“I call bullshit,” Ryan bellowed, a wide grin on his face.
Mark found himself fighting a grin of his own. Hell, he was so thankful for these guys. Closest thing to a family he’d ever had. Growing up in foster care, bouncing from home to home, about the only sure thing had been that things would change, and usually for the worse. But not with these guys.
They’d landed in a group home together the summer Mark was eleven. Best summer of his whole damn life. They’d been split up soon after, but it was a small town. They’d attended the same middle and high school and so they’d remained friends, thick as thieves through their teens.
After graduation, they’d drifted in different directions, but last year when Ethan had called with his idea for Off-the-Grid Adventures, Mark had jumped at the chance. It had come at just the right time, after his career with the Special Forces had ended. Instead of reenlisting and hoping the Army could find a new post for him, he’d gotten out and come home to Haven. This place, and these guys, had been exactly what he needed.
“Actually, since you’re ditching us to run the haunted zip-line without you while you’re on your honeymoon, I’d say you owe us one,” Ryan said.
Ethan grumbled good-naturedly. “Fine, fine. Let me finish this side, then you can take over.”
“That’s more like it,” Ryan said with a grin, watching as Ethan lifted another load of dirt out of the hole. “Speaking of your wedding, I’ve got everything set for your bachelor party tomorrow.”
“Still not going to tell me where we’re going?” Ethan asked.
“Nope,” Ryan answered.
Wednesday might be an unconventional day for a bachelor party, but they were the sole owners of Off-the-Grid and it made much more sense financially to shut the place down on a Wednesday than a Saturday so that they could whoop it up with Ethan before he tied the knot.
Ryan had booked them for a skydive outside Boone tomorrow afternoon—that’s how adrenaline junkies did bachelor parties—and then a night of bar-hopping. None of them had appointments scheduled back here until Thursday afternoon so they’d have plenty of time to sleep off any resulting hangovers.
“As long as it involves beer, I’m down,” Ethan said, but Mark knew it was killing him not to know where they were going.
Ignoring him, Ryan turned to Mark. “Any word on the land?”
Mark shook his head. “Haven’t heard anything yet.”
“Piss-poor luck that Jessica wants it too,” Ryan said.
“Tell me about it.”
Ethan flipped the scoop backward, spilling dirt everywhere. “Oops. Listen, I like Jessica as much as the next guy, but this land would be a really sweet addition to our property. I’ve been thinking about that mountain bike track since we opened this place so I won’t be sorry if her offer falls short.”
Ryan shot a cautious look in Mark’s direction. “I guess we’ll wait to hear from the realtor and then see what our next step will be.”
Mark nodded. He knew that they couldn’t pussyfoot around because of his history with Jess.
“I know my next step,” Ethan said with a grin. “I vote we fill this baby with water and give it a go.”
“We agreed not to fill the pit with water until a few days before the event,” Ryan said.
“But what if, for argument’s sake, we add water and find out it’s not deep enough? Or too deep? And how much loose dirt do we need to leave in here to create enough mud? All questions that could be answered this afternoon if we just pumped in some water and gave it a test run.” Ethan looked positively gleeful at the thought.
There was a reason the three of them ran an outdoor adventure facility. They lived for this kind of shit. And Ethan had a point.
“I’m game,” Mark said.
“Two outta three, bro,” Ethan said, stepping out of the machine to let Ryan take over.
“Fair enough,” Ryan agreed.
They’d chosen this spot for the mud pit because of its proximity to the course but also to the stream, from which they’d be able to pump water to fill it. Two hours later, the hole had been transformed into a mud pit and Ethan was staring at it with a wicked gleam in his eye.
“I’m going in,” he announced.
“Figured you would,” Mark said. “Let us know how it is.”
“Oh, like you pussies aren’t coming in too?” Ethan stripped to his boxer shorts and splashed into the mud pit. “Holy balls, this is cold.”
