With This Heart(21)

I smiled against his skin. “Is that a bear that is a serial killer? Or a person that kills bears…serially?” I asked for clarification.

Beck laughed and then finally sat up, which sadly meant that I had to unwrap my body from around him. He didn’t seem to mind me cuddling up to him, but then I thought back to the dreaded first kiss and any hope of future cuddles pretty much flew out the window.

He moved forward on his hands and knees and unzipped the tent. Then he poked his head out and peered in both directions before winking back at me.

“ I’m thinking we’re all clear. But we should probably set up night shifts to make sure. We’ll each sleep for five minute intervals,” he teased with a sexy smirk.

“ Alright, alright. We’ll probably be killed any minute now, but who knows,” I paused and lowered my voice to a mere whisper, “ maybe I overreacted.”

Beck laughed and rezipped the tent. “I didn’t mind the overreaction,” he murmured, looking down at his sleeping bag.

I blushed and then tried to do a fake yawn to cover up my massive grin.

“ I’m ready for bed,” I said, suddenly feeling exhausted from our day.

“ Me too. I’m not trying to be creepy or anything, but I usually sleep in my boxers. I won’t do that to you tonight, but I definitely can’t sleep with my shirt on in this heat. Is that okay?”

Like any man, woman, or child would have said no? “It’s fine, I usually sleep with my eyes closed anyway, so I won’t see.” I smiled at my attempt at playing off my nerves, and then made a show of rolling onto my back to give him some semblance of privacy. But when he started to tug the shirt off, I couldn’t keep my eyes focused on anything else. I watched the tanned muscles pull taut in his back as he threw his shirt into the corner on top of our backpacks. The second he was done, I flipped over to face away from him. The last thing I saw was his smirk that told me he knew I was watching the whole time.

“ Night, Beck.”

“ Night, Abby.”

…



Sleep was elusive that night. I tossed and turned so much that I’m not sure I slept more than one hour at a time. It was just so damn hot. I thought about stripping off my tank top and sleep shorts, but figured I should at least wait until the second night for that. Sometime after sunrise I finally turned over and realized that Beck wasn’t in his sleeping bag. I pushed up into a sitting position and unzipped the tent to find him a few yards in front of me. He’d moved one of the camping chairs to the edge of the lake and was reading in the early morning light. It looked like a nice idea, so I grabbed my kindle, slipped on my sandals, and joined him.

The camping chair dragged in the sandy dirt behind me as I stepped closer. Beck glanced up from his book and I realized that maybe he wanted some private time. I didn’t want to encroach on that, so I placed the chair a few feet away from his. Before I could sit, though, he gave me a silly look and reached out to pull my chair closer.

“ I brushed my teeth already so you don’t have to worry about my morning breath,” he winked.

“ Oh, well I just woke up so you won’t be so lucky,” I grumbled, taking my seat next to him and folding my legs up into a pretzel in the chair.

“ Ah, so no attempts at second kisses should take place this morning.”

My head snapped up to meet his gaze. “Oh, so you think there will be more attempts ?”

He smirked. “There will definitely be a second kiss in your life. It could even be with me if you play your cards right.”

Confident, goofy, sonofa, jerk.

“ Nah, I tried it that one time and it wasn’t that great. I think I’ll abstain for the rest of my life.”

He laughed and shook his head. “What are you reading?” he asked.

I looked down at my kindle and wondered if I should make something up or if I should tell him the truth.

“ An awesomely cheesy romance.” I told him the truth.

His lip turned up in a half smile. “Nice.”

“ You?”

He held up his book for me to read the title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time . The cover even had a die-cut of an upside down dog.

“ What’s the incident?” I asked, adjusting in my seat to get comfortable.

“ I can’t tell you,” he replied.

“ Hmph.”

“ Want to read for a bit?” he asked.

I nodded, but I just ended up staring off at the lake for a while, wondering where the rest of the trip would lead. Quite a lot had happened and we’d been gone for less than twenty-four hours. If the excitement of the trip was modeled on an exponential curve, we’d be having sex by tonight and I’d be pregnant and married by the end of the two weeks.



…



We’d packed our stuff and headed out toward greener pastures before noon, deciding that before setting out for Odessa and Marfa, we wanted to see the coast. Beaches in Texas aren’t the most pristine, but as long as you steer clear of Galveston, the water isn’t too murky. We were heading south and jamming to Ben Kweller when I asked Beck what he wanted to do with his life now that he wasn’t sure about engineering.

“ I don’t know. Maybe release a studio album of guttural noises. It’ll be white noise for hardcore rock fans.”