6
MAISIE
Oh…My…God. We were really going to do this. If Ranger could get permission.
There was some risk involved. I meant what I said. We really didn’t know each other, not the most important parts. I’d thought about that before I propositioned him, though.
At least at the first place we stayed, I’d reserve separate rooms. Next, we wouldn’t spend more than two nights at any one place. That way, if things got weird between us, we’d go back to the lake and on our separate ways. Finally, even though I could write off the expenses of this trip, we’d split them down the middle so neither of us felt taken advantage of.
Ranger ran his finger down my cheek. “What’s got you thinking so hard?”
“Rules.”
His eyes opened wide. “Rules?”
“Parameters. Does that sound better?”
He laughed. “No.”
“I just want to make sure we both have an out if we need one.”
He shifted me off his lap and took both of my hands in his. “Look, I know it seems like things are moving really fast between us, but I can assure you I would never intentionally do anything to make you uncomfortable. If I do, I want you to say so. Immediately. Understood?”
“And vice versa?”
“I doubt you could ever make me uncomfortable, but sure. If you do, I’ll say so.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Pretty sure we’ve already established you can.”
I smiled when he winked. “Have you ever been in a serious relationship?”
“No.”
His answer was so quick and so emphatic, it took me by surprise.
“And before you say anything else, unless you haven’t been either, I don’t want to know about it.”
“I haven’t, but why wouldn’t you want to know if I had been?” I asked.
“I told you that if you hadn’t been leaving for college the day after your birthday party, I would’ve claimed you as my own, Maisie. The idea that anyone else did before I could, makes me a little crazy.”
“Um…I’m not a virgin, Ranger.”
“Okay, but you said you weren’t in a serious relationship before, so that means whoever you may have had sex with isn’t someone who mattered.” He shuddered. “Not that it’s something I want to think about.”
“Okay, well, I didn’t want you to get the wrong impression. I have had sex before.”
“Not talking about it, remember?”
“I doubt you’re a virgin.”
“I’m not, but I don’t want to talk about that either.”
While I was tempted to roll my eyes, I actually found his intransigence kind of cute. “So we don’t talk about anything—you know, like, sexual stuff—that happened before.”
Ranger shook his head. “I consider kissing to be ‘sexual stuff,’ and I’m all for talking about the first time we spent a couple of hours doing that. In fact, if I remember right, it went something like this.”
He captured my face between his hands and crushed his mouth to mine. Yep, that was exactly the way I remembered it too.
It was a little after three the next day before I heard from Ranger again after we said good night shortly after my grandparents got home from their bridge game.
“Pack your bags,” he said when I answered his call.
“Yeah? I’m excited you can go.”
“I should’ve asked you this last night, but where are we headed?”
“I thought we’d start somewhere relatively close, but that leaves several places we can check out.”
“Hmm. Relatively close. Let me try to guess. Saratoga Springs?”
“How did you know?”
“Well, outside of Lake Placid and maybe Lake George, I can’t think of anywhere else that would have several places we can check out.”
And therein lay the biggest problem I faced with trying to bring Canada Lake back to what it was in its heyday. Back then, there were at least two dozen other lakes in the region that were just as much of a destination as this had been. Now, there were two because, like he said, Lake George didn’t really count.
“Next question. What time are we leaving?”
I laughed. “Shouldn’t we decide which day first?” Ranger didn’t respond, so I thought maybe the call had dropped. “Hello?”
“I’m here.”
He sounded like a dejected little boy. “What’s wrong?”
“You said we could leave as soon as I got my answer.”
“Oh my gosh. I wasn’t serious. We have to make reservations and decide what restaurants we want to try and stuff like that.”
“Can’t we do that from there?”
“I guess so, but we will have to make room reservations.”
“Tell me where, and I’ll handle it.”
“Um, that’s okay. I can, uh, do it.”
“Maisie? Think about this for a minute. I’ll need to make more than one set of reservations, at least for where we stay.”
“Oh…Right…Well…Um…”
“Spit it out.”
I lowered my voice, looking around to see if either of my grandparents were in the vicinity. Especially my grandma. “I was thinking that at first, we should probably get separate rooms.”
“Thank you for telling me. We can absolutely do that.”
“You won’t mind?”
“Last night, I said I wanted you to tell me immediately if I did or said something to make you uncomfortable. Sharing a room is the perfect example. You aren’t ready for that, and I understand.”
“You aren’t disappointed?”
“To be honest with you, I wouldn’t have assumed we’d be sharing one tonight.”
I could hardly tell him I was disappointed when I’d just told him it was what I wanted, but I was.
“Maisie? So. Separate rooms. How about…the Saratoga Arms? They have a full spa, choice of restaurants, and they’ve been in business for over one hundred years.”
Even though he couldn’t see me, I raised my eyebrows. “You’re going to be good at this.”
He groaned.
“What made you do that?”
“I was about to say something that would make you uncomfortable.”
“Go ahead.”
“I can’t now.”
“Okay, let’s backtrack. What did I say? Oh yes, I said you’re going to be good at this. Go ahead. What were you going to say?”
“I can’t now,” he repeated.
“If you say it, I’ll agree to leave tonight instead of waiting until tomorrow.”
He cleared his throat. “I plan to be good at everything where you’re concerned, beautiful. Damn good.”
“I’ll be ready to leave in a half hour.”
I’d laid everything out on my bed earlier in the day, so I could’ve been ready in five minutes. I wanted to take another shower first, though, and put on enough makeup that I looked good but didn’t appear to be wearing any. Then there was the matter of what to wear. It would take me just as long to decide what to wear underneath—because honestly, did I really think I could resist spending the night in Ranger’s arms? Especially after that hotter-than-all-get-out make-out session last night.