,” the woman says. “Are you with the group that just arrived?”
“Yes, we’re with Winter Brother Vineyards,” Hallie replies. “Your horses are beautiful.”
“They’re certainly a bunch of divas,” the woman laughs. “I know your group has a ride through the mountains booked this week, but we also do private trail rides if you’re interested. But sign up early—they book fast.”
“Thanks, that sounds fun,” Hallie says. “Any other tips? We’re just out exploring the property right now.”
“The rodeo is in town,” the woman tells us. “But if you don’t have time for the whole show, you can catch the star bull rider warming up at the ranch. It’s his pre-rodeo ritual. We won’t be doing any rides that day.”
“Wow, you do that for all the rodeo riders?” I ask.
“No,” the woman laughs. “This one gets special treatment. He’s my brother, Wes. This ranch is my family’s. I’m Dakota, by the way.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Hallie says. “I’m Hallie, this is James. You must be so proud of your brother.”
“We are,” she nods in reply, “but don’t tell him that. He already has a huge ego.”
Hallie glances over at me with her eyebrows raised slightly in amusement.
“Oh, I know all about that,” she says.
“Very funny,” I reply, poking her in the side with my finger, making her squeal and squirm.
“Well, I’ll let you get back to exploring,” Dakota says with a smile. “Make sure you visit the hot springs. If you’re into yoga, it’s usually offered several times a day in all sorts of places—sunrise, sunset, mountain top, pasture, with goats.”
“Goats?” I ask in shock.
“Oh yeah,” Dakota laughs. “It’s a little dumb if you ask me. The goats tend to poop and piss all over the place, but the tourists love it. Oh, no offense.”
“None taken,” I assure her, knowing that I wouldn’t be caught dead participating in goat yoga.
“So, what’s next?” I ask Hallie on our way back to the lodge from the stables.
“We could sign up for a cooking class,” she says. “Or check out the spa. They have all sorts of weird treatments from sound therapy to sensory deprivation tanks.”
“I’ll pass on that, but I could definitely go for a massage,” I reply.
As we take the path back up to the chalet at the top of the hill, Hallie catches me off guard by reaching for my hand and holding it tight. I glance over at her, but she’s looking straight ahead. I can’t deny that it feels nice, natural even, and I wonder if she’s starting to warm up to me a little. Even though this is supposed to be fake, it doesn’t have to be entirely unpalatable. But when I spot a man and woman heading straight for us on the path, I realize that Hallie’s hand holding wasn’t spontaneous but calculated.
“Hi Hallie,” the woman says, reaching out to give Hallie a hug.
“It’s been too long,” Hallie tells the woman, hugging her tight. “I’d ask how the kids are, but Lucas talks about them all the time.”
“Can you blame me? They’re amazing,” the man replies, smiling brightly.
“Lucas and Tammy, this is my boyfriend, James,” Hallie says, taking my hand again as she introduces me. “James, this is Lucas Winter, one of the co-owners of the vineyard.”
“Of course,” I reply, as if I’ve been hearing all about the Winter brothers for the better part of a year and haven’t just spent the last couple of days reading up on them from Hallie’s notes. “It’s so nice to meet you. Thank you so much for having me here with your company. It means a lot to me to have a chance to be a part of Hallie’s professional life.”
“We’re very happy you could join us,” Lucas replies. “We are a very close group, and we look forward to getting to know you, James.”
“We’ll see you at the cocktail hour?” Tammy asks.
“Absolutely,” Hallie replies.
Once Lucas and Tammy have faded into the distance, Hallie tries to let go of my hand, but I grip onto her tightly.
“You can let go now; they’re gone,” Hallie hisses, trying harder to rip her hand out of mine.
“Hallie,” I mutter, trying to get her to stop pulling away, but when she won’t listen, I have to think fast. Wrapping my arm around her waist, I pull her up against me and press my lips tightly to hers.