Room For You (Cranberry Inn)

by Beth Ehemann

  “I would be honored to be in your wedding, Lauren. Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

  She let out a sigh of relief and smiled at me nervously. “I’m glad you feel that way, because we gotta get moving. The wedding is in two and a half months.”

  My jaw almost hit the table. “Are you pregnant?”

  Lauren laughed and shook her head back and forth. “No, but Tommy got accepted into the Master’s Photography Program at the Liberal Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. We leave at the end of August and we won’t be back until late next spring. We didn’t want to wait that long to get married, and of course, we want our family and friends there, so … we’re bumping it up. Big time.”

  “You’re moving to Italy? That’s amazing!” My twinge doubled in size, just the way the Grinch’s heart grew. I was ecstatic for Lauren, but she was living the life I wanted. Being a single parent of twins and still living with my mom at twenty-four wasn’t exactly what I had planned. My petty jealousy disappeared and guilt took over when I saw the joy dancing across Lauren’s face. She was glowing and I owed it to her to ditch my pity party and be the best bridesmaid ever.

  “I know, I’m beyond excited. I’m gonna grab some wedding magazines and we can browse. Be right back.”

  Pulling into our driveway, I had forgotten it was Friday and was momentarily taken aback by the slew of new cars in the driveway. “Wow girls, lots of new people today,” I said to them, and to myself.

  “Mom, Piper got in trouble at storytime,” Lucy blurted out.

  I spun around to face them in the backseat.

  “I didn’t get in trouble,” Piper argued. “Cinderella told me to keep my voice down.”

  “Why? Were you yelling?”

  “No. A second grader thinks she knows everything. She said her mommy was running a marathon tomorrow and I told her she was wrong. People can’t run marathons. Marathons are when the same show is on TV all day long.” Piper smirked and looked out her window, mighty proud of herself.

  There goes my chance of winning Mother of the Year.

  “Come on, weirdos. Let’s go tell Gigi your story, she’ll love that one.”

  We climbed out of the car and made our way to the front door. I stopped dead in my tracks, my heart leaping into my throat when I saw a familiar black pickup truck parked further up the driveway. The girls didn’t skip a beat, one passing on each side of me on their way to the front porch.

  Okay, Kacie, stop being a freak. You saw his truck once and it was during a torrential downpour, no way is that the same truck.

  I filled my lungs with crisp Minnesota air and exhaled slowly, urging my heartbeat to return to a normal pace.

  The girls made their way through the front door, with me a few hesitant steps behind. I was putting our shoes in the closet when I heard the girls squeal from the back of house. “Brody!”

  My body froze.

  Holy shit.

  He was here. Why? To torture me? I closed the closet door and turned to make my way toward the kitchen, pausing in front of the mirror, making sure I looked presentable.

  My mom was standing in the kitchen, leaning against the island with her arms folded across her chest, while Brody sat on a stool across from her. He had a baseball cap on, pulled down low. His eyes were shadowed so that I could hardly see them, but I knew he was staring at me. Lucy and Piper were kneeling on the ground petting Diesel, who was licking the leftover cookie crumbs from Cinderella off their faces.

  “Hi, honey. How was storytime?” My mom beamed at me like it was no big deal that the sexiest man I had ever laid my eyes on was sitting three feet to her left.

  “Um, it was good. They had fun. What’s going on?” I looked back and forth from my mom to Brody.

  A small, cocky smile crossed his lips, but he didn’t say a word. His stare was too intense. I looked back to my mom.

  “Nothin’, just hanging out. Brody called this morning to see if we had any vacancies and we did, so he’s staying for the weekend. Fred’s a little giddy. He’s out back re-stringing his fishing poles.” Mom chuckled. “Come on, girls, let’s take Diesel outside and give him some fresh water on the deck.”

  The girls hopped up and followed Mom to the back door with Diesel on their heels.

  “Gigi, Piper got in trouble at storytime.” Lucy babbled to Mom on their way out the back door.

  “So, what? You just needed a weekend getaway?” I said dryly to Brody once the back door closed.

  “No, I missed Fred.” He shot back with a wicked grin.

  I rolled my eyes and turned to the fridge, grabbing a bottle of water and a bowl of grapes. Without turning around I asked, “Can I get you anything, since you’re a paying guest and all?”

  He let out a short chuckle. “No thanks, but don’t eat too much. We’re leaving for dinner in a couple hours.”

  I spun around and locked eyes with him. “Dinner?”

  “Yeah … dinner,” he replied confidently.

  “But this morning we agreed-”

  “We agreed to be friends. Friends have dinner together. I already asked your mom to babysit.”

  “You … when…” I sputtered words but no sentences.

  “So, like I said … don’t eat too much.” He got up and pushed the stool in, locking eyes with me one more time. “I’d like you to be … hungry … when we go out later.” He winked at me as he turned to head out the back door.

  My room at the inn was painted a calming shade of bluish gray, and thank God I don’t mind that color because I stared at it for two hours while I was hiding from Kacie. Not that I wanted to avoid her, but I knew I got under her skin in the kitchen and I wanted her thinking about me for a couple hours before dinner, so I was out of sight. I stretched out on the bed, wondering what she was doing right now. Was she down in the kitchen giving the girls dinner? Was she reading on the back deck? Was she sitting at the island chewing on her bottom lip while concentrating on her nursing stuff? It was killing me to be this close but not talking to her so I grabbed my phone.

  HEY I WOULD LIKE TO PICK YOU UP FOR DINNER AT 7PM IF THAT’S OKAY?

  I tapped my foot impatiently, waiting for her response.

  K: 7 IS FINE. YOU ARE WEIRD.

  WHY AM I WEIRD?

  K: WE ARE IN THE SAME HOUSE, YET YOU ARE TEXTING ME. LIKE I SAID, WEIRD.

  JUST SO YOU KNOW, I’M VERY BUSY UP HERE DOING ALL SORTS OF IMPORTANT THINGS.

  K: UH HUH. FRED WENT UP A WHILE AGO TO ASK IF YOU WANTED TO FISH FOR A BIT AND HE THOUGHT HE HEARD SNORING.

  THAT WAS DIESEL.

  K: SURE IT WAS. WHERE ARE WE GOING TONIGHT, ANYWAY?

  THAT’S FOR ME TO KNOW AND YOU TO FIND OUT.

  K: WELL, YOU HAVE TO GIVE ME A HINT. I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO WEAR.

  DRESS CASUAL. WEAR THAT LITTLE BLACK NUMBER.

  K: WHAT BLACK NUMBER?

  THE ONE YOU WERE WEARING IN THE BATHROOM WHEN PIPER OPENED THE DOOR.

  K: ASS :)

  Oh, I see you’re back again, smiley face. I hope you’re ready to get your ass kicked this time. I’m gonna turn that one eye into a wink if it kills me.

  I had forty-five minutes until I needed to pick Kacie up for our date, time to get moving. I grabbed my keys, left Diesel sleeping in my room and headed downstairs.

  “Hi Brody!” Lucy and Piper called out as I passed the kitchen. No sign of Kacie anywhere.

  “Hey Twinkies! I’ll be back soon, okay?”

  “Shit!” The clock on my truck dashboard read 6:57.

  Cutting it a little close, Murphy. Don’t blow it.

  I rang the doorbell. Sophia opened the door, her face contorted with confusion.

  “Hi, Ms. Jensen. I’m here to pick up Kacie.”

  She giggled and stepped back. “Oh, you’re adorable. Come in, Brody.”

  “These are for you.” I handed her a small bouquet of tulips.

  “They are beautiful, thank you.” She furrowed her brow at me, still trying to figure everything out. “Hang on, I’ll
get Kacie.”

  She disappeared around the corner and I stayed in the foyer, waiting for my … friend. Lucy and Piper came tearing toward me from the back family room.

  “Brody, are you sick?” asked Piper.

  “Yeah, do you have a fever?” Lucy asked, tugging on my shirt.

  I bent down to her level as she felt my forehead. “Nope, not sick. Why?”

  They looked at each other and shrugged.

  “Mom was on the phone with Auntie Alexa and she said you were hot. If you’re hot, you have a fever. Do you need medicine?” Lucy continued the inquest.

  “She said I was hot, huh? Interesting. I promise you, kiddo, I’m not sick, but thanks for checking on me.”

  I held my hand up and they each high-fived me before they ran off.

  Kacie came around the corner and my mouth started salivating. She had on a white, lacy tank top and khaki shorts that showed off more of her legs than I had seen before. Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun with a few random pieces falling onto her collarbone. The closer she got, the more her green eyes sparkled. She looked simple, yet incredibly sexy. I was going to need a fucking straight jacket to keep my hands off of her all night.

  “Hey,” she said, smiling at me.

  “Hey there.” I leaned forward, giving her a quick “friendly” hug.

  She smelled unbelievable; a lethal cocktail of flowers and her pheromones sent my mind into a goddamn tailspin. I wanted to drop to my knees and beg her to blow off the friend idea right now, but Viper’s words kept ringing in my ear. ‘Turn the tables, prove her wrong, and then make her beg.’ Still drunk on her scent, the thought of Kacie begging for anything was enough to make me hard right there in the foyer.

  “Ready to go?”

  A small, skeptical smile splayed across her lips as she nodded at me. I stepped back and opened the door for her, following her out. She turned left off the porch, heading for my truck.

  I reached out and grabbed her hand, tugging on it gently. “This way.” I nodded to the right.

  She looked surprised. “That way? There’s nothing over-”

  “Shh. Follow me.”

  She didn’t resist again, gripping my hand back and following me around the side of the house. We didn’t talk while we walked across the backyard or for the couple hundred feet down to the lake. I peeked back at her, silently congratulating myself at the confused look on her face.

  When we got to the edge of the yard, I made a slight left, still pulling her behind me. We stepped onto the creaky wooden boards of the pier and I looked back at her again. Her eyes were fixed on the blanket and candles at the end of the pier. She looked at me and smirked, shaking her head.

  “What?” I joked, defensively.

  “The candles—those aren’t exactly ‘friend’ candles.” She nudged my shoulder without letting go of my hand. Any physical contact with her was a bonus. She could give me a noogie and I’d consider it a win.

  “No, they aren’t ‘friend’ candles, they’re citronella. I didn’t want you to get the wrong idea and start hitting on me or anything.”

  She laughed heartily and I silently put another tick in the win column.

  As we got to the edge of the pier, I regretfully let go of her hand so I could go around to the other side of the blanket. I waited for her to sit first, then I followed suit.

  She glanced down at the dinner I’d thought long and hard about. “Pizza and beer, huh?”

  “Hey, if we were on a date, I would be trying to impress you. Since we’re just pals, this is all you get.”

  She playfully stuck out her tongue and grabbed a Miller 64 out of the cooler. She twisted the cap off and raised the bottle to her mouth, licking her lips before the bottle touched them. My khakis felt tight; I looked out at the water and talked to myself.

  Speed boats. Green grass. Pringles. Jay Cutler.

  I took a deep breath and looked back at Kacie, crisis averted. Her eyes were narrowed, mouth closed with her tongue running along her teeth. “What were you just thinking about?”

  Ripping your clothes off and fucking you right here on this pier.

  “Um … I’m just wondering how this friend thing is gonna work? I normally talk about beer and sports with my friends. I know that you’re clearly not a hockey fan, so what should we talk about?”

  She looked down at the pier, embarrassed that I’d reminded her that she didn’t know who I was when we met. Little did she know that was one of the many things that attracted me to her.

  “Let’s talk about you,” she said.

  I pulled out the paper plates and handed her one. “Me?”

  “Yeah, I blabbed enough about me the first night we met, now it’s your turn.”

  “Ok, what do you want to know?”

  “Why don’t you tell me about your last relationship?” She grabbed a slice of pizza and started nibbling on the end.

  “I’ve never had a relationship.”

  “Liar.”

  “No joke. I’ve dated, but never anything serious. Hockey has been my life since I was ten years old. In high school, I was too focused on playing in college to date. Once I was in college, I was too focused on playing professionally. Now that I play professionally, I’m wary of every girl I meet.” She searched my face, looking for a clue that I was being truthful. “I promise you. Google me, you won’t find too many articles about me with girls.”

  “I already did, and you’re right. No articles about girls, but I do know that you love fountains.”

  “Ah, you read about that one, huh? Did you see the mugshot too?” I scratched my head, wishing I could delete that completely off the Internet. “It was a fun night, but it got a little out of hand.”

  “That’s a story I want to hear…”

  “Long story short, I was dared. We were playing in Chicago, and my buddy Viper and I went out after the game for drinks. I had too much liquid courage in my system and Viper dared me to drop trou and splash around for five minutes. I had two minutes left when a couple of bike cops pulled up and dragged my ass out of there and cuffed me. They realized who I was and might even have let me go had I not made some obnoxious remark about them ringing a bell instead of having a siren. They didn’t appreciate that too much.”

  “Viper, huh? Sounds like someone who would definitely be involved in the sport of fountain skinny dipping.”

  “Speaking of skinny-dipping…” I raised my eyebrows at her.

  “Not a chance,” she said, shaking her head back and forth.

  I grabbed the collar of my shirt and acted offended. “I wasn’t asking, geez. Who do you think I am? I’m not that easy.”

  “Oh, I highly doubt that.”

  “Someone who is sitting on a pier in a white tank top should be careful of the jokes she makes, don’t you think?”

  She laughed nervously, wondering if I was brave enough to toss her into the lake. I wasn’t.

  “Speaking of the pier, how did you pull all this off, by the way?”

  “Well, it’s not always easy for me to sit in a restaurant or bar and talk in peace, but I wanted to get you out of the house and have you to myself for a while—just as friends, of course—so a picnic was the next best thing. And what better place to have a picnic than on a pier? I looked out the window from inside the house and saw that it was private, so I put my plan into action.”

  “I’ve never had a picnic on the pier,” she said matter-of-factly.

  I reached over and high-fived her. “Me either.” I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly and continued. “I’ve also never had sex on a pier.”

  She shook her head again, pushing the pizza box out of the way.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, hoping she wasn’t cleaning up to go in.

  “It’s pretty dark, let’s lay on our backs and look up at the stars.”

  God, yes.

  Who knew something as simple as looking up at stars and talking could be so enjoyable? Conversation was easy with her. It felt like we’d
been friends forever. We talked for hours about everything and nothing. At one point, probably because of the beer, I got ballsy and reached out for her hand. She didn’t skip a beat. She just intertwined her fingers with mine and kept telling me about her and Alexa’s crazy high school adventures. What a fucking coincidence that the place I ordered her flowers from was her best friend’s shop. That might come in handy later, actually.

  A few hours later, she swatted at her leg for the hundredth time and sighed. “We should probably go in, I’m getting eaten up.”

  I pulled my phone out of my pocket and lit it up to check the time.

  12:45

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I promised Fred I’d be up by 6:00 and out here on the lake with him.”

  She crawled over and blew out the candles while I folded the blanket.

  “He’s really crazy about you, ya know? He’s so glad you’re here.”

  I looked straight into her eyes. “Is he the only one?”

  She stared back at me, frozen. Her eyes looked sad and she bit down on her bottom lip. “Don’t do that, Brody. We can’t go there.”

  I smiled a sincere, genuine smile at her. “That’s fine, I’ll let you off the hook … for now.”

  I lay in bed, listening to the girls giggling in the next room and replaying last night over and over in my mind. I hadn’t laughed that hard in a long time and it felt amazing. A day that started out with crappy texts ended with us lying hand in hand on the pier, watching the stars. My head was still spinning, and that was the problem.

  Brody was like a drug. When I was with him, my mind was in this hazy, euphoric state, but once the smoke cleared, I realized that I was just setting myself up for disaster. How many red flags did I need?