Loving Reese (Tremont Lodge Series Book 2) Read Free

you promised.” I nod my head and wave.
    Not more than five minutes after Finn has walked out the door, it’s thrust open again by Bobby, another permanent staff member. “Reese! Where the hell have you been?” He’s out of breath and motioning for someone to come in. Connor follows him in the door. He’s carrying a young woman who appears to be bobbing in and out of consciousness as she leans against his chest. “Get me some water!” he yells. I stumble backward and knock a display of tennis rackets off the wall in my attempt to retrieve a bottle of water from the small fridge behind the counter.
    “What’s going on?” I ask. Bobby glares at me as Connor unscrews the lid to the water bottle and holds it out for the woman.
    “Really, I’m okay now. It’s heat exhaustion. I’ll be fine, really,” she says.
    “Our policy is that you are visited by a doctor, miss. Reese will call him down for you, if she can manage to use her phone,” he snaps at me.
    “Uh, yeah…I mean, yes. I’ll call the doctor. You can wait in our employee room. There’s a nice couch in there.” Connor helps the woman to the back room while Bobby watches me fumble with the phone directory to locate the doctor’s extension.
    “It’s 3003,” he barks.
    I dial the number for the doctor and wait for the tongue-lashing that’s sure to come. “I’m really sorry, Bobby. I’m sorry I missed your call.”
    “You were supposed to have your phone on. Now I’ve got ten people out on the course all alone still wearing their gear in this blasting heat. If one of them goes down, we’re all screwed because I left my post.”
    “ I get it! ” By now, I’m tired of the abuse, and I’m just plain tired in general. Ted has me working from sun up to sun down in some near impossible race to some unclear prize, and maybe none of this even matters. “I made a mistake. I owned it. Get off my back!” I throw down my clipboard of activities showing where various guests have checked in for the afternoon and grab my purse as I head out the back door and away from the responsibilities that loom over my head.
    I don’t know where I’m going, only that I need to get away for a while. The music from the stage pulls me in the direction of the handsome brown-haired man with the matching dimples and butterfly tattoo floating on his neck. The crowd is applauding as I walk closer. It’s too early in the show for the tips to be delivered to his guitar case, but a young woman is standing in front of the stage waving a dollar bill in the air. I walk faster. Finn sets down his guitar, pushes off the money, and instead greets the woman with a big bear hug, the kind you only give to someone you know. A pang of jealousy surges through my body. I tell myself that maybe the woman is Finn’s sister Tabitha. After all, she’s due to visit sometime this fall, and maybe she simply arrived early as a surprise. But it’s not Tabitha. Because I can clearly see that the woman Finn is so affectionately hugging is the bride-to-be Samantha that I met earlier in the lobby. No sense worrying anymore, I lean against a tree that adjoins the sidewalk near the stage and observe. Finn picks up his guitar again and begins to strum.
    “Ladies and gentleman, a very special friend is joining us tonight, and I’d like to dedicate this next song to her.” He turns to the woman who is sitting in an Adirondack chair center stage, leaning her elbows on her knees, her hands on her face, like she’s captivated with Finn. “This one’s for you, Samantha.” I swear he winks at her before he starts singing Wouldn’t It Be Nice by the Beach Boys, a song about wishing you were old enough to marry. I know that because my grandmother used to listen to the Beach Boys when she cleaned. My heart sinks to the pit of my stomach as I try to process what I am watching, and then it hits me. Sam. Samantha— the girl who stole away Finn’s heart during her yearly visits to Tremont Lodge—until