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The kiss is short and chaste, but it takes all of my willpower not to part my legs and drag his hand between them.When he pulls back, he’s smiling.“I’m real happy, Carleigh.What a great weekend.”
Remarkably,the weekend gets better after that.We don’t have a chance to be alone again, but - maybe I love camping after all?Everything seems calmer here, lighter; the air is cleaner, the sun is warmer, and I can breathe.Maybe Bryson’s onto something.
Bishop and Bryson build a fire, and they make steaks in the cast iron pan for dinner with some easy Caesar salad that Quinn and I made.Molly and Sawyer take care of the few dishes afterward, and as the sun starts to move lower in the sky, we all gravitate closer to the fire.
Bryson’s face glows like an oil painting with the refracted light from the fire.He’s laughing at something Sawyer said, his eyes bright and his grin wide, and all I can do is just look at him and wonder what the hell somebody as happy and full of life and genuinely nice could want with someone like me?If I hadn’t been living with him for months now I would think that he was too good to be true.I’ve never met anyone quite like him in my life.
I make a s’more when the ingredients are dragged out.“If I’d have known, I’d have made homemade marshmallows to bring.”
“Oh man, you haven’t lived ‘til you’ve had a s’more with Carleigh’s marshmallows,” Molly says enthusiastically.“You truly haven’t.”
“Now you tell us!”Bishop complains.
“I’ll definitely bring them next time,” I promise.I slide my roasted marshmallow between the graham crackers, next to the chocolate.“It’s definitely been a long time since I’ve had one of these.Probably a year."
“Stick with us, bud!”Bryson proclaims.“We like to head out to the woods a lot.Get all the s’mores in.”
“Hmm.”I smile at him; I can’t help it.“Did you guys have these last night?”
Quinn shakes his head.“No, we didn’t get here until around supper, then we had to set up everything and eat, and Bryson made us all go to bed early so we could be awake to see you before your race started.”
“Oh.”I blush and stare at the fire, suddenly glad for its hypnotic dance - no one will be looking at me.“Well, I really - thank you guys so much for coming.It means a lot to me.”And it does; with the exception of Bryson and Molly, these are people that I’ve only even met a few times.Sure, there’s the overlapping benefit of a camping trip, but even if it’d started with that, they’d chosen an entire destination specifically because of me.I’ve never felt so loved.
Later, Sawyer asks, “Anyone got any new ghost stories?”
“No,” Bryson begins, “but there are two people here who haven’t heard the Rat King story!”
I wince.“Rat King?”
Bishop reaches over and touches my arm.“It’s a great story.”
“Always worth hearing again,” Delaney agrees, stretching his feet out.They get a little close to the fire, and his ankle gets hit with a small ember.“Ouch!”he exclaims, rubbing it.“Hey guys, the fire is hot.”
Bryson grins at him.“Good tip, bud!”
I just shake my head, then tug my knees into my chest and settle in while Bryson starts telling about a construction job he once had that happened to be at a Dunkin Donuts location.Bryson’s not that great at telling stories, generally speaking - that much I could’ve guessed - so he meanders off into tangents for a little while until finally revealing the disgusting climax of the tale, which is about a petrified dead rat they found underneath a pile of stale doughnuts.
I’m glad I didn’t hear this story when I was still in my homemade doughnuts phase.That alone would’ve gotten me to switch to croissants.
“That’s absolutely vile,” Molly marvels, laughing.“I can’t believe that.I’ll never have Dunkin Donuts again.”
“I’m sure there aren’t rats in every location,” Bryson hedges.“But the food’s not that great so you’re not missing much.”
“Oh, you take that back,” Quinn says warningly.
“No, I stand by it,” Bryson proclaims.“You want to fight?”
I roll my eyes.“Oh my god, every time with you two.”I turn to Bishop.“What’s wrong with them?”
