Page 112 of Flirty Fall Fling

“Bring warm clothes.”

“Mmm, I will, but I don’t plan on wearing them,” he mutters against my lips.

“Hurry,” I tell him, then get out, walking straight through the backyard gate without looking back.

Charlie meets me at the door with his tail up. I bend down, scooping him up under his front legs and pulling him into my arms. He’s fourteen pounds of orange fun. I swing him one full turn in the entryway with his back feet dangling. Flora used to do this to him when he was a kitten. He’s never let me, until now. He hangs there like a sack of flour with his eyes half shut.

“Aw, did you miss me?” I ask into his fur and carry him upstairs like a baby.

He pops his paw toward me as I try to kiss him, so I set him on my bed.

He supervises me while I pack for five days. I stuff a few pairs of jeans and button-up shirts and my favorite boots. I slide my lingerie drawer open and pull a few sexy pieces from the top. I hold one up, and my door swings open.

“I knew you were dating him!”

Josie stands in my doorway in her pajamas with a spatula in one hand. Charlie leaps off the bed and runs for her.

Then she actually looks at me. “Wait. Are you okay?”

Nobody’s asked me that today, including myself.

“I don’t know yet. Being doxed is weird,” I tell her.

Josie’s face softens. “I’m sorry. If it makes you feel any better, eventually people move on and lose interest. Something else happens, and there’s always a new story pulling attention.”

“Thank you. I’m going to be away for a few days. Can you take care of Sir Charles?”

“Absolutely!” She bends down and pets him under his chin. He nibbles at her, and she yelps as he prances away. “He’s such a grumpy chonk!”

“He is.” I shove the silk into my suitcase.

“So, where ya going?” she asks, sitting on the edge of my bed.

“Up to the cabin,” I tell her, experiencing that jolt of excitement. “I feel guilty.”

“Why? You didn’t ask for this.”

“It’s the second week of October, Josie. Three new people start tomorrow. You and Winter are having to pick up the slack because my life is a mess.”

“Uh-huh. And we both agreed to help you. We’re being paid a stupid amount of money, and we live in this beautiful home rent-free. This is what we signed up for. I can’t imagine what I’d be doing right now.” She shrugs.

I smile.

“Jameson Cross looks good on you. Might think about keeping him,” she says, moving back toward the door.

I laugh. “It’s just a fling.”

She tilts her head at me. “You sure about that?”

Silence stretches between us.

“No,” I tell her truthfully. “But it can’t be anything more than that.”

“Why?” she asks.

“He has an entire life in New York. I’m never leaving Pine Haven. I don’t do long distance,” I tell her.

When I sat in his car this morning, I admitted I wasn’t ready for us to end. That’s the truth; I’m not.