Chapter Fifteen
On Friday afternoon, Savannah was more than ready to go home at the end of her shift. She went into the back to grab her bag from her locker and was tempted to sneak out the back door. She felt awful, but she didn’t want to run into Taryn on her way out.
Taryn had said that she should take a week or two to think about whether she’d be interested in the assistant manager position, but every time she saw her, Savannah felt bad. It was a great opportunity, and she knew it — and Taryn had to be wondering why she wasn’t jumping all over it.
Still, facing Taryn wasn’t as bad as the thought of facing Rick. And so, rather than sneak out the back, she made her way out through the restaurant.
Taryn wasn’t around, and no one else saw her leave, and she let out a sigh of relief as she hurried down the hallway back toward the main reception area of the lodge.
She’d been parking out front all week because she didn’t want to take the risk of being alone in the dark parking lot at the end of her dinner shift again.
But when she’d arrived earlier, she’d forgotten, and now she was going to have to walk all the way around back.
At least it was still light, and there were plenty of people around.
“Hey, Savannah, how are you doing?”
She smiled when she saw Logan’s fiancée, Roxy, waving at her from the reception desk.
“Hi, Roxy. I’m doing great, thanks. How are you?”
Roxy checked her watch. “I’m good, but I’ll be even better when I get out of here. I haven’t worked the front desk in a while, and with it being Friday, it’s been busy. I’m ready to go home. What about you? Are you just on your break; do you have to come back again later?”
“Not tonight. I’m happy to report that I have Friday night off.” She smiled as she added, “And Saturday, too.”
“Wow, two in a row,” said Roxy. “Good for you. And I have to say, it was so good to see you and Jake out together last Saturday night. I’ve been keeping my fingers crossed for you.
I thought it was going to happen months ago.
” She frowned. “But then you left for the city. Why…” She shook her head.
“Oh, you know what? Never mind. I shouldn’t be so damn nosy, should I?
All I’ll say is that I’m glad you came back, and I hope things work out with you and Jake. He seems like a really good guy.”
“He is,” Savannah said with a smile. She really liked Roxy and wouldn’t have minded sharing more with her, but not right now. All she wanted to do was get home — not only because she was tired, but also because she was seeing Jake later.
They both turned when Angel, who ran the lodge, came hurrying toward them. “Sorry, Roxy,” she said. “Maren called to say she’s going to be a few minutes late. I can hold the fort till she arrives. You get going. It’s been a long week for you.”
Roxy grinned at her. “You know what? I’m not going to argue. I know you’re going to be here for hours anyway, and I really do want to go home.” She grabbed her bag from under the desk and came around it to join Savannah. “I’d say I’ll walk out with you, but I’m parked around back.”
“That works,” said Savannah. “So am I.”
Roxy slipped her arm through hers with a laugh. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get out of here.”
She grinned at Angel. “I’ll talk to you later. Give me a call when you finish, okay?”
“I will,” said Angel. “It’s good to see you, Savannah,” she called. “You should come with us next time we have dinner over here.”
Roxy squeezed her arm. “You should. It’d be great. A bunch of us girls come over to have dinner at the café when we can work it out. It’s a good time. But I’ll warn you now, the first time you come, they’ll all want to interrogate you about Jake.”
Savannah nodded happily. That didn’t put her off — not at all.
She’d never been in a position where she had a bunch of girlfriends who wanted her to come and hang out, or at least not ones who were around here in town.
She glanced at Roxy. Even that wasn’t true, though.
She’d known her, Angel, and the others for a while, but not well.
It didn’t matter, though. However things used to be, what mattered was that now she was in a position where she had a group of girls she liked and trusted — and a boyfriend they were curious about.
Not that it mattered that they were curious, only that he was such a good guy that they wanted to know about him rather than warn her off.
As they walked around to the parking lot, Roxy chattered away about Logan and what he was up to at work. She showed Savannah her nails, claiming that Tiffany was an absolute genius — not just an artist. And looking at Roxy’s nails, Savannah had to agree.
Just before they reached her car, she looked down at her own nails and smiled. She couldn’t wear them too long at work in the restaurant. And besides, they’d only break off when she got to work at the garage with Jake again.
“This is me,” she told Roxy when they reached her car.
Roxy gave her a puzzled look. “I thought you drove that red sports car?”
“I do,” said Savannah with a laugh, “but not back and forth around the lake every day. It’s too thirsty to do that.”
“Makes sense to me,” said Roxy. “I’ll see you soon. Give me a call, okay?”
“I will.” Savannah opened the door and slid behind the wheel, giving a little shudder as she pressed the button to lock all the doors.
Roxy had kept her distracted while they walked out here – she hadn’t been on the lookout for Rick.
But remembering the way he’d thumped on her window as she drove away from him last weekend — how lucky she’d been to manage to get into her car and lock the door before he got to her — made her shudder.
She was going to have to do something about him.
He wasn’t going to leave her alone. She knew that.
And she really did intend to tell Jake. She hadn’t deliberately hidden it from him all week; it was just that they’d both been busy with work.
She hadn’t even seen him since Monday. They texted and talked on the phone when they could, but even though she’d promised she’d tell him, it hadn’t felt right to bring it up.
She pulled out of the parking lot and waved at Roxy in her rearview mirror.
She didn’t want to let talk — or even thoughts — of Rick spoil this evening.
Not when she finally got to hang out with Jake again.
But she knew she was kicking too many cans too far down the road, and she was going to have to face things soon.
She needed to make a decision and let Taryn know if she wanted to become assistant manager. And she needed to tell Jake about Rick.
But all she really wanted to do was enjoy an evening with him — and forget the rest of the world for a while.
Was that too much to ask?
~ ~ ~
Jake wandered around the house, making sure that everything looked okay for when Savannah got here.
It did, of course. It always did. It was just habit for him to keep his living space orderly.
Any mess in the house was usually down to Josh, and he wasn’t a slob or anything — it was just that sometimes when he was working, he left a trail behind him — coffee mugs and folders, nothing more than that.
And he picked up after himself whenever he came back to the real world from being lost in his work.
Tonight, though, Jake didn’t even have to worry about Josh’s things lying around. He’d tidied up before he left earlier. He’d gone to San Francisco for the weekend to meet up with some of his old friends from Atlanta who were visiting.
Jake went to his bedroom and pushed the door open, feeling guilty for even wanting to check on it.
It was too soon to be thinking about taking Savannah in there.
Well… he thought about it all the time. But even though they were getting closer every time they saw each other, he felt like he needed to take his time before taking their relationship to a more physical level.
Of course he wanted her. And she wanted him, too.
That wasn’t ego on his part — it was just recognition of the way she reacted to him.
The chemistry was there, no doubt about it.
With girls he'd been with in the past, he'd been eager to have sex as soon as possible.
When he was younger, sex had been the main point and purpose of most of his relationships.
But Savannah was different; the way he felt about her was different. She needed to trust him first. By the same token, he needed her to trust him. It’d break his heart if they went there too soon and it scared her off.
He was all in, but he was still a little bit raw from the way she’d left town so suddenly.
He’d thought that they were getting to know each other as friends first — and that getting together was inevitable.
So when she told him she was moving away, he kind of felt like she’d pulled the rug out from under him.
He understood now. His jaw clenched tight remembering what she’d told him about this Rick Harlow guy. He wished he’d known. He would have seen the asshole off, and then she would never have had to move to the city.
He opened the bedroom door wider and stepped inside, wondering what she’d make of it when she finally came in here.
He let out a short laugh as he straightened the duvet and picked up his pillow to sniff it.
He kept telling himself that it was too soon, that it was best to take their time and let her dictate the pace — but that hadn’t stopped him from running all his bedding through the washer and dryer as soon as he got home from work.
He set the pillow back down with a rueful smile. It always felt good to sleep in clean sheets — even if he would be sleeping in them alone after he took Savannah home later.