grabbed another bike off the rack. The woman behind him had already traded in her rental two other times, and the made-up excuses for trading were seriously lacking in creativity.
This is what he got for not wearing a shirt on a Saturday.
He placed the bike on the floor and forced a smile before meeting the woman’s hungry gaze. Once upon a time, he had liked the attention from the lake girls, and had even had some fun with a few of them, but those days seemed like a lifetime ago.
When he and his siblings had first opened Bear Lake, he had enjoyed the attention from random women. Hell, back then, he had taken off his shirt every day and encouraged their praise with tons flirting. Sometimes that flirting had led to one—or a few—nights of sex before the women would leave and go back to their real lives, and at the time, that had been fine with him.
In fact, it had been more than fine.
Unlike his brothers who preferred either limited contact with people, or no contact at all, Lael was the complete opposite. He genuinely liked people most of the time, and this personality was perfect for dealing with patrons’ questions and complaints all day. And normally, he did it without a problem.
But the flirting had stopped years ago. Letting random women fawn all over him was fine when he was in his twenties, but he was thirty-three now, and he hadn’t wanted a random woman in his bed for a long time.
“Here you go,” he said, keeping his smile in place. “If this bike doesn’t work for you, then you might want to try hiking the trails instead.”
“Oh, I don’t want to walk,” she mock pouted, placing a hand on his bicep. “All of my friends are on bikes, and I soooo want to go with them. Maybe if you gave me a private lesson, I would better understand the equipment.”
Oh, yuck!
The woman seriously needed to work on her material, although, in fairness, if he were interested, then any stupid line would do. Instead, he wanted to break her arm for daring to touch him, and he didn’t hide his frown when he stepped away from her.
“Sorry, but we don’t offer private lessons. If you don’t know how to ride, then I can give you a refund, or you can put the deposit toward the rental of something else. How about a fishing pole and a cup of worms?”
“Ew,” she said, scrunching up her face. “No thanks.”
“They aren’t real worms. In an effort not to mess up the ecosystem of the lake, we only use synthetic baits here. Of course, again, we don’t have lessons, so you’ll have to already know how to tie the hook on the line—or figure it out by yourself.”
The look she gave him made him want to laugh out loud, but he held it in and kept his neutral smile in place. He was an expert at turning their flirting into annoyance—they always got mad when he rejected them—and the woman in front of him was no exception.
“Ugh, don’t be ridiculous,” she huffed. “I am not going fishing. I’m sure this bike will be fine.”
“I’m sure it will be, too.” Especially since there was nothing wrong with any of their bikes. “Don’t forget that you have twenty-four hours to enjoy it. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She grabbed the handlebars and wheeled the bike out of the building, banging the back tire on the jamb of the open door. He smiled at her retreating back, but her little tantrum didn’t make him happy like it normally would.
Not that he was interested in the woman. He wasn’t—not even a little bit—but she was just another reminder that he might always be alone. He wasn’t into random hook-ups anymore, but he did want to find someone—a mate—and deep down, he wondered if that would ever happen.
Lael walked to the front of the building, and looked out one of the open windows. The large equipment shed sat in the tree-line of the surrounding forest so that it wouldn’t be in the way of the shoreline around the lake, and because sitting under a group of trees all day was a lot cooler than baking in the hot sun. The shed wasn’t air-conditioned, and although he was cursing the lack of that amenity right now, it didn’t make sense to have a unit in the building. Not when the doors and windows were open all day.
Because he basically worked