Page 33 of Play Hard
“Yeah, and that’s not going too well. Grammy did so much at the restaurant, but she ran the lake house like a corporation. I had to go through some of her old files to find the landscapers that Pop Pop stopped calling to take care of the property. He thought he could do it himself, but that seated lawn mower is more powerful than he considered.”
Noah chuckled. “That’s a lot of property for him to try and keep up with on his own. I can come over to help. Can probably bribe the guys with some beer and pizza to get them to come along.”
“Thanks, but that’s okay. The landscapers are coming Monday, and I have someone coming to look at the air conditioning unit. It’s muggy as hell in there, and summer hasn’t even officially hit yet. I’m not trying to be in there sweating bullets in a few weeks.”
“Oh yeah? You think you might need a whole new unit?”
“That’s what Pop Pop thinks, and that’s why he’s been ignoring it. Doesn’t want to pay the cost. But I’m gonna take care of it. He’s got asthma. The last thing he needs is to be in a sweltering house when he’s not down at the restaurant.”
“Did you take care of the tax bill when you were downtown that day?”
“I did.” I rolled my eyes. “That was a mess. Pop Pop swore he’d been paying those bills, but nope, there was no payment on record.” When he rolled onto his back, he looped an arm around my waist and pulled me until my top half was on his chest and one of my legs was draped over his.
“Yeah, well you pay attention to all the records from down there. I don’t trust those council members or anybody else in this town’s government for that matter.”
“Yeah, I heard. Rylan said you didn’t get the permits you applied for.”
He sighed heavily. “That bullshit has been annoying the fuck out of me, but I’m trying not to let it get to me. We have a plan B, so the event’s still gonna happen, just on a smaller scale and on the couple of blocks by the bar.”
A thought occurred to me as I listened to him talk, and I folded my arms over his chest, propping my chin up so I could see him when I said, “I’ve got an idea.”
His brows raised. “You wanna suck the skin off my dick?”
His tone was way too hopeful as he waggled his brows. I couldn’t help it, I blushed again and shook my head. “You’re incorrigible.”
“Only for you,” he replied and blew me a kiss.
I tried to ignore how that simple playful act had my heart stuttering and plummeting in my chest. “No.” I cleared my throat. “I was thinking that it would be great if you could actually have your field day on a field. Or, you know, a big piece of land so you can have all the activities you planned to have before.”
He didn’t speak so I kept going. “And we can get Pop Pop to cater. Vera, the manager at Lakeside, is phenomenal. I could work with her to put together a great menu, and you and the guys can come out after the landscaper leaves and map out where you want to put everything. It’ll be so much fun! Remember when we used to have those bonfires out there at the end of the summer?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “I do remember that. We used to do relay races down by the lake, then jump in once we were finished and all sweaty.”
“Yeah. See. This will work. Right? You don’t need any permits because it’s Pop Pop’s land. All you’d have to do is re-route the vendors you already hired and change the location on any promo materials you already have out. But, Noah, thiswill be fantastic. There’s no better place in town than the lake house.”
He cupped my face and pulled me up to meet his where he placed a loud, wet kiss on my lips. “It’s a fuckin’ fantastic idea! I’m gonna call the guys right now so we can meet up before the bar opens and run through the plans.” He kissed me again and was just about to reach for his phone when it buzzed.
I could see the clock now and it was a little after six. We both frowned at the early notifications. The guys knew Noah worked out early in the morning and that he hated being disturbed during his workouts so if any of them were reaching out to him, there must be an emergency.
He grabbed the phone, swiped over it, then cursed.
Sitting up and taking me with him, he said, “Get your phone and call your publicist. Now.”
CHAPTER 15
Serra
If Noah’s dour tone hadn’t caused my brow to furrow, the hundreds of notifications and text messages on my phone the second I turned it on were. I guess a part of me was glad I’d silenced my phone while we were at the bar. Between the music and the crowd, I wasn’t likely to hear it anyway and I wasn’t supposed to be checking notifications and messages…which of course, I still ended up doing. But, dammit, my heart sank at the sight.
With shaking fingers and a ball of dread growing in my stomach, I opened my text messages only to see multiple ones from Zora, Freddie, Michaela, and even Camy.
“Breathe,” Noah said from somewhere in the room.
I’d done as he said and rolled over to grab my phone. When I did so, he was still propped up on his elbow behind me, but when I looked up it was to see that he’d climbed off the bed and was now coming to sit on the side closer to me. He still held his phone in one hand but he placed his other one on my shoulder. “Just breathe.”
Iwasbreathing. My heart thudded so loudly he could probably hear it so that was at least working. My vocal chords on the other hand, were a different matter entirely. I neverresponded to him; just dropped my gaze to my phone again. With shaking fingers, I opened Freddie’s text thread first.
5:20 AM
