AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My laugh is caustic. “Isn’t it always.”
“I just…don’t want to be in a relationship.”
With me.That’s the unspoken. He doesn’t want to be in a relationship with me.
I nod, my smile tight. “I get it.”
As I push up onto my feet, embarrassment courses through me. I knew it was a mistake to think there was something there, to think maybe this friendship could become something I never could have seen coming. Instead, I probably ruined whatever this burgeoning friendship was becoming as well.
“I’ll see you later, Reid.” I grab my towel and wrap it around my body, suddenly desperate to cover myself and my foolish attempt to…what…entice him?
“Busy…”
“Thanks again for coming to Junie’s party,” I say, giving him a pinched smile as I back away. “I’ll see you later.”
His face is pained, but I don’t have the mental capacity to care about his feelings in this moment as I turn and walk up the dock, heading back to my cabin.
My empty cabin, and my no a/c, to wallow in the mess I’ve surely made.
chapter fourteen
Reid
“This is…absolutely perfect. Everything about it.”
I smile tightly at the blonde but keep my attention focused on the dining table I’m currently helping her husband hoist into their trailer. Once we’ve gotten it into place, I rotate my right shoulder, the sensation of strained fatigue a lot stronger than it was before. Hopefully just an overworked muscle and not something worse.
“I’m glad you love it,” I finally say, hopping down off the trailer and watching as her husband covers it with a tarp.
Normally, I’d offer to help, but I’m feeling wiped, the exhaustion I’ve been experiencing recently surely not helped by the poor way I’ve been sleeping and the long hours I’ve been working.
“Well, Hannah, I hope you love the table, and if you need anything else or you’re interested in custom work for your home, just give me a call,” I say, digging a business card out of my wallet.
I pass it over and she takes a look. “Do you deliver? We’re just here on vacation. We live in the LA area.”
Nodding, I tuck my wallet into my back pocket. “I do. I work with a shipping company that can do door-to-door service, whiteglove and everything. They’ll unload whatever it is and set it up for you and take all the packing supplies.”
“That’s what I told her we should have done this time,” her husband says as he rounds the back of the trailer, tightening the cinches that will keep the table held in place.
Hannah rolls her eyes and looks at me, an amused smile on her face. “Anyway, thanks so much for your help. I can think of one or two things I might want for the house, so I’ll definitely reach out once we’re ready.”
I nod then accept a handshake from each of them before they load up in their fancy truck and drive off. Sighing, I wipe the sweat from my brow and head through the back door, into the blissfully airconditioned space.
The heat this summer is unreal, and the reprieve we had a few weeks ago didn’t last nearly long enough before temps started rising again. I’ve been running the fan on high, but it’s been basically no help, the moving air doing almost nothing to relieve the sweltering warmth.
I’ve considered coming into the store and laying out blankets over one of the couches, just to get a good night of sleep, or asking Marie if I can borrow her RV for a few days. I heard a customer yesterday mention the exceptional a/c at the resort, and even shelling out a few hundred bucks for a night in a hotel room sounds preferable to how rough things have been.
But for whatever reason, I haven’t pulled the trigger on any of those options.
I roll my eyes at myself as I head into the bathroom at the back of the store to wash my hands. Like I don’t know the reason I continue in my misery, choosing to return home night after night.
It’s because of Busy, and Junie. Knowing the two of them are next door, likely also struggling with the heat, makes escaping it less desirable, like suffering alongside them somehow makesa difference. I know that’s stupid, but I can’t imagine booking a hotel room and sleeping in cool air knowing they’re still wilting away.
So I stay.
Though it would feel a lot better if Busy would actually talk to me without that weird fake smile on her face. One that doesn’t quite reach her eyes.
Something that’s entirely my fault.
