Page 32 of Late Nights & Love Lines
“Are you serious?”
“Very. Your dad could stand to loosen up a bit, and camp prank wars are part of the experience.”
“I’m so in.” She grins without a moment’s hesitation.
“Done. But one rule.” Her grin slips from her face. “No pranks that can cause lasting damage or make anyone sick.”
She rolls her eyes again. “Deal,” she mumbles. “What happens if we get into trouble? What if he fires you?”
Now I roll my eyes. The action must be contagious. “If he fires me, I’ll tell on him to Pappy. I’m pretty sure Pappy likes me more.”
She laughs, and Sebastian’s sharp intake of air tells me they’ve caught up enough to hear it.
“My turn, my turn, my turn,” Kade squeals. His little feet stomp on the trail in circles around me. “I need a stick.”
“A stick, huh?” I ask, smiling down at him.
“Yup. I gotta fight the bears.”
“A stick it is then. But we can’t hurt the trees, so we need to find one on the ground already.” We move closer to the edge of the trail at a slower pace, and everyone else goes ahead of us.
“Oh, there’s Lucky,” he says, waving with both of his hands.
I stand still, scowling at the black furball. Would anyone notice if I took him to an animal shelter? That cat is a bad omen, and no one’s going to tell me otherwise.
Iaccidentallystub my toe in the ground, and Lucky scurries back toward camp.
“Let’s find your stick,” I say, thankful that Kade is so easy to distract.
We walk in silence for a while, well, as silent as Kade is capable of being. In between the ground crunching beneath our feet and the tree branches sighing with each gust of wind, he happily hums to himself, lost to the land of make-believe in his head.
He doesn’t have a single fear. It’s pretty incredible to witness.
Leo told me that the property is only about four acres, and that includes the land Sebastian’s house is on, but for little kids, I can see how this would feel like an entirely new world.
“Holy crap.” Seren gasps, and I lift my head to find her stopped in the middle of the trail.
Sebastian and I hurry the boys along to see what’s caught her attention, and I immediately blame Lucky.
“Oh, wow.” We all stare down at the washed-out trail. “It’s a pretty steep hill. All the rain a couple of days ago must have done this.”
“But the horses,” Seren whispers.
I glance up at Sebastian, and I swear we share thoughts without saying a word. She wants to see the horses more than she was letting on. Raising my brow, I nod toward the trail with a shrug.
“Worst case, we can get Leo or Alexei to come pick us up,” he whispers.
“You think we can get them down the embankment safely?”
Sebastian takes a few steps down, testing the ground. “It’s pretty dry. The rain probably unearthed all these tree roots.” He flashes a pointed stare at each of his kids. “If we go down, you all have to be very careful and go slowly.”
They all agree, and Sebastian goes first with Miles. Seren goes next, and then I help Kade down. It’s easier than it looked. Sebastian, Miles, and Seren make it down without breaking a sweat. It’s taking Kade and me a bit longer because he insists on checking every root for bugs.
“Go ahead and have a water break,” I call down to them. “We’ll be down in a minute.”
Sebastian waves and tugs the backpack off his broad shoulders.
“It’s so cool,” Kade says, tugging free of my hand.
