“Me.” I smile as I lean over and kiss the side of his face. “Nothing but me.”
He smiles as he keeps his eyes on the road and slides his hand over to my thigh and gives it a squeeze. “Lucky you’re my favorite thing, then, isn’t it?”
A huge beaming smile is plastered across my face. He’s actually doing this.
“It sure is.” I lean over and begin to kiss him all over his cheek.
He scrunches his face up. “Stop. It’s hard enough to drive Bitchy as it is.”
“Her name is Bessie, not Bitchy.”
He smirks. “We’ll see if she gets us home in one piece, shall we?”
Two hours later, we see the sign into High Point State Park. There’s a dirt road, and Jameson looks over at me in question. “Is this it?”
I shrug, suddenly feeling a little nervous. “Uh-huh.” I look around. “I think so.”
I really need this weekend to work out; I want us to have fun and relax. Deep down I know that if Jay doesn’t get a handle on his stress from work, I may lose him anyway. His temper is not something I could live with long term.
We turn off the main road and drive down the track. We both fall silent as we follow the trail. I study the map on my phone. “It says here to go right to the end of this road and then turn right.”
“Okay,” he replies as the truck bounces around on the rough road. His eyes glance over to me. “Are you sure it’s down here?”
I shrug. “That’s what it says here.”
The trees are tall and are blocking out the last of the sun.
“I saw a documentary made here once,” Jameson says as he concentrates on the road.
“What was that?”
“The Blair Witch Project,” he mutters dryly.
I get the giggles as we go farther and farther into the forest. What the hell was I thinking? This is freaking even me out.
We pass a campsite on the left as we go down the hill. There’s a small tent, and two teenage boys are sitting at an open campfire. I watch them as we pass. “They look like they’re having fun.” I smile.
“They’re about to go into the tent and take turns fucking each other,” he mutters. “Only logical explanation as to why they would come out here.”
I smirk. “Will you stop being so pessimistic? It’s three nights, and we get to be alone without anyone around.”
He nods and then frowns as he thinks of something. “Where are the bathrooms?” His eyes flick to me. “We have our own bathroom, right?”
“Well . . .” I pause.
“Well, what?” he snaps. “I am not fucking staying anywhere without a bathroom, Emily.”
“There are bathrooms.” I turn the phone map around as I try to locate where they are from our tent. “Ah yes, here they are. Just a short trek.”
“A trek?” His eyes flick anxiously to me. “Define trek.”
Oh man, it’s a long trek, but I won’t tell him that just yet. He’s likely to turn around. “It’s close—don’t worry,” I lie.
We get to the bottom of the hill, and the road goes into a fork. A lake is straight ahead, and the sunlight is just beginning to fade. I smile in excitement. “Turn right.” He carefully turns right, and we go along a little bit. “Should be just up here.”
“Where?” He frowns.
“Just park anywhere.”
“What do you mean?” His eyes come over to me.
“We just set up where we want.”
“What, like”—he screws up his face as he looks around—“on the dirt?”
I laugh. “Were you expecting oak parquetry floor?”
He rolls his eyes and parks the truck, and I get out and walk up and down the water’s edge. “What are you doing?” he asks.
“Looking for a good spot to set up. It needs to be high and flat.”
“Why high?” he asks as he starts to look around.
“In case it rains.”
His eyes come to me in horror. “Don’t even say that.”
“Quick, we have to get a move on.”
“Why?”
“It’s getting dark. We’re running out of sunlight.”
He looks up at the sky. “Do we have lighting?”
“We have a flashlight and two of those little headlight things that strap on our heads.”
“Good grief,” he snaps as he begins to throw the things out of the back with urgency. “I’m not wearing a fucking strap-on headlight in this stupid man-versus-wild experiment. It’s bad enough when I can see.”