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“I’m so sorry,” she said.
“Why?”
“I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
“I’m not complaining,” he said and grinned. “But as much as I like this, I do have to go to the bathroom.”
“Oh, gosh, of course.” Sasha pulled away from him rather abruptly and he missed the connection with her.
“I won’t go far.”
Her cheeks were pink, but he got up and headed to the edge of their camp, going behind a tree.
When he returned, he used some of their water to wash his hands.
Sasha was already heating up some beans as Lucy walked out of the tent.
Her younger sister looked really grumpy as she slumped down at the edge of the fire.
“I hate this,” Lucy said.
Sasha chuckled. “I thought you loved camping.”
“I miss having a bed, and parents to tuck me in. This trip sucks. I want to go back home.”
“You and me both, kid,” Malachi said.
“You had parents to tuck you in when you were afraid?”
He chuckled. “No, I didn’t. I only ever had myself to take care of me, but I did it.”
“That must be lonely. I miss my mom and dad.”
“I know you do.” He dropped down beside her, knowing Sasha was watching them. He wasn’t annoyed with Lucy’s tantrum. He got it. He really did. She was so young and in comparison, should be home, surrounded by the love of her parents and the protection of a family. “If you want, I can take care of you. Tuck you in when you need it. I promise you, Lucy, I will take care of you and I won’t let anything happen to you and your sister.”
“I know,” she said, resting her head against his arm. “But who will take care of you?”
“I will,” Sasha said. “We will all take care of each other. We can make this work.” She smiled at her sister and Malachi nodded at her in thanks. “We’re a team.”
“A team? I like that, Sasha. I like being a team. We are totally a team.” Lucy got to her feet and clapped. “We’re Team Awesome.”
“I vote for that.”
“Yeah, and me.”
Sasha finished with the beans and passed them around for them to eat out of the cans.
“Do you have any family?” Lucy asked.
“Me?” Malachi asked, looking at her.
“Duh, yeah, you.”
“No, I don’t have any family. I don’t have anyone except the two of you.”
“You knew that, Lucy,” Sasha said.
“Oh, right, yeah. Sorry.”
Sasha offered him a smile.
He couldn’t believe he was camping with these two. It was almost liberating, if he were being honest.
“It’s fine.” He’d never been the kind of man to settle down.
“When we find a house, like abandoned and haunted, can we stay there for a gazillion years?” Lucy asked.
Sasha burst out laughing. “You’d rather stay in a haunted house than hike a little more?”
“I hate hiking. Can’t we steal bikes?”
“No. You’d break your neck.”
Malachi listened to the easy banter between the two as he packed up the tent and started to get the backpacks ready.
They were going to need more supplies again soon. He wanted to get to the next town but seeing as they weren’t even at the halfway point, they really had to get moving; otherwise they were going to be starving by the time they actually hit town. Hunger created a whole other host of problems he really didn’t want to think about. The main one being sloppy protection.
Hunger would control their needs more than safety.
With everything packed, he helped put one of the bags on Lucy’s back, strapping it up. He’d added a few extra items to his own backpack so Lucy wasn’t slowed down too much.
She was the slowest of the group and because of that, she needed all the help she could get.
Next, he helped Sasha, who had already lifted the bag onto her shoulders. She was really pushing it with helping and he feared she was going to hurt herself in proving to him she was just as strong as him.
It didn’t matter to him how strong she was. He needed her to take things steady, but one look at her backpack, and he saw she’d also taken more stuff off Lucy.
“You’re going to hurt yourself.”
“Don’t touch my backpack,” she said. “You think I didn’t see you changing Lucy’s stuff? I need you just as much as you need me and I can’t afford for you to be putting yourself at risk. We both know Lucy can’t make this trip carrying her fair share of stuff. We can.”
“You’re going to hurt yourself,” Malachi said.
“That’s my decision. I’m not made of glass and I can do this. I can’t lose you either, Malachi.”
He wanted to argue some more but saw it was pointless to do so. Sasha’s mind was made up and when she was on a mission, it would seem no one got in her way.
Not that he blamed her.
