Read Online Love in Maine by Connie Falconeri - Free Book Online

I’ll take
     the rest.”
    Pulling her eyebrows together, Maddie bent to attach the tent to the bottom of the
     pack. “You don’t have to carry it all by yourself. We could split the weight.”
    “Have you ever portaged a canoe before?”
    She wasn’t looking at him. Maddie was trying not to pick a fight, but if he wasn’t
     going to let her do her share, it was going to be all wrong.
    “Well, not technically.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?” Hank had moved around to where she was standing and
     bent to pick up his pack and the two sleeping bags. He used the hood of the truck
     like a worktable and attached a sleeping bag to either side of his rucksack.
    “It means,” Maddie flipped her face up to look at him from her crouched position near
     his feet, “that the place where we usually go camping leaves the canoes for us, so
     we don’t have to actually portage.”
    Hank smiled and rested one arm on the hood of the truck. “How convenient. And no one
     ever steals all those canoes just resting on the side of the lake.”
    Maddie mumbled something indistinguishable.
    “What was that?” Hank knew she was embarrassed.
    “I said, it’s a private lake.”
    “Like the whole lake belongs to a club or something?”
    “Something.”
    Hank whistled. “You mean, your family owns the whole lake, don’t you?”
    She shouldered the knapsack into place, trying to adjust it to make up for the drag
     and awkwardness of the heavy tent weighing it down at the bottom. Maddie tried to
     busy herself with the straps and the minor modifications to avoid answering the question.
    He shook his head and didn’t push it. He returned his attention to lashing the sleeping
     bags. “What’s your cell phone number, in case we get separated?”
    “I don’t have one.”
    Hank looked up to the treetops, trying not to lose his composure entirely. He exhaled
     slowly. “Of course you have a cell phone. Did you forget it?”
    She shook her head no.
    “Did you lose it?”
    “No. I just can’t afford one right now.”
    Hank finished attaching the sleeping bags, tugged on the straps to make sure they
     were secure, and pulled the whole bundle onto his shoulders with an easy toss.
    “So let me get this straight. You have an entire lake, but you can’t afford a cell
     phone?”
    “That pretty much sums it up. And it’s not my lake. It’s my grandmother’s.”
    They stared at each other, each of them holding their thumbs beneath the straps at
     their shoulders.
    Maddie’s gaze slid to the forest floor near her feet and she decided to just spill
     the beans. “Look. My brother made this stupid bet with me. . . .”
    Hank kept looking at her, but his expression changed from humor to wariness. “What
     kind of bet?”
    She took a deep breath. “My brother acts like I am this spoiled brat—and I’ll admit
     it, my mom totally spoils me—but I am not spoiled . . . just because my mother loves
     me—” She looked up into Hank’s eyes and hoped she didn’t sound like she was overly
     defensive.
    “Go on.”
    She shook out her shoulders. “So . . . I think he was just joking when he said he
     didn’t think I could go three months without talking to my mom, or asking for money,
     or buying a new pair of shoes just because I felt like it. . . .”
    Hank’s eyes narrowed. “And?”
    “And when I said I actually wanted to do it he started backpedaling and I held him
     to it and—I was angry and I wanted him to pay up—so we made a bit of an insane wager.
     . . .”
    “How insane?” Hank asked quietly.
    “Fifty thousand dollars of insane.”
    Hank coughed to cover his disbelief. “Your brother is going to pay you fifty thousand
     dollars to be a normal person for three months?”
    Maddie burst out laughing. “Well . . . yeah . . . when you put it like that it’s even
     more ridiculous. But, yes, that’s pretty much the crux of it.” She kicked the dirt
     at her feet again then lifted her eyes to