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But money wasn’t coming in the way it had a few years ago, and once again, I found myself falling behind in payments. I’d reached a point where I owed too much to catch up, and the bank was tired of waiting. They’d given me a few short months to make things right, or I’d lose it all.
My past due bills would be waiting when I got home. I was here and should try to enjoy the day. I wrung out the water from my hair one more time before pulling into a ponytail, adjusted my lightweight peasant top, and emerged from the bathroom.
“All yours,” I said to Gage.
He stepped around me. “Give me like ten minutes, and we’ll go get breakfast.”
“Yup.” I made myself comfortable on my bed, grabbed the remote, and flipped through the TV. Nothing held my attention, and on the third time through, I settled on CSI:Oompa Loompa Ville, or whatever flavor of the show this was.
To be honest, I was grateful Gage suggested the trip. The distraction was a nice idea, and I liked his company. My friendship with him was different than with the women in the Nerd Herd, in a way that was hard to define.
Come to think of it, what was different about Gage?
Beside the fact he was a six-plus-foot wall of muscle who was just gorgeous to look at when I needed a distraction? Hmm…
Some days he was more of a beacon of hope when I wanted to pretend things weren’t all doom and gloom. His marriage. Possibly my hardware store.
There was a peace in admitting that failure was an option, and the world wouldn’t end because of it. The future would just carve a new path.
Did that mean I was giving up on the family shop? Rolling over and letting it die after more than a century because everything would be all right?
No. Absolutely not.
But today I wasn’t in the mood for it’ll all work out, you’ll see. I was more in the mood for—
The bathroom latch clicked, and Gage emerged. Ten minutes already? He was wearing jeans and sneakers, his short, dark hair stuck up like it had been towel-dried but not combed, and he wasn’t wearing a shirt.
He had a tattoo sleeve on his left arm, an Escher-like staircase that climbed up his arm, and around his bicep, and seemed to go everywhere and nowhere all at once—great metaphor for life. He was built, far more than a micro brew pub and grill owner had the right to be, given he was his own top taste-tester.
And I always enjoyed the view—that was something else I didn’t get from my other friends. They were all gorgeously fuckable, but not in the same way Gage was.
“You done?” He crouched to meet my gaze. “Can I finish getting dressed now?”
I pretended to consider the question. “I’m not sure. Could you stand there a little longer, let me figure it out?”
He snorted a laugh. “No. I’m hungry.” He grabbed a T-shirt from his duffel bag and pulled it on.
That wasn’t bad either, especially the way the fabric stuck to the still-damp parts of his skin.
“You wanna hit the buffet for breakfast?” I glanced at the clock. “Lunch?” That was what I was in the mood for—food.
“You know it,” Gage said.
We collected what we needed for the day—purse, wallet, phones, keys—and headed downstairs. The voucher we got when we checked in gave us two for one on breakfast, and that almost made me feel like I was being practical, money-wise.
Almost.
In the hotel restaurant, we paid for our plates, then piled them high. I added pancakes, eggs, bacon, and sausage. More than should stay on the plate.
Another thing I liked about Gage’s company, unlike any guy I’d ever tried to date, he never commented on how much I ate. Before I joined the Marines, I’d adopted a heavy lifting routine that stayed with me through my twenties and part of my thirties. I didn’t stick to it religiously these days, and my metabolism was starting to slow, but I still needed a lot of calories.
The place was more crowded than I expected, and we snagged a table the moment it became available.
“Are we actually doing anything today?” I asked between bites of food. “Is there anything to do here besides gamble?”
“I hear the Air Force base is haunted.”
“I thought we left the ghosts behind.” I meant it to be a joke, but my words fell flat.
