Free For the Love of His Life by Fiona McGier

get Wi-Fi anywhere?”
    “We get it in the dining room, remember? And once you have books loaded onto them you don’t need Wi-Fi until you need more books.” She gave him a deliberately innocent look, batting her eyelashes. “Gosh, Mr. Big-Name Movie Star. Even us hicks up here know it’s the twenty-first century. We may choose to live life out of the fast lane, but we know it’s there. Why, most of us are even aware that Amazon isn’t just the name of a tribe of feminists who cut off one boob so they could be better archers.”
    Raul rolled his eyes. “Okay. Truce. I need to get to that hot shower.”
    Veronica got up. “Be sure to let me know what you think of the blueberry glacé pie. Some people say it’s one of my best.”
    “So I won’t be seeing you again until tomorrow morning?”
    “No. I have to head into town to dive into the books of that new client I interviewed yesterday. That’s going to take hours from what he said.” She began to walk back up toward the main building, “So you go do your work and I’ll do mine. See you in the morning, bright and early.”
    Raul groaned. “These early mornings are going to kill me.”
    “Not if you stop with the late nights.”
    “The only time I really like to see early morning is if I’m still awake from the night before.”
    Veronica shrugged. “Well, Mr. Movie Star, welcome to the reality that the rest of us have to live in. It’s how we pay the bills. Fortunately for you, you are only visiting here. Hopefully it won’t be that bad for you. Then you can head back to La-La land and resume your normal life.”
    Raul was trying to think up a retort when she strode rapidly back up the path to the parking lot.
    He got up and headed in the opposite direction to return to his cabin for the much-anticipated hot shower.

Chapter Seven
    “Hey Tom, hit me with another Reverend Jack twins and coke.”
    Raul had already had four doubles in less than four hours when he waved at the bartender for another one. Since it was close to midnight on a Saturday night, he knew it would take a few minutes, so he looked around at the crowd working hard at relaxing after their work week. There were some tourists he didn’t recognize, but he’d been told the real hordes of them didn’t usually arrive until late in June. He watched the locals, comfortable in their favorite watering hole, chatting with one another over the loud music of the jukebox. Some young men were shooting pool and had called to him twice already to come join them as he had before. But Raul uncharacteristically shook his head and went back to pretending his butt was glued to the barstool.
    When I waved my arm that hurt. When I turn my body to look around my sides hurt. My butt hurts just sitting down! My glutes and quads hurt every time I get up to pee. It even hurts to breathe. That blonde bitch is trying to kill me! She said today’s run was shorter, but it sure didn’t seem like it!
    Raul looked up morosely as the bartender put his fifth double onto a napkin in front of him, removing the empty glass and shaking his head.
    “Rough day?” he asked, playing the sympathetic bartender role.
    Raul sighed loudly to be heard over the music from the jukebox and nodded. “I started doing some training to get ready for the movie I’m up here to shoot. I figure it will take me about a month to get into bad-ass shape…that’s all it took me the last time.”
    Tom grinned, “When you were in Avenge Tastes Sweet ? You were really ripped then. That was a great flick. But I heard right after it that you were going to do a sequel. It’s been almost four years. Are you?”
    Raul took a sip of his new drink and shrugged. He moaned. “Fuck! Even shrugging hurts from all the damn push-ups I’ve been doing!”
    Tom leaned over. “I feel your pain. This one’s on the house. Hell, if you keep on drinking in here I’ll have to start paying you . You’re the best advertising I’ve ever had! People have been