Page 54 of Play With Me

Sasha waved her hand at me when I tried to pay her back for the train tickets, reminding me her sister runs her travel agency for fun—her family comes from old New York money. Now, Jude’s arranged for me to have an extra room here for a whole week…it’s a bit much.

But Jude waves it off too, even going so far as to look at me like I’m crazy for suggesting I help pay for it. Jude has money too. Lots of it. Not that he flashes it around much. But he thinks nothing of investing tens of thousands of dollars on a cool crowdfunding project or eating lobster on a Tuesday if the mood strikes him.

It still feels weird to have him spend it on me though.

“Jude, I can’t believe this place!”

“Yeah. Griff told me about it, actually.”

“Your brother doesn’t seem like he goes for resorts this fancy. He barely spends any time at the Rolling Hills.”

“Yeah, I don’t think he’s ever stayed here. He knows the people who run it somehow. And he knows my tastes.” Jude grins. “It’s nice, right?”

“A little too nice! Is it close to town? I’ll need access to the town archives and the library, if there is one. Oh God, what if there’s no library?”

Jude laughs. “What a nightmare that would be!”

“Excuse me, it absolutely would!”

“The town’s only a few minutes down the hill. They do it all up for Christmas. It’ll be pretty.”

Even though it’s all around me, in all this I’ve almost forgotten about the holidays. I do love a town done up for the season. It’s one of the non-people things I’m sad about missing back home in Quince Valley.

The attendant comes by and clears our trays.

“Can I see photos of the Rolling Hills?” I ask, reminded I haven’t seen his family’s hotel since the renovations completed earlier this year.

Jude indulges me, flipping through photos of the new east wing, and some upgrades to the recreation facilities, which Jude manages.

“It’s gorgeous,” I say, feeling myself growing sleepy.

“We have a new tennis dome too!” he says.

It’s cute how excited Jude is about how much better this new dome is, even though from the pictures, it’s indistinguishable from the old one.

“Beautiful.” I yawn.

“Right, the minute I start talking about tennis!” Jude makes an exaggerated show of putting his phone away.

“No,” I laugh. “I’m just…that was a lot of rich food.”

“Get used to it.”

I narrow my eyes at him, but that only makes me sleepier. “We had an early morning too, in case you forgot.”

“I didn’t forget,” Jude says, making something tickle in my stomach.

“Hey,” I say, sleepily. “Whatever happened with your agent?”

Jude shifts next to me, suddenly slightly stiff.

I look up. “The idea you had for the non-profit?”

Jude shrugs. “He didn’t think it was a great idea.”

“What? Why not? You like, lit up when you talked about it.”

Jude’s jaw ticks slightly, but he puts on a smile. “Nah. He’s right, it would be too much for me.”

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