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He threw the campfire blankets in the back of the SUV, then dumped water on the fire and covered it back over with dirt when it was well out. By the time he got into the driver’s seat, Ophelia was sound asleep again, her seat belt buckled, and her legs curled beneath her. God, she was adorable when she was asleep.
Reluctantly, he pulled his gaze away from her and checked his phone. The group chat with Fox, Addison, Atlas, and himself had kept going without him. It took several minutes to read through all of the ribbing he’d missed.
Before he’d even arrived at the bottom of the messages, his phone vibrated in his hand. Atlas.
He got back out of the SUV before he hit answer.
“What the fuck do you want?”
Atlas’ deep chuckle irritated him. “Am I interrupting?”
“Like I’d answer my phone if you were, peasant.” Absently, he stomped over the buried fire pit again, tamping it down more firmly.
“This unscheduled vacation wasn’t approved by management, Mr. Larson,” Atlas replied severely. “I’m afraid your employment with our organization has been terminated. A hot girl named Addison has taken your position.”
Luke shook his head, not in the mood for banter. His emotions were all over the place this morning, and he just wanted to get back to Ophelia. “She’s welcome to it. Just don’t let Fox hear you call her hot. It makes him cranky.”
“You’re going to run out of money eventually.”
“Oh, for fucksakes.” He picked up a green twig that had somehow found its way to the ground, and swished it through the air, wondering if it was safe to use as a switch. Maybe if he covered it with duct tape or whittled it smooth. “I wouldn’t run out for a few years, at least.”
Atlas huffed a breath into the phone. “I hope you’ll make it home before that. We’ve got jobs piling up.”
“Oh, fuck off. I left yesterday.”
“Yeah, but you’re coming back for the wedding, right?”
“Oh my god, Atlas, what’s your problem? They haven’t even nailed down a date yet. I’ll be home in less than a week.”
“You don’t know what it’s like.” He sighed. “At least with you here I was the third of four wheels. At this point I’ve locked myself in my room and I’m afraid to leave it, even for food.” His deep voice dropped to a rumbling travesty of a whisper, “They’re having sex everywhere.”
Luke snorted. “They always have sex everywhere. Just use the ice-water spray bottle on them a few times. They hiss, but they slink off to their room soon enough.”
“Yeah, Fox doesn’t take that sort of harassment from me for some reason. He threatened to castrate me if I tried it again.” They both laughed. “Things are good though?”
Luke sighed. “Too good.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t do it, man. There’s no future in this.”
“I know. But the things she lets me do . . .” He grunted, shaking off the arousing images that threatened to distract him from the conversation.
“Don’t fall in love with her,” Atlas warned. “We don’t have time for you to get distracted like Fox is. Although at least Addison picks up the slack. Any chance this girl would make a good . . . computer programmer?”
“No, she’s a good girl.” Calling her that reminded him of the spanking he’d given her.
Atlas must have heard the nuance in his voice, because he groaned. “Good girls are so distracting.”
“Fuck, I’m camping in Montana. You don’t have to tell me how distracting they can be.”
“Fiiine. We can manage for a week, but you need to get your ass home after that. The guy we did the last job for has another order for us—not as crazy as the last time, but more work and he’s only giving us two weeks. We’ll get some done before you get home, but we need you back here, as soon as you can pull yourself away from your little distraction.”
Damn it. He didn’t want to think about work while he was on vacation. The urgency to get home and help out was going to ruin things if he let it.
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be there,” Luke grumbled. “Is that it? I have to get back on the road.”
