Page 95 of Bailey

A couple of hours later, he put his truck in park next to a big, full-size SUV that had clearly been wrapped in dark brown vinyl. It was matte and bore the Country Quad logo on the back, and Reeves figured he’d found Luke.

He looked across the cab of the truck and to the northwest, where a path cut through a small patch of wild grass and into the woods. A National Forest sign proclaimed it the Teton Canopy Campground, and Reeves was surprised there weren’t more vehicles here.

“Here we go,” he said to himself. He cut the engine on the truck and dropped to the ground.

He barely had his tailgate open before he heard OJ yelling, “Reeves, you made it!”

He looked back to the trail and found OJ flying down it. Another boy came behind him, and their excitement and exuberance hit him square in the chest, even from fifty feet away. He caught OJ in a hug and somehow opened his other arm to OJ’s cousin.

“Hey, you guys,” he said brightly. “How long have you been here without me?”

“Uncle Luke doesn’t even have the tent up yet.” OJ backed up and looked over to his cousin. “This is my cousin, Lars,” he said. “He’s Uncle Mav’s son.”

“It’s great to meet you, Lars.” Reeves stuck out his hand for Lars to shake. The boy dutifully did so, and though OJ didn’t come from one of Mav’s brothers, they both had Young genes and definitely looked like they belonged to one another.

“Did you guys come to help me carry my gear?” Reeves asked.

“Yeah, you said I could hold the camera on the walk in.” OJ wore pure hope in his wide eyes, and Reeves didn’t think he would ever be able to tell the boy no. So many of Bailey’s complicated feelings came into focus for him in that moment, and he couldn’t stop smiling as he gestured for OJ to follow him to the back passenger door.

“You sure can, bud. Remember how I taught you to hold it? It’s got a stabilizer, so you don’t need to worry about that.”

“Right,” OJ said.

Reeves opened the back door and pulled out the backpack of camera equipment. “See if you can wear this.” He handed it to him, and OJ nearly dropped the whole thing on the ground, catching it with only a couple of inches before it would have clunked against the hard dirt.

“Wow, that’s heavy,” he said. “But I bet if you help me put it on, I can do it.”

“Let’s get the camera out.” Reeves took the pack from OJ and laid it on the back seat. He unzipped it and opened it up to reveal the battery packs, cameras, and mounts he used while camping in a tent. Lars and OJ crowded in close as Reeves handed the GoPro to OJ.

“Remember, you hold it down here on the stick,” he said. “It’s what keeps it stable.”

“Right, yeah,” OJ said, and he adjusted his grip and held it up.

“You can turn it on now,” Reeves said. “And I can do a little intro if you want.”

OJ’s grin filled his whole face. “That would be great.” He glanced over to Lars, and Reeves did the same.

“What’s going on?” he asked when he saw the anxiety plainly written in Lars’s expression.

“My daddy says I can’t be on camera,” Lars said.

OJ nodded. “Mine too, and Uncle Luke never lets his kids get photographed at all.”

Reeves nodded, because while Luke hadn’t answered that specific question, Reeves had assumed. “Yeah, I know,” he said. “You’re just going to put the camera on me, and when we walk, you’ll have to make sure that Lars is out of the frame. Remember, I taught you what the frame is?”

“Yes, sir,” OJ said dutifully.

Reeves grinned at him. “All right, you tell me when you’re ready.” He adjusted his cowboy hat so it felt better on his head.

OJ reached up and gingerly touched the power button, and an affection for the boy spread through Reeves’s whole body.

“You’re a go, Uncle Reeves,” he said.

Reeves froze at the word uncle in front of his name. He’d never had a sibling or a cousin, or anything even remotely close to a family, and being spoken about in such a way made his pulse skittish and his mind blank.

“Reeves?” OJ asked. He probably hadn’t even realized what he’d called Reeves—his uncle, his family. OJ had given Reeves something bigger and greater than himself to belong to, and he hadn’t even known he’d wanted that until the word had come out of the teenager’s mouth.

OJ lowered the camera and met Reeves’s eyes. “Are you all right?”