Chapter Ten

Compass

“I hate this.” Stretch’s voice was low and filled with the same frustration we were all feeling.

I nodded at him and took a sip from my beer. “Me too, brother.”

“We need to be good enough that they like what we’re doing but not so good that they want a second season,” Fade advised.

I wrinkled my nose and tipped my beer toward him. “If we do a second season, I’m heading to Cancun like Yarder.”

“No one is coming to fucking Cancun with me,” Yarder called out from his spot on the couch. “That’s a no-idiot trip, which means no one in this clubhouse is coming with me. Except Poppy.”

I shrugged and leaned back in my chair. “Fine by me. I’ll find my own place to go then. Fallon,” I called out and raised my voice to reach her over the music. “Where do you want to go on vacation?” The cameras around the clubhouse had been rolling for a couple of hours now, and I knew I had to start acting like Fallon and I were together to start setting us up to be a couple.

She was sitting at the bar with Adalee and Sloane, deep in conversation, but she glanced up, surprised. “We’re going on vacation?”

I nodded and smirked. “Yeah. Where do you want to go, babe?”

She tilted her head, thinking. “Uh, well… I’d like to see snow.”

Stretch chuckled beside me and shook his head. “Looks like you won’t be having your ass in the sand and a drink in your hand.”

“Snow?” I called back to her and raised an eyebrow.

Fallon nodded and turned on her barstool to face me fully. “I’ve always wanted to go to Alaska. We barely get seasons in Texas—just a few days of winter, and then it’s back to seventy. Let’s go somewhere different than here.”

It made sense, even if it wasn’t what I’d been expecting. I took another drink from my beer and nodded. “Sounds like a plan to me. Hey, Yarder,” I called out, turning back to him. “You can keep your beaches. We’re going to Alaska.”

Yarder laughed and took a long pull from his drink. “Fine by me.”

Before I could respond, the front door swung open, and Clay walked in with Mark and Drew trailing behind him.

“We’re not even knocking now?” Yarder called, his tone sharp.

“Not when we’re filming,” Clay replied smoothly and brushed into the clubhouse. “We need to come and go as we please. If we knock every time, we’ll miss things.”

Yarder motioned to the small camera mounted in the corner of the common room, its lens trained on us like a silent observer. “Pretty sure that fucker will catch anything you guys can’t.”

Clay ignored the jab and turned to Mark. “Show us to the equipment room.”

Mark stepped forward and headed down the hallway without a word. Clay and Drew followed behind him.

Adalee’s voice cut through the tension. “I know we hate Clay, but we don’t hate Mark, right?”

Yarder sank back into his seat with a shrug. “He’s fine. If anything, I’m hoping he’ll be on our side and keep Clay in check.”

We had all been hanging around the common room since the cameras came back on. None of us really knew what to do with ourselves. We understood we had to be on camera to get enough footage for the crew to leave, but none of us wanted to be the center of attention.

“I’m going to grab the poster board,” Adalee announced suddenly and jumped up from her barstool.

“What the hell do you need poster board for?” Cue Ball asked with a frown.

“We’re up first on the plan,” Fallon answered with a smile. “We need to get the ball rolling on The Cakery.”

Adalee ducked behind the bar and pulled out a sheet of white poster board. “We need to come up with our menu.”

I chuckled. “Shouldn’t you find a place to set up shop first?”

“Details,” Adalee replied with a laugh. “And besides, Fade is going to set up some places for us to see.”

“Friday,” Fade called out. “I got in touch with a real estate agent. They’re going to show us a few spots.”

“Are we renting or buying?” Fallon asked and glanced at Yarder.

He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “Whatever makes the most sense. Buying would be better, but we’ll see.”

“We good for that?” I asked.

Yarder shrugged. “We can put a down payment down and get a loan for the rest. Shouldn’t be bad. Besides, The Cakery is going to take off like a fucking rocket, so I’m not worried about it.”

Clay, Mark, and Drew reappeared from the hallway.

“Okay,” Clay said and clapped his hands together. “Just act like we aren’t here.”

I rolled my eyes and tipped back the last of my beer. “That’s fucking easier said than done.”

“We were just about to go over the plans for the new business the club is starting,” Adalee announced brightly. “You guys can be here to see it from the ground up.”

Clay’s interest was piqued. He motioned to Drew, who lifted the camera onto his shoulder and pointed it toward Adalee and Fallon as he walked toward them.

It was showtime.

Fallon

I leaned back and rubbed the back of my neck and tried to relieve the ache from being hunched over for so long. Adalee and I had been at it for hours with our heads buried in notebooks and poster boards while trying to finalize every detail for The Cakery. We’d nailed down the menu—a feat in itself—but we wanted to add something extra: a new limited-time cake flavor every week. The idea sounded exciting and ambitious, but it also felt like a mountain of work. Still, we couldn’t help but smile at the thought of customers coming back week after week, eager to try the latest creation.

“It’s going to be a lot,” I said and glanced at Adalee. She tapped her pen against her chin thoughtfully. “Yeah, but it’s going to be worth it,” she replied. She was just as determined as I was to make this work.

At first, the cameras had been distracting. The lens constantly trained on us as we worked was a bit much. Eventually, they faded into the background and just became part of the scenery. Adalee and I were too excited about The Cakery to let them bother us. The rest of the club shared our enthusiasm, too. Sloane and Dove had already claimed dibs on working the front end and were eager to charm customers. Adalee was set to be the baking master, of course. Poppy and Olive had volunteered to fill in wherever needed, while the guys—unsurprisingly—declared themselves official taste testers.

“This is all great,” Adalee said. She smiled wide as she scanned our plans. “We still need to figure out the setup, but we can’t do much until we know where we’re going to be.”

“Friday!” Fade called from across the room. “Chill, woman. You’ll get your answers on Friday.”

The camera swung to capture Fade’s grin before panning back to us. I shook my head, still a little weirded out by how surreal all of this was.

“Uh, I think I’m going to go chill in my room for a second,” I said and pushed back from the bar.

Before I could take a step, Compass was on his feet and moved toward me. His hand rested lightly on my waist as I leaned into him, and I found comfort in him being so close. Across the room, Clay looked up from his phone, his gaze sharp and direct as it locked on me. His look made my stomach twist, but Compass shifted slightly to block my view of Clay with his broad frame.

“Nap time?” I asked and looked up at Compass with a teasing smile.

He leaned down and brushed a soft kiss against my lips. “Maybe we’ll do some sleeping, babe.”

My heart stuttered at the casual affection, even though I knew it wasn’t real. “Okay,” I murmured, my voice barely above a whisper.

“I’ll start dinner around four if you want to help,” Adalee called, pulling me back to the moment.

I nodded and glanced over my shoulder at her. “I’ll be there. I can always peel a potato while you work your magic.”

Compass took my hand and led me out of the common room and down the hallway toward his room—our room. That part still felt strange. It was one thing to act like a couple in front of the cameras, but sharing a space added a new layer of intimacy I wasn’t sure I was ready for.

When we reached his door, Compass pulled out his keys and unlocked it with practiced ease. The faint scent of his cologne hit me as I stepped inside, and my nerves buzzed to life. The door closed softly behind us. It should’ve been a relief to be away from the cameras, but instead, it left me hyperaware of the quiet.

“You okay?” Compass asked. His voice was low and steady.

“Yeah,” I said quickly and tried to shake off my nerves. “I just needed a break.”

“You and Adalee put on a pretty good show. You deserve it.” He sat down on the bed and kicked off his boots before leaning back against the pillows.

“I don’t know,” I laughed and crossed my arms over my chest. “It probably got boring. We spent at least half an hour just Googling cake flavors. That can’t be riveting TV.”

He shrugged with a lazy grin on his lips. “They’ll edit out most of it. That’s how this works—hours of footage boiled down to ten episodes that are only forty-ish minutes each.”

I shifted on my feet, unsure what to do with myself. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Clay seemed to chill out,” Compass added, his tone casual but pointed.

“Uh, yeah, until we left,” I said and arched a brow. “I think you might’ve just hard-launched our relationship.”

“Better to get it over with,” he replied with a shrug.

“Maybe, but I’m pretty sure Clay’s still picking his jaw off the floor,” I said with a wry smile.

“Tool,” Compass muttered under his breath.

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. “You think the cameras caught it?”

“Probably,” he said, and his grin widened. “Come lay down. You’ve got a couple of hours before Adalee starts dinner. Might as well relax.”

“And do a little sleeping?” I teased. “I can’t believe you said that. It’s probably going to end up as a soundbite.”

“Felt right,” he said with a smirk.

I rolled my eyes and made my way to the other side of the bed. I carefully laid down as far from him as I could manage. The mattress dipped as Compass shifted, and his hand reached out to tug me closer.

“Babe, you’re gonna fall off the damn bed. Get over here.”

Before I could protest, he pulled me toward the center of the bed, and his arm slid under my head. The scent of him surrounded me, and I let myself relax against him.

“Are there cameras in here?” I asked softly.

“No cameras,” he assured me, his fingers tracing lazy patterns on my arm. “Just us.”

I hesitated and wondered why he was continuing to put on a show when there was no one here to see it. “Um, okay.”

“Just enjoy it,” he said, his voice tinged with exhaustion. “Call it practice if you want.”

“Taking a nap together is practice?” I asked, tilting my head to look at him. His eyes were already closed, and his breathing was evening out.

He hummed under his breath.

I rolled closer and snuggled into his warmth. “If it’s just practice, I’m going to be comfortable.”

He chuckled softly, and his arm tightened around me for a moment before relaxing again. “You did well today, Fallon. Thank you.”

I didn’t know how to respond. All I had done was spend time with Adalee talking about The Cakery coming to life, and now I got to snuggle with Compass as a reward. His breathing deepened, and I knew he was asleep.

I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all.