Bonnie turns away, cursing.
Vale chuckles in my ear. “That was mean.”
“No, you know what’s going to be mean? Her sharing the tent with us tonight.”
Vale frowns as he falls in beside me. “I have been thinking about it all damn day.”
“Me, too,” I say honestly.
Bonnie scrambles away from us, keeping distance as she piles high an enormous armful of wood.
“We need to get enough for a couple of days,” she calls out. “No mucking around.”
“Yeah, we can save that for later,” I say under my breath, watching the way she walks away from me.
“Her ass is killing me,” I say to Vale.
He laughs and dumps his collection of branches in my arms. “Go back to camp and breathe.”
I huff. “I need a distraction, anyway.”
I turn and head back. By the time I get there, the tents are up, and Dakota has three small pots filled with water waiting to be boiled.
“Walk with me Cyn,” Rory says and grabs my arm.
We walk hand in hand around the clearing. It’s pretty massive, maybe fifty or sixty feet. On the other side of the river is a cliff or rocks that look easy to climb. There’s a mountain behind it. I want so badly to grab my pack and go exploring.
“We’ll come back here,” Rory promises. “Just the five of us.”
I suck air through my teeth. Yes, I want that. I force myself to look away from the mountain and jump on the rocks, crossing the river, so I can check it out.
“There’s fish in here!” My excitement bubbles at the thought of a hot meal of fresh fish.
Rory jumps across and stares into the water. “Where?”
I point.
Silently, we turn and go back the way we came. Rory finds two sticks that work perfectly, and we set to carving sharp points on them.
I take my shoes and socks off and roll up my pants as I edge into the water really slowly, trying not to make any movement.
I hold my makeshift spear up in front of me, preparing for the moment when I see them. The water is bitterly cold, and soon, my feet ache, but I’ve been trained to ignore my discomfort since I was a kid.
I see the fish and then another two. The biggest one moves closer to me, and I strike, smoothly lifting it out of the water and onto the bank.
Rory lunges and hoists his prize up, too. He laughs, his eyes shining.
“We’ve caught dinner!”
Bonnie walks over and sees what we’re doing. She hops across onto the rocks. Okay, be cool, she’s watching, do not fuck this up.
I see a fish; let all of everything fall away. All there is is me and him.Dinner. That’s his name. Get in my belly. She’s watching! Shut up, head.
With a speed borne from years of rigorous training, I spear the fish and lift it out of the water.
Rory gets another one, and we walk out of the water. I sit down and dry my feet off.
“Brr, that’s cold.”
