Page 26 of Tangled Up In You
“That’s right.”
She pressed a few more keys and winced. “It looks like we’re fully booked because of the rodeo and won’t be able to add another room tonight.”
He lowered his voice further, dripping honey. “You sure?”
The girl stared at him for a long, silent beat. Ren looked from Fitz, to the girl, and back to Fitz again, wondering what was supposed to happen. Finally, he cleared his throat, and the girl jolted back into awareness. “Um…y-yes. Unless you want a room on the club level.”
“How much are those?”
She swallowed thickly. “Those are two fifty.”
“Two hundred and fifty dollars?”
“Yes.”
“Per night?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“In Missoula?”
“Yes.”
“On a Tuesday?”
She swallowed again, eyes flickering away. “Yes.”
Fitz deflated, turning to Ren. “You can take the room. I’ll sleep in the car.”
“No!” she yelled, startling them all. “No way. If anyone sleeps in the car, it’s me.”
He shook his head. “We’re not doing that.”
“Then I won’t even walk upstairs to the room,” she said. “I mean it, Fitz.”
After a moment of jaw-clenching contemplation, he turned back to the girl at the counter, resigned. “Fine. I guess we’re doing the one room. Is there a rollaway you can send up?”
She nodded, then stopped. “I—no, sorry. Unfortunately, this size room doesn’t accommodate one.”
“Don’t worry,” Ren told him in a whisper, “it’s not like there will be any hanky-panky.”
The girl smothered a laugh, and Fitz glanced at Ren with a smirk. “Hanky-panky?”
“You know. Like kissing and canoo—”
“Yeah, Ren, I know what hanky-panky is.” With a quiet laugh, he handed over his credit card, signed a screen when prompted, took the key card, and wordlessly picked up their bags again. “Thanks,” he said over his shoulder, charm turned off.
Ren smiled at the other woman, saying a quick “Thank you very much” before jogging after Fitz to the elevators. In silence, they stepped in when the doors opened, and Fitz hit the button for the fifth floor.
“I really don’t mind sleeping on the rug,” Ren told him.
He exhaled through his nose, eyes up as he watched the numbers climb, and then exited without answering. Ren fully intended to keep arguing, but when he unlocked the door and indicated that she should go in ahead of him, she pulled up short in shock.
She’d never even been in a hotel, let alone slept in one, and simply didn’t have the words for how stunning it was. The room itself was as big as half of her cabin back home, and when Fitz stepped through a door and turned on a light in a bathroom, Ren let out a cry, covering her mouth with her hand. “A bathroom in the room? For real?”
When Fitz emerged, Ren would have sworn he was fighting a smile. “Well, at least you’re easy to please.”
“I’ve never slept in a hotel before.”