Nodding, I said, “Makes sense why you’d want to keep up your health regimen. I guess I’m just surprised you’d come all the way out here when you’ve got a lake back home. No clubs or adventure camps out that way?”
“Listen. I don’t know if you know anything about Ellington Heights, but it’s full of a bunch of pretentious motherfuckers who’d wither away if they so much as sweat a single drop. They’ll buy designer workout gear any day of the week, but ask them to use it outside of going to the grocery store? Forget it.”
“Not you though, right?” I teased.
Thankfully, that had him perking up a bit. “All of my gear will come home with me well-worn, trust me. I came from rags. I know how to get my money’s worth.”
Interesting.
Every sentence that came out of Marlow’s mouth was more intriguing than the next, leaving me waiting with baited breath as he geared up for the next one. I’d assumed he came from money and stayed on that path, yet hearing that hehadn’twas infinitely more fascinating.
I hadn’t grown up with money, either. Hell, I still wasn’t. Most of the profit thatAustin Adventuresmade went right back into it to pay off labor costs and restock what needed to be replaced. After that, repairs were done and accounted for, and if there wasanymoney left over after that, I used it to fund the non-profit.
All in all, I wasn’t exactly raking in the dough personally.
I wondered how long it was before Marlow found his way into money.
After he got his job?
A little before that?
My phone went off, scaring the shit out of me. Fishing it out of myotherpocket, the number for Guest Services flashing across the screen, I held back a sigh. If I was being called this late at night, there was something going down. And not in the good way. “Hey, what’s up?”
Kaylee sighed on the other end. “Can you come down here? We’ve got two couples fighting over the last pack of ramen.”
Good grief. “Yeah, I’ll swing by in a minute.”
Marlow snagged my empty bottle as he rolled to his feet again. “Duty calls?”
“It’s never ending, this season.”
Though who was I kidding?
This waseveryyear in a nutshell.
Normally, I welcomed the busyness that came with the camp being fully open for the summer. It was a nice change of pace compared to the molasses-like winter months that seemed to drag on for years instead of a few weeks.
Yet now, I was wanting to drag my feet in getting back to my duties, wanting to linger for as long as possible until I was getting tracked down and dragged back to the problem waiting to be solved.
What was Marlow doing to me?
“Thanks for stopping by,” Marlow said.
“Yeah. Sorry I couldn’t get what you were looking for.” Getting up from the couch without crinklingsaid thingswas an Olympic sport. One I was most certainly winning gold in.
“No worries. I’ll talk one of my couple friends into sneaking into town and grabbing us a box. There are people who leave the property for lunch and stuff, right?”
My mood instantly dampened, my instincts driving me to saying, “No.”
“You can’t tell me the food in the mess hall can beat Taco Bell?”
He was clearly ribbing me, but now I was absolutely not feeling it. In fact, all I wanted to do was storm out of here and head back to my cabin to bury my face into a pillow and scream.
Sending one of his future fuck buddies into town for condoms... who the fuck did that?
Responsible adults, Blake.
Obviously, Marlow’s whole little setback tonight wasn’t stopping him from overseeing his goal in sleeping with this married couple. Enough to already have half a plan devised.
