Chapter 4
Aisling
Present day
It turns out that the reason why there was no signage on our drive toward the lake? That would be because I was driving on the wrong road – as in, I wasn’t even driving on a road.
So when Fallon and I decide to take our first trip into town, we have to drive over to the guys’ side of the lake before we can make our way onto the main road.
Not wanting to do a big haul during our first hour of arriving at Larch Peak, we decide to grab renovation essentials from the hardware store and ice slushies from the diner before heading back toward our summer hideaway.
“Shoot,” I say quickly, the second that we pull through into the golden clearing.
Fallon gives me an inquisitive expression, quietly sipping on her slushie.
“I forgot to grab pyjamas,” I say quietly, glancing toward the burly hockey players on our right. Then I pull up to an abrupt stop, because all of the men are now shirtless.
My eyes, the damn traitors, are immediately searching for a certain set of large lumberjack shoulders but, to both my relief and irritation, Tanner is nowhere to be seen.
I realise that his car has also disappeared.
A sudden all-consuming wave of disappointment crashes over me.
Did he leave? I think to myself. Did he really come to Larch Peak not expecting me to be vacationing on the same lake, realise that I was going to be his ‘neighbour’, and then immediately decide to haul ass and spend his summer some place else?
I know that it’s for the best but all I can think is we have unfinished business .
Hunter, Fallon’s boyfriend, grins as he jogs our way, scooping Fallon up from the car before her feet even hit the dirt. She lets him give her a little kiss on the cheek and then he sets her back down, taking her hand in his as we meet at the front of my brother’s truck.
“Can we have a tour of your cabins?” Fallon asks him with a cheruby smile, looking innocently up at Hunter before giving me a mischievous little wink.
I blink at her, instantly suspicious.
She mouths the words bucket list , and then I’m laughing as I suddenly understand.
My eyes flash back over to the guys who are currently setting long logs around an unlit campfire, feeling a warm sensation in my belly when I realise that they’re all already watching me.
Item number one on my summer bucket list? Kiss a hot guy.
And it looks like there are four hot single hockey players who are more than up for helping me strike that off my list.
Tristan – a tall, tan, six-foot-something defence-man – drops the make-shift bench that he was holding and offers me a wave, his expression both eager and tentative, because he’s testing the waters.
He’s actually super cute, and I have to bite back my smile. I give him a pinkie wave and laugh when he almost trips over his own feet jogging over to us.
Tristan and I met a few months ago at Hunter’s twenty-second birthday party – and although he’s super hot we’re definitely just friends.
Friends who like to flirt. A lot.
But I think it’s good to have someone who you can harmlessly flirt with. I know he was crazy into me but he also knows where I stand, so that means that we can continue our little flirtationship without worrying that it’ll go beyond that.
I try to ignore the fact that I can feel Hunter’s eyes burning into the side of my face, telepathically telling me to quit flirting with anyone who isn’t Tanner. Like there’s some invisible string that has already tied me to his best friend.
I snip right through that string.
“Tour please,” I say to Hunter with an innocent smile of my own, as if my parents don’t literally own these cabins.
He watches me for a beat before giving me a nod, his hand tightening firmly around Fallon’s.
Tristan reaches us in about four seconds flat. His hair and jeans are sparkling with water droplets, as if he went for an early morning dip.
I look back at the other guys, checking to see if they’re equally as wet, and I’m puzzled when I realise that Tristan is the only one. Even Hunter is untouched by the water, his skin tan and toasty, glowing in the early morning sunshine.
“Hey,” Tristan beams, grinning as he falls into step beside us. “I can’t believe that you’re here. Seriously, what are the chances?”
“Yes, what are the chances?” I say pointedly, before shooting Hunter a murder glare.
He tips his chin at me in a cocky you’re welcome .
Handsome jerk.
I look back to Tristan.
“Fallon and I are having a girls’ summer, just the two of us. We have, like, a bucket list of all the crazy shit we wanna do,” I tell him, that excited feeling from earlier already surging back into my chest. Tristan laughs with me, his eyes bright as they rake me up and down.
“What’s on your bucket list?” he asks, chest heaving as if he already knows the answer.
From the way that I’m fluttering my lashes at him, I guess that he already does.
“You’ll have to wait and see,” I whisper, smiling when he drops his eyes, laughing huskily.
I know on the surface he seems adorable but the real reason why we can only be friends is because I know that he’s a player.
And the only reason why players like him turn into endearing cinnamon rolls with girls like me is because they seem to think that I’m a player too. And, like any hierarchy, there can only be one master player sitting at the top of the pyramid – and because I don’t take any crap, they all think that’s me.
The problem with that? It isn’t me. I don’t want to be the heartless bad girl but, for some reason, it’s the role that I always slip into.
So, for now, like always, I guess that I’m just going to have to run with it.
“This is where Tanner and I are stayin’,” Hunter says, shoving the front door of his cabin open with the back of his large tan shoulder. He walks Fallon over to one of the two beds and drops his voice to a murmur. “And this is going to be our bed,” he says quietly to her.
My eyes flicker over to Tanner’s bed and I notice that there’s a small khaki carry-on set at the foot of it.
Hope instantly blooms in my chest.
He hasn’t left , I realise, heat rising in my cheeks. Wherever Tanner’s gone, he’s coming back .
Secretly thrilled, I look back to the bed and imagine Tanner’s large muscular body lying on those soft floral sheets. The thought is so endearing that I almost wish I could see it for myself.
Tristan, the human embodiment of golden sunshine, rests against the small wooden kitchen table and grins, “This is also exactly what our cabin looks like.”
I cross my arms over my chest and smile up at him as he lazily kicks out his legs, setting a boot on either side of my sandals.
“Who are you staying with?” I ask.
“Austin. I could get him to fuck off though if you wanted me to,” he adds, his boots caging me slightly tighter.
I partially notice the sound of crunching gravel outside followed by a repetitive grunt-and-thud that lasts for a couple of minutes. Then again, I’m also distracted by Tristan’s eight-pack right now so I don’t fully register what those sounds could possibly mean.
“You know what,” I say, flashing an excited look over to Fallon, letting her know that I’m having a spontaneous moment, “Fallon and I have, like, a tonne of work to do on the lake house, but seeing as this is our first night maybe we should do something fun to settle in?”
Fallon gives me a super encouraging best friend squeal and nod. Her two-hundred-and-twenty pound boyfriend gives me a subtle do not do this shake of his head.
I turn to Tristan with my best captain-of-the-cheer-team smile.
“I want to tick ‘visit a dive bar’ off of my bucket list. We’re going out tonight,” I tell him, beaming.
Just as Tristan shoves himself to his feet, grinning down at me so adoringly that I actually think he’s about to kiss me right now, heavy footsteps sound from the doorway and the room becomes instantly silent.
A hot shiver runs up my spine as I feel a large presence step up behind me.
“You’re doing what now?” Tanner rumbles quietly.
I give myself a moment to steady my breathing before turning around to face him.
And I see that Tanner, like Tristan, is also dripping wet.
Dark hair, broad chest, and denim jeans all soaked, as if he decided to dip in the lake fully clothed.
My subconscious does a little bit of testosterone arithmetic about why only two of the hockey guys here would be soaked to the bone.
My gaze trails down to his knuckles and I notice that they’re a little red and swollen.
Tristan’s chest brushes against my back as I stare unblinkingly at Tanner’s fist.
Oh, my God. Did Tanner and Tristan… have a fight?
What on earth would they have been fighting over?
Or better yet: who on earth would they have been fighting over?
Not to be delusional, but I have a tiny inclination about why these two gorgeous hockey players might have had a casual morning brawl.
My eyes flash up to Tanner’s and he immediately knows that I know.
“O-kaaaay,” I breathe out on a shaky exhale, side-stepping from between their chests and freeing myself from the testoster-zone.
Tanner stares down at me and I swallow hard. This boy has kiss me for your bucket list written all over him.
And apparently he’s not done with me yet.
“You’re going to a dive bar?” he asks huskily. “And what the hell’s this about a bucket list?”
I begin speed-walking at a fast clip out of the suddenly very small cabin.
“A bucket list is a list of things you do before you kick the bucket,” I say obstinately, squeaking a little when I see that he’s thundering right behind me. “Dive bars, swimming in the lake, and then, when Fallon and I finish rocking the hell out of the reno” – I straighten my spine and swish my hair – “we’re going to treat ourselves by going mudding.”
“You’re gonna what?” Tanner bellows, and I race to the other side of his G-wagon, a little ooh leaving my lips when I see that his passenger door is wide open.
Snooping time.
I expect to see something incriminating like panties around the stick-shift but what I find instead makes me stumble back a step.
Right into the wet hot chest of the car’s surly owner.
I spin around wide-eyed to face him and he reaches around me to shove the door shut. He looks a little bit embarrassed and a whole lot pissed off.
“An axe ?” I wheeze breathlessly, leaning against his car as he towers over me. “What’re you gonna do, murder me?”
He watches me long and hard before finally stepping backwards, eyes flicking to my sparkly toes and then back up to meet my gaze again.
“That’s not even funny,” he rumbles, “I would never hurt you, Aisling.”
I breathe out an incredulous laugh and his gaze instantly sharpens.
“It was never like that. That’s not who I am. Not with you.”
“Right.”
“Aisling–”
I’m about to push right past his big sexy body when I suddenly notice what he had been looking at, red cheeked and self-conscious, only moments ago.
A dry twig crunches under my sandal and I pause my footing, surprised and confused.
Tanner meets my eyes, his irises burning desperately, and then he curses roughly before turning around and trudging away from me.
I wait until he’s out of sight and then I step closer to the small tidy pile, quickly done but still heart-wrenchingly neat.
The axe suddenly makes sense and I wince, feeling like a jerk.
He cut all of the lumber that I need for the empty fireplace.