Chapter 12 Fraser
TWELVE
FRASER
I’m in shock for a moment. Then I start to laugh. Shit. Who is this girl?
Summer claps a hand to her mouth. “Ohmygod!” she says. “I’m sorry, my brain disconnects from my mouth when I’m, er…” She trails off.
“When you’re what?” I prompt, trying not to smile.
She wriggles uncomfortably in my grip, and I’m suddenly very aware of her soft breasts pressing up against my chest. “Just. You know.”
She’s adorable. “I’m afraid I don’t,” I tell her. “Sorry. You gotta finish that sentence for me.” I resettle her in my grip, closing my hand around her pillowy thigh. Her plush lips part. “Your brain disconnects from your mouth when you’re…”
She looks like she wants to die. I shouldn’t be enjoying this as much as I am. “When I’m…er, you know…attracted. To someone,” she grits out. “My filter disappears.”
It feels a bit like there’s a sunbeam in my chest. I like this girl a lot.
I gasp dramatically. “Me? A pretty lass like you’s got a soft spot for little ol’ me?”
She groans, pushing at my chest. “Stop. And stop calling me that.”
I hold her steady. “I will never stop calling you that,” I vow. “Now, let me think. A beautiful girl just asked me to kiss her. I’m all aflutter. Gotta stop blushing and get my head back on straight.”
“It’s just…” She squirms. “You keep giving me kissy eyes. And I’m only here for a few days. And, like, we could just flirt that whole time and not do anything, or—”
“Or we could do something,” I finish for her. “That what you’re thinking, London?”
“Um.” She flushes even more. “Yes?”
More sunbeams. I really like this girl.
I set Summer’s feet down gently in the grass. Her breathing picks up as I step closer and back her up against the tree. “Thank you,” I tell her.
Her eyes are huge as I cup her cheek. “F-for what?”
I lean in, dipping my face into the softness of her neck. “Noticing my kissy eyes,” I mumble into her creamy skin. I graze my lips against her throat and breathe in her sweet scent. “You smell like a dessert,” I growl. “I want to eat you. How do you smell so good?”
“I-I have a very extensive perfume collection.”
I smile. ’Course she does. “Oh aye?” I pick up her hand and run my nose along the inside of her wrist. “You put it here too?”
She shivers as I kiss her palm. “D-do you know where mouths go?”
“I’ll find it eventually,” I promise, kissing up her wrist.
She melts against me. “Fraser, kiss me properly—”
The radio clipped to my waistband buzzes to life. Alec’s voice comes through in a fizz of static. “Fraser. Are you with Summer?”
Summer stiffens. I consider just ignoring him, but the radio crackles again. “Fraser,” Alec repeats. “Come in.” He sounds annoyed.
“You should get that,” Summer whispers.
I sigh, bringing the radio to my mouth. “Aye, I’m with her. We’re in the orchard.”
“Bring her to the main gate. I need to talk to her. Now. Out.” The radio’s static dies.
Summer looks worried. “He sounds angry. Did I do something?”
“No idea.” I fix the hem of her rumpled dress and offer her my hand. “Only one way to find out, I guess.”
As we approach the front entrance of the farm, it’s immediately obvious what the issue is. The biggest van I’ve seen in my life is parked across the entryway. The inside looks to be loaded with pallets of cardboard boxes. Cameron is working with a couple of our farmhands to bring them out.
Alec is standing by the gate, arguing with the driver. “We have a vital delivery that needs to be made,” he’s saying. “You’re blocking the way. You need to move.”
The driver shrugs. “Look, mate, I don’t know what to tell you. I just need this to be signed for.”
“Problem?” I call as we trudge over to them.
Alec looks at us, ice in his eyes. “Delivery for you,” he tells Summer.
Summer looks confused. “What? I didn’t order anything.”
The driver brightens. “You’re Summer Faye?” He shoves an iPad at her. “Sign here, please.”
Summer stares down at the tablet. “But…what is it?”
Right on cue, Cameron gets the first palette of boxes off the van and dumps it at our feet.
Alec produces a pen knife from his pocket. “May I?” he asks Summer, reaching for the box on top of the pile.
“Er. Sure?”
He scores the tape securing the lid, opens the box, and pushes aside the bubble wrap. We all lean in to see what’s inside.
“Oh my God,” Summer whispers.
I reach over and pick out the item on top. It’s a hot-pink box with a picture of a vibrator on the front. Ribbed for her pleasure is emblazoned across the lid.
“‘Seventy different modes,’” the driver reads. “It’s, er…always good to have options.”
“Jesus,” I say, trying not to laugh. “You like to have fun, don’t you, London?”
Summer just stares, frozen in horror. I stir through the rest of the box. It’s full to the brim with different toys. Beads. Wands. Clamps. Plugs.
I can’t hold it in anymore. I laugh so hard my eyes water.
“Summer,” Alec says slowly. “Why did you order a van full of sex toys to my farm?”
Her eyes widen. “I didn’t, I swear! Oh God. Lulu must have used the address I gave her to forward my PR. I didn’t realise…” She trails off again, her face white.
“PR?” Alec asks.
Summer looks like an animal caught in a trap. “Brands send me products sometimes,” she says quietly. “For me to…to promote. They’re not all, like, adult toys, I swear!”
“You said you were a travel blogger,” Alec says softly. “You said you were just starting out.”
“Okay, so, um. That was kind of lie. I’m an influencer.” She watches helplessly as Cameron opens another box. This one is full of lingerie. I look at the mass of pink, lilac, and white lace and feel myself getting hard. Shit. She wears all of this?
“An influencer,” Alec repeats slowly. I can practically hear the cogs turning in his head.
“Christ,” I say. “You must be big. You seriously get all this for free?”
She nods, face red as a tomato.
The driver clears his throat. “So I’m already really behind schedule,” he hints, holding out the iPad. Summer scribbles her signature onto it. “Great. I’ll see about getting the rest of those pallets off.” He heads back to the van, and Summer wrings her hands.
“God,” she starts. “I’m so sorry you guys had to deal with this—”
“Deal with this?” Alec repeats, incredulous.
“I have a delivery of feed due that’s been delayed almost an hour.
This van has scared half the paddocked sheep to death.
Cameron had to come away from his scheduled work to help manoeuvre it here.
We have God-knows-how-many boxes that we don’t have storage for. This will impact the entire day.”
“Easy, man,” I tell him. “Calm down.”
Summer pales. “I’m so sorry.”
“I don’t want you to apologise,” Alec snaps. “I want you to start telling us the truth. What are you doing here?”
“I’m an influencer,” Summer mumbles. “I was paid to spend a week in that lochside spa resort about half an hour away. Do you know it? But…But when I arrived they’d cancelled the booking, and I had nowhere to stay, so I went on Airbnb and booked in for the night, and I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you who I am, it’s because I’m sort of cancelled at the moment, and it’s super embarrassing! ” She stops for air.
We all stare at her.
“I’m so sorry. I can help clean all this up—” She goes to pick up a box. As soon as she lifts it, the bottom falls out, and a pile of toys showers across our driveway. A packet of anal beads rolls across the ground and hits the toe of Alec’s boot.
Summer’s eyes squeeze shut. “Oh my God,” she whispers. “Just let me die.”
“Please just…get out of the way,” Alec says stiffly, his voice stony. “Go back to the cabin so we can clear this up.”
Summer nods, backing away. “Um. Yes. Okay. Sorry again! Crap. Sorry.” She turns and scampers back towards the cabin.
I survey the mess on the ground. “Christ. She’s a right wee tornado, isn’t she?” I bend to pick up a butt plug. “I reckon you’re being too hard on her. She didn’t do it on purpose.”
“You said influencers are coming up here,” Alec says. “Flooding the place with tourists. That’s why the council wants our land. That’s her? She’s the kind of person you were talking about?”
“Well, aye,” I say. “But you can’t exactly blame her for the local council moving mad.”
Alec’s jaw tightens. “Look her up,” he orders.
“What?”
“You have social media,” he says. “Look her up. Summer Faye.”
“Okay.” I hook my phone out and search her name on Picturegram. Her account pops up immediately.
She has almost five million followers. I whistle. “Oh, damn. She’s famous.”
“What?” Alec looks over my shoulder as I scroll through her feed.
And…Hell. The pictures are all gorgeous. I flick through ones of her posing in tiny little outfits. Skintight dresses, miniskirts, bikinis…
“What does ‘cancelled’ mean?” Cameron asks impatiently, leaning against the fence. “She’s a person. You can’t cancel a person.”
“It’s when the internet decides you’re an absolute bawbag and you shouldn’t be followed anymore,” I explain.
He squints. “Summer? What could Summer have done?”
I don’t really get it either. Summer seems sweet as anything to me. I switch to Google and type her name in. A barrage of articles from pop news sites immediately floods the screen.
“Watch This Influencer Melt Down Over a Broken Lipstick”
“The Story Behind the ‘It’s Limited Edition’ Girl Meme”
“The Summer Faye Lipstick Scandal”
“Oh damn, yeah. She’s going viral all right.” I tap on one of the articles, and a video pops up. The three of us watch as onscreen, a very drunk Summer cries her heart out on a bathroom floor.
My heart twists. “Aw. Bless her. Her favourite lipstick broke. Look how upset she is.”
Alec shushes me, laser focused on the phone. We all wait to see what she does next.
There’s a few more seconds of crying, then the video ends, and we all stand in silence.
“Is that it?” Cameron asks eventually. “I see that fifty times over whenever we drive through the city on a Friday night.”
I frown as I scroll through the comments.
This is genuinely the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever seen.
Women: why has there never been a female president!! Also women when their makeup breaks:
The world is falling to pieces, and this is what’s going viral? Shallow girls with nothing to add to society??
Jesus. Why is everyone being so rude? Who hasn’t gotten drunk and had a wee wobble? Hell, back when I was studying in London, I had plenty of low drunken moments. If someone had recorded that shit and put it on the internet for millions of people to see…I don’t know what would’ve happened to me.
“Christ,” I say. “She’s getting cyberbullied by a million people right now. No wonder she wants to hide up here. I’m going to check on her.” I need to give that poor girl a hug.
“No,” Alec says. He’s staring down at the boxes, his expression frozen.
“What?”
“She can’t stay here,” he says slowly.
“What?”
“She lied to us. She can find somewhere else to stay. I’ll get a hand truck to clear up this mess.” He turns to head back to the house.
“Arse,” Cameron mutters under his breath.
I grab Alec’s arm. “Mate. C’mon.”
He shakes me off. “No. It’s storm season. We have more than enough on our plates. Summer will have to look after herself. She’s a grown woman.”
“You let me stay,” I point out. “When my life was going to shit.”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
A muscle tics in his jaw. “I let you stay because you belong here. She doesn’t.” He turns to go. “We’ll store these in the equipment shed for now. She can arrange to have them couriered home.”
I step in front of him. “Alec. Please. Let’s help her. It’s just a week.” I turn to Cameron, who’s watching us both, face blank. “You think she should stay, right?”
He nods, a silent jerk of the head.
“She needs help, mate,” I beseech. “Since when do you not care about that? I swear, you’re turning into your father.”
Alec’s entire body freezes up.
I’m not surprised. It’s a low blow. I should probably apologise, but I don’t. I just watch his face.
He wants to let her stay. I know he does. He’s a good man with a soft heart. He’s just…gone cold in the last few years. If he’s genuinely refusing to help someone in need because he’s worried about his schedule, I’ve lost my friend completely.
“She can stay,” he says eventually, his voice almost robotic. “But you can check on her later. We’re running behind.”
I grit my teeth. “Alec—”
“We need to move these boxes. Now, please.”
“Whatever you say, boss,” I mutter for the satisfaction of watching him flinch. Then I pick up the box of undies and head back for the farmhouse.