“Jeeze-iz,”said another one.
Dan turned around and headed back to his barstool—no, two to the left, nearer the conversation. He didn’t want to miss anything.
“Then another one jumps in and says it’s for a movie script. They’re researching to see if the idea is even viable. But you could tell they came up with that on the spot, you know?”
“Well, what are you saying, Lupe? You think they’re gonna dump a real baby into the Rio Grande just to see where it ends up?”
“I think maybe they already did. They were down there by the dumping ground, where the river spews her refuse, doing some kind of ceremony.”
Dan spun his barstool around, cleared his throat, and said, “Excuse me.”
The girl who’d done most of the talking looked at him, startled, then said, “I’m sorry if we’re being too loud.”
Huh. Manners from a river rat? Would wonders never cease?
“Not at all,” he lied. They were being entirely too loud. It just happened he was glad of it this time. “You don’t happen to recall the name of the person asking about a baby in the river, do you?”
“Well, we’re not s’posed to share customer info?—”
“You’re not. I’m a park employee, too.”
“Still.”
The others with her looked at him as if his age offended them somehow. As if it wasn’t going to happen to them, too. Freaking river rats, anyway.
Dan shrugged it off. He could look into yesterday's logbooks as easily as they could. “Never mind, then,” he said. “Have a nice evening.” And then he headed for the quiet table in the back.
Wolf
He and Camellia didn’t really separate the rest of the way back to camp. They walked with every part possible pressed together. Wolf didn’t want to let go of her, despite that his brain was trying to break in with logic and warnings. She was clinging close as they walked back, arm in arm. By the time they got to their little campsite, it was late, and his practical mind was getting louder.
This was too much, too soon. She hadn’t recovered from her stalker ex, and he’d just lost his mother and his entire identity. This was no time to start a relationship.
But it was kind of late for all that.
He let go of her to crouch and unzip the tent. It felt cold without her in his arms. The sun had set and taken its heat with it. He held the flap open, and she ducked past him inside. He went in behind her, turning around to zip the thing back up, taking his time while she moved around behind him. He had to slow this down, cool it off, use common sense. They’d fallen intoeach other up there on the trail, and it was time to put their feet back onto the ground.
He finished the zip, rose and turned, and was instantly paralyzed.
She was standing there naked in the orange glow of the portable heater she’d turned on. “I found a fully charged battery in my backpack,” she said. She smiled at him in the darkness, then crawled in between the still-zipped-together bags, and crooked her finger at him.
His paralysis fled. He was naked and in there beside her in 3.5 seconds. Once her body slid against his, his irritating common sense shut down for the rest of the night.
Damn, this might be wrong for both of them, but it sure as hell felt right.
Camellia
Camellia had been floating so high in a pink cloud of pheromones and post-coitus endorphins that she’d never even felt her feet touch the ground as they’d walked back to the tent. And then when he took his arm from around her and knelt to unzip it, she'd felt abandoned.
Reason had started to creep back in during that cold moment. He was the first guy to show interest since Earl, and she was still fending off the PTSD, and Wolf was in no frame of mind to be getting involved with anybody.
He was holding the tent flap for her and looking at her with kindness in his eyes. Kindness. Shoot, he was also hearing the voice of reason.
She ducked inside the tent, suddenly feeling the chilly night more than before. Kneeling beside their pile of things, she took out the rechargeable space heater, inserted the battery she’d forget she’d brought along, and turned it on. The thing would run twelve hours on a full charge.
She shed her coat and turned around because Wolf had come inside. His back was to her as he zipped the tent flap closed, moving way slower than seemed warranted. She wasn’t ready for common sense to take over between them. Not now, not yet. In the morning, maybe. So she peeled off her clothes and stood there naked when he turned around.
Brave feat accomplished! But standing there was cold, so she crawled into their joined sleeping bags. He shucked his clothes on his way to join her, and his haste made her feel like a love goddess. And then they were all tangled up in each other again. Only this time, he didn’t let her lead like he had before. This time, he set the pace, and he set it slow. As he rolled onto his back, pulling her on top of him, Wolf ran his hands over every part of her body while they kissed, like he was committing her to memory. When he followed suit with his lips, she felt worshipped, and their lovemaking lasted long into the night.
