Overwhelmed with gratitude for being gifted an explanation other than her having feelings for Ben, Laney smiled. “I’ll probably get used to it in time. They seem so big and loud, but when I rode Beth’s today, it wasn’t scary at all. I actually enjoyed it.”
“We’ll sneak out for a ride at some point—just the women,” Keri said. “You’ll have to go with us.”
“Maybe,” she said, because she wasn’t sure riding Beth’s ATV for a few miles qualified her to go out on a ride with them. “Whose turn was it?”
With their attention turned back to the game, Laney felt herself relax. Or maybe it the mini box of wine somebody stuck in her hand. “How many of these things did you buy?”
“All of them,” Rosie said.
They played for another hour, until there was more yawning than laughing. Then they picked up the games, but decided they’d leave the chairs for the men to drag back to their corresponding campsites the next morning.
“Thank you for tonight,” Laney said. “I had a really good time.”
“The more the merrier,” Lisa said. “And you know a lot more dirty words than you thought you did, right?”
“I guess I do.”
Rosie snorted. “And we also learned not to search for some words and phrases on the internet without some kind of porn filters on.”
“Mom.” Katie shook her head. “Please don’t say porn again.”
“She saidball sacearlier,” Keri said. “I think that’s worse.”
“I don’t see why ball sac got eliminated for being two words, but gang bang got to stay,” Rosie grumbled.
“I thought the worst part about being pregnant was throwing up and peeing all the time, but having to be sober while playing Dirty Scrabble with your mom is the worst part.”
When Laney walked around the RV, she saw that the fire had burned down quite a bit, though the guys were still sitting around it. They were talking quietly and in the dim light of the flames, she saw a little foot dangling from one of the chairs.
When the others went to collect their men and the children who were sleeping, Laney walked with them. She would say good-night to them there, and then make sure all the food was put away and the Dumpster secured before going to her own camper.
But she was mostly hoping they would tell them what was going on with Ben. Drew was the police chief, so surely he would know?
Finally, when it looked like they might just bank the fire and go inside, she couldn’t take it anymore. “Have you heard anything about Ben?”
Drew nodded. “The driver broke his left arm, but he’ll be okay. His wife hit her head and hadn’t been conscious very long when Ben got there, so they’re meeting a med flight for her.”
“That’s scary. I hope she’ll be okay.”
He nodded and then lifted a sleeping Jackson into his arms. Laney knew they were staying in the lodge tonight, since both he and Liz had been drinking. “Me too.”
“Will he go on the med flight with her? Ben, I mean.”
“Probably not. He’ll ride back with Sam and the others, since they responded, too.” He started to turn toward Liz, but then stopped. “So Ben’s not alone out there now. He’s with the others.”
“Thank you,” she said. “Mary said I’d get used to all of you running around in the woods on ATVs, but it’s still a little hard on my nerves.”
He smiled, and then there were good-nights all around. Laney did a final round of the campground and then walked back to her camper.
What a crazy night, she thought as she crawled into her bed. So much laughter and fun, but also worrying about Ben. She wondered if he was home yet, but she had no way of knowing since she didn’t even know how far out into the woods he’d had to go.
Like she had every night for a while now, she fell asleep thinking about Ben.
