11. Ronan
“ W hat is that smell?” Connor steps through the front door.
“You.” We just finished playing Frisbee tag with his league and we’re drenched with sweat.
“No, man. That’s food.” He inhales deeply. “And it smells delicious!”
He’s right. Someone’s been baking. A rack of muffins sits in the middle of the island, still warm from the oven. A note next to it reads, “Eat better.”
“Has hell frozen over?” Connor asks, confusion on his face.
“They must be laced with arsenic.” I glance down the hall. Ryan’s door is closed but the light peeks through the crack. She would have had to come home from class and baked them right away.
“That or Ex-Lax.”
“She has to share a bathroom with me, though, remember.”
“Fair point. Definitely arsenic, then.” We stare at the muffins for another five seconds.
“Fuck it. I’ve led a good life.” Connor takes one and shoves it into his mouth. A deep frown furrows his brow as he moans and gives the thumbs-up.
We each polish off three before we part ways. I head straight for the bathroom, intent on taking that long, hot shower I didn’t get this morning.
Through the crack at the bottom of Ryan’s door, I spot toes.
I’ve just stepped out of the Wolf employee restroom, my pants barely done up, when Connor grabs my arm and tugs me down the hall. “Come on.”
“Fuck. I get it! You’re hungry! Relax already.” I jerk my arm from his grip. He can be so annoying sometimes.
“Baker just found out that his mother has cancer.”
“That sucks. And?” Not to be insensitive, but I don’t know the guy.
“He’s bailing on Alaska. So you’re taking his spot.”
“ What ?”
“Just keep paying rent on your room here and it’s yours when we come home in the fall.”
“But—”
“Dude, trust me. This is gonna be a summer you’ll never forget. I heard this is a big gamble that Wolf is taking, opening a seasonal hotel up there. No one thinks he can pull it off. Do you know what that means?”
“No?”
Connor pauses his mad dash down the hall to meet my gaze. “It means he’s going to bring up the hottest fucking chicks you’ve ever seen in your life to work there. He’s all about image. Hottest chicks in cabins, all summer long. And us .”
I chuckle. Every decision Connor makes seems to be driven by one thing and one thing only—his dick. “Okay, you’re beginning to sell this idea to me. But I doubt they’re going to let me and Baker swap. I just got here. Life doesn’t work like that.”
Connor grins. “Wanna bet?”
Ryan is at the counter when we step through the door, helping one of the housekeeping staff, a polite smile painted on. It’s not exactly genuine, but it’s nice to see all the same. I was beginning to think her lips couldn’t curve upward.
Her attention flickers to us, and rests on me for a long moment before shifting back to the girl in front of her.
“Jean! Hey, Jean! Where are you?” Connor whisper-hisses, leaning over the counter as if she might be hiding behind it.
Ryan shoots her brother a dirty look but doesn’t say anything as her coworker appears from around the cubicle partition.
“Oh, thank God you’re here. We need your help, stat .” He’s borderline frantic.
Jean tucks her hair behind her ear and bats her eyelashes. “With what?”
“Baker’s not going to Alaska. Ronan’s going to take his place.”
“Oh? Okay?” Her onyx eyes flicker between the two of us.
“So … we need you to make that happen.”
Surprise lifts her brows. “I don’t have anything to do with Alaska recruitment. I don’t even know who?—”
“You must know someone. Come on! You’re the outdoor staff coordinator! You’re our one contact in here, and Alaska is taking two of us from you. You must know who to talk to.”
“I don’t, really …?” Her small, round face scrunches up with apology.
“Belinda Cartwright,” Ryan cuts in, pulled into the conversation despite the housekeeper in front of her. “She’s the general manager for Alaska and she’s in Miami right now, down in one of the conference rooms. Try the Pacific.”
Connor slaps the counter. “Beautiful. Thanks, sis.”
“Of course. Anything for Ronan.” She smiles sweetly at me. It’s fake, but it’s pretty, all the same.
“Wow, you really want me out, don’t you?” She’d get an entire condo to herself for the summer.
“So, you’re not completely clueless after all.” She adjusts her glasses and continues to stare at me. Her expression is unreadable.
“Come on.” Connor tugs my arm. “Let’s get you locked in.”
“Why didn’t you apply during the recruitment process?”
It’s a struggle not to gape at the soft mounds peeking out of Belinda Cartwright’s silky white blouse.
The general manager of Wolf Alaska—a gorgeous blond who made my blood race just watching her stroll toward us in her red stilettos—has managed to make her suit look both professional and slutty at the same time.
“I was in a different place in my life.”
She folds her arms over her chest, a knowing smirk touching her lips. “And now?”
“Now I’d really like the opportunity to go to Alaska.” Am I even saying these words? What the hell do I know about Alaska? Nothing except that it’s far away and cold.
“It’s an easy swap,” Connor adds.
Her sharp eyes size him up behind a pair of designer black-rimmed glasses. “Yes, that’s already been established. And you started in Miami when?”
“Last Friday,” I admit reluctantly.
“Last Friday,” she echoes. “You’d be leaving your team short-staffed. ”
“They would have been short-staffed, anyway, if Baker had left.”
Her painted lips twist in thought, and I find myself staring at them, wondering what they’d feel like wrapped around my?—
“What’s your name again?”
“Ronan Lyle.”
She unlocks her phone and begins typing out an e-mail. “Well, Ronan Lyle, assuming you have a positive work record?—”
“I do.” At least in Indianapolis, I did. I have a feeling being friends with Connor might earn me some strikes on my good name.
“Well then, I don’t see there being a problem with this.”
“Seriously?” Connor’s face lights up as if she announced that he’s won a million-dollar cash prize.
“I don’t normally get involved at this level of hiring. But since you two hunted me down …”
I can’t help but note the absence of a wedding ring or the way she keeps sizing us up. “So, will HR give me the okay or?—”
“ I’m giving you the okay. The job is yours. I’ll handle HR. You’ll get an information package by the end of the day and then you can book your flight. You know it won’t be cheap, this close to travel dates, right?”
“I’ll make it work.” For what they’re paying up there and the money I’ll be saving not going to clubs, it will all even out.
“You are amazing , Belinda.” Connor gives her his thousand-watt smile.
All he gets back is another long, intimidating gaze. “Shouldn’t you two be working right now?”
“Lunch break.”
“Hmm. Well, I doubt you’re supposed to be roaming the conference area in your soiled boots. Okay, then. I’m sure I’ll see you in Alaska at some point. ”
Connor and I watch her stalk away, her heels clicking loudly and hips swaying suggestively with each step, like she knows we’re standing here, gawking at her.
“Did she just make your dick hard?” Connor whispers.
“Like a flag pole. How the hell is she a general manager?”
“You kidding?” Connor snorts. “Henry Wolf handpicked her.”
“Of course.” Rich bastard. I’ve never met the guy, but I’ve heard enough. The one time he came to the Wolf in Indianapolis, the staff wouldn’t shut up about how attractive he was. I’m sure Belinda will be taking care of more than his hotel for him. Still, she must be good at what she does.
“So, we’re golden. See?” He slaps my arm. “Told you I’d make this happen.”
“Yeah.” I guess I’m going to Alaska. Like, next weekend. “What the fuck, man.” How is this my life now?
“It’ll be worth it, I promise.” Connor pats his stomach. “Now I need food before I pass out.”