Page 1 of Double Booked

CHAPTER 1

RILEY

Vexed.

What an interesting word. Meaning annoyed, frustrated, or worried. I don’t think I’ve ever used it in a book but it definitely fit my mood right now.

The couple next to me started arguing, their voices adding to the already loud noise of the hotel bar. I sighed and made a mental note to find a way to add vexed to a future manuscript as I shifted down a seat, putting some distance between me and the loud couple. Weren’t they on vacation? Wasn’t everything supposed to be happy and relaxing on vacation? At least that’s what my assistant Ryan told me when he booked this vacation for me.

It was my first vacation in years and honestly, I didn’t know why people did it. It was loud and noisy and people were obnoxious. Well, people were obnoxious anywhere but here at this beach resort they seemed even more so. If I wanted to be around obnoxious people I could have just stayed in Minneapolis. No, my idea of vacation was a remote mountain cabin with just myself and my laptop but when I suggested that idea to Ryan he shot it down vehemently. “A vacation is supposed to be about relaxation, not work!”

Ryan thought I was burnt out and maybe he was right. Okay, he was definitely right. I’d been working my ass off for years, writing in every spare moment I had until I was making enough to quit my day job at a marketing agency. My books did well but nothing was guaranteed for an indie author. The only true guarantee in this business is you had to just keep writing the next book. So that’s all I tried to do. Or as Ryan liked to say, that’s all I did.

Before I left, he made me promise to at least try to relax. And disappointing my best friend felt like kicking a puppy. You just didn’t do that. Plus, Ryan could lay on a guilt trip like it was his job so I promised him I would try. But I still packed my laptop. And if this is how vacations were supposed to be, full of loud, drunk people, then I made the right call.

My nose wrinkled as I stared out at the crowd of people on the dance floor or crowding in front of one of the three cabana bars. Fuck, that was a lot of people. I ached to go up to my room and escape but I promised Ryan on a video call earlier that I would stay down at the bar for at least two hours. I checked my phone.

An hour and a half to go.

At least the bar I was sitting at was the least crowded of the three as it was against the back wall. I opened my phone and started scrolling through social media. If I had to sit here, maybe I could get some work done. I was answering a few comments when someone sat down on the stool next to me. From the sloppy grin on his face, he had started his night early. It was only 9pm for crying out loud.

“Hey, beautiful,” he leered at me, his pupils blown out so wide I was sure it wasn’t just alcohol he had consumed. “What’s a pretty girl like you doing here sitting alone?”

I barely refrained from rolling my eyes. Could guys come up with anything more original? Contrary to what Ryan thought, I did enjoy sex and I wasn’t opposed to a casual fling although I was too busy for a relationship. But not with a guy like this. He wore a preppy salmon colored polo shirt and cargo shorts. His hair was slicked back and his grin was too wide as his eyes blatantly perused my body, focusing on my breasts. I felt dirty with his gaze on me and snapped my fingers in his face to get him to look up.

“Not interested, thanks.”

His face screwed up like he couldn’t comprehend that I had just shot him down. “What?”

I leaned forward, ignoring the way his eyes dropped to my breasts again. It wasn’t like they were falling out of my shirt. I was wearing a simple white v-neck t-shirt and some striped linen shorts. A perfectly respectable outfit. “I’m not interested in you. Please go away.” I enunciated each word clearly in case the alcohol was impairing his hearing.

His face flushed and the vein at his temple pulsed. “You don’t have to be such a bitch. I was doing you a favor anyway. Who else is going to want a fat bitch like you?” He snarled.

I rolled my eyes at him, letting him see all my annoyance. “Tip for you, if you’re going to come hit on a girl and then insult her, at least choose one original pickup line or insult to use.”

His face scrunched up again but someone shouted at him and he turned. “Whatever, bitch.” he threw over his shoulder as he left.

I scowled at his retreating back. Seriously. It was 2024. Couldn’t men get it together? Listen to a Taylor Swift album for crying out loud.

“You look like you really don’t want to be here.” A voice came from her right. The loud couple had left sometime during my interaction with the drunk asshole, allowing me to see the man sitting a few stools down.

Damn, so this is what a good old country boy looks like. In a black t-shirt and jeans that molded to his very fine ass, he looked out of place amidst the sea of Hawaiian print shirts behind him. His broad shoulders and tanned skin didn’t look like it came from lying around at a beach but instead from years of hard work under the sun. Light stubble dotted his jawline but it only made him sexier. Hazel eyes twinkled at me but the sprinkles on top of the sexy cake was the baseball cap he wore backwards.

What it was about a backwards baseball cap, I didn’t know, but it was like catnip to a woman. He was the total package. A small voice whispered in my head that guys like him didn’t go for girls like me but I squashed it down. I was on vacation and crazy things were supposed to happen on vacation.

I leaned back against the bar and smirked at him. His body posture was hunched over and his back was to the crowd. He looked like he was hiding over here as well. “You don’t look like you fit in too well yourself there.”

His eyes widened as if he hadn’t expected to be called out. He let out a husky laugh. “It’s definitely not my usual scene or my choice of vacation spot.”

“A bar at a beach resort isn’t your choice of vacation spot?” I questioned, my eyebrows shooting up. I had just been thinking the same thing.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I mean the location is pretty but it’s just weird not having anything to do. I probably haven’t taken a vacation in over a decade. My best friend, Justin, insisted I take a break and booked it for me. It was probably payback for something I did though cause neither of us are really vacation people.”

I laughed. His best friend sounded a bit like Ryan. “My assistant did the same thing for me. Not the place I would have chosen.” I would definitely be getting more writing done if I was at a remote mountain cabin, I was on a deadline after all. Although, I probably wouldn’t have run into a guy like this at the cabin.

“Where would you have gone?”

“Somewhere remote for starters. Probably a cabin in the mountains or on a lake. Somewhere I wouldn’t have to deal with drunk people. And I could bring my laptop and get work done.”

---