When Lily powered up her phone again, an hour precisely had passed. She’d completed her article while combing her fingers through Wookie’s fur in comfort. She didn’t want to impose on Ruby to use the internet until she was certain there was an email awaiting her.

Unfortunately, when she stared at her phone, she was greeted with a red X next to the empty bars and a warning of No Service Found. She glanced out the window at the flapping tree branches. The wind had picked up since she had gone inside. Could that have impacted the cell phone signal? She checked her mobile data connection just in case. Nada. Not even an Edge network.

With a sigh, she stuffed her phone away. She would have to ask Ruby for use of the internet, after all. It’s to help Ruby, Lily reminded herself, though she suspected the campground owner would protest if she knew. She hadn’t even wanted to consider the possibility of sabotage. What had she said when Ethan had informed her about the figure in the woods last night? He hadn’t returned since breakfast, so Lily had no idea what was being done. If she’d had a working cell phone signal — and his number — she might have called. Would it be too presumptuous of her to ask for his number when this was all over? Maybe she’d come back to Greendale someday.

But he’d confessed that he wouldn’t be around much longer. Maybe this spark between them wasn’t meant to last past this week. She’d have the memories of their time, but she was sad to think that was all she would have when she returned to her old life.

She was starting to feel like such a different person out here. Self-sufficient, a go-getter. Like she really could do anything she put her mind to.

Calling for Wookie, she exited the cabin to put her mind to making this sabotage on Ruby’s campground stop. Fortunately, she found the old woman making cookies in the kitchen and was told to go right into the computer room.

“I’ll have coffee on in a minute,” Ruby informed her.

She knew by now that Lily would never say no to coffee. Instant just wasn’t the same.

Booting up her laptop, she settled it on the edge of the desk, shuffling the keyboard out of the way. Ruby hadn’t yet noticed that Lily used the cable rather than her dinosaur of a computer, but at the moment she was occupied in paying attention to Wookie, who shamelessly begged for attention and a cookie she was destined not to have. The moment Lily entered her information on the login screen of her laptop, she crouched to connect the cable. She was on the internet inside five minutes.

It took another five for her to load her email, but she tried not to be impatient and meandered out into the kitchen for that promised coffee. As she sat back in the cramped storage room, the hot mug cradled between her palms, she found precisely what she hoped.

From: Tonya Fielding

Subject: The info you wanted and a gift from your fairy godmother ;) (Go get ’em!)

With a smile, Lily shook her head and opened the email. She sipped her coffee as it loaded, immediately clicking on the attachment to save time. She skimmed through the table of contents Tonya had made for her, noting a few of the permits and inspections that she would want to take a closer look at later. Clicking the button to download the full document rather than preview it, she exited to the email itself.

The moment the email formed on her screen, Lily forgot the coffee. When the tilted mug slashed hot liquid onto her hand, she hissed and shoved the cup aside. This couldn’t be right. Tonya must be playing a practical joke on her.

Attached to the email was a PDF of the bylaws in Greendale, Montana. But it seemed Tonya had done a little digging of her own. She linked an article about Overnight Billionaire: Veteran Sells Backpack Design for Billions.

“This is ridiculous,” Lily mumbled under her breath as she clicked on the link. The browser crawled as it loaded the page. Her suspicions jumped into overdrive even as she tried to tell herself that this was just a practical joke. She’d find the page and it would say it was a late April Fool’s prank.

Instead, it loaded an article written last year about an ex-Ranger, honorably discharged from service, who had turned an idea into billions of dollars. The billionaire’s name was Ethan Thomas. A slow-loading picture on the page line-by-line revealed more of the hairline, dark eyes, chiseled nose, kissable mouth, and rugged jaw that she had come to know so well.

Ethan wasn’t a handyman. He was … a billionaire?

It didn’t make any sense. He was fixing Ruby’s campground, after all. If he had money, why would he do that?

He’d also recommended that she hire somebody to fill his place.

She flipped back to the email her friend had sent, reading the bullet-point Tonya had compiled, right down to the fact that Whereabouts Unknown for Recluse Billionaire Ethan Thomas.

He’d lied to her. This entire time, she’d thought he was a handyman and even after she’d told him the real reason she was here, he’d looked her in the eye and lied to her. Here she was, falling for the man—

No. Not falling for him. She couldn’t be. Certainly not in the light of … all this.

Ethan Thomas was … was nothing to her. What was she to him, a convenient campground fling? Not that they’d done more than kiss, but those kisses… She’d thought that he liked her.

But no, she wasn’t good enough for him to confess the truth. Why would she be? A girl who couldn’t even find her way around in the woods? What would Ethan want with someone like that. She was just a no-strings-attached something. A convenient, pretty distraction. That was the real reason he hadn’t wanted her help. The real reason he hadn’t confessed any of this.

It would have been so simple to say, “I’m actually a vacationer here, just like you.” Instead, he’d let her think that he was Ruby’s employee. How could she have been so stupid? How could she call herself a reporter when she hadn’t had the least suspicion that Ethan was more than what he seemed. And she’d risked losing the contest by confiding in him her real reason for being here.

She felt like such a fool.

You don’t need him, you can break the case of the saboteur on your own and you sure as heck can survive in the woods on your own now too. She stared at the screen, at the words Billionaire Ethan Thomas until she believed it. Her chest burned with anger, betrayal, and a slew of other emotions that she didn’t want to contemplate. If she had to look at him again…

No, she just wanted to get away.

Thrusting herself back from the desk, she wiped her eyes and stormed away, leaving her computer behind. Ruby met her in the kitchen with a worried look.

“Did you get some bad news, dear? Why don’t you sit down and talk about it?”

The very last thing Lily wanted to do was to burden Ruby. She felt foolish and silly mooning over a guy that obviously didn’t even care enough about her to tell who he really was... She firmed her chin and held back the torrent of emotion threatening to capsize her. “Oh, it’s nothing. I’d like to go for a hike. You have maps of the trails in the front room of the lodge, don’t you?”

When Ruby nodded, Lily had her answer. She snapped her fingers to call her dog to her as she left the lodge to retrieve the map and solidify her plans. All she needed was a tent and she could spend the rest of her time in the forest, only coming back to the lodge to send her boss the articles he wanted. Ironically, she’d bought herself one of the all-in-one backpack-turned-tents that Ethan Thomas had apparently designed.

It was the only part of him she wanted to see again.

* * *

Like Ethan had suspected, Sheriff Lincoln couldn’t do anything about a trespasser on such a large area of land unless Ethan managed to document proof or catch the criminal in the act. Ethan got the sense he wanted to, but he was simply understaffed. Without surveillance cameras, and across so much ground, Ethan didn’t have a prayer of providing proof. However, he vowed to remain vigilant and keep the fiend away from Lily and her cabin, even if he had to camp out in her backyard.

In the meantime, it couldn’t hurt to tell Ruby about the incident, so she could take extra precautions as well. He parked his truck in front of the main lodge on his way back from town, and hopped down to find her. She wasn’t in the front room, but he didn’t bother ringing the bell. Instead, knowing this campground as well as he knew the cabin he slept in, Ethan sought out the owner in her personal quarters. As he neared, he smelled the sweet aroma of baking cookies. She must be nearby.

As he stepped into the kitchen, she looked worried. The cookies were cooling on a rack, but she vigorously scrubbed at an invisible spec of dirt on the countertop, her eyebrows pinched together.

“Ruby?”

She glanced up, her expression smoothing. Her smile didn’t quite seem as friendly as usual, however. “Ethan, how are you?”

“Not bad. I’ve just come from speaking with Jake in town.”

At the sheriff’s name, Ruby frowned. “Oh?”

“We had an incident last night that I thought he should know about. Someone was lurking in the woods near Lily’s cabin. Her dog scared him off, but I thought he should be aware in case there’s something he can do. You should be extra cautious, as well. Make sure you lock your doors at night, just in case.”

“Out here?” She laughed, but it was a bit hollow. “There’s nothing to worry about. Did you see this fellow’s face?”

“No. Just his silhouette. He ran when I came out with my shotgun.”

“Then we have nothing to worry about. Keep a shotgun handy and whoever it is will run right off when you warn them.”

Ethan wasn’t so sure about that. “I’m afraid it might be the person doing harm to your campground.”

With her chin set in a stubborn line, it was clear to Ethan that Ruby didn’t want to consider such a possibility. “It’s a coincidence that all this has happened lately. I’m sure it was bound to happen at some point.”

“Just be careful,” he said slowly.

Her worried expression returned for a moment, before she offered him a cup of coffee. “I put on the pot not ten minutes ago.”

He accepted, cautious. “Did something happen? Did you get a visit from the Town Council again?”

“Oh, no, nothing like that.” She quickly fixed him a mug of coffee as she spoke. “Would you care for a cookie? They’re fresh from the oven.”

“Thank you.” He snagged one off the wire rack, juggling it between his fingers as the soft cookie threatened to fall apart in his hands. As he lifted it to bite into the treat, his gaze strayed toward the open door to what appeared to be a computer room. An old monitor and keyboard were shoved to one side of a simple desk to make room for a laptop on the edge. “Was Lily here?”

“She was. Left her computer…but I’m sure she’ll be back soon. There’s a storm brewing.”

He plucked another warm cookie off the rack and walked toward the computer room. His cabin was next to hers, so he’d see her before Ruby did. Thinking to save her the trip, he entered to collect the computer.

He stopped short in the doorway as he glimpsed the open screen.

Whereabouts Unknown for Recluse Billionaire Ethan Thomas.

We know where he is now, don’t we? ;)

Lily had been researching him? Had she known who he was the entire time? He took a step back, then another. She’d played him. Here, he’d been contemplating investing in a newspaper in Greendale, a newspaper she could run. It would keep her nearby and he would get to keep the peaceful existence he’d found at Pinecrest Lodge.

That must have been her plan this entire time. When had it started? Before she even came here? It was a brilliant plan. Use her innocent can’t-survive-in-the-wilderness act to get close to him and earn his trust while he naively thought she hadn’t the faintest idea who he really was. And then use him.

Just like everybody else.