Twigs snapped. He forced himself to pull away. Clouds were rolling in, dampening the moonlight. When Louisa settled back next to him, Lance and Kaci stood. Lance mentioned a walk down by the creek, and Jackson’s hope for his own moonlit excursion squished into the dirt like Anna’s launched marshmallow.
Anna paused between marshmallows to rub her bare arms before trading her empty stick for the new one he had waiting. He stood, gave his pants a dust, and headed for the truck. A minute later, he dropped his favorite Bama sweatshirt into Anna’s lap.
She made to hand it back to him but her nose twitched. She gave the shirt a sniff, then stretched it over her head. “Thank you,” she said in that same husky, sleepy way she used late at night when they were tangled up in his sheets.
His nerves coiled so tight between his legs, he wouldn’t be able to stand up again tonight. Couldn’t remember the last time he was jealous of a sweatshirt.
They all went quiet, Louisa burning and eating half the bag, Anna doing more roasting than eating, Jackson getting jealous of the marshmallows every time she put one in her mouth. Eventually he caught her yawning. “Giving up?” he asked.
She stretched her arms. “Mm-hmm.”
Couldn’t blame her. With the fresh night air, a full belly, and being all cozy by the fire, sleep was one of his top-five camping activities.
Sleeping curled up next to her would’ve been first, but with Hurricane Louisa here, he was plum out of luck.
He stood and held out a hand. “C’mon, then, Anna Grace. Better get you to bed so you can’t blame fatigue when I catch more fish than you tomorrow.”
He helped her up, then his sister. He wrapped an arm around each of them and walked them to their tent across the campsite from Kaci and Lance’s smaller tent. Radish trailed after them. “No pillow fights without me, understand?”
Louisa smacked him in the gut. “Dirty old man. I’m telling Momma.”
He chuckled. He gave Louisa a shoulder hug, then shooed her into the tent. She rolled her eyes out loud again, but she zipped herself inside.
He linked his hands around Anna’s back and pulled her closer, because not kissing her was about to drive him mad. He wanted to strip her naked in front of the campfire and see where else she tasted like marshmallows, but he couldn’t do that discreetly.
Radish nudged between them, and he reluctantly let her go.
“We’ll go for a walk tomorrow night,” he murmured.
She brushed her finger along the edge of his ear in silent agreement. “As long as you’re not a sore loser when I catchmore fish than you tomorrow.”
“We’ll see about that, Anna Grace.”
She kissed his cheek, then disappeared into the tent. He headed back to the fire, listening to the girls talk about him.
“Sorry I wrecked your plans,” Louisa said. Her voice dripped with Southern honey, the kind that made it impossible to taste the poison underneath.
He started for the tent, but stopped himself. Some other girlfriend might’ve needed his interference, but this was Anna.
Sure enough, her voice came out gentle as a feather, picking her words as though she were looking for good peaches off a late August tree. “Um, did you steal all the fish out of the creek?”
“No.”
That was his Anna, catching Louisa off guard. He didn’t have to see his sister to know she’d be wrinkling her brow and doing thatwhat in tarnation are you talking aboutthing with her lips.
“And we have another three bags of marshmallows, and plenty of firewood,” Anna continued. “And the tent doesn’t leak, and Ilovecampfire breakfasts. How would you have ruined that?”
“You know,” Louisa said, a little less certain, a lot less sweet, “your timealone.”
“With Kaci and Lance and Jackson? I can see them anytime.”
Not between Uncle Sam’s sending Jackson TDY and Anna’s class schedule. It was nice of her to stay with Radish once or twice, but he couldn’t deny he’d been jealous of his dog.
She thought she got enough time with him?
“I wish I’d had an opportunity to spend some more time with my big sister before she got married and had kids,” she said. “It must be nice to have Jackson close by.”
He blinked in the darkness, and he imagined Louisa wasdoing the same thing.
