“That’s the surprise.”
She followed him back toward the cabin, where the sounds of his family filtered out through the open windows. It was definitely a full house with everybody there, but Hailey liked his family and they liked her. When she and Matt had both managed to grab a four-day weekend, she hadn’t minded at all the suggestion they get out of Whitford.
They’d arrived yesterday morning and spent the day doing the things they usually did at camp. Fishing. Card games. Walks in the woods. A campfire when the sun went down, with lots of stories, laughter and s’mores.
Today, after lunch had been cleared, Matt decided he wanted to fish for a while. Hailey always packed books, so she had no complaints. She wasn’t one to turn down quiet reading time. But the idea of a road trip was intriguing.
“Is Bear going with us?” she asked, hoping to weasel a clue out of him.
“Nope. He’s going to hang out here.”
“Do I need to bring anything with me?”
“Nope.” And he refused to say anything more.
After saying goodbye to the family, they got in her car and she wondered if this road trip was the reason they weren’t in his truck. They almost never brought her car to the cabin because driving it meant Matt had to slow down on the back roads.
When he finally, after over an hour of driving without so much as a hint, slowed and took a right turn at a sign for a luxury resort Hailey had only ever seen pictures of, she looked at him with wide eyes. “Are we lost?”
He gave her an indignant look. “I’m never lost.”
When they reached the end of the long, winding drive and the resort came into view, she sucked in a breath. It was even more gorgeous in person. The sprawling, historical resort, with its deep porches and gables was more massive than it looked in photographs. With immaculate grounds surrounded by woods, the photos didn’t do it justice.
Matt pulled up in front of the grand front entrance and an attendant appeared with a luggage cart. Hailey looked down at her jeans and sweatshirt, wincing. It wouldn’t surprise her at all if the guy pointed them to the service entrance. Then Matt popped the trunk. There were two garment bags and a suitcase in there.
“When did you put those in there?” She remembered leaving her house and she remembered him carrying in their duffel bags when they got to camp. She didn’t remember a suitcase and two garment bags.
He grinned. “You may not know this about yourself, but you’re remarkably easy to distract.”
She might have been offended if he wasn’t leading her through the front doors. The lobby alone was breathtaking, and she hoped she’d get a chance to look around the hotel. She wasn’t even sure why they were there, but she was going to soak in every bit she could.
It seemed a little surreal when Matt gave his name to the woman at the desk and Hailey realized he had a reservation for the remainder of their mini-vacation. “We’re staying here? Really?”
“Really.”
“You were right earlier. You’re totally getting lucky tonight.”
He led her to the elevator and, once the doors had closed, he squeezed her hand. “I bet this place has a great fishing pond.”
“Tell me you’re kidding.”
“No, I bet it really does have a great fishing pond, but you’ll notice I didn’t bring my pole.”
“There wasn’t room with the suitcase and garment bags. What’s in them?”
“I know what I put in them. What Paige packed for you, I have no idea.”
“Paige was in on this?”
He shrugged. “I was going to do it myself, but then I opened your closet and panicked.”
The elevator stopped and he held her hand as they went down the hallway to the room they’d been given. After sliding the key card through the slot, he stepped back and let her go in first.
The room screamed expensive romance, from the wine chilling in a bucket to the luxurious-looking bed linens just begging to be rumpled. Their suitcase was sitting on a rack and their garment bags were in the closet. She kicked off her flip-flops to walk barefoot across the thick carpet to the window. The view of the grounds, with woods and distant mountains in the background, was breathtaking and she sighed as Matt wrapped his arms around her from behind.
“This is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been.”
He kissed the back of her neck, making her shiver. “The bathtub is enormous and has the same view. We’ll check that out later, but right now I’m going to take a shower and get dressed.”
“We could check out the shower together.”