Page 45 of Squatch Out!
Tony and Brian were supposed to camp up on the ridge for one more night, but after Olivia and Darren both split, they packed it all up and came back to the lodge to see if they could get an extra night added to their reservations.
“No way!” Olivia gasps. “There weren’t any double occupancy rooms availableat all?”
“That’s what I said,” I hear Tony laugh through her phone. “Brian’s a great guy and all, but I’m not really into sharing a bedwith him. Luckily, they are giving me a roll away so we don’t have to snuggle.”
“You’re going to make Carmen jealous,” she teases him, and I decide that maybe I like Tony a little more knowing he has a girlfriend.
“Doubt it,” he scoffs. “She reads thosewhy choosebooks. Lord knows what kind of ideas she’d get if she knew I was sleeping with another dude.”
“Uh, please keep me out of your fantasies, bro,” Brian shouts from the background.
Olivia is laughing so hard, she has to stop in the middle of the parking lot to catch her breath. “Let’s not ever discuss that again,” she wheezes then glances down at the time. “Oh, shit. I didn’t realize it was so late. The restaurant is probably closed by now.”
“Oh, yeah, I think it closed an hour ago. We’ll just meet for breakfast, okay?”
“Are you sure?” she asks. “It sounded important. Do you want to meet in the lobby or something?”
“Liv, I’m looking out my window at you, and I can see you holding hands with that park ranger. You’ve been spending a lot of time with him. Are you sure that’s wise after what he did?”
Olivia’s head tilts back and she scans the windows for which one Tony is watching her from. “When you say it like that, it sounds like… like you don’t trust me.”
“It’s not that,” Tony mutters. “I just—I don’t like that guy. After what he did to you, it’shimI don’t trust.”
The tension running through her hand and into mine relaxes, and she looks up at me with a soft smile. “You know I will always appreciate your honesty. This time… I’ve gotten to know Sean, and…” She worries her bottom lip between her teeth as she tries to think of how to assure her friend that I’m not the monster he thinks I am. “And I’m finding out he’s not at all what I thought.”
I can hear Tony’s heavy sigh just before he grumbles, “If he breaks your heart, I’m gonna break his legs.”
Olivia giggles. “I’ll be sure to warn him.”
“Yeah, see that you do,” he says dryly. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch the flutter of a curtain, just as Tony moves away from the window. “Just… be careful, and we’ll see you at breakfast.”
When she looks back at me, I can practically feel the heat radiating off her cheeks.
“We’ll see you at breakfast then. Good night.” My heart starts to pound when she doesn’t try to make up an excuse and instead comes right out and admits her intentions are to spend the night with me.
Which means Olivia and I have the rest of the night to ourselves.
My fingers tighten around her smaller hand as I set a quick pace back to the lodge. The moment she lets us into her room, I’m hit with all the erotic memories from the night before. The bedding has been changed and the room tidied, but I can’t wait to mess it all up again.
My gaze slides over to where Olivia is kneeling beside her carry-on. When she stands up, she’s got a bundle of clothes in her arms. “I’m going to take a shower, if you don’t mind.”
“No, not at all.” I offer her a smile and then watch her slip into the bathroom. A moment later the shower turns on. My gaze lingers on her luggage, and it hits me that the time I have with her is coming to an end.
How am I going to convince her to stay? If she can’t, or won’t, how am I going to watch her go?
It’s a question that’s been bouncing around in my head more and more. I remind myself that I haven’t even known her for a week. But the way I feel, it’s more than just lust. I can’t ignore the way my squatch homed in on her. Or the more time I spend with her, the faster I’m falling for her. Which means it’s going tobe that much harder to watch her go. Because she will go. Her whole life is across the country, and I haven’t earned the right to ask her to uproot everything she’s built. It would be no different if she were to ask me to just pack up my whole life and move to a place I’ve never been.
You could, though. You have people in the mountains there.
I know they exist, but I’ve never met them. I can’t just show up and integrate myself into their territory.
I drag my gaze over to the window that is covered with thick black-out curtains, imagining the landscape on the other side. These mountains are my home. I’ve never lived anywhere else, and until just now, I’ve never considered leaving.
The sound of the water changes, and my thoughts shift to Olivia. I imagine her stepping under the spray, naked. Tilting her face back and letting the water cascade down her body, over her breast and down her legs. With my next breath, I’m across the room, curling my fingers around the doorknob. I twist.
It turns easily. She didn’t lock it.
Considering that invitation enough, I let myself into the brightly lit room that’s heavily fogged with steam. Closing the door softly behind me, I step deeper into the room where the shower is tucked into the corner. It’s larger than I expected. Through the fogged glass I can just make out the shape of her as she runs a washcloth up her arms and across her chest.
