Page 43 of Tempted To Be Mine

She pulled out one of the buds.

“Very.” She didn’t look up. “You did great out there.”

“Thanks.” I waited for her to say something else. She didn’t. “So, what’s the plan for tonight? Dinner at the lodge?”

“I think I’m going to eat in my cabin. I have a lot of emails to catch up on.”

“Again?”

She finally looked at me, her expression polite but distant. “It’s work. It doesn’t stop just because we’re in Alaska.”

“Right. Yeah. Of course.”

The silence stretched between us, awkward and uncomfortable. This wasn’t us. We didn’t do awkward silences. We did easy conversations and comfortable companionship and jokes that made each other laugh.

“Okay,” I said finally. “Well, if you change your mind, I’ll be at the lodge.”

“Thanks. I’ll let you know.”

She wouldn’t. I could tell. She was going to hide in her cabin and pretend everything was normal while putting as much distance between us as possible.

I watched her walk away, her shoulders hunched against the cold. I didn’t like the way this was all going. I needed my Lucy back. If I had known falling asleep last night would result in this, I would have stood up and let her flop to the side. Left her butt on the couch.

I changed into my own clothes and made my way over to the lodge for drinks and dinner. I walked in and noticed several people were already congregating in front of the massive fireplace. It crackled with a large fire that pushed out enough heat to reach across the room. I grabbed a drink from the bar and found a seat in one of the leather chairs near the flames. I stared into the fire and tried to sort through the mess in my head.

“You look like a man with a lot on his mind.”

I looked up. Sebastian stood there with a glass of whiskey in his hand.

“Just tired,” I said. “Long day. The cold takes it out of you.”

“Mmm.” He settled into the chair across from me. “The shoot went well. You’re doing excellent work.”

“Thanks.”

“But something’s bothering you.” It wasn’t a question.

I took a long drink, considering how much to share. Sebastian was family. We’d known each other our whole lives. If there was anyone I could talk to about this, it was probably him.

“It’s Lucy,” I said finally.

His eyebrows rose. “Lucy? Your manager? What about her?”

“It’s complicated.”

He chuckled. “Why am I not surprised?”

“She’s being weird. Distant. Very business-like instead of…” I gestured vaguely. “You know. Normal.”

“Did something happen?”

I sighed, feeling a little guilty and then remembered I hadn’t done shit. Not really. “Last night, after dinner, I brought her food because she was too tired to eat at the lodge. We were sitting on the couch in her cabin, and we both fell asleep. Just fell asleep. Nothing happened.”

Sebastian nodded slowly. “And this morning?”

“She freaked out. Started talking about professional boundaries and lines we shouldn’t cross. And ever since then, she’s been acting like I’m just her client instead of her friend.”

“I see.”