Fake Love (For Now) by Penny Wylder (great novels .txt) 📗

told me as a kid that I’d end up as the owner of a holiday destination, I would have laughed in his face. But it suits me. I’m the one that plans the excursions. Activities Director, that’s me. Internally, I shake my head at the stupid fucking title Leo and Asher made me take.

For a while I didn’t really have to worry about any of the business shit. All I did was split the hikes with Leo and make sure that everyone had a good time. But as Blue Mountain expanded, I’ve had to do more admin work, and the restlessness of that is constantly under my skin.

Whenever I have the chance now, I slip into the woods on my own and just…go. Now that Leo and Asher have partners, I’m lonely. Of course I’m happy for my friends. It’s just—I love Blue Mountain, and nothing is going to make me give up on this place and this dream. I’m just going to have to get used to the way things are now, and hope that I can stand the changing current.

We used to have a kind of Three Musketeers thing going on, but now that they have Rose and Diana, it’s different. So the only place where I don’t feel the crushing weight of everything that’s changing is in the open woods. And talking to Erin right now.

“How often are you using us as an excuse?”

She snorts. “Whenever I possibly can. Practically every weekend. I’m amazed that they haven’t caught on because I’m supposedly doing all this outdoorsy stuff, but I still get winded walking up the stairs.”

“I highly doubt that. You were barely winded on that hike today.”

Erin glances up at me. “I didn’t think you even knew I was there.”

“A beautiful woman hiking beside me? Of course I knew.”

Her cheeks tinge pink in the dim light. I like that. It makes me wonder what else I can do to make her cheeks turn pink. And then red.

She clears her throat. “But yeah, whenever they need a shift covered, I volunteer.”

“Sounds strenuous.”

“Maybe.” She just shrugs. “But I love it. I have to do it.”

Something about the way that she says she has to snags on the edges of my mind. There’s a determination there that I can’t name. “You sure you’re not actually working too hard?”

The way her eyes shatter sends a shock through my chest, and she looks away. “Not hard enough.”

The words are soft. So soft and completely laced with emotion. The pain in those words makes me want to pull her close and wrap her in my arms. To make the pain go away.

All at once she pushes off the wall and walks out of the barn, head down so that I can’t see her face. She’s walking in the direction of the fire pit, but she shouldn’t go there. Not like this. That group—her parents—are too rowdy and drunk for whatever just came over her.

It’s not my business. It’s not. But I can’t stop myself from reaching out and catching her by the arm. There’s absolutely nothing in me that’s going to let her walk away right now.

Erin looks at my hand on her arm, then up at me, and her eyes are glassy with built up emotion. Fuck. I swallow. “Your parents will assume that we know each other?”

Slowly, she nods. “Probably, yeah.”

“Then it won’t be a stretch for us to have a drink together that doesn’t involve marshmallows and loud campfire songs, right?”

Her whole body looks relieved, and she nods. “Yes.”

“You’re in guesthouse five?”

She nods again.

“Okay, I’ll go get some drinks and meet you there.”

Erin blinks once. “Yeah, okay.” She walks in the opposite direction of the fire pit, toward the guest houses, and I head toward my house.

There’s more alcohol in the main lodge, but I don’t want to take the chance that I’ll run into Leo and Asher and they’ll ask why I’m going anywhere with two glasses. They would give me shit about it even if they don’t have any right to.

This is probably a bad idea. Scratch that, it is an extremely bad idea. But I’m beyond caring at the moment. Erin is beautiful and interesting, and I want to know more about her. If anything else happens, then so be it. Never an expectation, of course, but the thought crosses my mind. Either way, she needs something other than a group of drunks right now.

Here we go.

3

Erin

God, it’s probably stupid to agree to this. I’ve found that trying to drink your sorrows away doesn’t usually end well. But one drink isn’t going to kill me, and there’s no chance that I’m going to turn down a drink with Hudson—the hottest man on the planet.

No matter that my mind is swimming in sadness again because I remember why I’m working at the clinic and not getting ready to go back to school. Hudson will be a beautiful distraction.

My parents did the kindness of getting me my own guest cabin so I don’t have to stay with them or with any of their friends. It’s a cute little house with one bedroom, a kitchen, and a living room. This place makes me want to come back here and stay longer without my parents. It’s the perfect place to get away.

There’s a fireplace here, and on an impulse, I start a fire. It’s not great—I don’t have a lot of experience starting fires—but they left good kindling, and within minutes it’s crackling merrily.

Maybe this is as good as sitting on the couch at home with Netflix.

Only minutes later there’s a soft knock at the door, and suddenly my heart is pounding in my chest. He’s here, and when I open the door my eyes see nothing but him. I hadn’t noticed that he was in casual clothes at the barn and not hiking gear, but I notice now. And the way the Henley sticks to his skin and shows off every inch of muscle is fucking fantastic. Jeans that