“That’s a grizzly.” I hear the confusion in Tanner’s voice. “What’s he doing here?”
“What do you mean?” I ask as I study the bear sweeping his paw through the water.
“They aren’t common in this area.”
“They aren’t?” I turn to look at him, and he shakes his head.
“I’ve heard there’ve been sightings, but I thought they were just rumors.”
“Apparently, they aren’t.” I turn back just in time to watch the large bear stand on his hind legs and lift his snout in our direction, making a huffing sound. “He’s huge.” I swallow, intimidated and awed by his size. He’s much bigger than the black bear I saw at my house in Oregon, probably three times bigger. “I hope I never run into him.”
“You and me both,” Parker says, and the rest of the boat breaks into quiet murmurs of agreement.
“I doubt we’ll see him again; we’re going to be a ways away from here,” Tanner says, looking at me. “Take a couple photos of him for me, sunshine.”
“Sure,” I agree, realizing that I was so caught up in the moment I didn’t even think about my camera. As we drift past the bear that’s now back to pawing at the water, probably searching for fish to eat, I snap a few pictures.
“When we reach shore, I’ll pass your camera off to Maverick so he can stop at the ranger station and let them know there’s a grizzly in the area. Hopefully, they’ll be able to use the pictures to narrow down the location and put out an alert for people who might be hiking,” he says, looking over my shoulder at the screen on my camera as I slide through the photos.
“So Cybil is going to have to give up her camera?” Oliver asks, sounding annoyed on my behalf. “For how long?”
“It’s fine. I don’t mind.” I wave off his concern.
“But it’s your camera, Cybil. You’re always taking pictures and—”
“She said she doesn’t mind, Oli. Just let it go,” Lauren snaps, cutting him off, and I sigh as the two of them start to bicker, something they’ve been doing since breakfast, when Lauren found out she couldn’t get some fancy coffee creamer she always uses.
When Tanner rests his hand on my thigh and squeezes to get my attention, I turn to focus on him. “I’ll make sure Mav knows to give your camera to Blake so he can bring it back to you when he drives up dinner tonight.”
“It’s really not a big deal,” I groan.
“Hush, we don’t want to upset Oli.” He winks, and I drop my eyes to his mouth, catching his grin before he returns his focus to passing out orders. With a smile, I place my paddle back into the water and help him get us downriver, and I have to admit—we make a darn good team.
Chapter 7
TANNER
“All right, come gather around,” I call out when I hear Blake coming up the mountain on his four-wheeler, and everyone stops what they’re doing to join me. “I have some good news and some bad news. Once Blake gets here, we’ll pass out tents just like yesterday, but unlike yesterday, you will not be allowed to use the instructions that were given to you in your pamphlet. You’ll have to work together with your partner to set your tent up. The good news is, you get to leave it up in the morning, since we’ll be camping in this location for two nights.”
“What do you mean we can’t use the instructions to set up our tents?” Lauren asks as Blake pulls up and parks behind me. Looking at her, I’m not surprised she’s the only one with a sour look on her face.
“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.”