Page 37 of Fight

Uh-oh. How did I get to this point? After blanching at being called a bitch by Mr. McIntosh, Lena opened her mouth to respond that she could go get Ellie when she was interrupted by a familiar voice.

“Is everything okay over here?”

Both she and Mr. McIntosh looked up to see that Jake had sidled up to the front desk. Oh, perfect. Now she got to be treated like dirt by Mr. McIntosh in front of Jake.

Mr. McIntosh narrowed his eyes at Jake, appraising his strong masculine sense of authority, and beautiful crisp white dress shirt. Okay, that was what Lena was appraising.

Mr. McIntosh, however, also seemed to decide that Jake held some type of authority as he dramatically pointed at Lena over the front desk. Never had she been more grateful for that twelve inches of granite.

“Thisgirlis anidiot. She won’t check me in and give me my room key so I can get upstairs. I have been coming to this resort every month for five years.”What?! Why?!

“I have never been treated this poorly before,” he continued.“I demand to see Cynthia at once.And I want this girl fired.” Lena froze and gave Jake a deer in headlights look. What had she been thinking earlier about how she was too dramatic? Lawrence Oliver here was surely giving her a run for her money.

Jake nodded slowly as if processing this information very seriously. He seemed to consider his words before tapping his fingers on the desk gently and looked at Lena questioningly. “Why didn’t you check him in, Lena?”

“I can’t check him in without seeing his ID.” The words came out carefully and neutrally. “That’s the rule,” she added lamely.

“Okay, okay, makes sense,” he murmured. He nodded his head with a grave look on his face before looking back over at Mr. McIntosh like he'd solved all his problems.“She needs your ID,” he explained simply.

Mr. McIntosh looked like he would blow a gasket.His face turned from red to purple as he yanked his hat off his head and looked wildly at Jake. He opened his mouth to start in on another loud monologue, and Lena felt like everyone was frozen in time as she, Maggie, and Kendra watched aghast.

Before Mr. McIntosh could say anything or move though, Jake shifted closer to him until he was only a couple inches away. Something seemed to click with Mr. McIntosh then as he looked Jake up and down with his mouth still wide open.Where he was short and squat, sweat pouring down his fleshy face, Jake was Jake.Tall, strong, and pretty damn intimidating with his jaw set, and and his eyes narrowed in challenge.

“Do you have an ID?” Jake asked in a quiet voice.

Mr. McIntosh nodded. “It's in my car,” he croaked.

“Go get it. Then Norma here will check you in.” Norma had arrived for her shift and was standing behind Lena looking confused at the scene she’d just walked into.

Mr. McIntosh puffed out a breath of air before pivoting on his heels, and stomping through the lobby and out the sliding front doors.

When he was finally gone, Lena let out a deep breath that she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. She looked up at Jake to see his hazel eyes looking down at her with concern.

“Jake, I don’t think you’re supposed to physically intimidate the guests,” Maggie laughed. “But that was so awesome. Don’t worry about that guy, Lena. He is always in here acting like he owns the place. It was so nice to see him put in his place.” Maggie stared at Jake with stars in her eyes and a slight smile marking her face.

Jake's eyes, however, stayed on Lena for a beat before he looked over at Maggie and let out a chuckle. “Mags, I physically intimidate guests on the bike trails and ski hills all the time. It’s kind of my job.” He looked back at Lena. “And don’t worry, I’ll talk to Cindy about that guy. You better get out of here before he comes back. Norma, you come get me if he gives you a hard time.”

He gave Lena a quick wink, which finally broke her shock as she let out a snort-laugh and immediately covered her mouth. He chuckled at her as he turned to walk away. “See you when you get back from Dalak, Helena.”

Chapter 12

“Doyouwantsomesalmon jerky, Leeny?” Jake overheard Annie ask as she dug through her backpack.

“Sure, thanks,” Lena responded from where she was crouched on the shore of Fallen Leaf lake. She'd been dipping the edge of a towel into the water and wiping it on her face; he assumed in an effort to clean up a bit. All she'd accomplished was swirling and smearing the dirt around her face in streaks, though.

Rising from the edge of the water, Lena took a few steps toward Annie where she sat on a blanket and accepted the bag that Annie held out to her. Before opening it, she looked at Annie questioningly. “Do I have dirt on my face?” she asked seriously.

Annie’s face broke out in a huge reassuring smile.“You look great,” she responded—not answering the question, Jake noticed. Lena sank down on the blanket next to Annie with a relieved look on her face as she started sifting through the bag of jerky.

Jake supposed white lies like that were necessary sometimes because Lena, in fact, looked terrible. Not only was her face smeared and streaked with a swirl of dirt and grime, but her light purple romper was stained and hung limply on her body. Her hair was still in the two braids she started with, but much of it had escaped and frizzed around her head in wisps and stray hairs.

Jake shook his head and looked at his own dinner—packaged salmon mixed with re-hydrated risotto. He looked over at Ian who sat next to him on a log. Ian should have been eating, too, but instead, he was staring at Annie with consternation while she dug through her backpack holding random jerky type food items up for Lena's approval.

“She’s lucky that Annie packed so much food,” Jake muttered.

Ian looked over at him quickly and nodded stoically. “Annie's a good friend.”

“I’m confused about how this happened, though,” Jake said under his breath to Ian. “How did we end up on this hike with someone so ill prepared?”

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