“Lover, or someone you could love?” I ask softly.
He gnaws the inside of his lip with his teeth before speaking. “Honestly, I think it could go either way. He’s pretty cool. Hot. The kind of guy I’d want to get serious with if... But he’s also now my boss, and even if he’s the kind of guy Icouldlove, I’m with you.” He finally looks me in the eye, and even though I know this man showing up has Blake rattled, the way he holds my gaze tells me he’s serious about us.
I don’t have the words to tell him how much I appreciate his honesty. All I know is, I owe him the same in return, even if it takes us down a path I’m not sure I want to follow. “I know you’re with me, but I don’t know if that means you can’t be with him.”
My comment lingers in the air a beat before Blake finally speaks. “What are you saying?”
“You told me even before he came to town that he’s the one other person you were interested in, and since things are so new for us, it seems unfair to ask you to make a commitment to me. To us.”
Blake sucks in a mouthful of air. “Is that what you want?”
“No.” I brush my thumb over the back of his hand. “But if the one person I thought about more with suddenly appeared in front of me, I don’t know how I’d feel. I never really operated under the assumption that I’d have to choose between people I like.”
“You never wanted a relationship?” His tone isn’t defensive, just curious.
“I never thought a relationship had to fit a certain definition, like only involving two people.”
“You’re telling me I should date both of you?” His brows disappear underneath his disheveled hair.
“I’m saying I understand that you might feel pulled toward two different people. I’ll respect it if you want to see this guy, too.”
Exhaling heavily, Blake watches my finger, which is still moving slowly over his hand. “Look, I won’t deny that seeing him threw me, especially since I think I’d want something with him under different circumstances. But Ihavealways assumed relationships are between two people, and everything about you and I feels right. I don’t want it to end before it starts, and I can’t think of a better way to screw this up than to try to date someone else while I’m with you.”
Selfishly, that’s what I wanted him to say. I need him to be positive though, considering he’s a big part of the reason I’m going to try living in this town. The most important part. “Is that because you want to be with just me, or you think that’s the easier decision?”
Blake’s nostrils flare as he pins me with a determined frown. “I don’t want easy, I want real, whatever that looks like. And this—” he draws aline between the two of us with his free hand “—feels real. I can’t explain why that is when it happened so fast…”
“It is real,” I growl, yanking him to me so I can press my lips to his. “That’s the only explanation. Now, get dressed and help me move into my new bedroom.”
Taking charge lets me mask the relief I feel over not having to share Blake with anyone else, and as an added bonus he seems to like it. Yet hours later, as we drift off, I can’t help wondering if we’re destined to fail.
I don’t doubt Blake when he says he’s focused on the two of us. He clearly believes it. I just wonder if he’ll feel the same after working next to this man day after day.
Chapter thirteen
Kane
Despite the awkward first day, where I basically propositioned my employee, Blake and I quickly fell into a comfortable rhythm. I still drool over him when he’s not looking of course, but after just a few days, we’ve got a friendly rapport that makes working side-by-side easy.
As a lifelong resident of Katah Vista, he knowseveryone, and he makes sure they all know me. He doesn’t just introduce me either, he talks up the work I did in Utah and praises my plans for the park here. And he defers to me without any undertone or sour expression, which has everyone on the team treating me with respect. I’d have earned that on my own—by doing good work—but his example made things harmonious from day one.
That’s no small thing.
The town I came from in Utah isn’t nearly as small as Katah Vista, but the resort itself was a tight-knit community much like the town is here, and any time that community faces major changes… There’s sort of an inherent aversion to anything new, at least until people trust that you aren’t there to take advantage of the natural treasures they live here to enjoy.
No matter how much everyone professes to be okay working for me, I’m still an outsider, so there’s a certain amount of skepticism that comes with the territory. So, even though I didn’t want or need Blake to make things easier for me, it’s nice to focus on making progress instead of proving myself. Having him to stop the bullshit before it starts means the whole crew falls into sync faster, and since we want to have something ready to ride by the end of the summer season, I can’t complain. Plus, the guy makes me laugh on the regular, and who doesn’t like to have fun while they work?
Blake has an endless amount of “local lore” to share, mostly harmless in nature, like how his favorite bar, The Underground, used to be off-limits because the older men in town had claimed it as their own, and didn’t want young “riff raff” in their space. That changed when his friend Dex bought the place and fixed it up a bit. Now it’s popular amongst a younger crowd and regularly attracts tourists.
There are mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, the town is more likely to attract the tourists it needs to survive if there are places for them to get a drink and play a game of pool. On the other, you can’t always walk in and get a seat at the bar unless it’s mud season when town is made up of mostly locals.
According to Blake, some of the older guys still grumble about it, but to the younger guys it feels like a rite of passage to hang out in a place they used to dream of being able to enter with their dads and grandads. I don’t know why I find that so fascinating, but I do.
My favorite tale, though, is about a local outlaw.
I guess it wasn’t uncommon in the old days for people to lay low here, since the town is so remote, and most people don’t ask too many questions. Draft dodgers were common, but one guy, known only as Phil, was arrested for drug trafficking after living here nearly thirty years. Apparently, Phil—not his real name by the way—had a wildyouth, but mellowed after moving here to avoid capture, and turned into a pillar of the community. No one had any reason to question the guy who volunteered at the local school, theater, and fire department, so it came as quite the shock when the FBI swooped in to snatch him up.
Blake’s animated storytelling and easygoing personality make the time pass quickly, which I appreciate. Unfortunately, they also make him even more attractive to me. I do my best to ignore that and just appreciate being in the outdoors, doing what I love. Although, most days I can’t help resenting the boundaries he’s set. I won’t ignore them, but internally I struggle to keep things platonic, and I’m constantly having to remind myself not to daydream about the night we shared.
