“Uh, sort of.” I frowned and looked over at them. Matthias was asleep in their hammock, his mouth wide open as he snored. Brandon was sitting in a chair with eyes closed and headphones on, his fingers drumming the chair arms.
“Two sites is two payments,” she said, her eyes scanning the trees behind me again as if she were looking for something. “I’m the big RV you passed on the way in. You need firewood, then I can sell it to ya. I’ll need upfront payment on the campsites.”
Once the last word was from her mouth she pressed on the gas and drove away as fast as the golf cart would go.
“Ma’am! We prepaid online!” I yelled out to her but she just kept going, not responding to me at all.
Caspian walked back around the curve, looking over his shoulder at the rapidly retreating golf cart. The lady seemed in a big hurry but slowed down to eye Caspian plenty before grinding her foot into the gas and disappearing entirely.
My eyes drifted to the campsite across from ours. Brandon was now wandering around with his phone in the air, looking as if he were struggling to find service. His face had an ugly area developing into a nasty bruise. I thought about what I saw earlier.
Falling into a tree made no sense. They’d all been standing at least twenty feet away from any tree. Caspian’s knuckles had been red. Brandon had his arms lifted as if to protect himself from an attack. Matthias had been tugging on his hair, a look of panic on his face as he watched the two men.
They’d been fighting. I wasn't stupid.
It was hard to imagine Caspian punching someone in the face but the evidence was all there. How could he do that?
Maybe it had been about me. That thought both upset and angered me. His band was acting as if I was the cause for Caspian’s choices. Part of me felt guilty but the other part of me rallied against the idea, logic telling me I had nothing to do with it. I didn’t. Caspian had wanted or needed a break for some reason. I was just a convenient option.
Caspian wasn’t very chatty as he walked into camp. He sat in his camping chair and watched me as I searched for a spot with phone service.
I climbed on the picnic table and held up the phone in the sky.
“Your tongue is sticking out,” Caspian said.
“Leave me alone” I grumbled self consciously as my tongue indeed wiggled out of my mouth as I stretched my phone towards the sky. Finally, I got the vulture pictures from earlier to post to the Instagram I was running. Sasquatch Inc had wanted me to update regularly there.
“It’s cute when you do it,” Caspian said as I jumped down from the picnic table. I looked over at him and something about his heavy attention and words made me feel like climbing in a hole and squealing.
“Good to know,” I said awkwardly, yelling in my mind not to think about the thing I’d thought about before. With us both in the tent and him whispering and teasing.
Nope! Not thinking about it.
“I better take some pictures,” I said, scrambling around to get a Sasquatch cooler out and get some good shots of it.
Product photography wasn’t something I had a ton of experience with so it took me a long time to figure out good placements and angles. Caspian got his acoustic guitar out at some point. The sound of smooth, languid Spanish songs filled the campsite.
He watched me the entire time, his eyes lazily taking in my movements as he effortlessly played music. It made me feel aware of my body, his gaze almost like light touches caressing my heated skin. It was a familiar awareness though.
When we lived together, we were always around one another. He tended to watch me a lot, no matter what I was doing. At first, I’d griped about it, getting irritated by his attention. He never stopped despite my complaints and eventually, I’d come to accept that was just something he did. He was a people watcher I suppose. Charming people were often like that, fully focused on the person they were around.
Matthias and Brandon stayed on their side of the street, not bothering to even look our way. There was an edge of anger in their movements I could see even from here. Their attitudes had taken a nosedive since the fight earlier. It left me feeling unsettled.
After a few hours and a million photos, I flopped in the other camping chair next to Caspian.
“Now what?” I asked, looking around at nature.
“We could make a fire and eat,” Capsian offered. My stomach groaned from the suggestion and I realized I’d been ignoring it all day. I looked over at him with a smile. That was all he needed to set his guitar to the side and begin making a fire. Sometimes I felt spoiled by him. He always jumped to do everything with eagerness, more than happy to be useful for people.
“This is so exciting! Our first fire! Should I help?” I was giddy, bouncing in the chair as I watched him set up the wood in a teepee shape.
“I’ve got this,” he said with a small smile. He had changed into a sleeveless gym shirt at some point. The muscles on his arms flexed as he went about moving pieces of wood. The armholes were so big they showed off the side of his chest and body. The bandaging from his new tattoo was still in place. It was big, covering his entire left pec.
When our parents first married he was skinny and lanky, his hands and feet too big for him. Like one of those massive dogs with oversized paws they needed to grow into. He was tall and filled out now. My eyes kept catching on his defined arms and wondering how he was ever gangly.
My eyes darted away when I realized I was ogling… again.
“Thank you, by the way. I know I’ve said it before, but I want to say it again.” Caspian looked over at me as he bent down, stuffing dry leaves between the firewood. “Not the fire, but that too. I mean coming with me. For being excited for me. Supporting me.” I waited for a response but his eyes dipped away from me as he lit the fire. It started to smoke and build. He pushed up from crouching and walked over.
