“Right.” She frowned. “When did yougetback?”
“Last week.” A direct hit, and heknewit.
“Long tour of duty.” Her voice almost cracked. Almost. She’d been to war zones, too. Not in the same way, but with way less training. She knew better than to getemotional.
One of his shoulders lifted in a casual shrug. “Some ofthemare.”
“I know that.” That sounded moreconfident. Like an understandingfriend.
“I know you do.” He needed to stop looking at her like he knew a lot more than the fact she got the nuances of his job. “What have you been up to for the last tenmonths?”
“You can probably guess.” A news cycle that ramped up instead of down after the election. Fifteen hour days, more flights than she could count, a blur of generic hotel rooms.Stories that changed faster than ever before, and a new hostility towards the media—especially visible minorities like herself. Intersectionality was a four-letter word in a chaotic newsroom, so she kept her head down and did her job better thananyoneelse.
But she was tired, and her body wasshowingit.
Grady nodded. “Yeah, I can. Is this a much-neededbreak?”
“Doctor’sorders. Fresh air and morninghikes.”
He gave her a look of alarm. “Doctor?”
“A minor blood-pressure problem.” That medication didn’t seem to want to fix. Whatever. “She suggested therapy. I did that. It didn’t help. She suggested a retreat, and I told her my best friend was working at a summer camp with spotty Wi-Fi and daily yoga. Wecompromised.”
“Yoga instead ofhikes?”
“No, I agreed to do both. Not much of a compromise, really. She seems to think I need an outlet for built-upstress.”
His lips twitched, a flash of perfect, even white teeth before his scruffy jaw resetitself.
She found herself a little disappointed he hadn’t gone there and reminded her they worked out quite a bit of her stress last year. Sex would be better than both yogaandhiking.
Instead, he looked around the cabin until he found the daily print-out of activities. He was a Camp Firefly Falls lifer, after all. He knew how Heather and Michael ran the place, especially in the weeks that were popular withalumni.
“Can I join you for the hike tomorrow morning?” He glanced up as he asked, and her breath caught in her throat at the dark, searching lookthat pierced through her shell with devastatingprecision.
“It’s a groupthing.”
“I’ll take that as areluctantyes.”
It wasn’t nearly as reluctant as it should be. She shrugged. “No reason we can’t be grown-ups about this. And it’s probably time for dinner now, so…” She waved to the door, as if that would make her feet move in that direction. “And maybe Tegan can find youanother cabin tostayin.”
His brows tugged together, like he wanted to frown at her, but then he forced his face into a smile. “If that’s whatyouwant.”
Her stomach twisted tight. She didn’t know what she wanted. That was theproblem.
And there was a very real concern that what she secretly wanted more than anything wasn’t on thetable.
