Page 25 of Only One Tent
Crow was on the other side.
I wasn’t sure, but I had a sneaky feeling this was going to be a drunken game of Red Rover.
And I was not wrong. “It’s Red Rover, campers! Team one.” She pointed over at the other team. “I hope you got to know each other this week. I need the captain to call out the name of someone on the other side. Then you know what to do, right?”
Most of us yelled, “Right.” Some hooted. A few were probably too drunk to be playing this.
“Okay, team two. If your name is called. Get ready. I’ll give you the line. Then you stumble…uh run…hopefully, you can still run. And go break through to the other side. Team one. Call.”
They didn’t call me first. Thankfully. They called someone I kind of knew, who was a partner to one of the lawyers at the firm. He was a little tipsy, but he wobbled on over. I think they knew he was too inebriated. He did not break through. “Oh, too bad,” Bella fake pouted. “You have to join team one…aww…”
Team one copied her with the “Aww…”
It went back and forth, with some actually breaking through. When someone broke through, he picked a player to join him back on their home team. Someone on my team picked Crow. Bella called out, “Red Rover, Red Rover, send that big ol’ hunky Crow right over.”
Some laughed, but Crow was serious. He ran into a weak spot and crashed through. Thankfully, it wasn’t me who let him break the chain. But it was me he chose to go back with him. “Let’s go, Skyler. You’re joining us on team one.” He grabbed my hand, lacing our fingers together. My heart pounded so hard that Ithought it was going to burst out of my chest as we jogged across the lawn.
He didn’t let go when we joined the line. After a few more people, team two was decimated and only three people were left. They gave up.
“Are we sticking around or going back to the campsite?” Crow asked me.
“Uh…I am tired after that one.” Not to mention, they were going to do sack races next, and I was so out on hopping around the field.
“All you did was jog across the field once.” That was true. No one even tried to break through on me. Probably because I was holding on so tightly to Crow, and his biceps, pecs, and shoulders were very intimidating.
“Whatever. Let’s get some watermelon, then head back.”
“Oh, right. I forgot the melon.”
We got a small slice and another drink. I ate my melon as we walked back to our tent. It was boozy, sweet, and oh-so juicy, and by the time we made it to the tent, I had it dripping down my chin and all over the front of my shirt. But so did Crow.
We laughed and went to clean each other up when Crow’s friend showed up with his twinky boyfriend in tow.
“Hey, so are y’all together now?” the friend asked. I couldn’t remember his name and wondered if that was one of those accidentally-on-purpose things. Like, I didn’t care, so I couldn’t remember.
Crow wiped the last of the melon off my face and tossed the wet wipe in our trash bin. “Well, Warner, if you must know, we’re not defining it yet.”
Ah, his name wasWarner. And what did Crow mean? I wasn’t sure what their banter was about, but Warner’s boyfriend was shooting me the sympathy eyes. I didn’t need his pity. Why wasn’t Crow getting the pity-eyes? He’d be lucky to have me.Well, I think it might work both ways, but at a minimum, we were going to be a thing for this trip. Maybe or maybe not more than that. So yeah, not defining it. I did not correct him, but I did narrow my eyes at the twink. It certainly wasn’t any of their business.
I fixed another drink, but a much weaker one, since I’d been drinking a good bit already, and listened to them chit-chat about the games we’d played.
My mind wandered. BecausemaybeI wanted to get fucked because hanging around with this hunky man who was still being so nice to me, even though I walked off on him, made me super horny. Andmaybeit was alcohol fueled, andmaybeI didn’t fucking care why.
I glared enough that the twink got the hint. Finally. He grabbed Warner’s arm. “Hey. Let’s leave these two love birds alone.” He winked, but he didn’t look too sure of himself. “I have better things lined up for you, Daddy.”
“Mmm…that sounds good.” He kissed his boyfriend, then waved at Crow. “Later.” And they left, squeezing between the trees.
Crow sat on the bench and focused his attention on me. “They’re finally gone. Just you and me now.”
“Yeah.”
“Wanna talk about our last conversation?”
No. I did not want to talk about it, but I could see from the stubborn line of his jaw that if I wanted to move on, I’d need to. I huffed, “I still don’t trust you.”
“Define trust.”
“What?” Was he being obtuse on purpose?
