Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 122514 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 408(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122514 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 408(@300wpm)
“Something going on with you and Forster?”
Silence.
Hadley had been scraping the grill, but she stopped. Owen had been pulling the plate dispenser back over to me, but he stopped that too.
I let out a small sigh, reaching for a last bin to rinse. “What makes you say that?”
“Because it’s the third night in a row I saw you walking back to the village with him.”
There was nothing inappropriate about what we were doing. There was some gray area about me staying in his cabin, but nothing had happened. At all. But I felt some twinges of shame as previous accusations from Keith flared up in me.
I never did anything wrong back then either, but it never mattered. Keith always found some excuse to accuse me of something.
I waited a second before answering. Finishing the bin, I put it on the tray and loaded it into the machine, then turned to face Grant. He was in the doorway between me and the rest of the kitchen. Owen and Hadley were waiting behind him, both looking uncomfortable.
“What are you accusing me of?”
“Are you sleeping with him?”
Sophia had just entered the cafeteria, but she paused coming through the tables. There’s no way she could’ve heard Grant, but she must have sensed the awkwardness in the atmosphere. Her gaze was searching. She found Grant first and then me, looking right at her.
Her eyes narrowed as she approached. “Grant?”
He looked, but turned back to me. “I asked you a question, Charlie. Are you sleeping with him?”
“Grant!” She sounded horrified.
I wasn’t sleeping with him in the way he was asking, but saying no felt like I was hiding something. I didn’t want to hide. It felt wrong.
“Charlie!” A second hiss from him.
“No, okay?”
His head tilted to the side. “Why’d you take so long to answer?”
I opened my mouth.
Hadley beat me to it, pushing past him. “Because maybe she wants to sleep with him. How about that? And she can if she wants.”
Uh—what?
Little Hadley was all in his face, her two French braids bouncing from her energy.
“She’s not a full-time staff member, and none of us are kids now. I have three little ones of my own. And really, who could blame her?”
“It’s Reese Forster,” Owen added. “I mean, if I swung that way, I’d want to as well.”
That said a lot coming from Owen.
He adjusted his shoulder, rolling it back.
“You saw her walking with him back to the village. That’s the same path she takes to her cabin. So what? She’s allowed to talk to him.” Sophia with another defense.
Guilt bloomed in me.
All three of them had spoken up for me. Gah. I had to come clean. I liked them all too much.
“Okay! Fine. You all can stop defending me because I…kinda, but not really lied just now.” I squared my shoulders and shoved all the shame out of me, because I did not deserve it. “I’m not sleeping with him, but I am sleeping in his cabin.”
Hadley wheeled to me, her mouth open.
“Damn,” Owen breathed.
Sophia just blinked, looking shocked.
A flush was working up Grant’s neck. “You’re sleeping in his cabin?”
“He was waiting for me one night when I got back—just to talk. I don’t know why, to be honest. He likes me as a gnat—his words, not mine.” I held a hand up to halt anything incoming from them. “And it’s not romantic at all. He was in the fishing cabin and almost puked from the smell.” I gave Owen and Hadley an apologetic look. “You guys aired it out to the best you could, but the smell’s come back. He made me sleep in his cabin that night. He’s offered to demand that Keith find me somewhere else to sleep, but you all know he’ll just put me in the janitor’s closet downstairs. He doesn’t give a shit about health codes for staff. So yeah, I’ve been sleeping in his cabin, but that’s all. I swear.”
Hadley’s mouth had closed, and she rotated right back to Grant. “Happy now?” She looked over her shoulder to me. “And for the record, if I were you and I was single, I’d be sleeping with him by now.” She moved past Grant with a harrumph. “And no one would be making me feel guilty about it. We’re all too old for that.”
Owen found my eyes. “We have a guest room you can use, if you want.”
“That house is for you and your family. You can’t be offering that room up for staff every time it’s needed. That’s your home.”
“Offer’s open anytime you need it, and we don’t need to tell Keith either.” He gave Grant a meaningful look before leaving, following Hadley because the last of the dishes were done.
They went to his office, and I heard the door open a second later as they left. Staff had the rest of the day off.