Chapter 4
Parker
She was staring at me. Utterly and completely staring at me. It was like I could feel someone watching me, and when I looked up, there was Juliet, eyes drinking me in. There’s no way she can deny it. Not with how her cheeks turned pink and she looked away as soon as my eyes met hers.
Nope. She was staring at me, which is absolutely the worst news for my poor teenage crush that I can’t even call a teenage crush now since I’m an adult and this is a full-blown adult crush.
And she was staring at me. It means—I think—she likes what she sees.
“What are you so smug about?” Blair asks me without looking up from her phone.
For the past two hours of the VIP meet-and-greet, she’s been locked in on her phone, saying she was managing some work stuff.
It’s ironic, since she’s the one who told me I had to come with her this week to get away from work. But she can’t seem to look away.
“How do you know I’m smug?” I ask.
“I can feel it oozing off of you.”
“Whatever,” I grunt. “Not smug.” Okay, so I’m a little bit smug. My older sister’s best friend was staring at me.
A person—okay, I know it’s Jules, but maybe referring to her simply as a person will help keep my feelings at bay—approaches us. “I’m starving,” she says. I jump up with a little too much enthusiasm and Blair eyes me suspiciously.
“What?” I ask, trying to play it off. “I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast. Let’s go find some lunch.”
Lunch turns out to be overpriced sandwiches at one of the resort’s restaurants. The sandwiches aren’t bad, but they are not worth the fifteen dollars each we had to pay for them.
The sky is overcast as we make our way back to the cabin.
“Later tonight, we can go to the hot chocolate bar,” Blair says. “At least all of the activities the resort offers are free. Too bad their food is pricey.”
“I can cover you two if you want me to,” Jules says. “I mean, it’s my fault that you’re here since I practically dragged you. I wouldn’t be a very good host if I didn’t pay for things like food.”
Blair links her arm through one of Jules’s. I wish it were me, but that would be weird, so I stuff my hands into my pockets. “Nope. Not gonna happen. I make good money as a lawyer, and Parker is bringing in the big bucks as a university professor.”
I cough out a laugh. “Pretty sure I’m not making the big bucks. But I’m good,” I add when I see concern flit across Juliet’s face. “I can cover my own very expensive meals for six days.”
“I can pay for you two,” Jules says again.
“Let’s go chill in the cabin for a bit,” Blair says, changing the subject. “You look like you could use some quiet time.”
“Quiet time” ends up being the two of them playing card games with the cards Blair brought in the main room, while I settle onto my somewhat uncomfortable twin bed and try to start my first book.
But Juliet’s laugh seems to fill the cabin as she and Blair catch up, and I’m thrown back to high school when they’d be laughing while they did homework in the room next to mine. It’s always been hard for me to focus when Juliet is around.
Around four in the afternoon, I’m just about to head out and ask if anyone wants to go explore since I’m getting stir crazy, when Juliet appears in my doorway.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the sounds coming from the bathroom are not good,” she says with a grimace.
I haven’t heard anything, simply because I’ve been hyper-focused on trying to read my book, though I’ve only made it through one chapter in several hours. It’s not working.
“Oh?”
The sound of my sister throwing up enters the space from across the hall. “Oh.”
Juliet nods. “I don’t know if it’s food poisoning or a virus or something. One second she was fine, and the next she was greenish and ran to the bathroom.”
I frown. Neither option is good. I had the same sandwich that Blair got at lunch, and I feel fine. But if it’s a virus…
“I think we should go stock up on some microwavable soup, crackers, and anything else that helps with nausea,” Juliet says, putting a finger up with each item she mentions. “And maybe some vitamin C so we don’t catch whatever she has.”
“I noticed a little grocery store a few minutes away, more into town, if you want to go now?” I ask, easing off the bed. I set my book on top of the dresser.
Another sound of retching hits our ears, and Juliet pales. “I think now would be good. I hate the sound of throwing up.”
I nod. “Let’s go then.”
We grab our jackets, and I tell Blair through the closed bathroom door where we’re headed. She offers a weak groan in reply and then we’re off.
My body hums with nervous energy as Juliet climbs into the passenger seat of my car. What I wouldn’t give to call my high school buddy, Max, right now and tell him that Juliet Morgan is in my car. She’s silent for the first few minutes as I hum along to the holiday music playing on the radio.
“If she really does have a virus, I can’t stay in that cabin all day,” she says, breaking the silence.
Before I can think better of it, I find myself suggesting, “We can do all the activities the resort has to offer. There are a bunch, aren’t there? We can get the list and try to do them all.”
Her eyes widen, clearly surprised at my idea. “You’d do that with me? I mean, I know I don’t want to be in the cabin if she’s sick, but I know you might not want to be around all those people. I might not want to be around all those people.”
I’d walk to the moon for her if she asked, but I don’t say that.
“Sure, why not? I couldn’t focus on reading with the two of you laughing and giggling anyway.
It’ll be fun. A different kind of adventure.
” Do I want to spend my holiday vacation around a ton of people?
Not particularly. Will I do it so I can spend time around Jules? Absolutely.
“Sorry, I didn’t realize we were being so loud.”
“The cabin walls, despite seeming to be made out of wood, aren’t very soundproof, and my door was open.”
“But you don’t mind doing things?”
“Nah, it’ll be fun.” Plus, it means I get to spend time with her, which is more than I could have hoped for or dreamt of.
While we’ve spent a lot of time together over the years, it’s never been one-on-one—Blair is always with us.
This will be the first time that Jules and I do something just the two of us.
And I’d be lying if I said that didn’t thrill me.