“I said I’d wake you if anything was happening, and nothing happened.”
He’s got a laid-back, lazy manner, but it’s superficial. His eyes are sharp as they search the clearing and then run up and down my body.
I’m wearing my jeans with a tank top. Plenty of clothes. But it still feels like he sees everything there is to see about me. Not just my body.Me.
It’s very unnerving.
“Well, looks like somethin’ happened. You had lunch and you washed your hair.”
“You didn’t need to be awake for any of that.”
“Maybe I’m hungry.”
I chuckle at his teasingly aggrieved tone. “Fine. Get back in bed and I’ll get you something.”
He steps out of the way to let me into the camper, but he doesn’t head for the bed. He carefully descends the step outside.
I fix him bread and cheese like I ate—adding some ham since he needs to build up energy—and I can hear him talking outside.
He’s having a discussion with Molly about how she’sbeen keeping busy today. It makes me smile, which I decide is fine because he can’t see it.
I bring his lunch outside and find he’s made a seat out of an overturned wooden crate. Molly is sitting at his feet, gazing up at him adoringly.
“You gotta get a backbone, girl,” I tell her. “Throwing yourself at the first man who comes along never turns out well.”
“Thank you,” he says as he accepts the food I offer him. “Is that what you did?”
“Iswhatwhat I did?”
“Throw yourself at the first man who came along?”
“Oh. No. No way.” I think for a moment before I add, “Jesse was nice to me. I hadn’t had a lot of that in my life. But I never threw myself at him. He made all the moves.”
“Is that what you like?” There’s a particular nuance in his tone. In his eyes. “A man who makes the moves?”
“Not anymore. I thought I made it clear I don’t want a man at all now.”
“You did make it clear, but a guy’s gotta have a little hope.”
If his mood hadn’t shifted to teasing, I would have gotten defensive. But because he’s not being serious, I can shake my head at him with a mild eye roll. “A guy needs to use his energy getting better.”
“This guy is tryin’. Didn’t I just sleep the day away?”
“Not the whole day.” I pick up my wide-tooth comband start pulling it through my hair again—more for something to do than because it’s still tangled.
He leans back against the side of the camper and watches me, evidently content to sit in silence for a while.
Eventually, his warm, admiring gaze starts making me self-conscious again. It seems like he might be pleased if he knew this, so I search for another distraction. “So where are you heading?”
“Where am I heading?”
“Yeah. I mean, I assume you were going somewhere when you ended up here. You said you were going farther in.” I nod toward the deep forest.
“Oh. Yeah, I am. Got some people that way.”
“What people?”
He just looks at me.
