Page 47 of Personal Disaster

Chapter Fourteen

Marcus

The day before Poppy leaves,there’s a staff party, and she comes withme.

“By the time we get to Jake’s wedding, we’ll be counting our dates well into the twenties at this rate,” she teases as we arrive at the picnicarea.

“I should be so lucky. Besides, you may be so busy between now and then that I might not see you. I need to cram in all the goodnessnow.”

“I can get creative on the phone,” she whispers before kissing me on the cheek and hopping out of my truck.

I know she can. I grin and followher.

She holds my hand as I introduce to everyone. When I get to Brianne Fischer, my young staff member who is actually responsible for the rogue Twitter account Poppy suspected me of being behind, Poppy acts like this is the first time she’s heard Brianne’s name. Bri turnspink.

My girlfriend could teach her some lessons in playing things cool. If Brianne is ever outed for real, I’m going to have to hide her on the top of a mountain to protecther.

After making the rounds for introductions, we settle into camp chairs near the grill and Poppy gets a front-row seat for sharing time, when we all confess the weirdest things we saw from park visitors over the last week or so. There’s the usual wild animal encounters, but after a few of those stories, one of the other junior rangers nudges Brianne.

“Tell them,” he says. “About…” And he waggles his eyebrows.

I groan. There’s no way this is a story any supervisor shouldhear.

Brianne looks at me, and I clear my throat. “Should I go and grab a beer while you tell the group?”

“Umm… Okay, well… I may have interrupted a threesome.”

Sex in the park is kind of a regular thing, but more than two people is less common. “Oh?”

She gives more graphic details about a threesome she interrupted halfway up one of our most popular hiking trail, and the tall tale they tried to spin about having a permit for recreational activities. “I told them I was pretty sure under the same area of the park service regulations was a sub-regulation about taking their picture and posting it to Facebook.”

I swear under my breath. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”

“So you’re in a better than average mood, but your sense of humour is still stuck to bone-dry?” she asks innocently.

“There’s nothing wrong with my sense of humour.”

Beside me, Poppy is giggling uncontrollably.

I look ather.

“What?” She grins. “Clearly she was kidding.” She looks at Brianne. “Right?”

“Sure.” Brianne winks.

Poppy laughs harder, and I go to get that beer afterall.

When I get back, Brianne is sitting in my chair, and everyone else has moved into the pavilion, setting up for dinner.

I stop beside Poppy’s chair as she says, “If you ever want to talk, off the record, you know where to find me. I promise I don’t want to outyou.”

Brianne looks over atme.

Poppy shakes her head. “Oh, I wanted to out him. He’s a story. You’re part of the process. My interest in you would be strictly limited to reaching people higher up the food chain thanyou.”

“Hey,” I protest.

“Past tense,” she says, winking up atme.

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