Chapter 4
Lorelai
I stood off to the side while Knox went into the washroom, thankful he had already secured us a luggage cart. I pulled my phone from my bag and turned it on. I had gotten a little sleep on the last half of the flight, and I was mortified when he woke me up to find out I’d drooled on his shoulder.
While I waited for him, I figured this was the perfect time to send a text to Aurora. Ignoring the slew of texts that were waiting for me from Hugo, I opened a new message and began typing.
Lorelai: Landed okay. You awake?
I stood waiting for a moment and then saw the three dots bouncing up and down.
Aurora: Yes.
Lorelai: Am I interrupting anything ;)
Aurora: You’d like that wouldn’t you…sadly no, Dylan went out for a run with Phil
Lorelai: I need to tell you something
Aurora: Okay, oh, before I forget, Hugo is looking for you.
Lorelai: That’s nice. He can go to hell.
Aurora: Okay then….little angry are we
Lorelai: You don’t know the half of it. Anyway.
Aurora: Okay, so what do you need to tell me
Lorelai: I can’t face him alone. So, promise me this goes nowhere else, but Knox and I are fake dating. Just for the week, just because of Hugo.
There was nothing, no dots bouncing, nothing. I imagined Aurora passing out from shock at that last message. What if she had hit her head? What if she was bleeding all over the floor? What kind of friend was I. As worry crept up inside of me, that was when I saw the dots bouncing around.
Aurora: How many drinks did or have you had? How many did I have? I could have sworn you just told me you and Knox are fake dating.
Lorelai: …yep…I did…
Aurora: Cut the crap.
Lorelai: Just please don’t blow our cover, just go with it.
Aurora: I’ll have to let Dylan know. I’m sure he’ll roll with laughter when he finds out.
Lorelai: Let him know whatever you want. Tell him not to blow our cover either or he’ll have to deal with the wrath that is Lorelai.
Aurora: Okay, okay, I promise, we won’t blow your cover, but you are going to have to fill me in on how this happened.
Lorelai: Let’s just say it was because of Hugo and his incessant texting and Knox and his want/need to control most things.
Aurora: Uh, what happened on that plane? I’m concerned now.
Lorelai: An asshole texting me, a few too many drinks and something I’ll probably regret for the rest of my life. Got to go, he’s coming. See you soon.
I shoved my cell phone back into my pocket just as Knox exited the men’s room and walked over to me.
“Need to go? I can watch our stuff now.”
“I’m good.”
“It’s a half hour drive to the resort.”
“I know, I’m good. Let’s go,” I said, pushing the cart toward the exit.
I stepped out the front doors of the airport and walked over to the first cab I saw. I pulled my bags off the cart and shoved them into the open trunk of the taxi and went to climb in without even so much as a goodbye to Knox, but he stopped me when I tried to close the door.
“What do you think you are doing?” I questioned, looking up at him.
“Uh, taking a cab to the resort.” He smiled, climbing in.
“Not this cab!”
“Yes, this cab! People are going to know we flew in together, and if this dating charade is actually going to work, we need to make it believable. We need to at least pretend to be happy around one another, especially in public.”
“What?” I frowned. He was crazy. There was no way in hell we’d be able to do this. “You aren’t serious? You can’t be!”
“Yes, Lorelai, I’m being serious. What would people have thought if you and Hugo went into separate cabs when you were dating? I told you, if this is going to work, we need to make it believable to the outside world.”
I shook my head and slid over, feeling completely defeated. What sort of nightmare did I get myself into?
Knox climbed in and shifted his large body into the backseat beside me. I’d never realized just how big he was until now, his body right up against mine. If the scent of his cologne hadn’t driven me crazy enough on the flight, it certainly was going to now as the heat from his body enveloped me.
There once was a time not all that long ago I’d have killed to be this close to the man, but not now. I’m not the same naive girl I once was.
Knox gave the address to the Emerald Treasure Resort and Spa to the cab driver, and the next thing I knew, we’d pulled away from the curb.
Thankfully, it was a quick thirty-minute ride. The moment I saw the resort, my spirits lifted. As the cab came to a slow roll, I touched the doorhandle, ready to push the door open, when the driver came to a full stop.
“Wait!” Knox said, putting his large hand on my upper thigh.
“What? Why?” I cried, feeling irritated as I glanced down at his hand and shoved it off my lap.
“Would you stop!” he gritted. “I can see your brother. Who knows who else is in the lobby. So, just wait before you go jumping out the door,” he said, opening the door. He didn’t hesitate. He turned back toward the cab and held out his hand for me to take.
He was an excellent actor, probably a better actor than a hockey player, and even though I thought this was stupid, I played along.
Knox pulled out his wallet and paid the cab driver while I stood off to the side with our luggage as my brother approached us.
“It’s about time the two of you arrived. You guys catch a ride together?” he questioned, furrowing his brow.
I was about to divulge our secret to my brother because letting him think this charade was true made my stomach turn, but Knox beat me to it.
“We did. I didn’t want to say anything earlier, but this was why I changed my flight.”
I looked up at Knox in confusion.
“Man, we’ve gone out on a few dates together, and we both talked about it and changed our flight so we could be alone without being asked a million questions about us on the flight. We’ve tried hard to keep this hush-hush and knew this time would come where our secret would be out.”
Phil looked over at me. Even though he wore a soft smile, I could see the questions in his eyes.
“Surprise,” I said, smiling, as Knox pulled me into him and gave me a sideways hug.
Phil looked at me again. “That makes perfect sense. I will say I’m a little shocked seeing the two of you together, though.”
“I’m sure you are,” I said as Knox let go of me and grabbed his bags and headed off toward the front desk with Phil.
I grabbed my bags and followed behind, and that was when I spotted Hugo sitting at the lobby bar. I tried to ignore him, pretending I hadn’t seen him, but when I glanced back over, I realized he hadn’t taken his eyes off me, even though his new girl was sitting right beside him, her arm draped across his lap.
I ripped my eyes away, but when I glanced back over, I noticed he looked angry. While Phil took my bags and moved them off to the side with Knox’s bags, anger filled me. That was when I grabbed Knox’s arm.
“What is it?” he questioned, looking at me.
“Stop me, or else I’m going to walk over and punch the ass in the face,” I muttered.
Without reaction or even looking up, Knox pulled me against him and stepped in behind me. He wrapped his arms around me, his hands resting on the flat of my stomach, his thumb softly rubbing the bare skin of my tummy. “Ready to check in, gorgeous?” he whispered as he placed a kiss on the side of my neck.
My body flooded with a rush of heat and all I could do was nod as we started walking in the direction Knox was leading me in.
“Just so you know, I saw him. Don’t worry, I got you,” he whispered into my ear as we approached the front desk.
Knox pulled out a chair and guided me to sit down at the front desk while we waited for the clerk to get off the phone.
“You know, the more I think about it, it doesn’t surprise me that the two of you got together,” Phil said to Knox as if I weren’t even standing there. “I always figured the two of you would finally come to your senses and date at some point.”
“Same here.” Knox chuckled while I frowned. “Just took us a little bit to realize our senses.”
Why would he say that? Knox had put an end to the idea of us way back when, and I’d hated him ever since. I also hated the fact that we were going to be lying to everyone here, and when we got back home, we’d have to come up with some stupid reason why things didn’t work. Our friends and my brother would be sad for us. All this craziness seemed like way too much work for what it was worth. I could handle Hugo; we didn’t need to hurt the people we cared about because of him.
“I was basically just waiting for someone to pass the puck in my direction so I could score,” Knox replied.
Phil chuckled. “I won’t lie. I am a little relieved you two are together. It helps solve a huge issue, actually,” Phil said, looking over at me.
“What huge issue?” I questioned, standing up.
“Funny thing, actually.” My brother gave me his crooked smile, which meant whatever he was going to say meant he wasn’t sure how I would take it.
“What’s a funny thing?” I asked again, concern growing inside me.
He gave a nervous laugh and leaned in closer to the two of us.
“There was a mix-up and the hotel shorted us a room on the block that we reserved. I guess something happened with the reservations, and they miscounted the final numbers. I figured this would be a totally awkward conversation, but I guess we have the awkward all figured out.”
I thought for a moment. I was tired but almost sure my brother was trying to tell us we were going to have to share a room together. Then I shook that idea out of my head and smiled before I got angry for no reason.
“What do you mean?” I questioned.
“I mean, they are short a room, but it totally works out. You guys won’t have any issues sharing a room together. Here is the key to your suite,” he said, grinning and handing a key to Knox. “I got them yesterday.”
Knox looked down at the two keys placed in his hand and glanced at me. I was trying not to freak out as I glanced at Knox first, and then looked at Phil.
“You are joking, right?” I questioned.
Phil frowned. “No. I’m not. There isn’t anything else the hotel can do, they are full. Besides, you two went to all the trouble of taking a separate flight so you could be alone. Surely, you don’t want to be apart the entire vacation. Now you don’t need to run across the resort in the middle of the night to be together at night. You’ll both be comfortable in a shared room.”
I felt my cheeks heat as I clenched my teeth. I wanted to die.
“No need to be embarrassed, sis,” Phil said, punching my arm.
I tried to smile as Knox put his arm around my waist.
“She’s just not used to us being public yet is all. I was going to try and get us a room together when we got here anyway. We’d talked about it on the plane, but it looks like that problem has been solved. I love it when things work out in my favor. Isn’t that right, sweetie?”
I felt like I was going to be sick, but I clenched my teeth and smiled before nodding. It had been solved alright, and I’d been right, this wedding would be the death of me. Now I just needed to figure out how to get out of sharing the room.
“Okay, well, you guys are probably exhausted. I’ll let the bellhop know to take your luggage up to room 5302, and I guess I will see the two of you down in the bar in a couple of hours. Take your time, you two lovebirds. I’m sure you’ll want to take a nap.” He winked.
Knox chuckled and pressed a kiss to my cheek, which I immediately wanted to wipe off.
“See you in a couple of hours,” Knox said to Phil as he slipped his hand into mine and we took off toward our room.
* * *
I stood out on the balcony of our room, looking down at the resort as Knox dealt with the bellhop. I felt sick to my stomach. There was no way I’d be able to share a room with him, I thought to myself as I turned and looked toward the small sofa in our room.
I’d taken a moment to check and see if there was a pullout bed there while Knox had checked the bathroom out. It wasn’t a pullout bed, and when Knox returned to the room that was when I noticed the bathroom didn’t even have a door. It was just an extension of the room. I stared down at the crowd of people around the pool, my brain about to explode.
“Well, our bags are here. You can start unpacking. Figured you could have the right side of the closet,” he said, coming out onto the balcony and sitting down.
“Where are you going to sleep?” I questioned, turning and looking over at him. That had been on my mind since I realized the small couch wasn’t a pullout.
A confused look came over his face. “Uh, the bed.”
“Oh no. No way,” I gritted.
“What do you mean, no way?”
“You can’t honestly expect us to share a bed?”
“Why not?”
“What do you mean, why not? We aren’t actually dating, you know. Behind the closed door of this room, we are strictly Knox and Lorelai, not fake couple Knox and Lorelai,” I said, crossing my arms in front of me.
Knox chuckled. “Afraid you’ll fall for me?”
I rolled my eyes. “There is no way in hell that would ever happen, so you can drop your ego down a few notches.”
“Ouch!” he said, covering his heart with his hand.
“So, where are you sleeping?” I asked again, this time looking toward the small couch.
He glanced over his shoulder in the direction I was looking and then looked back at me. “Uh, I’m 6’2”, I won’t fit on that!”
“Not my problem!” I shrugged.
He stood up and started moving toward me. I backed up to the door and felt my body hit the glass as he approached me. He placed his hand on the door above my head and looked me directly in the eyes. “I think you’ve forgotten who is helping who here?” he said. “The least you could do is let me share the bed. After all, I’m the one with the bad hip, remember, and you were the one who told me I needed to take care of it or else your treatment wouldn’t work. I’d say sleeping on a four-foot couch, all cramped up, isn’t what you meant by taking care of it.”
He was so close to my face I could feel him breathing as his eyes stared into mine. I hated it when he threw my words back at me.
“Fine! You can have the left side of the bed. I sleep on the right. I don’t want to hear it either.”
Knox shook his head and tsked. “Bad hip.” He shrugged.
“No, the left side or the couch. Take your pick.”
“So bossy!”
I squinted my eyes at him, feeling irritated.
“Better be careful, princess, bossiness turns me on.” He winked as he stepped back and leaned on the railing.
I huffed as I stared at him, and then turned around and headed into the room. If I thought I’d have difficulty before making it through this trip, now it would be a miracle if I made it.