Chapter 18
Aspen
My alarm jolts me awake. It takes me a minute to remember why I feel like absolute horse shit, but the night before quickly comes rushing back to me. So many drinks. Dancing. A bath. Brooks.
Oh my god.
I’m really regretting all those drinks right about now. I mean, who goes out drinking until after midnight when they have to work the next morning? Me, I guess. Don’t even get me started on how embarrassing I probably was last night.
I roll out of bed and realize I’m in one of Brooks’s shirts. This is a new one. He must’ve given it to me last night after I got out of his tub.
I may have been completely wasted, but there’s no way I could forget how good he looked last night. Cowboy Brooks is one thing, but relaxed, casual Brooks might be my favorite.
There’s a knock on my door, which forces me to get out of bed faster than I wanted to and makes my head spin. I yank open the door and find Brooks standing there with a bright smile.
“Good mornin’.”
“Is it?” I croak.
He chuckles. I can’t imagine how terrible I must look right now. But I forget all about that when his eyes move down my body and stay focused a moment too long on my bare legs.
“I, uh, wanted to see if you needed the morning off.”
“Absolutely not,” I tell him. “I’m an adult and will have to live with the consequences of my actions.”
“Figured you’d say that, so I brought you coffee and a breakfast burrito.” He hands me a brown bag and a coffee in a to-go mug.
“Did you make this?” I ask, trying not to freak out about the fact that he took the time to make me breakfast and bring it over to me. Do not swoon for this man, Aspen. Do. Not. Swoon.
He shrugs. “Yeah. Figured you’d be hungry and need something to soak up all that alcohol.”
I wince. “Yeah. Sorry about… all that.”
“Don’t be sorry. You needed a night out.”
“I did. It was a lot of fun.”
“Good. I’m glad. Well, I’ll leave you to it. You can take the UTV on the side of the house to get to the lodge this morning. We’ll go get your car this afternoon.” He hands me a set of keys. “See you in a bit.”
“Yeah. Thanks for breakfast and for last night.”
“Anytime.”
He tips his hat in my direction. I never thought that simple move would be so attractive, but the flip of my stomach says otherwise.
He turns to walk to his truck, and I take a moment to admire him.
His white T-shirt stretches across his broad shoulders, which must be from all the manual labor he does on the ranch.
And his jeans fit just right over his ass.
I forget that I’m staring until he looks at me from over his shoulder and smirks.
Caught.
Dammit.
I quickly shut the door in an effort to hide my embarrassment, but I doubt it worked.
Why the hell am I so horny, and why is my ex’s dad suddenly the object of all my desires?
I almost touched myself in his bathtub last night.
Thankfully, I had enough sense to stop. I would’ve had to pack up and move if he’d have caught me doing that.
I quickly get dressed and throw my curls into a bun on top of my head. Then I dig into the breakfast burrito. Everything Brooks has made me has been fantastic, and this is no exception. Is there anything the man isn’t good at?
I wish he weren’t so perfect. It’d make it easier to get over this little infatuation.
The morning goes by quickly, probably because I’m attempting to distract myself from the constant headache that won’t go away.
Before I know it, I’ve gone through all of the notes from the night team, answered emails, and prepped check-ins for this afternoon.
Pretty productive considering how I feel.
I’m so in the zone that I startle when a plastic bag is set down in front of me.
I look up to see Brooks smiling at me. My heart skips a beat. Dammit.
“Brought you a sandwich.”
“Seems you’ve got a bad habit of feeding me, Mr. Calloway.”
“I wouldn’t say it’s bad at all.”
Why does he have to say stuff like that? I can’t even try to wipe the goofy smile off my face. He’s certainly not making this any easier for me.
“Ah, Aspen. Good to see you again.” I turn to see Mayor Cunningham walking toward the desk.
I straighten my shoulders a little bit. “Hi, Mayor Cunningham. How are you?”
“Doing well. You still enjoying your time in Blue Haven?” he asks.
I nod. “Very much.”
“Aspen,” Brooks says. “This man is following me. Call security.”
Mayor Cunningham rolls his eyes. “I am not following you.”
“Cameras would say otherwise. Sandwich shop, gas station, now here.”
“We have a scheduled meeting,” Cunningham says, defending himself.
“Likely excuse,” Brooks mumbles as he starts walking to his office.
I laugh and reassure the mayor. “Don’t worry, we don’t actually have security.”
“He’s so dramatic sometimes.”
He stalks off to follow Brooks down the hall. I take out my phone and shoot him a quick text.
Me: Thanks for the sandwich
Brooks: Anytime
“What’s got you smiling like that?”
I jump and look up to see Jazz walking toward me.
“Nothing,” I say quickly, putting my phone in my pocket. “Just excited for lunch.”
“How come you look so good today? I feel like shit,” she whines.
“No idea. Just good luck, I guess. How was the rest of your evening?” I ask, trying to change the subject.
“Oh, you know,” she says with a smile. “A little of this and a little of that.”
“So what you’re saying is Owen served it up well.”
“I would never say that because it’s way too cheesy but basically.”
I laugh. “Good, I’m glad.”
“And… how was yours?”
“Fine. Definitely not as exciting as yours.”
Her shoulders slump in disappointment. “Seriously? He just… took you home?”
“Yes. I don’t exactly know what you think is going to happen between me and my ex’s father. He is not interested, and he is my boss, remember? It would be so inappropriate.”
“I know, but damn. I was really hoping for something. A little slip-up, maybe.”
As much as I want to give her all the details of my night, I know it’s not a good idea.
It would just give her hope that something might actually happen.
We flirted. I checked him out. He checked me out.
That’s it. There’s an invisible line that neither one of us is willing to cross. And I’m fine with that.
“Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you. But hey, at least Dawson got my number. So maybe that will be something.” I don’t really want it to be something, but I feel like it will make Jazz feel better if she knows I’m not sitting around moping.
“Yeah. Dawson’s a good guy, too. I’m surprised he hasn’t already blown up your phone.”
“You’ll be the first one to know as soon as he does.”
“Good! Alright, I gotta get back to cleaning. I’ll come see you later.”
“Ok, have fun.”
She starts to walk away, but then she stops when she sees the sandwich bag Brooks left for me.
“Where’d you get that?”
“Oh, uh, Brooks brought it for me.” Her eyes go wide, and I quickly add, “It doesn’t mean anything.”
“He brought you lunch!” she whisper-shouts.
“So? He knew I was gonna be hungover.”
“He likes you!”
“No, he probably feels bad for me,” I try to explain.
“Men do not bring lunch to women that they don’t like. It’s a fact. He thought of you!”
“Don’t you have rooms to clean?” I ask. I don’t want her to get any sort of skewed view of what is going on between Brooks and me.
But I also don’t want to get my own hopes up.
I can’t ignore the butterflies I get every time he’s near me.
I’m so very obviously attracted to the man.
As much as I don’t want to admit it, I like that he does little things to show me he’s thinking about me, like the coffee this morning, the lasagna dinner, and taking me on a trail ride.
It does feel like… something. And I’m trying very hard to convince myself that it’s all in my head.
Jazz turns to walk away but not before singing, “Aspen and Brooks sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”
My entire face turns red, and I’m glad no one else is here to see it.
I grab my sandwich and sit down at the desk to eat it really quick.
By the time I’m almost finished, Mayor Cunningham and Brooks walk out of the hallway.
“Pleasure doing business with you, Brooks.”
“Glad it’s a pleasure for one of us,” Brooks says back. I secretly love it when he acts all feisty.
“Have a great afternoon, Aspen.” Mayor Cunningham waves to me as he leaves.
“How’s the sandwich?” Brooks asks once it’s just the two of us. “I wasn’t sure what you wanted on it, so I kept it basic.”
“It’s perfect. Thank you. How’d your meeting with Mayor Cunningham go?”
“Oh, you know. Same old, same old. Wants to talk ‘donations’ for the Halloween Festival.”
“Halloween?” I can’t even think about Halloween when it’s August and still a hundred degrees outside during the day.
“It’ll be here soon enough. And he’s gotta put down a deposit on a few things.”
“You can’t say no, can you?”
“I wouldn’t say no even if I could. If I didn’t fund it, then it probably wouldn’t happen.
And people have a lot of big memories connected to the town festivals and events around here.
I remember taking Zach to as many as I could when he was little.
I want the kids these days to be able to experience that fun too. ”
“That’s really sweet of you, Brooks.”
His cheeks turn pink as if he’s embarrassed about being sentimental. He shouldn’t be. I think it’s cute.
“Yeah, well, don’t tell anyone.”
“Your secret is safe with me.”
“You busy later? Thought we could go ridin’ again after work.”
My stupid, hopeful heart starts to beat a little faster. “Yeah, I’d love that.”
“Cool. After we get your car this afternoon, we’ll go to the stables.”
“Thanks, boss.”
He taps the desk once and winks at me before he leaves. Am I making this up in my head, or is he actually flirting with me? I have no idea. What I do know is that I get to go riding again with my super hot boss, which I am very excited about.