Chaos Theory (Nerds of Paradise #2)(45)

It was beautiful, and yet it hid something sinister.

“That’s a footprint.” Melody marched away from their camp to a particularly muddy patch several years off to one side. Sure enough, a large footprint was pressed deep in the chilled mud. There were more around it.

Will jogged to her side and searched the ground with her. “Two sets.” He sighed.

Melody snapped around to look at him, eyes wide. “Some of the other competitors?”

Will rubbed a hand over his stubbly, tense jaw. “Yep, looks like it.” There was an edge of anger in his voice.

“Someone’s cheating.” She hissed out a breath as she reached that conclusion.

The thought filled her with indignation, but Will clenched his fists and growled. That growl worked its way up to a shout of, “Goddammit!” He doubled over, teeth clenched, then pushed off his knees to stand straight again. “I knew it.”

“Knew what?” Melody blinked, bowled over by the force of his fury.

“I knew I shouldn’t have lost focus,” he snarled. “I let my guard down, stopped paying attention, and this happened.”

“Will, this is not your fault.”

Melody reached out to touch his arm, but he batted her sympathy away and marched back toward their camp.

“This is not your fault,” she repeated, more forcefully, as they returned to the lean-to. “Someone is cheating.”

“And I should have been on the lookout for that. I should have expected it.” He sank to his knees and started repacking the contents of their backpacks.

“There’s no way you could have foreseen that someone would cheat.” Melody stood to one side, crossing her arms as the contrast of the icy morning and the heat of discomfort from Will’s overreaction swirled through her.

“Always assume that someone will cheat,” he said without looking at her. “Always take the high road, but assume that someone else won’t. I should have been on my guard. I shouldn’t have let—” He stopped, pressing his lips together.

Melody didn’t need to ask him what he shouldn’t have done. “You’re allowed to enjoy yourself, you know.” She leaned one shoulder against the side of their shelter. “You’re allowed to have fun out here while still trying to win the competition. You’re even allowed to flirt with me.”

“I should have kept my focus,” he shot back.

More than anything, she wanted to ask if that was him or his father speaking. She couldn’t, though. He was already down, and she was not about to kick him while he was there. “It’s okay,” she said instead, trying to sound soothing without being condescending. It was next to impossible, so she cleared her throat and went on, a little stronger. “Let’s just gather up what we have left and head down to the stream to fill our water bottles.”

“We’re not going to get far on just water,” he said. The anger was quickly leeching out of his voice, leaving gloom and defeat in its wake.

“Don’t worry about it.” She pushed away from the shelter and ducked inside to start rolling up the sleeping bags and pads. “I’ll find us something to eat.”

He stopped midway through folding a damp pair of pants and scowled. “How? Are you planning to find someone else’s camp and steal their food?”

“No,” she said with the same kind of strained patience she would use with a fussy two-year-old. “I plan to look around the forest for edible plants. You got a problem with that, Clementine?”

The nickname must have done the trick. Will blew out a breath, the last of his angry tension leaving his bunched-up shoulders. “How do you know if you’re picking an edible plant or a poisonous one?”

“Ah.” Melody brightened, kneeling straight, one of the sleeping bags rolled and tied tight in her arms. “Now you’re asking the right questions.” She handed the bag out to him.

“What?” he asked, weary with defeat, and bent to tie the sleeping back to his backpack.

“You’re asking the right questions,” she said, rolling up the second bag. “How do I know whether I’m picking an edible plant or a poisonous one?”

He shook his head, scooting into the shelter to roll up the pads. “I…I don’t…okay, how?”

She sent him a mysterious, teasing smile. “Remember that conversation we had way back on the day they announced the event?”

He said nothing, but his cheeks turned pink as he rolled the pad. Yeah, he remembered something, all right.

“Remember how you were trying to guess what my college major was?”

He glanced up at her. “Don’t tell me you majored in forest plants.”

She grinned from ear to ear. “Botany. I majored in Botany, Clementine. I have a master’s degree in it. So you’d better get ready to eat the best wild salad you’ve ever had for breakfast.”

Will stared at her. He let out a breath that, much to Melody’s surprise, turned into a slow, deep laugh. She’d never seen Will laugh before. She’d never seen him so much as smile. But there he was, on his knees in the damp, muddy space of their temporary shelter, shaking his head and laughing like she’d told him a joke. It was a wonderful sound, but at the same time, there was so much hopelessness in it that tears stung the back of Melody’s eyes.