Every single one of them was her responsibility right now, and the weight of that wasn’t frightening. It was clarifying. It pulled everything else back and left only what mattered, which was this room, these people, this fire, and the next few hours.
Ace was at the far side of the cave, checking the structural points where the tarpaulin met the rock, pressing his palm flat against the limestone to feel for water seeping through. He moved without urgency, systematically and quietly, the way he always moved when he was being useful without making it a performance. Rad was near the entrance doing something similar on the other side, his head bent, checking the weighted base of the tarpaulin where the wind kept trying to find a gap.
Margo was already crouching in front of the nearest cluster of teenagers.
“Okay,” Margo said. Her voice was pitched low and warm in the way she had of making even ordinary words sound like something you could lean on. “Let’s take two sleeping bags and make a section at the back of the cave where those who haven’t changed out of wet clothes do so now.”
“I agree with Margo,” Willa moved forward, knowing she had to change out of her wet clothes as well, and was so grateful that Andy had grabbed her pack for her. “We don’t need anyone getting a fever.” She moved to her sleeping bag and pulled it out. “I’ll hold one of the covers.”
“I’ll hold the other,” Margo said.
“Then we’ll do the same for the guys,” Ace and Rad chimed in.
The next twenty minutes were spent with the girls first putting on something dry and then the boys. After that was done, Willa went through her own pack and pulled out a spare set of clothes, which she handed to Margo.
“Here,” Willa said. “We need to get dry as well.”
“Right,” Margo agreed.
Grace and Katey held up the sleeping bags so they could get changed. Tyler and Andy did the same for Rad and Ace.
Once that was done, the teens once again huddled around the fire, this time on their sleeping bags they had each unrolled.
While Margo and Rad saw to the fire and engaged the teenagers in conversation to distract them from the storm outside, Willa and Ace went to take inventory of the supplies the teens managed to grab from the initial camp they’d set up.
“What are we working with here?” Willa asked as they sorted through the items. “We need to feed everyone.”
Ace nodded and helped Willa pull things out and set them in order on the flat section of rock that served as a table-type surface. There were six emergency blankets. Another three partial sets of dry clothes. Two small first aid kits. A few waterproof flashlights. The second satellite phone. Four energy bar packets, each with six bars. Four large sealed bags of trail mix. Ten medium water bottles and two large ones.
“That’s not bad,” Ace said. “Plus, there are the cans of tuna, beans, tea, milk powder, some sugar, and rice.”
“It’s okay,” Willa said. “But we’ll need to be careful with the food.”
“The fire’s going to be the main heat source, and we need to ensure there’s enough wood,” Ace said. “We need to keep it fed but not burn through what we have for it too fast.” He glanced at the pile next to one of the cave walls. “The teens did an amazing job of getting this set up while we were having a swim in the sea.” He gave a grin.
“Yes, that was loads of fun,” Willa drawled sarcastically, glad of Ace’s soft humor that always diffused tense or stressful situations. She looked at the pile of wood. “Andy, Tyler, and the other teen boys collected it while the girls set up, apparently.”
Willa looked at her son.
He glanced up and met her eyes briefly, giving her a smile before turning back to talk to Tyler.
“Let’s get this mob fed,” Willa suggested, and Ace agreed.
They spent the next hour cooking, then had to share plates and eat in shifts.
When they’d finished a meal of beans and rice, Willa offered water and an energy bar each for dessert.
“These are actually not bad,” Katey said, looking at the energy bar in her hand with mild surprise. “I expected them to taste like cardboard.”
“These are my favorite ones,” Grace told Katey, smiling. “I’ve been telling you for years to try one.”
“They always just looked so…” Katey eyed the bar. “Not so appetizing.”
“I used to think the same as you did, Katey,” Margo told Katey. “But then Willa made me try one when we went to Gainesville shopping, and I was starving. It’s all she had in her purse, so I ate it and was as surprised as you were at the taste.”
Willa smiled and moved to where Ace was once again fiddling with the tarpaulin keeping the cave covered.
“You keep fiddling with our make-shift door,” Willa observed.
