“It’s fine, Lauren. We’ll figure it out,” Oliver says, trying to assure her.
“Do you remember the steps to set up the tent?” She turns to face him, placing her hands on her hips. “Because I do not, and I have no desire to sleep outside.”
“We’re not going to be sleeping outside,” he says, sounding exasperated.
“I’m just saying this isn’t fair.” She tosses her arms in the air. “Especially when Cybil gets to have Tanner’s help, and the rest of us have to just figure it out.”
“Then Tanner won’t help me,” Cybil says, and I look to where she’s standing and find her with her arms wrapped around her middle.
“Cybil.” My jaw starts to tic as she shakes her head.
“You won’t help me.” Anger wars with pride when I see the determination in her gaze. I have no doubt she’ll be able to set the tent up on her own, but she shouldn’t have to. I also have a gut feeling that if I try to step in right now, she won’t be happy.
“Good,” Lauren snaps.
“That’s ridiculous.” Jacob glares at Lauren.
“I’ll help you,” Avery says, and Cybil shakes her head.
“I appreciate that, Avery, but this is not the first time Lauren has implied that I’m getting off easy because I have Tanner as my partner, so hopefully after I do this, she’ll stop bringing it up.”
“Cybil, you don’t have to do that,” Oliver says quietly.
“It’s fine.” She moves to where Blake is now standing at my side, watching what’s going down. “Can I please get a tent so I can get this over with?”
“Sure, babe.” He unties one from the back, and once he hands it to her, he adds, “I also got your camera back from Mav.” He hands that to her as well, and with a lift of her chin, she takes both and stomps off.
“You’re unbelievable,” Parker hisses to Lauren before he takes a tent from Blake and walks off with Jacob following, and Lauren turns to watch them go. Then she grabs her own tent and Oliver’s hand to drag him off.
“I really do not like that girl.” Avery sighs, and Grant shakes his head.
“Leave it, baby.”
“I am leaving it, Grant, but that doesn’t mean I can’t say I don’t like her.”
“Right.” He presses his lips together like he’s trying not to laugh, and she narrows her eyes on him.
“You’d better not even think about laughing right now.”
“Baby, I see you’re itching for an argument, but how about you put all that energy you have into helping me set up our tent?” he suggests.
“How about you sleep outside tonight?” she hisses before stomping past Blake to grab her own tent from the back of the four-wheeler and carrying it away.
“So I’m just gonna put this out there. Maybe you two wanna rethink adding this kind of situation into your future retreats,” Grant says, looking between Blake and me before turning on his heel and following after his wife.
“So I see Lauren is still adding her special brand of joy to every occasion,” Blake mutters from my side.
“The woman doesn’t know when to stop,” I grumble back.
“Well, something tells me that Oliver isn’t going to care how pretty she is, if she isn’t careful,” he says. Then he adds, “Damn, Cybil’s got a lot of pent-up anger.”
I follow his gaze to where Cybil is and curse under my breath when I see her using a large rock to pound the poles into the ground with a little too much force. “You’re gonna have to replace those stakes tomorrow.”
“Yeah.” He sighs. “Let’s get dinner on. Hopefully some food will cheer everyone up.”
For the next hour, I help him get dinner ready over the fire as each couple works on setting up their tent, and I’m proud as fuck to see Cybil is keeping up with everyone else, even on her own. When she finishes, all the other couples have already gathered around the fire and are starting to eat.
I want to pull her into my arms when she walks over to join us, and it pisses me off that I can’t.
“I’m not sure our tent will make it through the night, partner,” she tells me quietly as she takes the bowl I hold out to her.
“That’s okay. I prefer sleeping under the stars anyway.” At my statement, her eyes drift up to meet mine. “I’m fucking proud of you, sunshine.”
“Thank you.” She drops her gaze to my mouth, and my fingers clench into fists. Every fucking time she does that, it takes all my willpower not to tangle my hand in her hair, tip her head back, and kiss her like I know she wants—like both of us want.