He shrugged, making their hammock sway a little. “I wasn’t planning to sleep in it. Were you?”
She grinned, pillowing her head more comfortably against his shoulder. “I suppose there’s no actual rule that we have to stay in the tents with the kids on campouts.”
“Nope. I checked with Zeph.” His thumb brushed slow, lazy circles against her hip, just under the hem of her t-shirt. “Who do you think lent me this hammock?”
“I was thinking it wasn’t quite your style. Don’t you usually just stretch out on some rocks?”
“Only when I can’t find any thorn bushes.”
“Careful,” she teased him. “Word of this gets out, people will think you’re going soft.”
“Woman, I will show you how soft I’m not going.”
CRASH
“Estelle!” Beth groaned. “Now we have to start all over again!”
“It’s not my fault! You let go before I was ready!”
“I amsurrounded,” Ignatius said, somewhat muffled, “byidiots.”
“Rufus says that technically, you’re surrounded by canvas.”
“BUCK!” Flora hollered. “IGGY IS STUCK UNDER THE TENT AGAIN!”
“We’d better help them,” Honey murmured to Buck. “Otherwise those tents are going to be collapsing throughout the night.”
He grunted, not moving. “Then the kids will learn from experience.”
“I commend your commitment to education, but I have to point out that this will also mean that they keep waking up.”
Buck growled something under his breath, and started the inelegant process of extracting himself from the hammock.
Even with Buck’s assistance—which mainly consisted of standing back with his hands in his pockets, commenting on the campers’ efforts in increasingly colorful terms—dusk was falling by the time both tents were solidly pitched. The kids flopped around the campfire, each face glowing with exhausted triumph. Honey handed out juice boxes, then showed the campers how to cook sausages over the flames. There was grilled corn on the cob too, and jacket potatoes slow-baked in foil until the skins were crisp and the insides soft and fluffy. Gooey s’mores rounded out the meal.
“All right, kids,” Buck said, when the last bits of melted chocolate had been licked from sticky fingers. “Bedtime.”
The kids were too tired from the day’s adventures to put up more than a token protest. Honey put the girls to bed in one tent, while Buck wrangled the boys into the other.
Sleepy murmurs soon faded to the soft sounds of slumber. In the low glow of the banked fire, Buck and Honey moved around each other in companionable silence, tidying up the campsite and setting things out for the morning.
By the time they climbed back into the hammock Buck had strung between two trees, Honey’s own eyelids were feeling heavy. It was a mild night, but Buck drew up a blanket, tucking it tight around them. She nestled on his chest, listening to the low, steady beat of his heart.
Honey was just drifting off to sleep when his voice rumbled against her ear. “Summer’s over half gone already.”
She’d been trying not to think about that. All her drowsy contentment instantly fled. She opened her eyes, staring up at the leaves rustling above them. Somewhere, an owl called, low and mournful.
She tried to sound upbeat. “Who’d have thought we’d last this long?”
“Yeah.” His hand rested on her shoulder; still now, and heavy. “Honey—”
“Buuuuuuck! I gotta go! Real bad!”
Buck muttered a curse, then lifted his voice. “Why are you telling me? You hear the call of motherloving nature, answer it yourself.”
“But there’s no toilet!” Archie appeared at the side of the hammock, squirming in the universal dance of urgency. “Where am I supposed to go?”
Buck’s chest rose and fell under Honey’s ear in a long sigh. “Archie, we’re in the woods. You’re a bear. Use your initiative.”
