Peeking my head out of my sleeping bag, I look across the brightly lit space and see him lying on his side, his eyes closed, and his chest rising and falling rhythmically. I carefully roll to my stomach, trying not to make any noise, and every muscle in my body protests as I crawl out of my sleeping bag. Once I’m free, I crawl my way to the opening and just as quietly unzip the tent before I head into the woods to take care of business. When I make it back to camp, Oliver is coming out of his and Lauren’s tent, looking just as sleepy as I feel.
“Morning, Oliver.” I give him a small wave.
“Good morning, Cybil. Did you sleep okay?”
“Yes, did you?”
“I’ve slept better.” He stretches his arms over his head. “See you in a bit.” He heads to the woods, and I dive back into my tent, zipping it closed.
Crawling on my hands and knees toward my sleeping bag with dreams of snoozing for a little while longer, I become paralyzed when Tanner’s gruff “Morning, sunshine” stops me in my tracks. I swing my head in his direction. “Did you sleep okay?” The question is innocent enough, but there’s a knowing glint in his eyes that causes heat to rise up my neck to my cheeks.
“Um, great. D-did you?” I stutter out.
“Better than I normally do.” He sits up, and I swallow when I see he doesn’t have a shirt on, which means I’m able to see exactly how perfect he is. My eyes roam over his thick arms, landing on his broad chest that has a scattering of dark hair between his pecs and then traveling down the middle of his abs—and I’m sure farther, but I can’t see past the sleeping bag that’s gathered around his waist. “Cybil?”
Licking my lips, I meet his gaze, and my stomach flutters when I see his smirk. “Yeah?”
“I asked if you’re hungry?”
Oh my God, I didn’t hear him ask me anything. I didn’t even hear him speak until he said my name. “Yes, sorry, I think I’m still half-asleep,” I lie, and he grins as he unzips his bag and then stands. I quickly scramble up on my knees and tip my head back to keep my eyes on his so I don’t get caught checking him out again—something that is really hard not to do.
“It’s still early.” He bends to grab his shirt, then gathers it up before pulling it over his head. “I’m going to start coffee.” He glances at his watch, then drops his eyes back to mine. “Blake will be here in about twenty minutes with breakfast. The tent is all yours until then.”
“Thanks.” I glance longingly at my sleeping bag, wanting nothing more than to crawl back into it and sleep for the rest of the day, or maybe even the rest of the week.
“You can go to sleep early tonight,” he tells me softly, and I glance at him before I fall to my bottom and pull my pack toward me. “When you’re ready, we’ll take down the tent.”
“Okay, thanks,” I mutter to my lap as I search for the package of wet wipes I brought with me, just so I can do something to keep from staring at him like I want to. When the zipper sounds, I lift my head and watch him step outside, then fall to my back and stare at the top of the tent. I have no idea how the hell I’m going to survive the next few days without doing something stupid, like asking him to kiss me.
With my heart seeming to want to escape my chest, I watch everyone as they climb into the raft that will take us downriver. I originally wasn’t nervous about this part of the trip, because I knew the rapids weren’t going to be rough, but after listening to Maverick and Tanner go over all the instructions—and there were a lot of them—I don’t know if I’m ready for this. And worse, I’m Tanner’s partner, so I’ve been placed in charge of helping him, which seems a whole lot ridiculous, since I have no idea what I’m doing. I’ve never even been in a boat before.
“Sunshine, you doing okay?” Tanner asks, coming to stand at my side, and I peek up at him and shake my head. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m afraid that I’m going to mess up and send everyone into the water,” I admit, and he chuckles. “It’s not funny.” I narrow my eyes on his.
“It won’t happen, Cybil. The water is going to be calm the entire way downstream. You have nothing to worry about.” He takes my hand, and I jolt at the contact. “Easy, sweetheart. I promise I got you,” he says quietly. “I’ll be with you the entire time.”
“Have you ever had a boat tip over?” I ask, refusing to budge from my spot on the bank.
“Rafting in class-six rapids, yes, but this area of the river we’re going down is a class one at best.” He gives my fingers a squeeze, then releases my hand and turns me to face him, quickly making sure that all the buckles on my life jacket are where they should be and tightening the ones that are loose. When he’s finished, he locks his gaze with mine and touches the end of my nose with his fingertip. “I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.” He takes my hand and helps me into the raft. Once I’m settled on my seat, he takes his place next to me and hands me my paddle, and I copy the hold he has on his.
“Ready?” Maverick asks, and everyone yells in the affirmative while my hands tremble. “See you at the bottom.” He wades out into the river, pushing the raft out to send us on our way.
As we slowly float downstream, with Tanner giving us instructions on what we should do with our paddles, my heartbeat starts to return to normal, and I begin to relax enough to lift the camera hanging around my neck and snap a few photos. It’s beautiful out here, and with tall tree-covered mountains on each side of the river and the bright-blue sky above us, a sense of peace settles over me. Like everything that has happened to bring me to this moment doesn’t really matter.
“Are you doing okay, sunshine?” Tanner asks quietly, and I turn to focus on his handsome face, which looks even better with the thick stubble covering his cheeks.
“Yeah.” I drag in a breath of fresh air, and his expression gentles.
“Good.” He reaches over to give my thigh a squeeze, which causes tingles to shoot through my system like little fireworks. When he turns around to check on everyone, I focus on the water ahead as memories of all the times Galvin touched me just like that roll through my mind. I have no feelings of loss or sadness connected to those memories, but there is a whole lot of confusion.
Being with Galvin was easy. He was my friend. Like Jade, I could tell him anything, talk to him about everything, and just be with him without pressure. It’s odd to realize now that the one thing missing in our relationship was chemistry. He didn’t cause my pulse to race with a simple touch and he didn’t make my stomach dance when he looked at me, and because it was something I never had, I never knew I was missing it.
Chewing the inside of my cheek, I wonder if that’s why he ended things. I wonder if he found that with someone else and realized he wanted more. If that’s what happened, I can’t fault him, because now that Tanner has brought these feelings out in me, I know what I was missing. I also wonder if I would feel the same with anyone else or if this is just a result of the connection I feel to the man at my side.
“Oh my God, there’s a bear!” Lauren shouts, bringing me out of my thoughts, and I scan the shoreline until my eyes land on the huge brown bear near the edge of the river.