Just Once (26 page)

“Well,” I say, smoothing my skirt. “Let me show you to your cabin.”

When Stanley doesn’t budge, I shoot him a suspicious look. And when he finally meets my eyes it’s with that guilty little-boy face he knows I can’t get mad at.

“Stanley,” I say icily. “What have you done?”

There’s a tap on my shoulder.

“Hi, Kate.”

My jaw drops as I slowly turn around. Over Kevin Drew’s suit-clad shoulder I see Hailey and Lisa leaning on the balcony, very close to drooling. My financial advisor and sometime fuck buddy is a handsome, sleek man who looks as though he would be equally at ease in the financial district as on the pages of a fashion magazine. He’s smart, rich, and good company—all qualities I have enjoyed—and when he smiles, it’s impossible not to smile back.

“Hi, Kevin. This is a surprise.”

“I’m surprised too,” he says. “And I don’t mean your outfit. I didn’t know I was coming out here until yesterday.”

“Anton had to work.” Stanley shrugs, referring to his surgeon husband. “And I wanted the double-occupancy rate.”

“Of course.”

“You look great,” Kevin says. “Turn around.”

I smirk. “Absolutely not.”

He smiles. “Okay, then just walk ahead of us.”

We all laugh. “Which cabin are you guys in?”

Stanley consults the brochure in his hand. “Cabin ten,” he says.

I almost choke. “Ten?”

“Yeah, why? Is that one haunted?”

I shake my head. “No. No. Not at all. Let me show you the way.”

Hailey, Matt, and Lisa grilled me incessantly about Kevin Drew until I was forced to describe him as an ex-boyfriend to make myself sound more principled than I really am. Was. Anyhow, now they’re at O’Malley’s, kicking off another week of drinking and dancing. I stayed behind to hang out with Stanley, who declined the offer to go out, even if it meant seeing the Summer Skank he’d heard so much about.

Now he and I soak in the hot tub with an assortment of tiny bottles of alcohol he pilfered from the airplane. Kevin claimed the fresh air was exhausting and begged off early, giving Stanley and me time to catch up.

“I still can’t believe you’re here,” I say for the tenth time.

“So you keep saying.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Stanley shrugs and sips his wine. “I was on a waiting list,” he answers finally. “I didn’t want to tell you I would be here if I wouldn’t be.”

“It’s good to see you.” It is, but even though Stanley is my favorite person in the world, his timing couldn’t be worse. Work is crazy busy, I’m finally getting used to being country Kate, and I have no idea where Shane and I stand. There are a lot of things I need to wrap my brain around, but Stanley is a demanding mistress, and after traveling across the country to surprise me, will no doubt expect my full attention.

“So?” he says after a moment.

“So what?”

“Where’s my picture?”

I laugh and finish my vodka, setting the bottle on the deck behind me. “There’s no picture.”

“Then where’s the real deal? Here.” He thrusts another bottle at me but I demur.

“No, thanks. I’m done.”

“Katharine Burke, done at one?”

“Doesn’t sound right, does it?”

“Something has gone horribly awry!”

“I’m older and wiser,” I say seriously. “Which means I don’t get drunk every night.”

“Do you still dance on tabletops?”

“Nope.”

He gasps. “Who are you and what have you done with my best friend?”

I snicker. “I left her behind,” I confess. “On a beach somewhere. She couldn’t hack it in the mountains.”

“Don’t you find it boring out here? Too…serene?”

It’s my turn to shrug. “Sometimes.”

“And sometimes…”

“And sometimes it’s nice.”

“All right, we’ve gotten off topic. Which one was he? The blond with the baggage? Because that man makes Kevin look like a donkey.”

“No, not him. Did you see the redhead on the porch when you came up?”

“I did.”

“That’s Hailey. Those two have something going on, but can’t figure out what.”

“That’s interesting. I thought the guy with the ponytail was ogling her. Is my sixth sense failing me?”

Stanley is excellent at sussing out relationships.

“No, your sixth sense is working. There’s something there too. It’s complicated.”

“I love it, but stop trying to distract me. Which one is Shane?”

I sigh and wipe a damp hair off my neck, regretting that I ever divulged his name to Stanley. The guy is like a dog with a juicy bone. “Promise not to do anything to embarrass me?”

“No.”

“He’s the guy with the dark hair and cargo pants. He wasn’t wearing cowboy boots—”

“Wait. The lumberjack?”

I burst out laughing. “Yes.”

“Is he still ignoring you?”

I hesitate for a nanosecond, but Stanley catches it.

“Are you fucking him?” he exclaims.

“Stanley!” I hiss. “Lower your voice! This is a family establishment.”

“Oh my God. How is he? Rough? Powerful? Enduring?”

“He’s…great.”

Stanley peers at me closely. “Do you
like
him?”

I open my mouth, but the denial won’t come out. “I like him,” I admit. “But I don’t like-like him. He’s just…It’s casual. He made that clear.”

“He’s nuts. No way will he ever have his fill of you.”

“Oh, Stanley. Now I remember why I like you.”

It’s almost one thirty when I head up to my room. If I’m being honest, I’m more than a little disappointed that Shane’s not waiting in the hallway. I noticed a light on in his trailer on my way up the stairs, but I haven’t seen him since the guests arrived. I switch on the ceiling fan and curl up on the bed. Though I expect to lay awake for hours, I fall instantly asleep.

The next two days are a blur of work and Stanley. While I clean cabins between breakfast and lunch, he and Kevin join the other guests on horseback rides, something Stanley describes as “both dreadful and thrilling.” In lieu of my afternoon naps, we hike, lounge at the pool, or sit in their cabin catching up.

Kevin is a big hit with pretty much every female guest and staff member, but still doesn’t seem comfortable with this rustic environment. Stanley finds it all hilarious and is having a great time.

The two of us are alone in the cabin on Tuesday afternoon—Kevin is going back to the pool to give the women something to drool over—and as we watch his tanned body walk away, Stanley sighs. “What a waste.”

I look at him. “What are you talking about? Is everything okay with you and Anton?”

“Not me, you fool. I brought him out here for you.”

“What?”

“Anton’s not working. He laughed his ass off when I suggested he come with me to a dude ranch. He thought it was a gay sex resort.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I thought you and the lumberjack were still fighting, so I brought Kevin along to relieve your sexual frustration.”

I stare at Stanley in horror. “You did not.”

“What?”

“He’s not a call girl! You can’t fly him out to have sex with people!”

“Please. You know he’d be more than willing.”

“Does he know that’s why he’s here?”

“No. He still believes Anton’s working. And the double-occupancy thing. Plus I told him you were having a hard time. He came because he cares about you.”

Kevin is almost as good with his hands, tongue, and cock as he is at managing my money, and if I had nothing better to compare it to, I’d declare him pretty damn great in bed. But knowing the things Shane is capable of, my time with Kevin is just a hazy memory.

“That is mortifying,” I say.

“I was trying to help.”

“Thank you.”

Stanley laughs. “Did you take tomorrow night off?”

“I did.” He and Kevin are going stir crazy stuck at the ranch, so we made reservations at a nice restaurant in town.

“Good. I need some traffic, you know? Rude people, congestion, high prices. All this…peace is giving me a headache.”

“Which town do you think you’re going to? Dawson has about two thousand people.”

“Goddammit.”

“I have to go start setting up for dinner,” I tell him as I stand. “Some of us have jobs.”

Stanley flicks a hand. “Bring me some ale, wench!”

I laugh. “That’s not how it works here.”

He winks. “We’ll see.”

No one complains about being called “wench” during dinner service, so I assume Stanley behaves himself for the meal. I’m on dish duty tonight, which means I’m the one who stays behind to mop up the kitchen floor when everyone else has gone. I push the last load of dishes into the sanitizer and turn back to collect the mop, coming to a halt when I see Shane enter through the back door, a stack of dirty dinner plates in hand.

“Hey,” I say awkwardly.

He scans my rubber apron and yellow gloves. “Hey.”

He brushes past me with the dishes, and I follow, mop bucket in tow. He drops the dishes in the sink and starts to rinse them. I linger behind him.

“I can do that.”

“It’s no trouble.”

“Okay.”

When he doesn’t look at me I start mopping. I normally hate mopping, but this feels excruciating. The last time we spoke was after the most intense sexual experience of my life, and now it feels like we’re back at day one, strangers.

“How do your friends like it out here?”

I look at Shane, who looks away quickly, sticking a plate in the rack.

“Um, they like it. Though they’ve described things as being a little too ‘serene.’”

“Is that what you think?”

“What?”

“Do you miss the city?” He over-enunciates, as though I’m hard of hearing. “Is this place too simple for you?”

I frown. “No. It’s not too simple. I love it here.” I have a sneaking suspicion he’s wondering if I think he’s simple too, but when he acts like this it’s difficult to tell him otherwise.

“So how is it you know them?”

“Um, Stanley is my best friend and agent, and Kevin is just someone I’ve known for a few years. We run in the same circles.”

Shane nods, jaw tight.

“What have you been up to?” I ask. “I haven’t seen much of you.”

“Working.” The sanitizer finishes, and he wrenches the door open, shoving out the clean dishes and pushing the next load in before slamming the door and hitting the power button.

“Okay, well—”

“That guy’s your ex-boyfriend?”

“Kevin? No, not really.”

“That’s what everyone’s saying.”

“That’s kind of what I told them, to get them to stop asking questions.”

“So you were never together?”

“We never dated.”

“But you fucked him.”

“Shane!”

“What? I’d just like to know what I’m dealing with.”