Page 58 of Hunter

“Invest in my—I’m nineteen, yo! I don’t need no retirement!” he cries, screwing up his face at me. “You know what, cuz? You worry about your half mil, and I’ll worry about mine, okay?”

How our DNA can be so close and our sensibilities so different is something I may never understand, but I promised not to pick at him, and I’m not going back on my word.

“Fair enough,” I say. “You spend yours however you want. I’ll do the same.”

“And don’t get caught withhim,” says Beto, eyeing Hunter with annoyance.

“I won’t!” I insist. “Stop worrying.”

I watch my cousin stalk over to the bar to buy the ladies on Team Soul Sisters a round of farewell drinks, and decide to run upstairs for a quick shower before Hunter joins me. From across the lobby, he catches my eyes and tracks my short walk to the elevator with a hot look.

As I step into the elevator, Hunter’s coworker, Kit, enters behind me, waiting for the doors to close before turning to me.

“Hi, Isabella,” she says.

“Hey,” I answer.

“You and your cousin are doing well.”

“Thanks,” I say. “We’re having fun.”

She looks like she wants to say something else. “Hey, um…”

The elevator stops, and the doors open. Two older ladies in workout gear step inside and stand in front of us. Kit moves to the back of the small box, standing beside me.

“Be careful,” she murmurs.

“Huh?” I dart my eyes to her, but she stares straight ahead.

“There are rumors that you’re hooking up with someone.”

“What rumors? Who said that?”

Kit places her index finger over her lips, but I’m not sure why. The ladies in front of us are carrying on their own conversation and aren’t paying us any attention.

“Just a friendly word of warning,” she says. “Be careful.”

The elevator dings again, and Kit steps out onto the fifth floor without giving me a second glance.

The ladies in front of me get off at the sixth floor, and I get off on the seventh. As I walk to the room I’m sharing with Hunter, I look behind me, but there’s no one there. I walk to the far end of the hallway, looking in recessed doorways and in the nook where there’s an ice machine, but there’s no one there either.

You’re being paranoid!

When I get back to Hunter’s room, he’s approaching from the elevator. I slip my keycard into the slot and step into the room with him right behind me.

“Hey, baby,” he says as soon as the door clicks shut. His hands land on my waist, and he pulls me close. I lean into him,smelling the cold Alaskan air that lingers on his coat. “I missed you today. Where were you coming from just now?”

“Just making sure no one’s watching us.”

“Watching us?” he asks, leaning away to look at my face. He grins at me like I’m joking, but his smile quickly fades. “Who’d be watching us?”

“It’s probably nothing, but Meghan interviewed me earlier and asked if I had a love connection on the race, and then Kit just followed me into the elevator and warned me to be careful…I guess there are rumors I’m hooking up with someone.”

“Anyone I know?” he asks with a wicked grin.

I hit him playfully on the chest, then unzip his parka, watching as his strong shoulders shrug it to the floor.

“You’re not worried, are you?” he asks.

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