A drop of water hit Corrie’s nose and she peered up at the sky. Was that... rain?
“Did you feel that?”
“Feel what?” he asked, as if being pulled out of deep thought.
“A raindrop.”
He looked up, darkness shrouding the sky above through the thick cover of the trees. Andblink.
“Shit,” he said as he searched for cover.
Another drop. Then another. A shower was inevitable.
They both stood, hustling to put their gear away, before Corrie rushed over to the tent. Ford, on the other hand, grabbed a blanket and put it over his head.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Trying not to get wet.”
For a brief moment, she debated her next words. But regardless of everything that had happened earlier in the day, she didn’t really have any choice other than to speak them.
“Ford, just sleep in the tent with me.”
“No, I’m fine.” Stubborn, like she would have been.
“No, you’re going to get drenched. Come on. Before I change my mind.”
He stared at her for a second before hurrying over to the tent mere seconds before the rain came pouring down. The rain hit the tent in a thunderous clatter as they barely made it in without getting drenched. Again. But the small, one-person tent really didn’t have enough room for the two of them, especially not when one of them had shoulders like Ford’s. They twisted and turned, shifting their bodies to get situated. Bumping knees. Clocking their heads. But finally, after a minute of flurried movements, they found a comfortable-ish happy medium, with both of them on their sides facing away from each other.
The heat built between their bodies, though. Like thattwo-inch space between them was a fiery inferno that they were both avoiding, for fear of getting burned. But it took all her might to keep her distance.
“God, it’s loud,” she said, more to herself than to Ford.
But he responded anyway. “You’ll get used to it.”
No shit. Not like it was her first time in a goddamn tent in the rain. But no need to rev the ole argument engine again.
“Camp in the rain often?”
“Used to. I mean, not like a ‘Oh, hey, it’s raining, let’s go camping.’ But more of a consequence of going camping often.”
“Why’d you stop? Camping often, I mean?”
He paused and let out a quick breath. “Addison didn’t like camping.”
Oh.
The silence inside the tent was no match for the rain pelting against the rainfly. Or the questions swirling in her head.
“Why’d you and Addison break up?”
Another sigh.
“Do we really need to talk about this?”
“What else are we going to talk about?”
“We don’thaveto talk about anything. We could just go to sleep.” She could hear the frustration in his voice.
