One Hit Wonderful by Hannah Murray

town, and when my agent comes to visit, he actually stays at this hotel. So I don’t have a need for a guest house either.” He shrugged, a move she was coming to think of as his signature gesture. “And since I don’t need the rental income, I figured it would just add resale value to the property and sit empty.”
    “But you decided to rent it out for pennies instead?”
    He laughed, a low, rough sound that forced her to lock her knees again. “My agent threw such a fit when he found out what I was doing. He was terrified I’d hurt my hands, and in turn, his twenty percent.”
    “Sounds charming,” she said dryly.
    “Frank’s okay,” he said. “He’s just very focused on business. Anyway, he insisted since I’d jeopardized my livelihood for the sake of a bet, I get something out of it. So I promised him I’d rent it out.”
    “For pennies,” she repeated, and shook her head. “Fine by me.” She scribbled on the bottom of the lease for a few moments, the only sound in the hushed lobby the scratch of her pen over the paper. She shoved the pages at him, along with the pen. “Initial each of those,” she said, pointing to the notes she’d made at the bottom, outlining the new provisions. She watched as he added his initials next to hers, took the pages back and added her signature to them.
    “Your turn,” she said, and passed them back again. As soon as he’d finished signing, she gathered them up again. “Be right back,” she promised, and turned back into the office.
    She picked up the phone, punching in Charles’ number as she fed the pages through the copy machine. “Charles, it’s Lil.”
    “What’s up, doll?”
    “I’m signing the lease on the apartment on Ivy, but listen to this.” She quickly outlined the provisions they’d just agreed on. “Do you think that’s crazy?”
    “Hell yes it’s crazy. And you’re crazy if you don’t jump all over it with both feet!”
    “I just don’t want to wind up screwed on this deal.”
    “There’s a double entendre just begging to be played on there, but I’m going to leave it alone,” Charles said. “Look, you’ve got a lease, you’re the one with the out clause, and you won’t find a better deal unless you can time travel back to the seventies. If you don’t take it, I will.”
    “I’m taking it,” she assured him. “And you’re helping me move on Wednesday.”
    “The price of friendship,” he said easily. “Maybe Tall, Dark and Sexy will be working in the yard without a shirt and it’ll all be worth it.”
    “Hope springs,” she said dryly, as though the thought didn’t tingle her toes one bit, and hung up.
    When she stepped back out into the desk area, he was lounging against the desk much as she’d left him, his body angled to the side so he could see into the tea room to the left of the lobby. His mouth was quirked in obvious amusement, and curious to see what he found so entertaining, she craned her head to look.
    “Ah. I see the debs have returned from their spa day.”
    He flicked a glance at her. “Debs?”
    “Debutantes,” she elaborated, “from Savannah, Georgia. It’s their fifteen-year reunion.”
    “You’re kidding.”
    She shook her head and grinned as a round of giggles broke out in the tea room. “Nope. They’ve been here since Wednesday afternoon, flirting with the waiters and driving housekeeping insane.”
    He looked a little shell-shocked at the thought. “What are a bunch of Southern-belle debutantes doing at a hotel in the foothills of the Rockies?”
    “They said they wanted to be able to cut loose away from their mamas and their husbands.” Lily winced as one particularly enthusiastic redhead took a handful of a waiter’s tush. She looked over at Nate’s chuckle. “Thankfully,” she said dryly, “they’re excellent tippers.”
    He turned, still chuckling. He nodded at the papers in her hands. “Are we all set?”
    “Yeah, we’re all set.” She handed the papers over,