What Mac hadn’t told Bennett was that about twenty feet from the campsite was a small shed type building that housed a bathroom and a small sink. Danny had gone to the expense of running the pipes needed for the sewage and getting water from the nearby lake. After the campsite had become the go to spot for them to disappear to every year, they’d all gotten together to set it up.
Mac checked his watch, realizing it took him a lot longer than he’d planned to pack everything into the truck. He wanted to leave right after lunchtime, but now it was just after two in the afternoon.
Rushing over to the Cole house, Mac knocked on the front door and walked inside. “Hey, B! We’re running late.”
“We’re not running late, you are,” Bennett yelled as he walked down the stairs.
“Yeah, yeah. No matter. We need to get there and set up before night falls.”
“I’m not the one that made us late,” Bennett grumbled as he walked passed Mac, making his way out of the house. Mac chuckled at the grumpy guy.
“Who knew someone could be so grumpy over camping,” Mac laughingly replied.
“Bugs, Mac. Bugs!”
It only took them about thirty minutes to get to the dirt driveway on Danny’s property that led to the campsite, and then another ten minutes of driving through the dense forest to reach the parking area. It had been a mostly quiet ride with Bennett looking like he was psyching himself up for skydiving instead of camping.
Mac parked and jumped out of the truck. He had just grabbed the tarp and tent out of the bed of the truck when Bennett appeared beside him.
“I’d just like to point out that I clearly must trust you, because it looks like you took me out to murder me and bury my body where no one could find it,” Bennett huffed, but Mac could see the smirk he was trying to hide. Leaning over with full hands, Mac laid a smacking kiss on those plump lips.
“Taking you away to a remote spot to have my wicked way with you is more my style,” Mac said as he walked toward the path for the campsite.
Bennett barked out a laugh, and Mac could’ve sworn he heard him say, “I wouldn’t object to that.”
Thankfully, with two of them doing it, the unloading of the truck took half the time it took Mac to load it. They separated everything, so food, coolers, and all the cooking supplies sat together, camping, tarps, and bedding stuff in another pile, and so and on. Bennett, being the more organized of the two of them, handled that while Mac was opening up the tent so that they could set it up.
“Okay, B, you about done organizing so that you can help me put the tent up?” Mac asked.
“Organization is important.”
“You’re organizing? Looks more like procrastinating to me.”
Bennett all but stomped over to the tent that Mac had laid out completely flat. “Okay, Mr. Camping Expert. What do I need to do?”
Mac talked Bennett through each step, putting the stakes in the ground and tying the rope to each one and the coordinating spot on the tent. Things had been going rather smoothly, and even Mac was surprised. Not that he should be, Bennett was smart, he obviously could handle putting up a tent.
Just as they were sliding the tent poles into the cloth tunnels on the tent, Mac heard Bennett scream. He quickly stood up and saw what can only be described as a slapstick comedy.
Bennett had a look of absolute terror on his face as he pointed to the tent. He stumbled back as he screamed, “Spider!” The only problem was that he continued to stumble back, right over the rope that attaches the tent to the stake, entwining his feet in it before it ripped out of the ground. The tangle of feet and rope twisted, so that, instead of tripping and falling on his ass to the grassy ground, Bennett fell onto the tent, collapsing the whole side.
Mac rushed over to Bennett to make sure he was alright. The whole time he was trying not to bust out laughing. It’s like when a little kid swears and you want to laugh, even though you know it’s wrong.
“B, are you alright?” Mac reached out a hand to help Bennett stand.
“I’m fine.” Bennett grumbled in return. Once he was fully standing, he began to dust off the non-existent things on his pants.
“That was quite the…scene.”
“It’s the damn spiders fault. Why didn’t you check the tent for spiders? Think about how much worse this could’ve been if we were inside the tent,” Bennett rambled excitedly.
Mac walked over to Bennett, wrapped his arms around his waist, and pulled his body close. “The tent is fine. You’re fine. No, need to get all riled up, Princess. Besides, I did check it, but you do know they live out here, right?”
“I try not to think about that.”
It took a few hours, but they finished their task of setting up camp. Mac made sure to keep an extra eye on Bennett. Mac wanted him to have fun and to learn to enjoy camping like Mac always had. They were off to a rough start, but Mac had faith that things would smooth out.
Finally, it was time to start a fire and cook their meal. Bennett opted not to be the one that cooked since Mac was better than him at it anyway, and Bennett was still feeling like walking bad luck.
They were sitting around the campfire, Mac stoking the flames to get it hot enough for the ribs to cook with Bennett sitting across from him, looking like he was trying to relax but couldn’t quite master how.
“Hey, B? Can you grab the pack of paper plates and package of napkins?”
Bennett immediately got up to get the things they needed but hesitated when he realized how dark it was when you weren’t close to the flames. Then, he walked steadily toward the plastic cubbies that were attached to a tree nearby. Danny had added them to the campsite when too many of their things were getting wet or attracting bugs.
Suddenly, Bennett stalled in his travel. “What was that?"
"What was what?" Mac watched Bennett and what surrounded him. Which was nothing.
“That noise. You must have heard it. Are you sure there's no bears? Maybe wolves or coyotes?” Bennett’s voice rose in pitch, making him sound like he was squeaking instead of talking. Mac found it completely adorable.
“No, none of those. Just bring me the plates before the ribs burn."
Bennett started walking again and stopped next to the fire. Just as he reached out his hand filled with the pack of paper plates and the small pack of napkins, Bennett squeaked and promptly dropped both items that they needed to be able to eat into the hot flames.
They instantly caught fire. The silence and shock were thick in the air. Mac couldn’t believe someone could have such bad luck. Maybe it was just that he was clumsy, who would’ve known someone so smart could be such a klutz.
“I cannot believe that just happened.” Bennett said in a flat voice.
Mac wanted to crack up when he thought back on the day, but it would only make Bennett upset, so he’d hold off until he could laugh on his own. And maybe tell Allie.
“Alright, Princess, let’s eat our food then I think it’s bedtime for us.” Mac decided that maybe some cuddling time for them would make Bennett feel better.
After they woke up, Bennett and Mac sat around the fire pit eating breakfast. Mac made coffee in a percolator that was heated over the open flame and scrambled eggs and bacon that he cooked alongside it. Because Bennett had the camping gods against him, they had to use a couple of tops from the plastic storage containers to eat off of.
Bennett was grumpy. The previous day’s events didn’t help him sleep last night, and all the noise nature thought was okay to make while he laid there hadn’t helped either. He desperately wanted to beg Mac to drive them back home. But he wouldn’t. For Mac. For him, he would stay and tough out all the nature and bugs. And that feeling, the one that made him want to do nice things to make Mac smile, was starting to grow, and it scared him.
He was leaving in six and a half weeks. He had a job waiting for him. His dream job. Working on projects that, as a grad student, he only dreamed of working on after years of working in the field. Between his grad
es and internships, and most especially his mentor, Mr. Higgs, he’d been hired on at a firm in Boston. He couldn’t walk away from that. Not for…whatever was happening with them.
Mr. Higgs had drilled that into him a million times. Career needs to come first and love wasn’t worth it. For Mr. Higgs, love wasn’t real.
Not that what he and Mac had was love.
“Alright, Princess, we’re going for a walk on a trail, so get your walking shoes on.” Mac’s voice interrupted his thoughts. Perfect timing for once.
“A walk? On a trail? Are you going to get us lost and mauled by bears?”
Mac’s laughter echoed through the woods. “Again, there are no bears.”
“Sure, there aren’t. Why are we walking on the trail that supposedly has no bears?”
“We’re going fishing!” Mac grabbed the plastic toolbox off the ground in front of him, holding it up like he won the best prize.
“No.” Bennett crossed his arms and refused to move. Fish were gross, and he may not be a nature person, but his dad liked fishing, and he knew that worms were involved.
“Yes. Let’s go, Princess. It’ll be fun.”
“I’m not touching worms, Mac.”
Mac ignored his words and walked away. Bennett thought for a second about staying, but staying alone in the strange woods was worse than being with Mac on a fishing boat and with worms.
The path that they walked was more of a hike than a walk, according to Bennett’s apparently weak legs and broken feet. They’d gone up and down hills, walked over fallen trees, went around what seemed like a hundred turns, and Bennett had lost count of many how times he’d tripped over rocks. After forty minutes of walking, when he was starting to think that they would never arrive, they reached a clearing.
To the right of the path, there was a large lake that was surrounded by trees, except the small section that had an even smaller dock. An old, wooden, not very sturdy looking dock.
“Can that thing even hold us, Mac?” Bennett knew he probably sounded like a whiny kid, but his feet hurt, his legs felt like jelly, and he desperately wanted air conditioning.
“Yeah, B. It looks old, but we check it every year and it was reinforced just last year. Now, stop whining, and let’s get the boat out so we can get you off your delicate feet, Princess,” Mac snickered. Bennett would’ve smacked him if he hadn’t been so far away and he had the energy to go after him.
Within fifteen minutes, they were in the small rowboat and pushing off the dock.
“Okay, what happens now?” Bennett asked.
“We fish.” Mac teased.
“No duh, Sherlock.”
“I’m going to find a nice spot then we’ll bait the hooks, cast our lines, and catch us some fish.”
“Not we. You. I told you that I’m not touching worms.” Bennett would’ve crossed his arms over his chest to show Mac how serious he was but the boat was rocking, and he was afraid that if he didn’t hold on, he’d end up in the lake.
“B, you’re a scientist, how can you not like nature and things?”
“Worms and nature are not what I work in. I work in bio-nanotechnology.” At Mac’s blank look, Bennett elaborated. “I deal with molecules and atoms.”
“I guess I see your point, but you’re still not getting away with not touching a worm.”
“You can’t make me.”
“Oh, Princess. Wanna bet?” Mac winked and continued rowing until they reached smack dab in the middle of the lake.
He touched a worm. He also almost vomited all over Mac for making him do it too.
“Oh, I think…” Bennett kept making retching noises. His stomach turning over and over every time he tried to push the worm onto the sharp hook. “I’m gonna vomit, Mac.” Retch. “Please.” Gag. “Can you…” Gag. “…do it?” Heave.
Mac was sitting on the other side of the small row boat, not within touching distance. Bennett thrust the worm at him—which he didn’t even reach for—as he turned for the side of the boat, certain he was about to lose his stomach. He didn’t, thankfully, but it was a near thing.
“You okay, B?” Mac had gotten up carefully, as any movement rocked the boat, and made his way over to him. He felt the gentle hand on his back and tried to relax enough to calm down the need to dry heave.
“Sure, Mac. I’m just peachy.” Bennett replied, still facing the water over the side of the boat.
“No need for the snark, Princess. I was just being nice.” Mac’s voice was calm and without even a hint of reprimand.
“Sorry, I’m a terrible sick person. I get grumpy.” Bennett sat up slowly, just in case his belly decided vomiting was in the cards. He looked over at Mac and wanted to smack himself for being sarcastic to him when he was very obviously being sympathetic. “Sorry, I’m good now.”
“It’s alright, B. We all have those things we don’t handle really well. Just sit there and take a few deep breaths while I hook your worm for you.”
A few minutes later, stomach settled, Bennett had a fishing pole in his hands and no clue how to fish. Mac had moved back over to his side of the boat, but he gave Bennett verbal instructions on how to cast the line. He quickly learned that fishing was not his sport.
After ten minutes of following Mac’s directions without Mac even once losing patience with him, he got the line cast and settled in to wait for a fish.
Another thirty minutes passed and still no fish and definitely no conversation, because according to Mac, that’s against the rules. Like the fish could hear them or something. Bennett had rolled his eyes, and that time, he meant his snark.
After another twenty minutes, Bennett was officially bored. All he could do was look across the water that was calm as could be and, of course, all the green trees that surrounded the lake. There was nothing else.
He couldn’t even stare at Mac because his back was to him, and Bennett himself was turned away. Looking over at the man, he did have to admit it was a nice back. Deciding Mac’s back was much better to stare at than the stupid trees, Bennett turned gently in his seat, putting his back toward the side of the boat.
Mac’s shirt was clinging to his back so with every cast of his line his muscles would flex. The ripple that went through Mac’s body echoed in Bennett’s. Even more now than before, he wanted to be anywhere else but in the boat.
Lost in thought, and the staring contest he was having with Mac’s back muscles, Bennett hadn’t noticed the tug on his line until a hard pull snapped him out of his day dream.
“Oh, shit,” Bennett exclaimed as he whipped his head around and grabbed the pole with both hands. “I’ve got a fish!”
“Good going, Princess,” Mac said overjoyed.
“Oh, shit. Okay, but…but, what do I do?”
“You gotta reel it in, B.”
Reel it in sounded easy. Bennett could do that. Maybe. As he pulled the pole back in his hands, trying to pull the fish on the line toward him, Mac yelled.
“No, no! B, grab the handle on the reel.”
The boat started rocking as Bennett tried to find what Mac was talking about and hold onto the pole. His mind was racing, and he couldn’t think straight. Since he couldn’t find a handle other than the one he was holding onto, he pulled back. Putting his back into it by leaning against the side of the boat that was behind him. The boat rocked hard at the same time he heard Mac yell, “No, B, don’t lean back!”
But it was too late. It all happened so fast that Bennett didn’t have time to hold his breath before he plummeted backward into the chilly water. He always thought he’d be a calm person in a moment of panic, but really, he was kidding himself.
As soon as he was submersed from head to foot, he tried to find his way up to the surface, to air. The feeling of panic and being disoriented made it harder to figure out which way was up. He caught a glimpse of light and went toward it, quickly surfacing and gasping for breath.
Bennett looked around, needing to find Mac, when he saw him about eight feet away looking a
round himself.
“Mac,” Bennett coughed out.
“Oh, thank god!” Mac said as he swam toward him. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Wounded pride, but I’m fine.” All Bennett could think about was getting out of the water, back to camp, and driving off in Mac’s truck. He was done with this camping shit.
“Good, let’s swim to the boat.”
That was when Bennett noticed the boat was sitting calmly, but all its contents—including the two of them—were floating in the water. When they reached the boat, they grabbed a hold of the side.
“I’m sorry. I’m terrible at—”
“No. It’s fine, we both made mistakes, and we ended up getting a good cool off from it. No worries, B.”
“What now? Swim to shore?” Bennett looked out over the water, trying to find where the dock was and realized that there was no way he could make it that far swimming. He considered himself a good swimmer, but the doggy paddle was his go-to move.
“No, B.” Mac chuckled. “We get ourselves back in the boat, grab whatever we can out of the water, and row ourselves back to shore.”
By the time they had done all that and were back on the trail, Bennett was tired. His legs didn’t want to carry him five feet, let alone the forty-minute hike they had ahead of them with soaking wet clothes. At least they’d dry by the time they got back to camp since the temperatures were high that day.
Bennett wasn’t in the mood for talking. Camping and fishing were items that were now added to his never do again list. He refused to call it his failures list, because he believed in positive thinking. Better to think of them as things he just never wanted to do again versus things he couldn’t do.
His wet pants started to chafe, his shoes were still making the squelching noise when he took each step, and he was sure there were leeches attached to his skin where he couldn’t reach. Bennett could hear Mac’s squelching shoes behind him, making him feel a bit better that he wasn’t the only one suffering.
“And here you were afraid you wouldn’t get to shower, B. You got one better. A bath!” Mac said laughing.
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