“Am’s got a couple movies downloaded on his tablet. I got it just in case you wanted to watch it in there,” he said, gesturing to the tent.
He was serious. What else was in the tent?
“Should I grab my sleeping bag since the ground is hard?”
“There’s a couple in there. They’re clean. We washed them after our last failed trip.”
“What happened?”
“Am got stung three times by a yellow jacket on the second day. He wasn’t very happy.”
I grimaced. “Did you leave?”
He snickered. “Second and last time we ever went.”
“That sucks. Hopefully there’s other things you both enjoy doing together.”
Those broad shoulders moved in agreement. “I’m here for Amos, not to do things without him.”
That made me smile. He really was such a good dad. A good man.
“We don’t have to watch anything if you don’t want to,” he said when I guess I took too long to say anything else.
I didn’t even hesitate a little bit. “I’m game if you are.”
“I brought it out here, angel,” he replied.
He totally had. “Yes, I want to. Give me five minutes to grab a drink—”
“I’ve got a couple bottles of water and a soda in the tent, the kind you like,” he cut me off.
I didn’t want to think that everyone had an ulterior motive. I didn’t feel that way at all. But… he had my favorite soda? What kind of witchcraft was going on here?
I pinched myself as subtly as possible, and when I figured I should have woken up because this was a dream and didn’t, I realized this was real.
And I was going to take advantage of this handsome man being so nice to me for whatever reason he had.
“I want to change my pants and grab a sweater. These jeans weren’t meant to be worn all day.”
He gave me that serious nod.
I took a step back then stopped again. I wanted to make sure… “Did you… want to camp out all night?”
“Only if you want to.”
I hesitated, eyeing the two-person tent. The proximity. The intimacy.
A tent propped between his house and mine—technically his, but whatever—and this tiny thrill filled my whole chest cavity.
He was just being nice, I told myself. Don’t fly too high, little heart, I pleaded, surprised suddenly by the words that had come out of nowhere.
But just as quickly as they appeared, they were gone. A figment of my imagination.
“We can play it by ear. You change your mind, you walk the fifteen steps home,” he amended after a moment.
That wasn’t what I was thinking at all, but I nodded, not willing to say what I was hesitating over. I couldn’t forget I was, hopefully, going hiking with Clara tomorrow and I’d need to wake up early, but being tired would be worth it for this. “Okay. I’ll be right back.”
And I was right back. I changed into some loose flannel pajama pants that someone had bought me, peed, and headed back out. I made it to the opening of the tent and started to unzip it, finding Rhodes sprawled on top of a sleeping bag, all long and physically perfect, and on top of the kind of foam pad we sold at the store all the time. He had the tablet propped against his knees, head pillowed by his real pillow and his forearm that he had tucked back there.
I didn’t need to witness it to know he watched me as I undid the rest of the zipper and ducked inside, closing it back after me.
I wasn’t sure what I’d imagined when I’d pictured a two-person tent, but it hadn’t been this cozy.
I liked it.
And I sure wasn’t going to complain.
“I’m back,” I said, Captain Obvious.
He gestured toward the sleeping bag on top of another pad directly beside him. “I saved you a spot from the raccoon that tried to get in a minute ago.”
I froze. “Are you serious?”
He was messing with me.
I started to unzip the tent again as he chuckled, and I guess, dipped a finger into the band of my pants and tugged me back, surprising me yet again with this change in him. His voice was warm. “Come on.”
“All right,” I muttered, crawling across the floor and lying right beside him. There was a pillow on my side too, and it was a house one, not an inflatable one. This was so, so nice.
The nicest.
I didn’t understand it.
“We’ve got three choices: the 1990s Twilight Zone, Fire in the Sky, or a documentary about Bigfoot hunters now that I see it. What do you think?”