Wildly Ever After

Lola Montgomery had been on many vacations in her life, but none, absolutely none, had ever begun with her father using the phrase, “You deserve a break.”

A break was what stressed people took. People with meetings. Jobs. Alarm clocks.

Lola, in her humble opinion, did not require a break. Lola required spa robes, room service, and sun hats that matched her cocktails.

Still, she wasn’t about to argue with a man offering her a luxury trip to South Africa.

“A vacation?” she repeated, blinking at him with cautious delight.

“A very nice one,” Richard said, smoothing the newspaper in front of him with the exact calm of someone hiding something. She didn’t notice.

Lola gasped softly, already picturing herself draped across an infinity pool, limbs glistening in the sun like a bronzed goddess. “Do they have private butlers? I feel like there should be private butlers.”

“I am sure they have staff,” her father said.

That was good enough for her. She immediately started listing outfits under her breath. “I’ll need linen. Silk. At least ten swimsuits because lighting is unpredictable. Maybe twelve. And a few emergency ones. You never know. Oh my god, Dad, do you think they’ll have candlelit dinners? Do you think—”

“Yes,” he said quickly. “I am certain they will have all of that.”

She practically melted into her chair. “This is the nicest thing you have ever done for me.”

Richard’s expression twitched. Just slightly. But Lola was already scrolling through flight friendly skincare routines, so she missed it entirely.

“There is one more thing,” he added casually. “You will be staying at Maxwell’s resort.”

She paused. “Maxwell… Rhodes? The one you always talk about?”

“Yes.”

“The hotel guy. The reserve guy. The spreadsheet guy.”

“That is him.”

Lola nodded, satisfied enough. She knew the name in the vague way you know people your father emails too often. She assumed he was some older, serious, responsible type who ran things far away from her sunbed.

“Well, that is fine,” she said easily. “He will probably be busy. Or in meetings. Or… whatever people who own resorts do. I doubt I will even see him.”

Her father nodded in a tight, guilty way that suggested absolutely nothing was going to go the way she imagined.

But Lola didn’t notice that either.

She was far too busy fantasizing about luxury safaris and tasteful Instagram photos involving elephants that respected personal space.

By the time the plane took off, she had built an entire dream around this “vacation.”

Sun loungers. Exotic fruit platters. A rugged adventurer whose job was to flirt with her and look good in linen.

Three full months of bliss.

She pressed her forehead to the plane window, smiling at the clouds. “This is going to be perfect,” she whispered, blissfully unaware.

Because somewhere on the ground, deep in the South African wild, Maxwell Rhodes was reviewing a folder titled Three Month Work Program: Tasks for Lola Montgomery, and every single item listed there would make her cry.

Lola didn’t know.

She wouldn’t know for hours.

And by the time she found out, it would be far too late to turn back.