Chapter 10
TEN
I’d been camping before, of course. My mother was big on excursions that allowed her to dance under a full moon in a flowy dress.
There was always alcohol involved in these excursions, for the adults.
The kids were put in separate tents, and we played until it got dark.
Then our mothers had us put on glow necklaces so they could count heads in the dark, allowing us to keep playing far into the evening.
We would hang out by the fire, cook s’mores, and get sugared up to the point where we were practically feral.
Then we ran around until we burned the sugar off and passed out until morning.
I was a big fan of breakfast around the fire, bleary-eyed adults putting eggs and hash browns onto our plates. Then we were sent off to play again.
Nothing was better than a good camping trip. This campground was different, however.
“Fancy,” I mused, looking around at the cabins spread out along the water’s edge.
The lake was small, but everything came together for a pretty scene—picnic tables near the lake, volleyball nets, a playground for kids, and a variety of tables spread out everywhere in the shade, each making for a nice spot to write.
If I got a chance to write, that is. I was still uncertain how that would all play out.
“It is nice,” Bree agreed. We hadn’t driven together, but she and Brody had pulled in right as I was parking, so we’d come together to check out the campground before grabbing our items. Just in case there were issues.
It didn’t look like there would be though.
“I’m not one for nature, but this isn’t bad. ”
I grinned at her. “You don’t like nature?”
“Not even a little.” She involuntarily shuddered. “You know those post-apoc shows where people are stuck indoors for years or even the entirety of their lives? I would thrive in that environment.”
“You would not,” Hayley said on a snort, walking up behind us. “You and Brody walk several miles a day, and you write outside all the time.”
“That’s a controlled environment, though,” Bree argued.
“You’ve just been watching too much Silo.” Hayley clucked her tongue. “I know darned well that it’s Brody’s turn to choose your binging show.”
“We might know a little bit too much about one another,” Bree complained.
I laughed—I really did like them—then exhaled heavily. “I like being outside. When I was living in Boston, there were parks and stuff, but it was different than this. Savannah is one of those walkable cities where you always want to be outside.”
“Speak for yourself,” Bree said disdainfully. “I never want to walk. I’m inherently lazy. I make myself walk so I can eat as many doughnuts as I want.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Hayley waved her hand, clearly not believing her friend. “I happen to love the outdoors,” she said to me.
“That’s because you grew up on a farm, and your best friend was a cow,” Bree shot back.
Hayley glared at her. “A goat. Willy was a goat.”
“Willy the goat?” I asked before I realized I was speaking out loud.
Hayley pressed her lips together. “It was very clever for a four-year-old.”
“Of course it was.” Bree lightly patted Hayley’s shoulder. “We’re just teasing you.” Her wide-eyed stare behind Hayley’s shoulder made me giggle.
The sound died on my lips when I turned and saw Preston heading in our direction. He’d just stepped out of what looked to be some sort of official administration building.
“Speaking of tiny willies,” Bree muttered.
I cast her a sidelong look. “I don’t believe I ever mentioned that to you.”
She shrugged. “He’s got that vibe.”
“Normally, I think it’s gauche to talk about penis size, but she’s not wrong,” Hayley said. “That guy is clearly overcompensating for something.”
“No comment,” I replied primly.
Bree snorted. “I’ll get the truth out of you before this is all said and done,” she replied. “Trust me.” She pasted a fake smile on her face as Preston closed the distance. “Peter, it’s so good to see you again.” She lurched forward to shake his hand.
Peter? Why would she call him Peter? The joke hit me hard and fast. Peter, another name for willy. Also, the mere act of forgetting Preston’s name would make him edgy.
As if to prove I was right, he grimaced. “It’s Preston,” he corrected. “Not Peter.”
“Oh.” Bree feigned confusion. “I swear you said Peter. Sorry.”
She wasn’t sorry. Not even a little. Preston knew that. How could he miss it? He did not comment, however.
“Just you three so far?” he asked, glancing around.
“Brody and Nathan are in the parking lot,” Bree replied. “They’re flexing to see who can carry more bags. It’s a dude thing.” She explained it as if Preston wouldn’t know something like that because he was not, in fact, a dude.
“I see.” The way Preston looked at Bree reminded me of how little boys look at bugs on sidewalks.
He wanted to crush her. “Well, how about I show you guys the cabins you’ll be staying in, huh?
Then we can come back and help them with the bags, even though it’s a dude thing, and I’m obviously not a dude. ”
Bree had struck a nerve. To show she wasn’t afraid of him, she unleashed the brightest smile in her repertoire. “Sounds good.”
Preston swept out his left arm. “This way, ladies.”
I exchanged an eye roll with Bree behind his back. She looked far more gleeful—in an evil way, of course—than I was feeling. Still, I kept my chin level and refused to let Preston know he was irritating me. That would be a win in his book, and I was in no mood to give him a win.
“So, this is a single,” he said as we arrived at one of the smaller cabins. “You’re single, correct?” he asked Hayley.
My stomach began to squirm at the word. Single. What was he getting at here?
“I am,” Hayley confirmed.
“Well, we had a bit of a situation with two of the cabins being bigger than the others.” Preston darted his eyes to me, and all I could see was the calculation going on in his head. He was about to do something evil.
“A situation?” Bree asked when I couldn’t muster the courage to ask the obvious question.
“Well, the two honeymoon cabins—that’s what they were designed for—are bigger than the others.
There would have been a fight if we’d started tossing single authors at them.
” Preston smiled, but the expression could hardly be considered friendly.
No, he was about to drop a bomb on all of us.
Mainly me, but this was clearly geared to get us all riled up.
“What did you do?” I asked before I could stop myself.
Bree grabbed my wrist and squeezed tightly to shut me up.
“I have no idea what you mean.” Preston was the picture of innocence.
“If anything, I did you a favor.” He kept walking.
“These are the honeymoon cabins.” He pointed toward two cabins, which were twice as big as the smaller ones.
That wasn’t saying much—they were still small—but they were definitely bigger than the ones he’d deemed singles.
“Now, we don’t have any married couples coming to the retreat, but we do have two engaged couples,” he drawled.
Oh no. I hadn’t worked this part out in my head. I’d just assumed we would all have our own cabins and that all Nathan and I would have to do would be pretend one of us was sleeping in the other’s space. No big deal. But Preston had arranged it so we were actually sharing a cabin.
Crap on toast. “I…”
Before I could think through what I was going to say, an arm slung around my shoulders. I felt Nathan’s warm presence as he moved in at my side.
When I looked up at him, my lower lip trembled with fear. What were we going to do?
He didn’t look worried.
“Hey, Preston.” He was projecting an aura of boredom, like he was just over this entire thing. “I didn’t realize you were going to be out here today.”
“Oh, I’m here for the duration,” Preston replied. He shot a challenging look at Nathan. “I’m staying in the executive suite in the administration building.”
Executive suite? At a campground? He was making that up. Not that it mattered. He just had to be more special than everybody else. I used to see it as self-assuredness. Now I knew what it really was. He was insecure—about everything.
“You don’t have a problem staying in one of the honeymoon suites, do you?” Preston prodded. He looked like he was about to crow like a rooster. I hated that he was about to win.
“Of course not,” Nathan replied, not missing a beat. “I happen to love a good honeymoon.” He gave me a ridiculous wink right out of a bad soap opera then made a purring sound that would have made me gag under different circumstances. “Don’t you, Bellarino?”
That nickname needed to go. It was irritating… and weird… and something that might be said to a child. I was not a child. Still, I smiled because it was the only way to ruin Preston’s day. “Of course. The only thing that would make it better would be a heart-shaped bathtub in there.”
“Right?” Nathan was good at going with the flow. He nodded. “Remember that heart-shaped bathtub we had when we got the honeymoon suite at that hotel in Atlanta before our flight out to meet with our agents?”
Okay, now he was getting into dangerous territory. What if Preston asked too many questions about that trip? Immediately, I realized that wasn’t going to happen. Preston didn’t actually care about anything in my life. He just wanted to beat Nathan. And me, really. This was about winning, not love.
“What a passion pit, right?” I fake-laughed at the memory. “We got bubbles everywhere.”
“I had no idea that the jets would actually create that many bubbles. Why would they provide bubble bath if it was going to create a mess like that, right?” He gave Preston a “what are you going to do” head bob.
“We were naked and sliding everywhere in the bathroom, trying to escape. We kept slapping together, bubbles flying everywhere… along with everything else, if you know what I mean.”
My cheeks were on fire, and I had to look down. Why had he taken it so far off the rails?