Page 26 of Lost With You
“More of a soccer-and-track girl.”
At least she hadn’t twitched at the personal question. Progress. “Are you hungry? I could start lunch.”
“I feel like we just ate breakfast. You do make big breakfasts.”
“Guilty.”
Thunder cracked, following a jagged flash of lightning. The pounding of the rain intensified on the tent.
“What would you do in this tent,” she said into the thickening intimacy, “if you were stuck here with Garrick instead of me?”
“Garrick wouldn’t stay in the tent,” he said. “He’d run outside, stark naked, with a bar of soap. He considers storms like this the next best thing to a multi-jet shower.”
She laughed with a glimpse of teeth. “He sounds like a character.”
“The best kind.” Whenever he thought about Garrick, he thought about Logan, too, and that inevitably led to him thinking about the college reunion they’d attended last fall. “I’ve been planning this trip for years, but it was really Garrick and another friend who convinced me not to put it off any longer.”
She turned her head on the pillow of her sleeping bag, interest brightening her face. “I was under the impression it was because of…”
“Because why?” he prompted as she faltered, sucking her lower lip between her teeth in a way that made his sack tighten.
“I thought it was for Pops.” The skin between her eyebrows pinched. “I couldn’t help but notice that he’s…forgetful.”
“Alzheimer’s.” The word stabbed deep. “He was diagnosed about eighteen months ago.”
Her eyes went dewy. “That sucks, Dylan.”
“Yeah, it does.” He glanced up at the roof of the tent, listening to the rain for a minute. Why the hell was he telling her all this? “We’re all going to miss Pops when he’s gone. He leaves us a little more every week.”
“That’s why you were so determined to get this expedition going, yes? That’s why you would have partnered with any willing body that came to your cabin that day.”
Willing body.
If only.
“Pops is the reason I dreamed it up,” Dylan acknowledged. “But I might never have done it if I hadn’t met up with my buddies last fall.” He flexed his hand, wished he had a whiskey in his hand as he had then. “They know Pops well. They stayed at the cabin a lot when we were in college. We all went on a few fishing trips.” He didn’t want to talk about this, spilling his guts. “I’m boring you—”
“This goes to the heart of the expedition, doesn’t it?”
It did. But it was deeply personal. He wasn’t sure it was such a good idea to share this with Casey, no matter how warmly she was beaming encouragement with her magical reporter powers and fathomless brown eyes.
At least they were having an honest conversation.
“With Pops failing,” he said, “I figured the opportunity to explore the route he’d talked about so much had slipped out of my hands. I’d waited too long to get it going.”
“Death—and sickness—they sneak up on you.”
Huh.“Garrick and Logan said the same thing.” His friends had suffered losses, too. Because of those, the three of them had shared some pretty deep philosophical discussions. But where had Casey found that wisdom? The question teetered on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed it down. If he asked, she’d clam up, and that would destroy this sudden intimacy. “Both Garrick and Logan urged me to finally set up the expedition, do it even if Pops couldn’t join me. I couldn’t procrastinate any longer, and I would regret it if Pops passed before it was done.” He shrugged. “They were right. Here I am.”
Her gaze flickered to her pack, where he could just see the notebook she’d been scribbling in poking through rumpled clothes. He waited for her to grab it, take notes, like she had every night after dinner, burying her nose in the work. But her gaze returned to him, and she made no move for a pen.
His heart warmed as a filament of something soft and strong wrapped around it.
“Now you know why we’re really here,” he said, looking everywhere but at her, “and I just realized that my deck of cards is in another bag.”
“No worries.” She sat up. The horror novel tumbled off her abdomen. Yanking her open backpack, she shoved her arm so deep that her T-shirt gaped. He glimpsed the soft white curve of a breast beneath the neckline as she pulled out a pack of cards.
“Fortunately,” she said with a twinkle of triumph, “I went to camp, too.”
