“Sorry.”
His size made it impossible for him not to toucheverything.By the time he’d lain out and crawled into his sleeping bag, it was as if a recently bathed dog had come in and shaken itself dry.
She switched off the flashlight and closed her eyes. “One mention of hypothermia or using body heat to survive, and you’re out on your ass. Understand?”
“Understood.” He chuckled. “Thanks, Tess.”
By morning, the rain had slowed to a drizzle, but the overnight deluge had left puddles and despair. Now, everyone wasn’t just tired and hungry, but tired, hungry, and wet.
“Carter slept with you?” Ashton asked as Carter struggled out of her tent.
“His tent collapsed in the middle of the night,” Tess explained. “We didn’t have a choice.”
“Maybe if he’d put his tarp on properly…” Logan said.
Tess glanced at Carter’s tent. In the light of day, she could see that Logan was right. Carter hadn’t tied it securely. It had blown up and trapped the water over the tent, collecting the rain until it became so heavy that it collapsed.
“You’d think by now it’d be obvious that Tess is always right,” Grayson said offhandedly. “And if you don’t do what she says,howshe says to do it, somethin’ bad’s gonna happen.”
“Geez, I’m sorry,” Carter said. “I thought I tied it correctly. At least nobody got hurt.”
“Weren’t you in charge of covering the fire pit?” Ashton said, nodding to an uncovered pit filled with water. “Now we can’t make a fire. That sort of hurts us all, don’t you think?”
“All right,” Tess said, tamping down her own irritation. “What’s done is done. It sucks, but we have to deal with it.”
They moved to a small clearing in the forest, which gave a semblance of shelter, but even there, it was too wet to start a fire.
Anger toward Carter rolled off in waves from the group, and Tess really couldn’t blame them.
“Instant coffee is disgusting, but it was better than no coffee,” Ashton said. “You’re not going to like me uncaffeinated.”
“Yeah,” Grayson agreed. “Without caffeine, I should probably apologize in advance for whatever might come out of my mouth.”
Tess knew the feeling.
“Maybe it’ll clear up by lunch, and we can make some then,” Logan said.
Tess looked at the sky and shrugged. “Maybe.” She pulled her hood over her head. “I’m gonna go look for berries.”
“Shouldn’t one of us go with you?” Logan asked.
As much as she did not want company, he was right. “If someone’s comin’, get a move on.”
The men all shared furtive glances, mentally playing a game of Not It. Logan sighed and came to her side.
“We’ll try to get a fire going,” Carter offered lamely as she turned to go.
Logan followed silently, no one saying anything until they arrived at the berry bushes.
“You’re hiding your irritation very well,” he said, breaking the ice and causing her to laugh.
“Believe me,” she said. “It’s right under the surface. Especially without caffeine. You were brave to follow me out here.”
“Or stupid.” He smiled. “You needed a second. I understand.”
“Perhaps.” It was kind of weird he could read her like that. She wasn’t really in the mood to talk, but Logan’s presence was calming and she felt herself relax a bit.
“What doyoudo on solo day?” Logan asked.
