Chapter 4 #2
Brooks promised he would, then hung up, folding his arms over the steering wheel with a sigh. Why could nothing be easy? Maybe it was good that he was up here in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps the news wouldn’t have spread this far.
Wanting nothing more than to hole up, he grabbed his bag and went to the check-in table that had been set up at the edge of the parking lot. The low-level excitement of the two women attending it disabused him of the notion that he’d be flying entirely under the radar.
“We have your cabin ready, Mr. Hennessy.” The blonde offered him a key and a map. “It’s circled just there. I hope you and your… cabinmate enjoy yourselves.”
Cabinmate?
He hadn’t realized he’d be sharing his quarters. But this was meant to be a sort of summer camp kind of deal. Maybe that was part of the experience. Fine. It would be something else to distract him from thinking about Aspen.
With a short nod, he muttered, “Thanks.”
Shouldering his bag, he checked out the directions and followed the path laid out on the page.
The camp was expansive and beautiful. The trail he followed led him around the curve of Lake Waawaatesi, which reflected the blue bowl of the sky like a mirror.
Just the sight of that calm water had some of the knots unraveling.
Maybe Grady and Colter were right. Maybe time out here in the woods would do him some good.
He found his cabin and stepped inside. The sound of the shower told him his roommate had already arrived. Then he noticed the bed. The one bed.
Well, that was a problem. Had they thought he was here actually with someone? Hell, he’d assumed his roommate would be a dude. Then again, maybe it was, and they were making a whole different set of assumptions.
Or maybe it was all a simple mistake.
It appeared the king-size bed was actually two twins pushed together.
He’d just contact the front desk—Brooks assumed there was such a thing in the main lodge—and request new bedding.
Just as he started to turn, the bathroom door opened and a cloud of steam spilled out.
With it came a very not male, very naked-but-for-a-towel form.
“Um—”
At the sound of his voice, she screamed, clutching at the towel and pressing back against the wall in terror for three long seconds before her mouth dropped open. “What are you doing here?”
Brooks picked his own jaw up off the floor because during those three seconds, recognition had struck. “What are you doing here? Did you follow me?”
Aspen’s face was utterly blank. “How could I have followed you? I left first thing this morning to catch the camp bus. Did you follow me?”
“No. My buddies booked me a session here to get away from shit at home.”
They stood staring at each other in awkward silence for several long moments before Brooks finally blurted, “Why didn’t you say goodbye?”
She dropped her gaze, a blush spreading from her cheeks down her creamy throat and lower to the chest he could still remember the taste of. “I’ve never done that before.”
Brooks jerked his focus determinedly back to her face. “Ghosted somebody?”
Her head snapped up, eyes flashing. “I didn’t ghost you.
I left a note. I meant I’ve never had a one-night stand before.
I didn’t know the protocol, and I had to catch the bus.
” The brief flash of temper faded, and her eyes softened.
“I truly am sorry. If it makes you feel any better, I’ve been kicking myself all day for not talking to you before I left. ”
To end things face to face, or because she wished they hadn’t ended at all? If luck was on his side, he might just get the chance to find out. The desolation he’d felt since he’d woken to find her gone lifted at the prospect.
Mollified by the idea that she regretted walking away, Brooks tried to focus on their current situation. “Okay, so we both separately had travel plans to Camp Firefly Falls. How did you end up in my cabin?”
Aspen scooped a hand through her wet hair, nearly dislodging the towel in the process. “The camp people told me there was some confusion with my cabin and that I had been moved from my original one. I don’t have any idea why. It must be some kind of administrative mix-up.”
No. It was a lot more deliberate than that. Suddenly, the wink-wink, nudge-nudge of his exchange with the check-in staff made sense.
“I might know why.”
“I’m all ears.”
“Because we’re engaged.”
Aspen laughed. “I’m sorry, what?”
Brooks pulled out his phone and did a quick Google search for his name, then handed over the resulting social media explosion, stepping back so he didn’t give in to the overwhelming temptation to touch her again.
With every page of results and comments, her eyes got bigger and bigger. By the time she lifted her gaze to his, her eyes were jade saucers. “You’re famous?”
At the gobsmacked look on her face, he nearly laughed. “I mean, kinda. I play hockey.”
Her expression of utter bafflement was both adorable and confirmation that she really, really hadn’t known who he was. Damn if he didn’t like that. When was the last time anyone had been interested in him purely for him? Not since he’d taken the ice by storm nearly a decade before.
“I’m sorry for how this has bled over on you. Or will. They haven’t figured out who you are. Yet. But they will. Because clearly the camp staff figured it out, and they’re trying to help us out.”
Her mouth opened and closed a few times. “Well, obviously that’s not what I expected when I faked being your fiancée at the hotel bar.”
Abruptly seeming to register her state of undress, she clutched the towel closer. “I should get dressed so we can sort out the cabin arrangements and what to do.”
“Right, of course. But maybe…” Brooks trailed off, his mind going a hundred miles per hour.
“Maybe what?”
If Fate had delivered Aspen into his lap a second time, that had to mean something, right? His mom had been all about Fate and signs. She’d have been having kittens of excitement over this. He could practically hear her at his shoulder telling him not to waste this opportunity.
“Well, I have a proposal.”