Finances were a game played on a massive scale where the stakes were the difference between buying a second vacation home or getting evicted and kicked out onto the streets. The potential to ruin someone else’s life simply by making one wrong move was thrilling if not downright boner inducing.
But I digress.
“It’s an IOU,” he finally said.
Raising my brow, I repeated. “IOU?”
“You remember what it stands for?”
If only I could reach through the phone and strangle him. The worst part is that he’d probably like it.
“What are the parameters of this IOU?”
“The usual. One favor at any time, any place, anywhere. Winner gets to choose the timeline on when the favor needs to be redeemed by.”
“Fine,” I said, hauling my bag off of my bed in order to swing it around and dump it next to my door. “You’ve got yourself a deal. I look forward to proving you wrong.”
“Me too. Though, I doubt you will.”
Oh, he was so lucky he wasn’t standing right next to me. “Goodbye, Silas.”
“Call me before you lose service. So I know where to send the forest rangers when they have to come rescue you.”
Rolling my eyes, I slammed my thumb down on the ‘end’ icon and tossed my phone onto my bed.
What was it with surgeons and being giant asswipes?
It had to have been taught somewhere in medical school: ‘how to be a douche 101’.
Or maybe it was an upper level class. A real 304.
Whatever. I wasn’t about to let him get in my head about this. I’d made my decision weeks ago when I’d signed up and sent in my yearly physical for medical approval. Surviving a wilderness camp for the next six weeks was going to be fine.
Iwas going to be fine.
All that I’d walk out of there with was probably a mild case of poison ivy and a whole favor richer.
Ah, I could taste the sweet victory lap I’d be doing now while Silas got to eat his words—both metaphorically and physically, because the second I got back from this trip, I was going to make him write down his doubts and then force feed it to him.
A real, put your money where your mouth is type scenario.
Cruel?
Maybe, but he started it.
Good thing I was happy to end it.
My phone chimed with my alarm, reminding me that I needed to get in my car and head over to the pickup site, pronto.
Grabbing my phone and my bag up off the floor, I slung it over my shoulder and gave my bedroom one last cursory glance before shutting off the light and leaving it, and the rest of my problems, behind for the next six weeks.
CHAPTER 1
Marlow
Wakefield wasas lush as it was mountainous with the small town about an hour outside of Ellington Heights. Remote and nestled right in the valley of Mt. Craigleith’s incredible and towering peak, it was a hidden gem that not many tourists were familiar with, leaving it withstanding the test of time and its annoying insistence on constant change.
Charming brick shops were woven between the narrow streets of Wakefield’s downtown district, making it hard for our travel bus to cruise through the budding traffic that was already starting to congest the main drag. Aside from the early hour, there were plenty of residents wandering the sidewalks, coming and going from businesses that were just beginning to open their doors.
