Finding Reese (Tremont Lodge Series Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

ask.
    “Ooh, you’re a rule breaker after all. I like that.”
    “If we just try to blend in, no one will know the difference between us and the guests,” I say, knowing that a visit to the dormitory pool for the college staff is likely to get me in more trouble like the party last night than fraternizing on guest turf.
    “I want to change into my suit if we’re going to the pool. You wait for the pizza while I go change. Meet you there in fifteen.” She shimmies off the barstool and leaves me sitting alone before I have a chance to argue. I’d give anything for a pair of Dorothy’s red shoes right now.
    “Who’s your friend?” Too late.
    “Nobody who’d like your stellar personality,” I hiss at Lawson.
    “It’s not my personality that the ladies like,” he says and grins, running his hand through his hair.
    “Look, just clean up your own mess tonight. I’m not cleaning up after you and your little friends again.”
    “Oh, jealous, are we?” He is standing so close that I feel his breath on my ear, and it smells like cigarettes and beer.
    “Order up,” says the bartender to me. “Hey, Lawson, how are you doing?”
    “Feeling challenged, Ian.” I throw a twenty dollar bill on the counter.
    “Keep the change,” I say. Lawson doesn’t try to stop me as I brush past him, purposefully turning my head so that he gets a mouthful of my ponytail.
     
    I walk through the open yard between the dormitory and Tremont Lodge. It’s really beautiful, meticulously landscaped with lush greenery and flowers of many colors in bloom throughout. There are children running around screaming. Some are playing giant yard games, like life-size chess and ladder ball. Others are simply enjoying the soft grass by turning somersaults. I wonder if that’s what I did once, too, though nothing on the grounds of Tremont Lodge triggers any memories of my parents.
    The wooden stage in the middle of the grounds catches my eye, not only because it is surrounded by people that sit on the lawn or in Adirondack chairs pulled over from around the fire pit, but because the performer atop the stage is Finn. An open guitar case sits at his feet where women and children alike are dropping in dollar bills. He’s currently taking requests from the audience as I try to slip by unnoticed.
    “I think I heard Brown-Eyed Girl from this brown-eyed beauty. Thanks for your request, miss.” He tips his baseball cap at me as if thanking me for the request I did not make. But as I walk away toward the pool and hear the melody of the song float through the air, I bat my brown eyes and smile.
    I scan the pool deck looking for Tinley. There are very few available chairs. With the humidity on high, it looks like everyone’s been driven to the pool. At the far end of the pool, along the edge of the giant hot tub is where I spy Tinley. So much for wanting to fit in with the hotel guests. She’s leaning over a guy in the water. The straps of her white bikini are untied, and with every heave of her breath her boobs fall closer and closer to his face. He’s clearly amused by everything she’s saying.
    “There you are Reese. I’m famished.” She pats her perfectly toned stomach. I suck mine in instinctively even though I’m not even wearing a bathing suit. I have a good body, but it takes the rare girl to be able to compete with someone who looks like Tinley, and I cannot. “This is Dean and his cousin Harrison. They’re from New York City. Isn’t that fabulous?” Both guys grin at Tinley.
    “Hey. Nice to meet you. I’m Reese.” Dean doesn’t take his eyes off Tinley, but Harrison gives me a cursory once over. He must like what he sees upon closer inspection because he gets out of the hot tub to take the pizza from me.
    “Let me get that for you. Come on. We have a table over there.” I follow him to the back of the pool deck. For a redhead, he’s not bad looking.
    “Your friend tells me you guys are working at the lodge this summer,” he