The dog plunges past a huckleberry bush, pulling us farther than I would like. I’m too tall to avoid getting whacked in the head with a branch.
“We’re not going to run into a bear in here, are we?” Lucy asks in a hushed tone as she ducks low to dodge a branch.
“No, of course not.”
We might see a bear. Since she’s decided she’s the next Bear Grylls, charging through the brush, we might end up seeing all the wildlife.
“Oh good. Because this is fun. I don’t think I’ve ever walked through the woods.” She yelps as she slips on a muddy patch of ground. “How is it so muddy here?”
“Water runs off toward the lake. How far are we going to go?”
“I think if we keep going, it will pop us out close to the lake,” Lucy says optimistically.
“Bless your heart. You have a terrible sense of direction,” I mutter as she continues plunging toward a small stream.
“I heard that.” She stops abruptly and turns around. “If you don’t want to go on an adventure with Alexander and me, you can go back to camp with Preston and Carly.”
The dog stops tugging on his leash, looking toward something in the brush, on alert.
I stare over Lucy’s shoulder as a dark shape emerges from behind some huckleberry bushes.
A black bear.
If I can keep Lucy from turning around, she won’t even realize it’s there.
“I think we should go back and spend time with them. That way, we can annoy them. Doesn’t that sound fun?”
The bear is not in a hurry to get out of here, stopping next to the stream for a drink of water.
Alexander starts growling low in his throat.
Lucy whips her head around and immediately spots the bear—right before the dog jerks the leash and starts dragging us toward it.
I hold on to Lucy’s hand, but the slope is muddy and slick, and soon, the three of us are sliding down the hill toward the water—and the bear.
“Noooooo!” shrieks Lucy as Alexander keeps blazing a trail like he’s going to eat the bear for lunch.
The poor bear jerks its head up, as if realizing for the first time that it’s not alone. It lets out a snort and scampers away. It’s gone in only a matter of seconds, but our fate is sealed when Lucy and I bump into each other, and we fall down to our knees.
It’s a tangle of limbs and yells as we roll and slide all the way down the incline until we finally stop next to the small stream. We land like we’re attempting to make mud angels.
I turn to look at Lucy. Her whole front is covered in chunks of mud. Her face looks like she’s wearing one of those beauty masks.
And there are leaves and dirt everywhere in her hair.
Alexander is sitting a few feet away, grinning down at us like he wasn’t the one who instigated the fall.
“What was that you said aboutnotseeing a bear?” She’s scowling at me, but it’s hard to take her seriously when there’s mud splattered all over her face.
She’s lying on top of me as she pokes my cheek. “You lied. And I should do something to get even. You’re such a stinker! No bears! We could have been eaten! We could be bear soup right now and we?—”
I cut off the torrent of her words by leaning up and pressing a kiss against her lips.
She gasps and pulls back for half a second before she leans forward to kiss me back. I groan as she grasps my shoulders. She’s an enthusiastic kisser. And what started as a way to distract her from me being in trouble…has now crossed us into dangerous territory.
Because the last time I kissed her? We wrote it off as a natural thing. Two people who are mildly attracted to each other.
But now? Now I know better.
