Page 12 of My Grumpy Sweetheart
“Are you okay?” Bailey asked, his voice a strangely soft, comforting tone like he’d realized I was spiraling.
I frowned at him. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
He nodded towards my hands that were holding on to the steering wheel for dear life, my knuckles completely white.
“Everything’s fine,” I ground out. Well, it would be as soon as we got inside and got to our respective rooms. I needed some alone time. I needed to decompress, needed to not have this ray of sunshine next to me, I needed…something.
Definitely not the cute, white, three-story house we were heading to. Not the apple stand, not the white barn, not the stable, not anything I was seeing here. This looked like someone had taken a page out of one of my four-year-old niece’s picture books and brought it to life.
The problem was that places that looked as perfect and beautiful as this one did were too good to be true. They weren’t real. There was a downside somewhere. Always.
“Oh my god, it’s so cute!” Bailey was jumping up and down in his seat, clapping his hands in excitement, his whole aura radiating joy. “Oh my god, Dakota, it’s amazing. You chose such a great place!”
“I didn’t choose this,” I told him.
He blinked at me, furrowing his brows. “You… didn’t?”
“Nope. I thought you did.” I sure as shit wouldn’t have chosen an apple orchard or anything like it. And if my friends had chosen this for us, I’d have no choice but to kill them.
Great. I’d turn into an axe murderer after all. Bailey would be so excited.
“Huh.” Bailey nodded slowly, then shrugged. “I guess that’s why I had to answer all those weird questions like am I a city or a country person. They probably randomly chose something based on our answers.” The smile was back in place, almost blinding me with its brightness. Seriously, how could someone have teeth so perfectly white? Not this fake bleached-white but a natural white-white. At least they were a little crooked. “I always wanted to try this vacation-destination-based-on-my-interests thing, anyway, but I never had the guts.”
How? How could he just be fine with it? Hell, be happy about it? I didn’t get it.
I entered the small parking lot in front of the B’n’B, killed the engine, and immediately hopped out of the car, desperate to get a little bit of distance between Bailey and me.
God, that man was irritating as fuck.
Unfortunately, he followed me. To the trunk, out of the parking lot, to the B’n’B and inside, all the while chatting happily and telling me about how cute or adorable everything was.
“Hello,” an annoyingly cheery voice greeted as soon as I’d set a foot into the lobby. “Welcome atAlcott’s Apple Orchard and B’n’B. I’m Hailey, and I’m happy to help you out today.”
“Hi, Hailey,” Bailey said, somehow managing to raise his hand for a quick wave despite the fact that he had two giant suitcases he was currently dragging along behind him.
Should I help him? Probably. But he had it coming. Who needed two suitcases for two days? And not empty ones, either. I’d pulled those fuckers out of the trunk. They were heavy.
“I’m Bailey Sullivan, and this is Dakota.” I heard him introduce us, and I was fine with that. I just wanted to get this over with. The less I had to do to get us checked-in, the better. “We’re withCarousel? The app? We won this weekend…”
“Yes!” Hailey practically shouted, her cheeks tinting a deep red. “I mean, I know who you are. Lance — the owner — he was so excited for the orchard to be chosen as a weekend-getaway spot for the charity bachelor auction. He told me all about it, and he made sure to book you the best room we have. Soo… you’re in ourhoneymoon suite.”
Her voice told me she was trying to sell this as an amazing thing, but the only things I heard werehoneymoonandsuite.
One room — well, a suite, but that wasn’t the point.
One. Single. Room.
Bailey was still smiling like he didn’t see any problem at all. And maybe he didn’t. He’d wanted this date, so maybe he was fine sharing his room with a stranger, but I wasn’t.
“Uhm, sorry,” I said, stepping up to the reception desk and leaning against it. “Did you just say honeymoon suite?”
Her head bopped up and down. “Yes. You’re so lucky to get it. It’s usually booked months in advance, but Lance…”
“…wanted to do us a favor. Got it.” I nodded sharply, still trying to keep my cool even though I could already feel my heart starting to hammer against my ribcage. “The honeymoon suite doesn’t by any chance happen to have two beds?”
The color draining from her face said it all.
“I’m afraid not.”
