Page 85 of Making New Plans

“What’s up, Chloe?”

“Hey! Hi, how are you? Do you want to hang out for a few minutes? Show me around?”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “Why? You’re acting weird.”

“I just need an excuse to hang out on the playground with all the kids for a minute. You’re my in.”

He crossed his arms. “So you need me.”

Uh-oh. “Yes,” I said slowly, peeking over my shoulder. My mom was still within sight, currently chatting with a group of women I knew from the Holiday Decorating Committee.

“Fine. I’ll help you if you let me have a sleepover with a few of my friends at Pine Grove.”

My eyebrows shot up. “You want what? I can’t. Your mother… That would take—”

He held up his small hand, looking older than his twelve years. “My mom doesn’t have the time or space for a sleepover, and I wanted to do something cool for one of my friends who’s moving in a couple months. You in? Or out?” He said this with a glance over his shoulder, even though he had no idea why I was hiding, and stuck out his hand.

Groaning inwardly, I shook hands with him. “Deal. Now help me blend in.”

With an impish grin, he towed me through the playground to a knot of kids. “Right this way.” He waved to the kids. “Hey guys, hide and seek?”

They shouted with excitement. Dom began counting, and we all scattered. I hid under the playground, peering through the holes in the steps as my mother finished her conversation and walked on. Her swiveling head paused when she spied Hunter on his phone. Her lip curled before she stuck her nose in the air and marched toward Sarah’s Sugar Shack. Poor Sarah. If there was one thing my mother and I shared, it was our love of coffee.

Searching for other kids, Dom passed by me, saw me, winked, and moved on to two kids hiding behind a short bush. Heavy footsteps thudded behind me, and I whirled to see Hunter crouching his way toward me. Arwen cheerfully trotted beside him.

“What are you doing?” he asked, his eyes twinkling.

I bit my lip. He didn’t know I’d been avoiding my mother this whole time because of him. Even though he wasn’t a fan of hers, I didn’t know how he’d react to me stooping to making a deal with a twelve-year-old to evade notice. “Oh, you know, just hanging with some of the locals. Everything all right with you?”

His smile slackened. “Yeah. Fine. Ready to go back to the lodge? Jameson is coming by later to haul off some rubble.”

Unease crept into my chest. “Of course. I’m sure they won’t miss me,” I added with a forced laugh, waving to Dom.

He waved back then tapped his temple as if saying, “remember.” I gave him a short nod, feeling like I was in one of the mafia movies Gina loved so much. Hell, maybe that was where the kid got his ideas from.

After we left Arwen with Louis, Hunter headed outside to meet Jameson, and I broke into my office ibuprofen bottle. Because not only was I hiding our relationship from my mother, but I was also hiding that fact from Hunter. And now I felt like he was hiding something from me, too.

31

Hunter

Secret-keeping had always been a strong suit of mine. Not that many people told me their secrets. But I had an extremely good poker face. However, I was starting to realize that keeping something from Chloe was akin to damming a river with a paper wall. I was going to break, and I didn’t want it to be at the worst time possible.

I hadn’t told her about the phone call I’d had yesterday. Maybe because she’d seemed squirrely as well. Or because, once we locked ourselves in my room for the night, that phone call was the last thing on my mind.

That was another thing that had bugged me. I’d asked once why we didn’t sleep over at her house, and she said something about not wanting to miss any lodge emergencies. But she’d said it in the bright, overly chipper voice she usually reserved for guests who’d been a pain, but she was telling them to come back anyway.

Maybe I was reading too much into it. Maybe she simply didn’t want to make Sarah uncomfortable. Except why would Sarah be uncomfortable?

Squashing those niggling doubts and excuses had become sort of a habit. Mostly because, despite them, I wanted more time. At this point, I would take Chloe any way I could have her.

I had to bite back a growl of frustration when Jameson said he didn’t work Sundays. We’d made some good progress on Saturday, and I would’ve loved to continue hacking away at the old house. Especially since it was a marvelous distraction from what my mind kept chewing over.

Instead, I called up Sal and we had lunch together. I apologized for leaving so abruptly and expressed the hope that we could continue our lunches for the time being. She agreed, a hint of sadness and resignation in her gaze.

After that, I helped Chloe remove the old light fixtures in the lobby and install the new ones we’d picked out several days ago in the city. The lodge had been fairly quiet, only a few rooms taken, and those guests were either out on a kayaking trip or shopping in town. Chloe and I teased each other as we worked, reminiscing about Morton and how we met.

Once we were done, I caught Chloe in my arms as she descended the ladder after the last install. She smiled up at me playfully, twining her arms around my neck before sinking her lips into mine. We rarely ever kissed out in the open, so I took full advantage of the situation and backed her up to the front desk. She moaned as my tongue slipped into her mouth and played with hers.

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