Kelty rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Camping isn’t about romance. We sack out and wake up at first light. All we need is a place to crash.”
Brett shook his head. “False. If camping isn’t romantic, I don’t know what is.”
“How so?” Penny smiled and gave him a quizzical look.
“What’s more romantic than staring up through Ponderosa Pines at the Milky Way?”
Penny’s eyes sparkled with interest, and he wanted to find something else to surprise her so they’d never stop. “You’re the expert on romance?”
“Obviously.” He turned back to the front and leaned between the seats. “Luckily, you’ll have plenty of romance because the three of us guys would barely fit in a six man tent, let alone adding the girls.”
Sean nodded once. “Exactly. I don’t know about the romance bit, but I do know I’m not sleeping next to anyone besides Kelty ever again.”
Penny leaned forward, and her shoulder brushed Brett’s. The smell of her shampoo wafted toward him, and his pulse quickened. “Then why doesn’t she have a ring on her finger?”
“HA!” Brett clapped a hand on Penny’s shoulder without thinking. She leaned into him as they both dissolved into laughter at the expression on Sean’s face. Kelty turned around and gaped at Penny.
Brett hadn’t heard anyone call out Sean like that on or off the ice, and he couldn’t say a damn thing about it since Penny wasn’thisclose friend. Penny sighed and straightened, and Brett pulled his hand back to rest in his lap, immediately missing the feel of her soft cotton shirt and arch of her back under his fingers.
“What’s so funny?” Emma called from the back.
“You’d know if you’d ever come up for air!” Sean barked.
Kelty sat smirking in the front seat, and though Sean tried to maintain a stormy expression, he couldn’t keep the corner of his mouth from lifting. Penny wiped her eyes, then unzipped her waist bag and pulled out a stick of lip balm. She applied it to her lips, and Brett caught a whiff of cinnamon. “I’m glad I came.”
Brett pulled his hair back from his face and secured it with an elastic. He lowered his voice just for her. “Because you need more romance in your life?”
She scoffed. “No, romance is the last thing I need.”
Penny wadded up her hoodie and stuffed it between her head and the window, then settled in and closed her eyes. A tendril of hair had escaped her braid and framed her face. Brett tried to get comfortable while Tracy Chapman harmonized with blues guitar through the speakers, but his fingers still tingled, and he couldn’t get that look on Penny’s face out of his head.
By the time they pulled into the campground, it was just past noon—perfect timing to check in and load into their site. Penny had napped for much of the drive, then chatted with Kelty for the last forty minutes or so. From that conversation, Brett had learned that she loved Korean dramas, hated olives—even though they were the lifeblood of her people—and wanted to put the person responsible for the word ‘murse’ in an Albanian prison.
A deep ache had started just below Brett’s ribs around the time Penny did her impression of Justin Trudeau, then spread through his midsection when she slipped her shoes off to “stretch her arches” and he saw her socks were mismatched.
Brett was smitten.
Which was quite inconvenient considering his and Penny’s current life situations. They were housemates. She was his physical therapist. He was . . . useless. And Penny was planning to go back to Vancouver, possibly permanently, in six weeks. Add into the mix that even when he became fully functional, Penny had already made it perfectly clear she wouldn’t ever be interested insomeone like him.
Brett worked to release the tightness in his chest as Sean chatted with the ranger, then drove the loop and parked at their site. Brett scooted out onto the springy, pine-littered ground and started unloading their equipment. It wasn’t difficult to find a place for each of their tents since Sean had booked a site large enough for a group twice their size.
Brett took his four-man tent a little further out from the site and cleared off a spot between two pines.
“Let’s set up the tents a bit later so we can hike up to the overlook!” Kelty called out.
Brett re-zipped the tent bag and straightened. He wouldn’t be going on more than a short jaunt to the Porta-Potties but didn’t want to kill their mojo. “You guys go. I’ll finish getting all this organized.” He pointed at the cooler and bags of food. He could easily get everything in the bear bin and build a fire so they’d have good coals for the dinner Emma had prepped for the Dutch oven.
They’d assigned him breakfast the next morning. He wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or sign of their lack of confidence in his cooking abilities.
“I’ll stay,” Sean offered.
“You don’t need—” Brett stopped when Sean drew his hand across his neck.
“I can’t leave you here alone. You couldn’t outrun a beaver in your condition.” Sean lifted the cooler onto the picnic table.
“What would I do without a big strong man like you around?” Brett pretended to swoon, and Kelty laughed as she lugged a duffel bag from the back and set it next to their bagged tent.
“We’ll be back soon. Don’t think I don’t see what you’re doing, Sean.” Kelty slapped his backside as she passed and motioned for the others to follow her to the trailhead. Penny set her borrowed tent on the ground between the fire pit and Brett’s claimed spot, then jogged back to walk with the others. Brett’s eyes lingered a bit too long on her retreating form before he grabbed some of the groceries and walked them over to the bear bin.
