“Really? Do they still have those hard metal bars across the bed?”
“I wouldn’t know. It feels great so far.” Wow, the lies were just spewing from my mouth these days.
He smiled. “What if I told you that I had access to a cabin that’s not being used right now.”
I froze as my eyes flew up to his, trying to determine if he was pulling a fast one. A sudden sense of hope infiltrated my body. “Your mom said all the cabins were rented.”
“Not this one. The gas fireplace doesn’t work, so they couldn’t rent it out.”
“It’s not heated?” I asked doubtfully. That was a no-deal for me. I had to be warm.
“It has an old wood fireplace, too. Lately, it’s more used as a cozy look for website pictures, and the gas fireplace is what’s used to actually heat the place up. But I could find you an ax.”
He grinned at me. My eyes were drawn to his five o’clock shadow and mysterious brown eyes. I found myself blushing. Hotly. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the sudden vision of Miles Taylor in red flannel outside my cabin, chopping wood.
“You make all your guests chop wood?”
“I’ll chop it for the ones I like.”
My breath stilled. Did he mean—
“So, I’ll be sure to get you an ax.”
I glared at him while he only bit his lip, smiling.
“You do this fake-dating thing with me, and the cabin’s all yours.”
Welp. The stakes were raised, and they were definitely good stakes. Very intriguing. Pretty much everything I could ever want in this place was being offered to me on a silver platter. And all for the low price of one fake boyfriend.
“Where is it?” I made a point of looking around at the rest of the cabins in the village. Every one I could see already had a vehicle parked in front. “Is it run down somewhere and crawling with mice?”
“Last I checked, the mice were tame. Just leave some cheese out every now and then, and they won’t cause any issues.”
“Miles.” I shot him a warning look.
He laughed. “No mice. It’s on a trail behind the lodge. It was one of the original cabins before they built all of these.” He motioned to the small subdivision around us.
“Do people still use it?” I had sudden visions of furniture draped in white sheets and cobwebs everywhere.
“Yeah. When the fireplace is working.” When I said nothing else, he continued. “What’s your hold up? Wasn’t thisyourplan?”
That I could answer. “My hold up is that you were never supposed to be here. It was just a name to scare people off. Not real.”
He shrugged. “It’s still not real, though, right?”
I bit my lip. It felt real when there was a warm body to suddenly go with the name.
“Can I think about it tonight? And let you know tomorrow?”
He crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged. “You can, but I can’t guarantee the offer will be the same tomorrow. That gives me a whole lot of time to think. You might want to snag this deal while you have it.”
What else could he possibly add to this crazy scheme? “I’ll take my chances.”
I should have been nervous when he just grinned bigger and shrugged at my statement, but I was feeling too rattled to overthink things.
Turning to walk back up the porch steps, I said, “I’ll let you know tomorrow.”
“Sweet dreams, Carrots.”