I swat another mosquito away.
“Thanks,” I tell her. “I might take you up on that sometime.”
The mosquito near her ear is stubborn—it doesn’t get the message, and relocates down to the back of her arm. On instinct, she starts to slap it away—
But while the mosquito doesn’t move, her engagement ring does.
“Ohshit,” she says under her breath, both of us watching in horror as it flies from her hand out into the open lake, a good six feet from the rocks where we’re sitting, maybe more. It’s shallow and crystal clear here at the edge—but the ring practically swan-dived into the worst place possible, a deeper section of water that neither of us can access without jumping in fully clothed.
My pulse picks up. “No need to panic,” I say, but it’s futile.
The sun has dipped almost fully below the mountains, leaving everything bathed in dim dusky blue. Honestly, I doubt we’d be able to find it even if it had landed right here next to us in full daylight.
“That was hisgrandmother’sring,” Zoe whispers, her face pale. “He’s going to freak out, Sadie. What do I do?”
My mind races. There’s no getting that ring back—not tonight, for sure. Probably not ever.
We could at least, maybe, put off the inevitable fallout.
“I’ve got a first-aid kit back in my tent,” I say, thinking as fast as I can. “What if I doctor up your ring finger? You could tell Joshua you had an accident—fishing hook, if he asks—and that’s what the bandages are for?”
It won’t work forever, but it’ll at least work for tonight.
Zoe melts in relief. “Yeah,” she says. “Yeah, okay.”
13THORN
By the time we cook all the trout, everyone’s too tired to do much of anything other than scarf their food so they can get to bed. Sadie and I end up on opposite sides of the campfire during dinner, and my eyes keep finding hers.
I quickly avert them the first time. The next time, too.
But by the third time, I can’t look away.
She’s beautiful: Her eyes are bright, lit up by the glow of the flickering flames. Her long brown hair—which was very straight when she first arrived—now has a significant wave to it, and I’m pretty sure she’s not wearing makeup. When I first met her, I couldn’t imagine her looking like a natural out here…and yet.
She grins when she catches me staring.
After dinner, we head back to the clearing where we set up earlier. I’m all too aware of her presence as she rummages around in her pack; I busy myself with triple-checking our tent stakes. I already know they’re solid, but at least it’s a distraction from the fact that it’s just the two of us right now, alone in the place where we’ll be sleeping together.
I choke on my own thoughts, suddenly having a coughing fit.
Sleepingneareach other, I silently correct myself.Not sleeping together.
“You okay?” Sadie says, peering around from the other side of her tent.
I’m still hacking up a lung.
I wave at her, trying to communicate that I’m fine, but the message gets lost in translation. She’s at my side in a heartbeat.
“Oh my gosh, Thorn—are you choking? Do you need the Heimlich?”
I shake my head, but the fact that I’m still wheezing isn’t terribly convincing.
“Water,” I finally manage.
She scrambles to find my water bottle, brings it over.
I guzzle it down. Sweet relief.
