"Morning!" Emma emerged from her tent, stretching her arms above her head and looking like she came straight out of an ad for rugged mountain gear. Tyler followed, and moments later Sean and Kelty dragged themselves into the morning sunlight.
“The gang’s all here,” Brett murmured. He whisked the eggs with a plastic fork until they were light and frothy then lowered the heat on the stove and poured them into the heated skillet. They sizzled as he sprinkled in salt and pepper and scraped the edges of the pan with a wooden spoon.
"Smells amazing, bud.” Tyler rubbed his eyes as he took a seat near the makeshift kitchen. “You two make a good team.”
Brett shot him a look. The last thing he needed was for these four to start making comments. He had no idea what was going through Penny’s head right now, but making her feel cornered was going to take his already slim chances with her and drop them to zero.
She’d been through hell and back with her brother, from what she’d described and what he knew from personal experience. Maybe if he could prove to her that he was serious—that he was willing to do the work and she could trust him—she’d reconsider. Because the more time he spent with her, the more he couldn’t imagine her walking out in six weeks and moving back to Vancouver.
When the eggs were done, he set the skillet on the table next to the bacon and encouraged everyone to dish up. Penny sat across from Brett, and her eyes flitted to his before dropping to her plate.
“Did Brett keep you up with his snoring?” Emma asked.
Penny laughed and took a bite of eggs. “No snoring. Not that I heard anyway.”
“Snoring is better than laughing.” Sean took a piece of bacon, and Emma scoffed.
“What, we’re supposed to be grumpy like you when we go to bed at night?”
The furrow in Sean’s brow deepened. “I’m not grumpy at night.”
“Well you’re not happy,” Emma muttered.
Kelty leaned over and planted a kiss on Sean’s temple. “You’re intense. It’s not a bad thing. Plus, it makes me feel more special that I know exactly what makes youless grumpy.”
Emma pretended to gag.
Sean grinned smugly. “Not so fun when you’re on the receiving end, is it?”
“That’s what she said,” Tyler murmured, and the whole group busted up laughing. Brett couldn’t have been more grateful for the spotlight to be pointed away from him and Penny.
They finished their breakfast while Kelty suggested plans for the day, and Penny was the first to stand and pick up her plate.
"I can help you clean up."
Brett nodded, and together they gathered the dishes they’d used to cook and set them in a small tub, then carried them to the dishwashing station with the small bottle of biodegradable soap from Kelty’s camping bin.
“I’ll wash, you dry?” Penny suggested. She jumped in and scrubbed while Brett rinsed out the tub then dried the clean dishes and stacked them.
"Have you ever tried washing dishes in a stream?" Penny asked. Brett shook his head. "I did it once when I was a kid. It was freezing, but the whole time I imagined I was a pioneer or something."
A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he imagined Penny as a little girl standing next to a gurgling stream. “That’s adorable.”
“I think I lost three plates and my mom’s measuring cups.”
Brett chuckled. “You don’t need measuring cups anyway. Just eyeball it.”
Penny grinned. “I would love to see you express that opinion in front of my mom.”
Brett’s throat constricted at the thought of meeting Penny’s parents. He couldn’t help it. Without his permission, his imagination was already working double time behind the scenes, building out possibilities brick by brick with Penny front and center. But she wasn’t in his life, not permanently. Which was exactly why he’d avoided relationships for so long. He was efficient at managing his life with all the variables he knew to expect. If he kept the inputs the same, he knew the output. Even if it was a less than satisfactory one.
This injury was an unknown. Penny . . . she wasn’t just an unknown variable. She was the forward that skated onto the ice and flipped the entire game on its head. He couldn’t use the same strategies here, and that left him standing on thin ice. Worse. He could hear it cracking, and he was still begging to skate across.
Once the dishes were clean and stacked in the bin, they walked back to their site. He asked Penny more questions about her camping trips growing up, which was a mistake. Every detail he learned about her only fractured into a hundred more details he was desperate for. He felt like a kid on Christmas morning using every fiber of self control to keep from tearing off the wrapping paper and looking at the box.
Brett’s neck flushed. That metaphor was disturbingly appropriate.
Penny retreated back into their tent to change out of her pajamas. He needed to change too, since they’d all agreed to take a trip into town, but he was happy to give her dibs. He needed time to clear his head. To focus on something other than unwrapping . . . things.
