Page 29 of Grumpy Bear

I glanced up to see Luke dropping into a chair next to his buddy, face crimson.

Jim saw me watching and raised an eyebrow at me.

“That piece of shit tent of his collapsed on him last night in the storm.” I calmly buttered a biscuit. “I let him stay with me.”

Jim clutched his imaginary pearls. “Did he sleep on your sofa?”

“Of course not. It’s a fucking love seat.”

Jim made goody-goody hands, silently clapping like an idiot.

“Stop that.” It never failed to unnerve me that my general manager was a ten-year-old girl trapped in the body of a two-hundred-and-sixty-five-pound, forty-something lumberjack. “Now.”

Jim glanced over at Luke. “He’s so adorable.”

“He’s not a fucking puppy,” I hissed.

Jim turned back to me with a chuckle and a wicked grin. “Can we keep him, Daddy?”

13

Luke

Austin was grinning at me like the Cheshire cat when I sat down. “Where’d you sleep last night?”

“What do you mean?” I knew exactly what he meant, and I hoped everyone else wasn’t staring at me for the same reason.

Trey shot me a dirty look from the far end of the table.

“We all got up this morning and saw your little disaster of a campsite.” Austin shoved a biscuit into his mouth and spoke around it. “And there were footprints in the mud leading right up to Sawyer’s shack.”

The blood rushed to my face so quickly my nose started itching. “Are you serious?”

Austin cackled, showing the half-masticated wad of food in his mouth. He was the only guy cute enough to get away with that. “Nah. Somebody tossed it out there as a possibility though. Then y’all waltzed in here together, looking all tired and shit.”

I started eating, ignoring the Beavis and Butthead snickers.

Austin gulped half a glass of orange juice and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I get it, bro. Camp romances happen quick. You meet, fuck, fall in love for several hours, fuck again, have breakfast together the next day, then it all resets by noon when everybody’s back at the pool.”

So far, I hadn’t pushed back on any of his frat-bro cynicism. I shook my head and laughed along with him, but that didn’t describe me and Coleman, and his assumption pissed me off. It wasn’t accurate, it hadn’t happened, and if it had, it wouldn’t have been like that. “That’s so not how I operate.”

“Well, smooth operator, you might keep it going until Sunday. Sunday goodbyes are the fucking worst. Monday mornings are brutal. You think you’ve found the one. He accepts your friend request. He follows you back on Instagram. By Tuesday, you’re looking for a reply to a DM that never comes, and the reality that he lives three states away starts to set in hard. Be forewarned.”

I held up my hands. “I’m not trying to get with my boss, okay? I don’t have anywhere to go if this job blows up in my face. I don’t even have a tent anymore.”

Austin elbowed me and winked. “It might be the key to getting hired on longer.”

“I didn’t do it to try to get him to hire me.”

“Wait. What?” Austin almost choked. “So you did do it?”

I sighed in exasperation. “I meant sleeping in his cabin.”

Austin’s eyes twinkled. “Oooh, you sabotaged your own tent, didn’t you?”

I glared at him.

“Nobody would blame you if you did. He’s fucking hot, bro. Everybody at this table is green with envy.”