“Cool.” He looks up at her, smiling, with his shaggy blond hair falling into his eyes. “And if you’re going to be here a few more days, I could show you around.”
“She’ll be with me,” I say, unable to help myself, and he turns my way.
“Oh.” His brows draw together as he focuses back on Cybil. “I thought you said you were just here for one of those adventure trips.”
“Buddy,” I growl, and his eyes fly to me, “can you just focus on stitching up her hand? She’s tired and not interested.”
Swallowing, he drops his gaze and gets to work. Thankfully, he’s quiet while he finishes up, then quickly provides instructions on how to take care of the injury and when to return to have the stitches removed. By the time we leave the hospital, the sun has set, and Cybil is half falling asleep. I stop at the drugstore to pick up her prescriptions and then drive to the lodge, when all I really want to do is take her up to my place and hide her away for the next week, maybe even longer.
“Do you think everyone will be mad if I just wave at them and go to bed?” she asks after I open the passenger-side door to my truck.
“Even if they are, who the hell cares?” I turn so that she can climb onto my back, ignoring her huff before she wraps her arms around my neck and her legs around my hips. Thankfully her ankle is fine, but she did twist it, so it’s going to be sore for a couple of days. “And you need to take a pain pill.”
“I know. I also want to shower, but I don’t know that I’ll be able to do that with this stupid thing.” She holds her bandaged hand in front of my face. “It’s going to take me a year to wash my hair.”
“I’ll help you,” I assure her, feeling the muscles in her thighs tense under my palms. “I’ll also keep my eyes closed.”
“Yeah, right.” She laughs, and I smile as I head up the steps and walk through the door. Before I even have a chance to put her down, Parker spots us and tells everyone we’re back, so Cybil is engulfed and slammed with question after question. I watch as she’s helped to one of the couches, then lift my chin to Blake and Maverick as they make their way across the room toward me.
“We need to talk,” Blake says, walking past me and right out the door. I look to Mav, who shrugs, giving me a look that states clearly he doesn’t know what’s going on, before we both follow Blake outside.
“I talked to our lawyer,” Blake says, spinning to face us, and my spine stiffens as my eyes narrow. “He assured me that the contract Cybil signed is pretty much ironclad, so she can’t sue us. But he said it might be smart to have her sign something to say that the accident was not our fault.”
“Pardon?” I narrow my eyes, sure I heard him wrong.
“Look, I get that you’re into this girl, but we need to protect our business and not get caught up with pussy.”
“What the fuck did you just say?” I take a step toward him but stop when Mav’s hand comes to rest against my chest.
“Brother.” Mav shakes his head at me.
“We had a deal when we started this business.” Blake takes a step back. “We agreed that there would be no fraternizing.” He crosses his arms over his chest. “I’m not willing to lose everything because you got the hots for a client and can’t keep your dick in your pants.”
“First.” I lift my hand and point my finger in Blake’s face as rage runs hot through my veins. “Do not ever”—I accentuate each word—“fucking ever again refer to Cybil as ‘pussy.’ Second, what the fuck I do with my dick has never been and will never be any of your business. And third, we are equal partners, so you should fucking know that I would never do anything to jeopardize what we’ve built.”
“You’ve been distracted since the day she showed up here,” he says in defense while looking at Mav for his agreement.
“And?” I stand back and cross my arms over my chest. “Did anyone complain about the job I did during this last guide?”
“No.” He frowns. “But that’s not the point.”
“So what is the point? I didn’t plan on Cybil showing up. I didn’t know her before this trip. But I gotta tell you, man, I will fucking walk if you try to make me choose between her and this place.” I startle myself with that statement, but even as freaked as it makes me, I know it’s true. No one has ever made me feel what she has in the short time that I’ve known her, and as much as I love the people I consider family here, they are not mine, and if I’m right about Cybil, she’s going to be that to me—my family.
“You don’t even know her.” His nostrils flare, and his fists clench.
“The point is, I want to keep getting to know her. Fuck, man, you know me.” I shake my head, disappointed as fuck and pissed the hell off. “You’ve known me for years. You should know this is something else, and the fact that you want to act like I’m thinking with my dick is fucked up and complete bullshit.”
Blake looks at Mav once more.
“Sorry, man, but I gotta agree with Tanner on this.” Mav steps back so he’s no longer between us. “I’m not saying I’m happy that Cybil is a client, but I know Tanner would not go there unless he felt like there was something between them.”
When Blake doesn’t say more, I sigh. “If we’re done here, I need to get Cybil to eat something so she can take her meds. And in the morning, I’m heading to my place with her. If you need me, you know how to get ahold of me.” Then, without a backward glance, I head inside and straight to Cybil.
“Is everything okay?” she asks as I carry her down the hall to my room. When we built this place, we knew we’d each want to have a space of our own to crash after a trip, or when we had to be here early before a guide. So we built a separate wing at the back of the lodge with three small studio apartments away from the guests, which is nice after coming off a long week.
“All good.” I set her on her feet when I reach my door, then quickly type my code into the lock and let us in. “I’m going to go get your suitcase from your car and something for you to eat,” I tell her as I help her over to the couch in the corner of the room. “The TV works, and the password for the internet is Livelifeadventures, all one word with a capital L, in case you want to go online.” I grab my laptop, which is still on the bed where I left it the last time I was here, and hand it over to her.
“I can go get my bag.” She starts to stand but stops when her eyes meet my narrowed ones. “Okay.” She lifts her hands. “I won’t go get my bag, but something seems off with you. Is everything okay?”
I close the distance between us and take her face between my palms. “Everything is good.” Really, it’s better than good, even with the bullshit. It feels right having her in my space, having her with me. “I just want you to eat something, shower, and take your pill so you can rest. It’s been a long fucking day.” I brush my lips across hers.