Page 18 of Deal Breaker
“Go around to the front, I’ll let you in.”
I had no idea if she heard me or not.
Chapter Seven
Sophie
How in the name of all things holy had I ended up here?
Outside, wearing nothing but my nightclothes, Max’s sweatshirt, and sneakers way too big for me, on a freaking freezing cold November morning. I turned to the window to give Max a piece of my mind, but he’d already closed it and disappeared. Probably to get a warm shower and enjoy Autumn’s scrambled eggs and bacon.
Was he so ashamed to be seen with me that he all but tossed me out of the window?
He hadn’t even told Autumn I was in the room.
What the hell had I been thinking last night going to check on him? Now I had the mother of all bruises on my thigh to explain away. It hadn’t exactly been the most comfortable landing.
The sound of a twig cracking underfoot made me spin around. One of the Holiday Springs resort rangers appeared to be patrolling the grounds, no doubt checking up on the stupid women who had been locked out of their own cabin.
“You okay there, miss?” he called. “Everything okay?”
I shuffled uncomfortably, staring down at my toes, convinced they were starting to turn blue despite the sneakers. “Um, yeah, I, um, dropped an earring out of the window last night and wanted to see if I could find it in daylight.”
His eyes narrowed as he took in my sweatshirt clad body and feet shoved into sneakers four sizes bigger than I would normally wear, my legs starting to shake with the cold. “You could have put more clothes on? There are all manner of creatures out here.”
Shuddering at the thought of what might be hidden in the undergrowth, I bent down, pretending to have spotted something in amongst the dirt. “Found it! Thank God. My boyfriend would never have forgiven me if I hadn’t found it.”
Ha. Boyfriend. It certainly wasn’t Max Coady. At least I know where I stood now.
I held up a clenched fist with the pretend recovered treasure. As I waved it around, I thought how much pleasure it would give me to punch Max right now.
“That’s good. Now I suggest you get back inside, Miss. It’s not going to get too much warmer today.” He saluted me and went about his business.
My body felt chilled to the core already. I stomped around to the front of the cabin and turned the door handle. It wouldn’t open. Had we locked it from inside last night before bed? I smacked my forehead. Unless Max was the one to let me in, I would have some serious explaining to do. I rapped on the door.
“Hello?” Autumn’s voice filtered through the wood.
“It’s me. Can you let me in?”
While I waited for Autumn to open the door, I let out a hard breath, racking my brains as to what to tell her when she inevitably grilled me about being outside.
“Sophie! What were you doing out there?” She ushered me inside, barely taking any notice of the fact I wore her brother’s sweatshirt and a pair of sneakers at least three sizes too big for me.
The gas fire was on, and I went to warm myself up by it, cursing the fact it was right outside Max’s room. What was I going to say if he came out?
“Soph? You didn’t say what you were doing out there.” Autumn pressed me for an explanation.
“I needed some fresh air after all the tequila last night and that stupid dare with Max.” It wasn’t a totally unreasonable reply, given the amount we’d all drunk last night. “It helped clear my head.”
In fact, the opposite was true. My head was even more screwed after my night with Max than it could ever have been from any amount of tequila.
Autumn frowned at me. “I didn’t see you come through, and I’ve been cooking breakfast.” She gestured to the tiny kitchen off the main living area. The entire space was open plan. It wouldn’t have been hard to see someone walk past and out of the front door.
I feigned ignorance and crossed my arms over my chest. “You weren’t here when I came out.”
“Oh, I did go and get my jumper because I was cold. Must have been then.” Autumn seemed satisfied with the apparent solution. “Although you should have left the door unlocked. What if we hadn’t heard you? You could have been stuck out there for hours.”
It didn’t bear thinking about. I heard a noise coming from Max’s room. I didn’t want to be there when he came out.
