Chapter One #3
She stared at him.
“All right. Let’s get going,” he said.
She scrambled back down the porch and got back into her little car. Turned the key in the ignition, and it made a terrible noise as it thundered to life.
He looked up at the porch, at Rowdy and Dakota for a moment, before he got in his truck and led the way to the cabin.
He decided to put her in one of the glass cabins.
Highly reflective, and no one could see in them, since they reflected the scenery around them, but from the inside, you could see everything.
And at night, you were surrounded by the stars, though to get undressed it was advised to shut the curtains since, as magical as the cabins were, they lit up like lanterns in the darkness and showed everything inside.
It was an ambitious thing they were attempting to do. A place that combined a luxury retreat and a rugged outdoor experience. But they were sure there was a demand for both, and actually, being so remote, they almost had to do both.
He parked in front of the cabin, and she parked beside him. When she got out, she was blinking owlishly at the structure. “This is like something out of a cartoon I watched when I was a kid. They stayed in these bubbles, and then they climbed inside puff balls and bounced away.”
“Oh,” he said.
She looked at him and smiled. “I really like it.”
“I’m glad.”
He went to the front door and entered the code. He said it out loud while he entered it. “You want me to write it down for you?”
“I’ll remember it.”
“I’ll write it down for you.”
“You really don’t have to.”
Well. He was going to. She couldn’t stop him. He knew that they had a notebook in the drawer in the little kitchen area.
He walked through the clean, well-organized living area and opened up the kitchen drawer. Then he took out a pad and a pen.
“It’s funny that you were very concerned that I knew you weren’t going to bypass the dead bolt, but also you didn’t listen to me when I said you didn’t need to write it down.”
He looked up at her. “I don’t want you to have to text me because you forgot the code. I don’t want you to show up at my house in the middle of the night because you forgot the code.”
“But I’m not going to forget it. I have an exceptionally good memory for numbers. I have an exceptionally good memory for a lot of things. I’m just like that.”
“Well, what if you get very distracted because you’re in the middle of the worst bone wars anyone’s ever seen since the Victorian era?”
“The Gilded Age,” she said.
“I don’t really know the difference.”
“Well, they happened in different years.” She tilted her head, and seemed to be taking in the measure of him. He couldn’t tell what the measure she took was. “I don’t know your name. Your partners are Rowdy and Dakota, but you didn’t introduce yourself.”
He sighed and put the pen down. “Jax Noble.”
“I like that name,” she said. She didn’t expand on it.
“Great. I’m glad. Do you need any…food? We are about thirty-five minutes out of town, but there is food in town. It’s just that most things close kind of early. Not the bar, obviously—”
“I have rations with me.”
“Rations?”
“Yeah. MREs mostly. They’re the most practical thing to bring out with you. Trust me.”
“Oh. I do.”
“Good. Anyway, I think I’ll probably just use those. That was kind of the plan. Mainly, I’m just going to do my digging. I’ll stay out of your way.”
“All right. We’re not really a full-service place yet.”
“I looked you up when I was going to ask if I could dig on the land. I saw that this place is going to open soon. And you’re pretty booked up.”
“Yes,” he said, tension building in the center of his chest. They were booked up, which was a good thing in theory. They were going to start making their money back, and quickly. Provided they could pull everything off without a hitch, and they didn’t get terrible reviews.
This was ridiculous. He had been a high-performing athlete for years. He’d gotten the shit punched out of him on TV—or mainly, had punched the shit out of other people on TV—and he was worried about this?
Yeah. It was just that it was kind of an attempt at a normal life. And if it didn’t go off without a hitch, he wasn’t exactly sure what he was supposed to be doing.
“I’ll leave you to it then, Ernestine. I wrote my number down on the pad. If you need anything.”
“Well. At least you gave me some new information too.”
He shook his head. “I guess I did.”
“Thank you,” she said. “Genuinely. For the hospitality and for letting me stay. You could’ve let me stay out in the tent—I would’ve been okay. But I do prefer this.”
“To a tent in the middle of the dust? I would hope so. When you leave your Yelp review, make sure you say that.”
“That is better than a tent in the dirt?”
“Yeah,” he said.
He turned to leave her. And he felt like, for the first time, it seemed like things were actually going his way. At least, Dr. Ernestine Martin would be busy and wouldn’t cause him any trouble.
If anything, she was a boon.
And a lifetime full of setbacks, he would take the boon.