Oh no.
I wanted to throw myself into the fire pit.
We finished erecting the tent with only three more terrible fumbles from me—once when my glove slipped, once when I tripped over a snowshoe, and once when I turned too quickly and collided with Carson’s chest.
His hands caught my arms. Steady. Warm through the gloves.
“You good?” he asked quietly.
“Yes,” I squeaked. “No. Yes.”
I stepped back so fast I nearly toppled a second time.
“We’re testing the tent,” I said, desperate for a topic shift. “Then the fire. Then the food. Then the sleeping bag configuration.”
His eyebrow lifted. “Sleeping bag configuration.”
“For the guests!” I snapped. “Not for us! God, why do I keep doing this?”
He said nothing, but his eyes warmed.
I hated that.
And loved that.
And hated that I loved it.
By the time the tent was fully set up, the temperature had begun to drop, and the twilight glow deepened to a soft blue. Carson worked on the fire with smooth, practiced motions. I knelt beside him with the cook pot and dehydrated meals, trying not to look at his hands again.
“So,” he said as he struck the ferro rod, sparks flying, “tell me about Alaska.”
The question surprised me. Not because he asked, but because of the way he asked gently and curiously, without prying.
I blew out a breath. “It was… quiet.”
“Quiet is good.”
“Usually. But this time it was quiet inside my own head, too. And that? That was strange.”
He looked at me sideways. “Strange how?”
“Strange like… I wasn’t trying to outrun anything. Strange, like I could just be.” I shrugged. “Mortimer the moose helped.”
“I’m not sure I want the details of that.”
“You do,” I said, smiling faintly.
He returned the smile, subtle but real. “Maybe.”
“What about you?” I asked, stirring the pot. “Any impressive wildlife friends?”
He shook his head. “No moose. No meaningful deer encounters. Just clients who carried scented candles into the mountains.”
I laughed, a full warm rush of it. “I still can’t believe that one.”
“That makes two of us.”
He poured hot water over the meal packets while I tended the fire.
