“Jersey.”
“Nate,” she sassed back. Subsequently, the eye-fucking I received as her gaze raked over my gray Henley and well-worn jeans riled me up.
As we walked to my idling car, I looked down at her. “Is there something on your mind?”
“No. Why?”
“It looks like you want to eat me whole.” Before she could argue, I added, “We have that in common, though.” Our eyes connected for a long moment, that cracking energy predictably taking on a life of its own. Being first to break it—otherwise I would march her sweet ass right back into her building—I leaned across her and opened the door.
“So where are we—” Her words halted when she saw the back seat. “What’s all that?”
“Camping gear,” I said, as if it were obvious.
She twisted her head to stare at me. “We’re going camping?”
“No, I thought I would just buy all the stuff and check us into a hotel.” When her full lips twisted into a pout, I laughed and ordered, “Get in.”
After squeezing her bag in the only spare real estate behind her seat, I jogged around the car. Through the windshield, her brilliant smile made it all worth it. More so when the moment I slid into my seat she clutched my wrist and said, “Thank you.”
I threw her a wink before admitting, “Don’t thank me yet, Jersey. I’ve never been camping before.”
The giggles escalated. “Can you stop?” I asked, half-annoyed, half-amused myself. How the fuck did Boy Scouts do this shit? I tried again, shoving a flimsy rod into the nylon seaming, and for the tenth time it poked right through, making yet another hole. My growl caused her to laugh harder. “Shit. If rain is in the forecast tonight, we’re fucked.”
Meanwhile, Amy doubled over, holding her belly, pleading between gasps and choked chuckles: “Can I please do it?”
“Fine.” What was I trying to prove? I thrusted the stupid stick at her, and she took it in one hand, using her other to wipe away tears of laughter.
Five minutes later, she had all four poles slipped into place and waved at the erected structure. “Done.”
“Show-off.”
“There’s a learning curve.” The fiftieth, or maybe it was the hundredth stunning smile to spread over her face… I lost count. “Okay, hand me those stakes.” I did as she asked, following her around the tent as she used a rock to hammer them into the ground before tethering them to these stringy things on each corner.
For the next twenty minutes, I took her orders like a good little boy, setting up the camping chairs, gathering sticks for a fire. Like a pro, Amy organized a perfect little campsite beside the tent, and once done, she clapped the dirt off her hands. “Lastly, the mattress.”
I doubled back to my car and lugged out the only large box left in the trunk. Watching her bending over to pull the thing out of the box, crawl into the tent to lay it out, and then stomp her foot repeatedly on the pump it came with made me hard. I don’t know why. Maybe it was from seeing her behaving so different from the girly girl I had gotten to know. Or maybe it was knowing that I’d be fucking her on that mattress soon enough.
Oblivious to my situation, she straightened and said, “We need to make a fire before it gets dark and—” A loud rustling behind us caught our attention.
“What the fuck was that?”
Amy looked completely at ease. “It was too large to be a raccoon or skunk. A bear, maybe? They tend to come out at dusk.”
“You’re not serious.” Except her shrug meant she was. “Like a grizzly?”
She blatantly laughed at me. “No. Black bears. They’re usually harmless.”
“Oh, I feel so much better.” I rolled my eyes. “Why are there fucking bears here at all?”
“Nate, we’re in the woods. Usually they stay away from people, but yes, they do live here.” She took a step away, grabbed a large stick, and began banging it against a tree. The rustling came again, and then whatever it was scampered off. “He left,” she said, as though he were a tiny, adorable chipmunk. Traumatized, I gawked at her until she asked, “What?”
“What? This is a private campground, that’s what. Don’t they have precautions?” The grin meant no. “Jesus Christ. Have you ever seen one here?”
“A few times. Dad would always make sure our campsite didn’t attract them, keep food locked up, poured apple cider vinegar in a large circle around our tents. They don’t like the smell. You did bring some, right?” she deadpanned. My eyes widening farther due to a new stage of panic caused her to lose her shit yet again. “Oh my God. I wish I caught all that with my phone. Brad would piss his pants.”
“You’re evil. Please tell me you were kidding, because if not, we will sleep in my car.” I glanced at my poor baby, all filthy and mud caked. “Fuck the tent.”
“We’ll be fine. I promise.” She came closer and planted a kiss on my jaw. “Ready to catch a fish for dinner?”
“We have perfectly good food in the cooler.”
“You brought food? Then why did I see a fishing rod and tackle box?”
“Because the salesperson would’ve sold me his firstborn if I allowed him to.”
“That makes no sense.”
“Your point?” I droned. “I’m not chancing starving when we could eat delicious chicken Caesar salads, a baguette, brie, grapes, wine, chocolate moussssss—” The look on her face forced me to veer off the menu. “What?”
“That’s not camping food.” She waved a hand at the stream. “Catching a fresh fish and cooking it on an open fire, s’mores for dessert… that’s camping food. Come on, it’ll be fun. I’ll teach you how to gut a fish. It may come in handy one day.”
“When would I ever need to gut a fish?”
She pressed her lips together in thought before saying, “For when the zombie apocalypse hits.” My silent blinking had her rolling those lips over her teeth. “It can happen.”
“Okay, listen up, Jersey… how about we eat the stuff I brought instead of getting salmonella? Otherwise, I’m five seconds away from throwing your ass in the car and to hell with this idea. Yeah?”
“I…” Her pale-blue eyes shifted away from mine, and when they retethered, a blush tinged her cheeks.
“You?” I prodded.
“Um… nothing… just thank you again for doing this.” Those words and her unsure expression, combined with her wrapping her arms around me, had my anger evaporating… the fear, not so much.
“No thanks needed,” I said, kissing her softly.
“Still, I appreciate it. The fact you went through all this trouble means a lot to me.” There was that electrical charge again. It practically served as a truth serum… one that prompted the desire to commit to this woman, a notion that had never occurred to me before.
Needing to lighten the mood, I smirked. “Yeah? How much does it mean to you?”
“So much.” She shimmied her body against mine. “Let’s eat later and put that tent to good use.”
“Fuck the tent.” I kissed her again before taking her hand and tugging her toward the car. “And fuck the bear.”