Page 43 of The Write Track
“You don’thaveto do anything,” Preston replied. “I’m not technically your boss.” The way he said it suggested he was disappointed by that fact. “However, the cabins are yours for an entire month. I figured it would get the creative juices flowing to be able to get away from it all.”
“When you say we’re ‘away from it all,’ you really mean it, though,” Bree argued. “We’re away from good restaurants and coffee. We’re away from doughnuts.”
“She does love her doughnuts,” Brody agreed. “We can go to town though, Bree. We can plan a couple trips a week.”
Bree gave him a severe look. “Are you saying you like the idea of staying out here the entire month?” She was aghast.
“Not theentiremonth,” he assured her. “It’s quiet out here, though. I think I can get a lot of work done.”
“But—”
“You can take the car and go into town whenever you want,” he said. “In fact, all of you girls can.”
“Yes.” Preston was solemn as he clasped his hands in front of him. “Women like to shop. You cannot take that option away from them.”
Bree shot eye daggers in my ex’s direction. “Yes,that’swhat we’ll be doing. Shopping, because we’re silly females.”
Preston obviously didn’t recognize the danger in her tone. “Whatever makes you happy.” His eyes landed on me. “The cabins are fine, I assume?” Now that he realized he wasn’t getting the reaction he wanted, he was bored.
“They’re great,” I replied. “I mean, we haven’t seen inside yet, but I’m sure they’re fine.”
“Lovely.” Preston produced three sets of keys. “Have fun.” He stalked away toward the administration building, no doubt to lick his wounds and come up with another plan.
“Well, that was fun,” Nathan said as he released me. “That guy is so easy.”
“Right?” Bree didn’t look nearly as happy about how things had gone. “Women like to shop. Tee-hee-hee. Such silly females.”
“Oh, geez,” Brody intoned. “She’s going to turn this into a thing.”
“Oh, it’s already a thing,” Bree assured him. “You have no idea.”
Brody sighed, but a small smile played at the corners of his mouth. “Whatever makes you happy, sweetie.”
How could they be so calm about this? I couldn’t wrap my head around it. “We’re going to have to share a cabin,” I said to Nathan. “You realize that means there’s probably only one bed in there, right?”
Nathan held out his hands. “I’m sure there’s a couch. I’ll sleep on that.”
“Absolutely not.” I vehemently shook my head. “You’re too tall. That will never be comfortable. Besides, you wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for me. I’ll be the one sleeping on the couch.”
He looked as if he wanted to argue, but he didn’t. “We’ll figure that part out later. How about we get our stuff into the cabin, get the lay of the land, and come up with some coping techniques for you, huh?”
I had not expected him to say that. “Coping techniques?”
“You have one of those faces that shows every one of your emotions. You need to develop a poker face.”
“I thought I did well,” I protested.
“You did fine. It’s just… he makes you deeply uncomfortable.” Just saying that clearly made Nathan uncomfortable. “I’m going to teach you how I interact with my father. He never knows what I’m really feeling about him.”
“A parent always knows,” I countered.
“Well, we’re going to work on it anyway.” Nathan pointed toward the last cabin in the line. “I think it’s best if we take that one. That way, if Preston the Prick decides to do any snooping, he has to sneak past two other cabins to do it. That might dissuade him from doing too much spying.”
I balked. “You think he’s going to be peeking into our windows or something?”
“There are curtains.” He pointed. “I can see them. We’ll make sure they’re closed at night.”
This was all spiraling out of control so fast. “But?—”
