Jo’s brows rise like she’s finding this development very interesting. “I don’t have those rooms ready for guests at the moment.” She turns to me. “Think you can handle sharing a bathroom?”
“It’s not a problem for me,” I say, staring Gentry down. “I don’t need much time in front of the mirror. I wake up this pretty every morning.”
Jo laughs. “Alright then. I’ll leave you all to it. Let me know if you need anything. Breakfast’s from seven to nine in the morning.”
“Thank you,” Gentry says.
As soon as Jo’s out of earshot, Sophie winks at me. I have no idea what it means until she herds Gentry toward her room. “Please trade with me, Gentry. I can’t share a room with Emily.She goes to bed at, like, nine every night. I’ll die if I have to go to sleep that early.”
Emily also winks at me. “I need my sleep, Gentry. You always say I’m impossible to reason with when I’m tired.”
Gentry narrows her eyes at the two of them, trying to figure out their game.
“Seriously, Gentry,” Sophie says. “You made me come all the way out here, and all we’re going to be doing is helping with Brodie’s wedding. We aren’t even going to have any fun. I deserve my own room.”
Gentry glances at me, like she doesn’t want me to watch this, but I need to know where this is going. Is this another ruse to push me and Gentry together? Or do the kids really not want to share a room? I don’t know them well enough to be sure.
“If Sophie gets her own room, I should get my own room,” Emily says. “You never go to bed early either, Gentry.”
Ah, now it’s all making sense. “I don’t care where I sleep,” I volunteer.
Gentry eyes all three of us. “We are not forcing Levi to give up his room. You two are just going to have to work it out.”
“Fine,” Sophie says. She turns to me. “Levi, will you trade rooms with me? All you have to do is be quiet after nine.”
“Sure,” I say, ignoring Gentry’s glare. I’m not giving up a chance for her to get to know me better.
Sophie cheers and hurries into my room, shutting and locking the door behind her.
“Sophie,” Gentry calls after her, still glaring at me. “Give Levi back his room.”
I head for the kids’ room, and plop my suitcase on the bed closest to the door.
Gentry follows me in. “Levi, you don’t have to give up your room. The girls will be fine sharing.”
“I know, but I don’t care where I sleep. I doubt I’ll be spending much time here anyway, and it’ll make them happy and make your life easier.”
She sighs. “They’re playing you. They know I’m never going to be okay with Emily sharing a room with a grown man. This is a scam so they can each have their own rooms.”
She’s figured out it’s a scam, but she hasn’t figured out what the girls are really after. I’m not about to clue her in. “Good. I didn’t want to say anything, but I’m not comfortable sharing a room with a fourteen-year-old girl, either.”
“You don’t have to share a room with anyone. Go tell Sophie to give you back your room. She’ll listen to you.”
“Nah, I’m good here. I promise I’ll give you your space.”
I turn and sit on the bed, doing my best not to reveal how giddy I am about this development. She’ll probably ignore me the whole time we’re here, but I’ll get to spend more time with her, which means more opportunities to at least become her friend. I need to at least be Gentry’s friend.
The idea of being Gentry Lendew’s enemy for all time is unacceptable.
Gentry huffs out a sigh of frustration. “Why are you doing this? If you think you’re getting sex out of this, you’re dead wrong.”
I stare at her, confused. “Who said anything about sex?”
She crosses her arms over her chest, staring me down. “You think sleeping in the same room will make it impossible for me to resist you. You probably have some plan already figured out to convince me we just need to have sex to get over our stupid attraction to each other.”
Her cheeks are slowly turning pink, and she looks deliciously flustered. “So you are attracted to me?”
She stomps a foot and glares at me. “For the past two years, when we haven’t been fighting, you’ve been flirting with me. Youwouldn’t do that if you didn’t have some desire to play and lay me.”
