“So, you and Chloe?”Silas does the closest thing to a smile he can muster as he hands me the straps from atop Noah’s Range Rover.
“Crazier things have happened.” I adjust the hat on my head.
“I didn’t say it was crazy.” He goes back to loosening the straps of the canoe, his expression now unreadable.
I haven't told the boys anything about Chloe, partly because she asked me not to, but also because I’ve been lucky enough that neither of them have brought it up.
When I glance up again, Silas is looking at me like he knows something I don’t. I almost tell him it’s nothing serious, or that I’m still the same single idiot I’ve always been. But he looks away, and in that quiet second of breathing room, I realize that might not exactly be true anymore.
“If that canoe scratches my ride, you boys are dead.” Noah pulls his beanie lower on his head, jogging over to his car to help us.
“If it gets scratched, you only have yourself to blame, Kingy boy. You should have been here helping us instead of making out with the sassy one behind a tree.”
“First of all, I was making out with her in the wide open,” he says with his signature grin. “Second, someone had to help Parker with the tent situation.”
I look over Noah’s shoulder to find four tents in piles around a fire pit. Chloe and Savannah are sitting at the picnic table with three different card games and a handful of orange peels between them.
“I call the single,” Silas pipes up.
A quick calculation, and I realize I might have overlooked the sleeping arrangements.
“Heads up,” Silas calls just before lowering the tip of the canoe into my and Noah’s waiting arms.
An hour after we’ve finished unloading the cars and setting up the tents, to my surprise, Chloe has not only gathered wood but started a fire. Something that’s impressive on its own, but even more so because she used a flint striker that Gabe was using as a decoration on his backpack.
“So…this is us?” She stands next to me with her hands on her hips, looking at the tent before me.
“I didn’t even think about the number of tents when we put Parker in charge of bringing them,” I whisper low enough so only she can hear.
“It would have looked weird if we had done anything else, right?” She opens the flap and my eyes fall to the single full-size mattress on the ground.
Groans ripple around the fire pit when I drop yet another marshmallow into the flames.
“Hall, you're fired. What’s the point of a s’mores without the toasted marshmallow?” Savannah huffs as she gets up, marching past me to the picnic table filled with supplies.
“Don’t worry, Sav. He’s a professional,” Chloe calls out from her chair behind me.
When I turn around to glare at her, she drops her head back, and her gentle laugh ripples through the crisp night air.
Noah stands, taking the skewer from my hands with a pat on the shoulder, and I move to sit down in the chair beside Chloe.
After a few less charred marshmallows, the fire continues to crackle, throwing off just enough heat to fight against the chill. Everyone else has begun to turn into their tents for the night, but Chloe stays up. She tucks one knee up on the bench beside me, tilting her face toward the stars as she points out each constellation. At first, I think she’s stalling, avoiding the whole sharing a tent situation, but by the third myth, and the way her eyes light up when she tells the story, I know I’m wrong. She’s not avoiding me, she’s just lost in the stars. And I’m completely lost in her.
“Look there.” She leans in closer, pointing to the sky. “You see where it looks like a man dancing with a magic hat on?”
I follow her finger to the sky, but the stars fade into the background as my focus falls on her hand. Her bright pink nails curl around the sleeve of her sweatshirt, and even though the campfire smoke masks most of her lavender scent, I can still catch it lingering there.
“That’s Perseus.”
“Yeah?” I pull back, just enough to watch her face light up as she talks.
“He saved the princess Andromeda from the sea monster right before she was about to marry him.” The campfire sparks, but it’s the story she’s telling that makes her green eyes glow as if she can see every detail play out before her. I watch her and wonder how she could ever let someone take her for granted. This incredible, beautiful, strong woman, who believes in so many things, but above everything, she continues to believe in love.
She pulls her gaze from the sky, and when her eyes land on mine, she leans back slightly, like she wasn’t expecting tofind me watching her. A quick smile flickers across her lips before she ducks her head and looks back up.
The firelight casts dancing shadows along the side of her face, and I have to clench my thumbs in my fists to stop myself from pulling her in closer to me.
“So, you and Noah looked pretty cute in your matching Toronto hats tonight.”
