Page 15 of Fake Date with the Mountain Man

“He didn’t mention that,” I say in the most measured tone I can muster.

Abby cringes dramatically. “Sorry,” she says quietly as she reaches across the table and squeezes my hand. “Look, you two really need to sit down and have a conversation. Whatever’s going on with you guys is making you both seem insane.”

I nod absentmindedly. I hear what she’s saying, but my mind is still snagged on the part about Lexington.

For the rest of lunch, I push thoughts of Ryan and the wedding to the back of my mind and try to focus on Abby’s program.

We work out all the final logistics of the itinerary. We’re slightly short-staffed at the moment, but that will change once the seasonal interns start. A few of them have already expressed an interest in helping out with the program.

As we wrap up our meeting, I help Abby collect all the paperwork off the table and sort it into neat stacks. Before we slip out of the booth and say goodbye, Abby glances over at me with a serious expression.

“Promise me you’ll talk to Ryan, alright?”

“I will,” I assure her.

Yep, I willdefinitelybe talking to Ryan as soon as I get back to the station.

_____

It’s almost two o’clock when I return to the office. Emmett greets me as I enter the building and I try to reciprocate, even though I’m practically shaking with anger. Ryan’s office door is closed, but that doesn’t stop me from casting an annoyed glare in his direction as I walk by.

I try to get some work done, but my thoughts are repeatedly pulled back to the idea of traveling to Kentucky with Ryan. I open a browser window and type in ‘distance from Gatlinburg to Lexington’ and audibly gasp when the results pop up: three hours and forty-eight minutes.

Nope. Nope. No, thank you.

I pull up a chat window on my computer and click on Ryan’s name. “Need to talk to you ASAP,” I type.

A minute later, a reply pops up on my screen: “Supply closet in 5.”

He knows I’m about to yell at him. And he knows how thin our office walls are. The supply closet is at the end of a largely empty hallway, and it has a heavy door that keeps sound from escaping. No one else will hear me telling him to fuck off, which I suppose is good for both of us.

Ryan walks into the supply closet exactly five minutes later. I’m already waiting for him, alternating between fury and deep breaths.

“What’s up?” he asks casually after closing the door.

“The wedding is in Lexington?”

“Yeah, is that a problem?”

“Obviously!” I whisper-yell at him. “You said a few hours of pretending to be your date. Driving to Lexington and back is an eight-hour trip…not to mention the actual wedding.”

“Well, we’re staying overnight, too,” he says with that stupid smirk.

“Not a chance, Ryan. I agreed to be your date for a few hours, not an entire weekend.”

“Pretendto be my date,” he corrects. “And I only need you to pretend to like me for a few hours during the wedding. The rest of the time, you can be as mean as ever to me.”

“What? I’m notmeanto you. We banter back and forth; it’s just what we do.”

My hand brushes his stomach as I motion between us. In an attempt to keep our voices low, we’re standing too close in the dimly lit supply closet. We both look down at the spot where I touched him, but neither of us makes any attempt to move.

“I don’t get it. Why was your ex here in Gatlinburg if she lives in Lexington?”

“Visiting friends. She used to live here, too.”

Of course. They lived together here in Gatlinburg before she left him for his stepbrother. A string plucks deep in my stomach. I’ve been so caught up in my own embarrassment that I never really stopped to consider how awful the whole situation must have been for him.

“Listen,” Ryan sighs after a tense minute, “you can back out if you want to. I should have told you earlier, but I had a feeling about how this conversation was going to go. You’re off the hook if you want to be. I’ll figure something else out.”

---