Chapter 9
PRETENDING OTHERWISE
“Here’s your key.”
Spencer looked down at the key that had been slid in front of him. Not even a keycard, but an old-fashioned key. “Where’s the other one?”
“Oh,” the woman said. Kayleigh by her nametag. Young and probably a summer job by the looks of it. “You want a second one. It didn’t say that here.”
“The key to the second room,” London said.
“No,” Kayleigh said. “One room. It says it right here. Spencer Jensen and London Westerly. By the way, I just love your name. Did you know Paris Hilton named her daughter London too?”
Spencer heard the sigh next to him. Hell, anyone within twenty feet would have heard it. He didn’t blame her in the least over that silly comment.
He’d had about enough silliness for one damn day.
He wanted a shower and a beer. Maybe a beer in the shower where he could wash off not just the stench of seafood but also the nightmare this day turned out to be.
“That’s great,” she said. “But Spencer is talking about the key to my room. That’s for his.”
“No,” Kayleigh said. “We have here one room, two queen beds.”
Kayleigh turned the monitor around to let him see it. He held back the wince of her sharing information when he could see others’ names and room numbers.
He pulled his phone out. “No. Here is the confirmation of our reservation. Two rooms, one queen bed in each, not one room with two queen beds.”
“Ohhhhh,” Kayleigh said. “Huh. That stinks. But the person who assigns rooms, she’s dyslexic. She does that a lot.”
He held the groan in on her over-sharing. Barely. “That’s not the point,” he said. “We need another room.”
“I’m sorry. There are no other rooms. Just yours.”
London put her hands on the counter. Her stance was as rigid as his, but she had less control showing it. “Not acceptable,” she said firmly. “We have confirmation for two rooms and that is what we should get. If this person assigned the rooms wrong, there should be another room available.”
“Sorry,” Kayleigh said, her sweet voice just grated on his last nerve. Not that he’d let anyone see. “Rooms are assigned weeks in advance. There isn’t anything available.”
“Is there a manager we can speak to?” she asked, her fists clenched.
“Oh, am I not able to provide you with the correct answers?” Kayleigh asked, looking confused. “I don’t want to get in trouble.”
Spencer put his hand on London’s arm and softened his voice. If left to her, she’d have the young employee in tears in a minute.
“You provided us with the correct answer; however, it’s not what we need or paid for. Is there someone else in charge we can speak with?”
“LouAnn is in the back. She’s the night manager. I’ll see if she can help.”
“Thank you. We appreciate it.”
“Don’t say it,” she gritted out through her teeth. “I know. Nothing that girl can do.”
“That’s right. Working yourself up does nothing to help this situation.”
“What are we going to do?”
“Nothing until we get the information.”
She pulled her phone out and was quickly scrolling. He could see her looking for other hotels, but he’d be placing money on them not being able to find anything else.
“Hi, I’m LouAnn. Kayleigh said there is an issue with your reservation?”
“Yes.” He unlocked his phone and moved it over. “We paid for two rooms with one queen bed in each. We got one room with two queen beds.”
“Not again. I’m going to have to have a talk with Britta.”
“I said she has an issue doing that,” Kayleigh said.
“I’m so sorry,” LouAnn said. “I’ll refund you that second room right now.”
“That’s not the issue as much as we need two rooms,” London said.
“I’m afraid I don’t have any other rooms available tonight,” LouAnn said.
“Tomorrow?” he asked. They could get through one night. Or he could. They were both exhausted. It wouldn’t be the end of the world. At least not to him.
LouAnn was typing into the ancient computer, then tapping her fingernails on the counter.
“The software is kind of slow. Hang on.” London’s foot was tapping just as fast as LouAnn’s nails.
“Sorry. We don’t have any rooms available until the end of the summer.
Booked up solid unless there is a cancellation. ”
“What about other hotels in the area? Do you know of any you could call for us?” he asked.
“The closest is almost an hour away,” Kayleigh said, looking at him. He wasn’t surprised to hear that. They were in a small town and had passed little on the drive. He was shocked they could get any rooms here short notice. Correction, one room!
“She’s right,” LouAnn said. “And I’m positive they’ll have no vacancies either, but I can try.”
“Please do,” he said. “Thank you.”
He turned his back to London, staring out the wide windows toward the water. They weren’t right on the waterfront, but the view was decent, calming, even. Not that he could count on having one in his room.
Their room.
Jesus. This couldn’t get any worse.
If there were another room available even an hour away, he’d take it, drive there, check in, then drive back and pick her up. Stupid and totally unnecessary. It was only two nights.
But right now? He’d have done it in a heartbeat.
And judging by the way London was practically vibrating with frustration beside him, she probably wished he would.
Hell, part of him wished it too.
Did he really want to spend this much time with her? Because nothing he’d done today had made her even remotely happy.
Not renting the car fast enough.
Not talking enough on the drive.
Not handling the staff the way she wanted.
He’d tried. He always tried, but it didn’t matter.
The only saving grace was that she knew she’d been prickly as hell all afternoon. It fixed nothing, but at least she wasn’t pretending otherwise. And yeah, he understood. Bob’s leering had set her off the second they walked in.
It’d done the same to him too.
If anyone had looked at his sister like that, he would’ve been in the guy’s face so fast security wouldn’t have had time to blink.
Angel was the only person who could make him lose his shit.
Apparently London was moving up that list fast.
But he’d handled Bob. Calm. Direct. Effective. The point had been made his way, like he always did.
“I’m sorry,” LouAnn said. “They are in the same situation as us. Nothing is available until the end of summer. There are a few more hotels in Bangor I can try.”
“No,” he said, turning to look at her. Out of the question. He wasn’t driving ninety minutes tonight, then again in the morning, then back after work, then back to her the next day to end up back there at the airport Wednesday afternoon to catch their late afternoon flight.
“So we are just going to share the room?” she asked.
“Unless you want to sleep on the beach, that’s what we are going to do. You’ve got eight siblings. It can’t be much different, right?”
Only it was different.
He was attracted to her. Even her prickly personality that got under his skin.
Maybe it was because she showed him a more vulnerable side on the drive down.
That Beau broke her favorite coffee cup that her parents had bought her when they’d gone on a trip to the UK years ago. Paris, Rome, and Siena got one too. Mugs bought right in the city of their names.
Kind of sweet and something his parents would do also.
Or maybe it was how she understood this job was a starting point in his life. One wrong step could change the trajectory of his future career. Hers too.
“Yeah, sure. The same thing,” she said, her frown almost imprinted on her face.
He grabbed the key and walked away to their room. No reason to stand around when nothing was going to change anyway.
They got to the second floor. “Well, we can sit out here and look at the water if we want.”
“With a bottle of wine,” she said. “I’ll be buying that when we go to dinner.”
“Sounds good to me,” he said. “For you. Get two if you need it to get the chip off your shoulder.”
She swiveled around, her gaze ready to light him on fire, making him wonder if he could run fast enough into the ocean to put it out.
“My chip,” she said. “Let’s talk about yours.”
“Me?” he asked, putting his hand to his chest. “I don’t believe I’ve ruffled any feathers today. Matter of fact, I’m the one who smoothed them back out after you ran over them with a street washer.”
She snorted and tossed her bag on the bed closest to the door.
He knew better than to say he’d take that one. You know, being gentlemanly and offering protection.
Best to just keep his mouth shut.
“We got it done today,” she said.
“Hey, if you think that’s successful, good for you. But I’m not your sister. I don’t play this whole opposites thing.”
“Even if we are? Because you played it damn well. If you loosened your tight ass up a little you’d see we do well as a team.”
He almost stepped back from that statement. “Are you complimenting me?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head.
Her hair was waving around the shoulders of her blue summer sweater. She had tan cotton pants on and sneakers on her feet. No reason for them to have dressed up too much when they were going straight to the plant after their flight.
He had jeans and sneakers on himself with a golf shirt. Going in there in a suit was only going to get their backs up even more.
“Didn’t think so. I’m starving, but I need to shower and change.”
“Me too,” she said. “You can go first.”
“I’m being gentlemanly. Why don’t you go? Take your time. Maybe it will improve your mood.”
“Wow. Are you starting to unravel now that there are no witnesses?”
“You’re a witness and that isn’t unraveling, that’s stating a fact,” he said, his voice not rising.
“Fine. I need to get out of these clothes. They are going to stink up the rest of mine and I don’t want that, so I’m leaving them in the dresser. No way I want my bag smelling either.”
“I’m right there with you.”
He watched her go into the bathroom with a change of clothes, grabbed the key to the room and left with his phone.
“Can I help you?” Kayleigh asked.
“Yes. Is there a liquor or wine store close by?”
Kayleigh smiled. “Across the street and two buildings down. They sell beer and wine there. It’s a general store.”
“Good enough,” he said.
He left the building, crossed the street, found the general store and walked in.
He didn’t know the wine she drank, but got a bottle of white and red to cover his bases, grabbed a four pack of craft beer, walked down an aisle and snagged some snacks.
Crunchy and salty like his roommate for the next two days, then a bag of chocolate. Maybe something would help.
When he was waiting in line, he noticed bags hanging on the side. Lined laundry travel bags. Perfect. He grabbed two of them.
He emptied the basket and put everything on the counter, then looked past the cashier. “Can I get two of those glasses?”
Not wine or beer glasses. Just regular drinking glasses, but it’d be better than the plastic cups in the room. At least they had a mini fridge to keep their beverages cold.
When he was back in the room, the bathroom door was still shut, but the shower was off.
Their drinks were in the fridge, their snacks on the side table by the air conditioning unit that was louder than an old car missing a muffler. At least it’d keep the outside noise out later.
The minute the bathroom door opened, he moved past her with his clothes in his hand and tried not to inhale the soft, clean scent of the woman he was going to be forced to spend so much time with.