Page 5 of Wedding Bet

“Where’s home, for you?” he asked.

“Stellara Beach, California,” I said. “If you’ve never heard of it, you’re not alone. I don’t know if Chase has ever talked to you about our old town. It’s a tiny beach town mostly filled with hippies between Los Angeles and—”

“Between Los Angeles and San Diego,” he said, his expression softening into curiosity. “I drive through Stellara Beach all of the time. I’m from Los Angeles.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling awkward that I’d assumed he didn’t know. “That’s neat.”

“Neat,” he repeated. “I like that you use the wordneat.”

I shifted on my feet. “Sorry. I’m not that great at conversations. I mean, ones likethis, I guess. I do talk to people every day at the diner, but usually it’s followed byand how do you take your eggs, ordo you want cream and sugar in that coffee. That sort of thing.”

He cocked his head to one side. “Maybe sometime I’ll drive through Stellara Beach and stop by your diner. I hope you’re coming skiing tomorrow?”

I’d heard that Chase, Adam, and some more of the wedding guests had been planning to hit the slopes tomorrow morning.

“Don’t think I’d be much good at that,” I told him. “I’m not exactly a snow bunny.”

“Seems like you’re having plenty of fun in it right now,” he said, reaching out to brush away the snowflakes that had accumulated on my head. “Have you ever surfed, Marshmallow?”

“Only a little,” I said.

“Well, skiing is kind of like that,” Landry said. “Okay, actually, I’m lying. Skiing is almost nothing like surfing. But you should try anyway. Let me give you my number and you can circle back with me tomorrow morning.”

He reached out to hand me a business card, small and white between his strong outstretched fingers. I just stared at it for a moment, dumbfounded. “Did you just call me a marshmallow and then offer me your phone number?” I asked.

“I’m usually better at flirting,” he said, shrugging one shoulder. “But I’ve got nothing to lose.”

Suddenly the heat in my cheeks was all over my body, and in my puffy coat, I actually felt like I was overheating.

Had I heard that right?

Was he looking for a hookup?

“I’m actually going to head back into the bar, I think,” I said. I took the business card from him and stuffed it into my jacket pocket. “Have a good night, Landry.”

I walked past him, the snow flurries hitting my eyelashes. Some part of me wanted to believe it was true that a guy like him could really want a guy like me. But I knew what had likely happened: he’d probably tried and failed to hit on other guys in the fancy ski lodge bar, gotten bored, and when he’d come across me he’d decided to shoot his shot for one quick, nearly anonymous hotel romp.

But I wasn’t a one-night-stand kind of guy.

No matter how much of a dry spell I was in, I was holding out for real love, and I was pretty sure a random hookup with a businessman was the last place on Earth I was going to find it.

“Why don’t you come on in with me and keep me company in the lounge instead?” Landry said from behind me. I turned to face him again, deeply confused. “I’ll pay for your pass.”

I furrowed my brow at him. “It’s five hundred dollars.”

“Well, I get a slight member discount, but yes. I’ll pay it.”

“A lot of money.”

He nodded in accordance. “I won’t miss the money, Jamie. I won’t even notice it’s gone.”

My stomach sunk further down, like an anvil inside me.

There it was.

The inevitable reminder that I was in over my head here.

Five hundred bucks meant so much to me. It meant three-quarters of a month’s rent, for me and each of my roommates. It meant so many meals, even if they were canned soup or frozen stuff that Landry had probably never even touched. Five hundred bucks meant nothing to him, because he was from another world.

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