“You ready?” he called out and smiled when she joined him with her backpack all packed and good to go.
The drive to school was completely uneventful, but Annabeth was looking forward to art class today and promised to bring home something they could hang on the refrigerator.
On his way back to the resort, he rehearsed his apology to Slater in his mind and hoped this wouldn’t turn into a big thing. He’d say he was sorry for coming into the cabin so late and waking him up and he’d promise it would never happen again. Then he’d offer to make him his favorite breakfast—blueberry pancakes—and hopefully they’d just move on.
“Fingers crossed.”
But when he walked into the lodge, it was eerily quiet. He came in the back way, like he always did, and there was usually some sort of work going on. Walking through the massive kitchen, he stepped out to the lobby and paused in his tracks.
Standing in front of him like a wall were Slater, Axel, Maisie, Walker, Harlow, and Milo.
And there was a massive sign above their heads that read, “INTERVENTION.”
Shit.
“When did you get here?” he asked Milo.
“I took the red-eye,” he replied before yawning loudly. “And I’m getting really tired of hearing everyone bitch about you, so pay attention to what they have to say.”
“What they…?”
Walker stepped forward first. “You need to sit down, Connor. Please.”
Crap. They were really going to do this?
“Guys, I have a lot to do today. I had already planned on apologizing to Slater for waking him up…”
“And nearly choking me to death,” Slater corrected.
“You didn’t almost choke to death. You coughed. Big difference.”
“Connor,” Walker said louder. “Please.”
With a huff of annoyance, he sat where he was told to and then waited.
“Okay, so we felt we needed to do this because you are clearly on edge. The closer we get to the resort opening, the more…unhinged you’ve become,” Walker stated.
“Unhinged? How am I unhinged?”
“You mean besides breaking into people’s cabins and force-feeding them cake while they’re still asleep?” Slater murmured.
“Alright already! I’m sorry. I thought you’d be happy that I made the cake you love. Clearly, I was wrong.”
“You weren’t wrong, Con. You just didn’t need to wake me up at two a.m. to give it to me.”
He shrugged as Axel stepped forward.
“It’s not just…you know…whatever it was you did to traumatize Slater last night. You’ve been a little aggressive in your taste testing, and we all just feel like maybe we need to talk about it.”
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Connor forced himself to count to ten before saying anything. “Okay, how exactly am I aggressive in taste testing?”
“Well, sort of like what you did to Slater last night,” Harlow chimed in. “You’ve pretty much ambushed all of us more than once and shoved food in our mouths without our consent.”
Rolling his eyes, he wasn’t sure what to say to that.
“Everything you make is delicious,” she amended. “But you’ve interrupted phone calls, private conversations, and…just yesterday, you scared one of the cleaning girls so much that she quit.”
“She quit? Seriously? All because I offered her a bowl of butternut squash soup?”
