Page 96 of Bailey

“Maybe he’s having a seizure or something,” Lars said. “Doesn’t Ana get like that sometimes when she has a seizure?”

OJ crowded in close. “Reeves, are you having a seizure?”

Everything that had dammed up inside Reeves suddenly broke, and he shook his head. “No, sorry, bud. I….” How did he explain to fifteen-year-olds about this profound moment? He couldn’t, so he simply shook his head. “I’m ready now.”

OJ raised the camera again, and Reeves looked directly into it. “Hey there, everyone. This is Reeves from Teton Mountain Man, coming at you from a brand new campground today.”

He paused for a moment because he could stitch things together, and he hadn’t quite prepared his script. “We’re going to be making three meals in the wild, taking a couple hikes, fishing in a legit mountain stream—and bonus, this time I’m camping with teenagers.”

He took a moment to find his next sentence, and thankfully neither Lars nor OJ thought the pauses all that strange. “But they’re minors, and my channel isn’t really a channel for minors, so they’re not going to be on camera, but I’ve got a brand new cameraman here with me, so I definitely want you to let me know what you think of the cinematography in the comments on this video.”

He grinned in one of the most natural ways he ever had while narrating the opening of his videos, and he once again felt like who he was as a person was merging with who he played on camera.

“So we’re getting our camera equipment out, we’re going over our supplies, we’re taking a short hike back to our campground, and we’ll show you that every step of the way. Today, we’ve chosen the Teton Canopy Campground, somewhere I’ve never been, despite living in the Teton Mountains for over five years now. This valley and this mountain range has more gems than you’ll ever discover, so come with me as we get outside, become one with nature, feel closer to God than ever, and do a little camping.”

He held his best online personality smile on his face, and then everything dropped away. OJ reached out and tapped the camera power button again, then lowered the device.

“That was so cool,” he said, and he lifted his hand for a high five.

Reeves gave it to him, and then one to Lars as well. “All right, we really do have to pack everything in, so you can get some footage of that if you want. I could start throwing some bags down on the ground, you can take some film of that. You can take film of me putting a backpack on, walking up the trail, the sign for the campground, anything that you think will look good.”

He’d already had OJ to his house once to go over all of this, and OJ said he’d watched over fifty of Reeves’s videos now, so he wasn’t that surprised when OJ puffed out his chest and said confidently, “I got this, Reeves. This is going to be your best video of the year.”

Reeves laughed, and he zipped up the camera equipment pack. “Let’s get this on you, bud. Remember, you have to pay attention to the battery alert; it can run out fast.”

“I got it,” OJ said, and Reeves managed to get the heavy pack on the skinny boy’s shoulders.

Now all he had to do was transport all of his gear and equipment to the campsite while maybe doing a few segments, keeping the teenagers out of the frame, and preparing to make lunch for six people where four of them were complete strangers.

Reeves didn’t doubt his ability to provide a good meal and a fun camping experience for OJ’s cousins and uncle, but he also wasn’t going to assume he could do it all himself. So he found himself praying as he climbed into the bed of his truck and tossed the tent to the ground.

Dear Lord, I just need the next thirty-six hours to be the best of my life. Bless me and Luke that we can take care of these kids, and that I can be the man they already think I am.

CHAPTER

THIRTY-SEVEN

Luke Young groaned as he sank into his camp chair, despite the grin that spread across his face. He absolutely did love camping with his family, and though he hadn’t brought all of his little kids and his wife this time, it still felt just as rewarding as he watched Corrine throw her fishing line back into the stream.

“Everyone has their pole out now,” he said, glancing over to the only other adult on this trip: Bailey’s boyfriend, Reeves Durham.

Oh, and he was the Teton Mountain Man, and utterly at ease in the wilderness which currently surrounded them. Luke had enjoyed texting him for the past couple of weeks, and the man was just as easygoing in real life as he’d been via message.

Reeves smiled over to him. “There’s nothing like fishing in a mountain stream.”

He’d arrived a few hours ago, got his tent and gear set up, and started a fire to make lunch—mac and cheese with hot dogs for the kids, and gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches for himself and Luke—before Luke had gotten the two tents set up and the kids settled inside them.

He’d be sleeping in a four-man tent with Corrine, both of them on cots, as Luke had gotten too old to sleep on the ground. Three teen boys—Eric, Lars, and OJ—would be sleeping in the tent next to his in sleeping bags, and Reeves had set up on the other side of the fire in a two-man tent, a pad on the ground, and his bedding on top of that. He’d set up tripods, and OJ hadn’t left the man’s side for more than the time it took him to run to the outhouse down near the parking area.

Reeves had acknowledged that he wouldn’t film Corrine or any of the other kids, and Reeves had gone one step further and not pointed the camera at Luke either. He’d gone ahead to scout the hike to the stream, and he claimed to have done his filming here already.

OJ had done a little bit of Reeves down the bank, away from the others, but now all the camera equipment had been put away. Luke found all of it quite exhausting, if he were being honest, but he’d taken enough PR classes and dealt with millions of people around the world to know enough to keep his mouth shut. This was what Reeves did for a living, and Luke couldn’t fault him for that.

He looked over to the other man and found him watching the western sky. Luke looked that way too but didn’t notice anything amiss.

“Do you ever go anywhere without the cameras?” he asked.

Reeves turned his attention toward Luke, a somewhat surprised expression filling his face. “Not camping or hiking,” he said. A frown tugged down his eyebrows. “The videos are only thirty to fifty minutes of a thirty-six-hour trip. It’s not too bad.”