“I have never said that,” Summer protested. “I just know you didn’t grow up in the woods like me. Your knowledge of soccer—”
“Football.”
“Football.” She rolled her eyes. “Your football trivia is expert level. I’m just saying that when it comes to what bugs you can eat in a survival situation, I have skills.”
Dani laughed and grabbed her hand. “Summer, stay with me so you will never eat bugs again.”
She couldn’t hide her smile. “So romantic.”
“Just follow me, mi sol, and you will see.”
When Dani had first moved from his high-rise in Mexico City to the rainy streets of Seattle, Summer knew he would have laughed at the idea of camping, much less backpacking for six days along the Northern California coast.
Summer followed Dani as he led her along a slightly worn path leading into the trees, his broad shoulders carrying a bright orange pack as if it weighed nothing.
Since they’d met, Summer had turned Dani from a total city boy into an outdoor enthusiast. They fished, they hiked, and they’d even backpacked a little. He loved boats, and his family had more than one.
Or maybe they were more like yachts?
Ugh. Rich people vocabulary was confusing.
“How far back is this site?” She looked at the brush that was giving way to denser forest.
“Not too far.”
Summer couldn’t even imagine the level of wealth that Dani’s family enjoyed. In truth, it was starting to become a Thing They Didn’t Talk About. They had been dating a year, but she hadn’t met Dani’s parents and he hadn’t met hers. When any of their mutual friends happened to bring up family stuff, they both changed the subject.
Summer had been raised by a high school math teacher and a musician in rural North Carolina. Her father had taught her how to hunt and fish—along with her times tables—and her mother had taught her the guitar and how to cook anything out of everything. They were a traditional clan who took pride in hard work, loyalty, and self-sufficiency.
She had no idea how they’d react to their daughter dating the heir of one of the largest tile empires in Mexico. Half the time, she didn’t know how to react herself.
Dani walked between another set of trees, stopped, and spread out his arms. “Voilà!” He glanced at Summer, whose mouth was agape. “You see, I knew you would love this.”
Love… wasn’t the right word. Summer turned in a circle, her eyes scanning the obviously man-made clearing in the middle of the woods.
A nearly perfect circle of tall pines soared into the sky, their tops obscured by a layer of marine fog. As she stood in the center, she looked up and saw the sun disappear behind a cloud.
Dani was crouched in the center of the clearing, kneeling beside the old stone fireplace in the middle. “It’s perfect, yes? Some local family must camp here.”
No, this was not a family campground.
The dense forest suddenly felt claustrophobic, and Summer felt eyes peering at her through the trees. There was something out there. Something was watching them.
Don’t stare into the trees unless they know your voice. Her grandmother’s whisper tugged at her ear, warning her to leave the clearing.
Summer walked over, grabbed Dani’s shoulder, and tugged. “Come on. Let’s go back to the trail.”
Dani stood and frowned. “What are you talking about? This is the perfect spot! The area around the campfire is so clear and level. I checked for poison oak.” He pointed at the fireplace. “See? There is even some wood left over from the last people who stayed here.”
It wasn’t even a firepit; it was a full-out, dressed-stone stove with grates in the bottom for wood and braces on either side to hang pots over the flames. This wasn’t natural, it wasn’t even foraged.
This was a lure.
“Dani, just trust me, we shouldn’t stay here.” Instinct told her they were being watched. “I think we should head back to the coast, okay?”
Dani pointed toward the ocean. “We’re not far from it. You can see the ocean from here.” He turned and faced the coast. “I bet you could even see a fire from the marked trail. And people come back here.” He pointed to the trail that had led them into the circle of trees. “See?”
She couldn’t explain it, and she loved that he’d found what to any sensible eye seemed like a great spot. “It just… it feels very visible. Everyone can see us.”
Dani set his pack down and sat on a piece of log that circled the fireplace. “Summer, everyone we’ve met on the trail has been so cool. We have to camp until the morning, right? We might as well camp in a clear camping spot with a firepit that someone has already prepared.”
Was she just being stubborn? Paranoid? Granted, her family made it hard to discount the mythological, but she was probably overreacting.
Dani stood and held out his arms. “Listen, even if you are right and people can see us, so what? They can see us just as easily from the bluff on that last hill. We’re the only human beings out here, we have our bear repellent, and I am tired.” His arms dropped. “Please. Can this one thing be easy?”
She looked over her shoulder at the marked trail, then over at the worn path through the brush, the forest, and into the clearing. This was obviously a well-used spot on the trail, and the rangers did request that they keep to used camping spots instead of creating their own.
“Okay.” She kept her voice small. “But we’re pitching our tent right by the fire. I don’t want to be near the edge. If something gets into this clearing, I want some advance notice.”
They’d stopped far sooner than they usually did, so they had plenty of time to cook a full meal with the supplies they’d brought along with some sea lettuce and large limpets that Summer had foraged on the nearest beach.
After they’d eaten, Dani pulled out a bottle of whiskey and poured a little into both their camping cups. “We’re going to sleep well tonight.”
“We are.” With the tents set up and the coals glowing, Summer was starting to feel as if she’d been paranoid earlier. Sure, they hadn’t seen anyone else on the trail since the day before, but it was September and tourist traffic was pretty low.
She leaned back against Dani’s chest as he propped himself against a fallen log and stared into the fire. “Did you pack up all the food?”
“Yes.” He patted his pack, which held the bear canister they were required to take. “I’ll hang it from one of the trees before we go to bed.”
Summer was full from a hot dinner and the whiskey that warmed her throat. She felt herself drifting, and the sounds of the forest at night settled around them. Crickets hummed, and a few night birds started calling. She heard an owl start to hoot in the distance, and the faint sounds of the sea crashing on the rocks below them lulled her into sleep.
She woke when Dani moved.
“Come on,” he said. “Tent time.”
She groaned but forced herself up to sitting and rubbed her eyes. She reached for the portable motion sensor that her father had bought for her and set it within range of their tent door; then she went inside to find the small remote and set it.
“Your burglar alarm.” Dani smiled as he entered the tent. “Do you think the bears will be scared away?”