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W hile I waited for Nico to respond to my text, I carried my phone with me to the sliding glass doors near the kitchen and walked outside.

A massive body of water was ahead, revealing Aquilla Lake.

On the other side were copious lines of pine trees.

By nightfall, they’d blend in with the night.

Another house was on the opposite side of the lake.

It had many windows and was painted white.

Their lights were on, and a boat was docked in front of it.

Two people milled about but were practically specks in the distance.

I stepped farther out, the bottoms of my boots sinking into the plush grass.

Just down the hill, a set of wooden stairs led to a wide dock overlooking the lake.

At the end of the dock, an ivory and black speedboat bobbed on the water.

I remembered the mention of it on the cottage’s listing.

If tenants wanted to use it, they had to reach out to Alex and request it so he could fill it up and then charge a fifty-dollar fee.

I checked my phone again. My signal was absolute garbage. “Yeah, this isn’t going to work,” I muttered, raising my phone in the air. How the hell did Eve spend time here without a good signal? How had it not driven her crazy?

I swung my arm to the right, then the left, before finally seeing a bar appear. Just as it did, a call came in. I broke out in a smile when I saw it was Jayson. Then I cursed at myself for allowing my body to react that way.

“Hi, Jayson,” I answered, walking farther down the hill.

“Hello, my Rose.” His voice was smooth like satin, deep and delicious. It made my insides twist in a delightful way. “Been trying to call you for about an hour now. Everything okay?”

“Oh, yeah. Everything’s fine.” I waved a hand. “I’m at this cabin in Sage Hill. The cell service is terrible.”

“Really? I didn’t know you’d be traveling. Didn’t you say you had a big article to turn in?”

“I do.” I sighed. “But I had to deviate a bit.”

“Oh.” He chuckled. “So, you just need a getaway then?”

“I wish it was a getaway,” I said, finding the stairs to the dock.

“I’m looking for Eve. I booked this cottage hoping to figure out where she is or what she might be up to but—” I waved it off again.

“I don’t know. It’s stupid. She’s not here.

If she doesn’t want to answer her phone, then whatever, you know?

I shouldn’t be putting so much effort into finding a grown woman. ”

“Yeah,” he said before going quiet. For a second, I thought I’d turned him away with my mini rant. “But that’s not like you. Forgetting about your friends. That isn’t the Rose I know.”

“You’ve only known me for a couple of months.” I laughed, feeling heat coil in my belly. I cleared my throat, forcing my body to rinse the feeling away. The last time I felt like this was when I met Cole. Now look at us.

“They’ve been an amazing couple of months though,” Jayson said. “What can I say?”

I laughed again.

“I was hoping to see you today, sit at the end of your couch and rub your feet while you bang out some words on your keyboard. Maybe even bang you afterwards.”

I threw my head back to laugh. “Smooth, Jayson. Real smooth.”

“You know me.”

I caged my bottom lip between my teeth, studying the lake.

I was going to spend the next two nights here.

Alone. If Eve wasn’t here, there was no point in staying in Twilight Oaks by myself.

Plenty of space. Lots of counters. A plush bed.

And it would probably help to be in a quiet place to get my article written up.

“Why don’t you join me?” I suggested, my heart beating faster. “Sage Hill is only two hours away. There’s lots of room in the place I’m renting. I’m having some groceries delivered. . .” I let the sentence fall short, waiting to see what he’d say.

That was the thing with Jayson. We weren’t supposed to get too serious. We’d agreed early on that sex was the focus. It would be the thing we sought each other out for to scratch that itch.

He’d just gotten out of a toxic relationship a year prior and . . . well, we knew my situation. Committing to anyone else was not in the cards for us at the moment.

However, a cozy cottage on a lake, just the two of us, sounded extremely romantic—like, next level romantic. I wouldn’t have blamed him for making an excuse.

But to my surprise, he said, “Sure. Shoot me the address.”

Once again, I grinned as I felt that naughty tug in my belly.