He raised his eyebrows. “You’ve given this some thought?” He studied me carefully and didn’t say anything for a while. Finally he slowly smiled and said, “You want to marry her, don’t you?”
I sat without moving and he continued to eye me.
“You want a nice, normal life, with the perfect wife and an armful of little babies. Am I right?”
I paused before answering, “Yes.”
He stared at me for another moment before turning his attention back to his food. After he took another bite, he put the fork down and folded his arms across his chest.
“Tell me what’s going on this weekend.”
I let out a quiet sigh before saying, “We were going camping with a bunch of her friends. It’s very important to her.”
“Hmm, sounds fabulous. Is it for the entire weekend?”
“Yes.”
He thought for a second. “Very well, Tyler. I won’t interfere. You go ahead and go. Have fun. I’ll take on the consequences myself.”
I knew he wanted my gratitude, but I tried to remain neutral. The sickest part was that I was grateful. That was his power. He held so much over you, that any bit of leeway he gave was treasured.
“So what’s the price I’m going to pay for your generosity?” I asked.
He smiled. “Nothing, Tyler. Like I said, you are my favorite. Despite what you think, I do want you to be happy. I’m very pleased that you’ve fallen in love with a girl. Especially Miss Adams.” He lightly laughed. “I can’t get over how beautiful she is. And from what I’ve learned, she is a very sweet young lady. I’m very proud of you, son.”
“Gee, dad, I’m so pleased you approve.”
He clasped his hands together and laughed. “Oh, I do love to hear that word! Tyler, you really make my life worth living. I’ll let you get back to your future wife. Maybe you can go home and make some beautiful babies that can call me grandpa.”
Just the thought of my kids calling him grandpa made me want to throw up.
“Hey, Ty, it’s Matt! Can you hear me okay?” he said over the phone Friday evening.
“Uh, yeah, barely. What’s up?”
“Oh, I just couldn’t get a hold of Jayden for some reason. You guys heading up still?”
“Yeah, we’re just loading up the last few things.”
“Okay. We got all the tents set up already, but ask Jay if she can grab an extra one for Josh and Silvia for tomorrow.”
“Sure.”
“All right, I’ll see you up here.”
I hung up just as Jayden was throwing a backpack into the cab of my truck.
“You ready?” she asked.
“Yeah, you got everything?”
“Yep.”
“Is that all you’re bringing for clothes?” I asked, peering at her backpack.
“It’s all I need. Why?”
I shrugged. “You pack light.”
“Wait until you see Cali’s suitcase,” she smiled. “If there’s anything I need I’ll have a whole closet-full to choose from.”
“I can only imagine,” I replied, backing out of her driveway. “Does she bring her entire beauty shop with her?”
Jayden shook her head. “You think you’re joking, but it’s really the truth.”
“Oh, I’m not even joking. I’m pretty sure I can picture it.” We were driving for a few seconds before I asked, “So am I supposed to notice your hair, or is it something I shouldn’t be able to notice?”
She smiled and shrugged her shoulders. “That depends. What do you think of it?”
We pulled up to a stoplight so I took a moment to run my hand through it and examine the change. “I think it looks good. It is pretty subtle though, just like she promised. It doesn’t really look that different. To me it’s still…gold. What do you think of it?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess it’s just hair. She’s already talking about ‘next time.’ ”
“Then you have to come up with a really outrageous trade. What’s something you’ve always wanted her to do?”
With a laugh she said, “I’m sure there are lots of things. I’ll have to think about it.”
We drove east for about forty minutes, and it was six-thirty when we turned onto the private road that took us to our destination. I parked where the other vehicles were near the cabin and looked around at the surroundings. It was a really cool spot. The lake spanned right in front of us where we stood, and the tents were pitched sporadically above the bank to our right. The boat launch was straight out from the cabin and I could see that Chris’s boat trailer was already empty.
“Hey, you guys!” someone called from the direction of the tents. I think it was Stacie.
We made our way over and Stacie and Cali were sitting at a picnic table. Cali was doing Stacie’s nails, and they were both happy to see us.
“Everyone else is on the boat,” Cali told us. She looked at her watch and said, “They’ll be heading in right now, but if you want to go out, I know Chris won’t care.”
“I can wait until tomorrow,” Jayden said glancing at me, and I agreed.
“Good, I’ll do your nails next,” Cali smiled at her.
We heard the boat pull up just then and Jayden stood on the bank and waved.
“You gonna come out?” Chris hollered.
“No, maybe tomorrow!” she yelled back.
They pulled the boat up to the dock and Matt hopped off to secure it. “Hey, Ty! Come check this out!” he called.
Jayden smiled at me and sat down at the table to talk to the girls, so I made my way to the dock.
“You work on boats much?” Matt asked when I was close enough.
“No, not a lot,” I admitted as Shawn was backing the trailer down the launch. “But I have before. Something wrong?”
“Yeah, we’re gonna pull it out and see. It’s not running good.”
Matt continued to talk about the boat and describe what was giving them trouble. I went down the list of possibilities as Chris left the dock to ease the boat onto the trailer. Matt hopped down into the water to crank the nose up, and clipped the line on to secure it. He whistled to the Tahoe and Shawn eased the trailer out of the water. Chris looked a little perturbed, and I assumed he was bugged about having a potential problem with his engine.
I walked with Matt up to the cabin where Shawn had parked, and we approached the boat. I didn’t want to take a look at it until Chris wanted me to, but the second I got there he was already discussing it with me. I could tell he knew quite a lot about boats, particularly his boat and exactly how it was supposed to run. But he admitted that he wasn’t too keen on actually working on it. He seemed a little hesitant, but he finally asked if I could look it over.
Matt was more mechanically inclined than Chris, but the three of us ended up spending a good chunk of time cleaning out the fuel system. While we worked we also talked, and I learned a little more about the two of them and their group of friends as a whole. Matt was really easy to talk to and we had a lot in common. Chris was a little reserved at first, but he eventually loosened up and he was conversing right along with us. When we finally had everything put back together it was beginning to get dark.
“Do you mind if I put in a fuel filter tomorrow?” I asked Chris.
“Uh, no, I guess not,” he replied. “But you don’t have to spend your day working.”
“Nah, it’s easy. It’ll save you from having to do all of this again. Tomorrow you can take the boat out, run it for a bit, and then we’ll see if she’s all good.”
He nodded. “Okay.”
“What time was Josh coming up here?” I asked Matt.
“Sometime before noon.”
I pulled my phone out and asked, “Do you guys get cell service out here?”
“Go stand on the dock,” Matt replied.
I made my way down the dock and stood on the very end until I got a signal. I found Lou’s home number and he answered on the second ring. I put in my order and he promised h
e’d have it ready first thing in the morning for whenever Josh came by. Chris gave Josh a call and told him to stop by Lou’s garage before he came up in the morning, and then he thanked me for helping him out.
It was a small step toward friendship, but I wasn’t going to hold my breath.
We spent the rest of the night sitting around the campfire. Jayden brought up a bunch of food already prepared to eat for that night, and the cooler was stocked with the items she needed for preparing the other meal she was in charge of. She warned me about eating any of Shawn’s food, claiming that he put all kinds of weird stuff in it sometimes.
Jayden had pulled out her guitar from the truck and Shawn had his as well. They joked about singing campfire songs, but Shawn was the only one that really claimed to know any.
“Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer isn’t a campfire song,” Cali told him.
“Says who?” he protested. “You don’t know the kind of camps my parents shipped me off to. Boy Scouts was rough.”
“You were a Boy Scout?” she snorted. “Did you wear the uniform?”
He laughed. “Sure. Can’t you picture me in the uniform with the little shorts and the knee socks?”
“Yeah, trying to light your scout leader’s tent on fire,” Jayden said, and everyone laughed.
They did play some good music together. They liked to play a lot of classic rock, but they also played a lot of current stuff, and some of Cali’s eighties requests. Jayden begged Shawn to do “Iris,” telling me that it was one of her favorites for Shawn. He agreed only if she did “Dare You To Move.” Both were incredible, and they were amazing at accompanying one another, but since Jayden was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, I was completely mesmerized by her. I don’t care if that sounds pathetic, but what can I say?
When it was close to midnight everyone gradually parted to separate tents.
“When did you do all this?” I asked, checking out the bed that was already put together in the tent.
“When you were working on the boat,” she mumbled through her toothbrush outside. I heard her spit in the bushes and rinse her mouth with bottled water. “Your stuff’s on the left in the corner.”
“Yeah, I found it. Thanks.” I grabbed my own toothbrush and joined her outside. By then she was sitting in a camp chair with her head resting back, looking at the sky, so I turned off the flashlight.
“This is my favorite part about being out of the city,” she said. “I love the night sky so much better.”
I could barely see her in the dark, but I pictured her blue-green eyes staring at the sky. When I was done brushing my teeth, I returned to the tent, grabbed the extra blanket off of the bed, and took her hand to make her stand. She didn’t say anything, but when she stood I could tell she was smiling. We walked out into the open where there was a grassy field and I spread the blanket out.
“It’s much better when you can look at the sky with your really handsome boyfriend,” I told her.
With a laugh she said, “I’ll agree with that.”
I pulled her against me as we laid ourselves on the blanket, and then wrapped the other half of the blanket over us to keep her warm.
“Mmm,” she said, “I could probably sleep here.”
“Not yet. You have to talk to me about the constellations.”
“I don’t really know any. There’s the Big Dipper. The North Star.”
I looked at them for a moment before pointing out Ursa Major and Ursa Minor…and Draco…and Sagittarius. Then I showed her Cepheus and Cassiopeia.
“Okay,” she laughed. “I’m impressed. How do you know so much about astronomy?”
“Hmm, well… I used to sleep out in my backyard a lot when I was a kid—to stay away from my dad, usually. It was intriguing to me that all the people in the history of the world have been under this sky. I always wondered what was out there so…one day I went to the library and decided I would learn what other people had learned over time. There’s a lot,” I chuckled.
She was quiet for a moment before she finally murmured, “Tell me more.”
I talked for a few minutes and paused, expecting her to be asleep because she was so quiet, but she would ask another question and I would talk a few more minutes. We continued this pattern for probably a half an hour. When she was quiet again I asked if she was sleeping.
“No, I was just thinking about astrology. You know we’re both Libras, right?”
I nodded with a smile. “Yeah.” I showed her where Libra was in the night sky. “Are you wondering if we’re compatible?” I teased.
She laughed. “Oh, I already know we are. I don’t need to rely on synastry to know that.”
“Hmm. But in case you are wondering…Libras are very compatible with one another.” I turned my body so I could kiss her. “And…we’re both ruled by Venus.”
She smiled against my lips. “Mmm, so that’s the secret behind our relationship,” she murmured. As we kissed, she slid her hands up my shirt and I jolted.
“Brr! You’re hands are freezing!” I laughed.
“I know,” she continued to smile. “So be a man and let me keep them there so I can warm up.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
I woke up at six the next morning and stared at the wall of the tent. I knew I hadn’t slept much. Jayden was currently pressed up against my back with her arms sandwiched between us, but she had pretty much been in every position possible throughout the night to keep warm. I waited for a few minutes because I knew she would move again, and sure enough she turned over to face the other way with her back to mine.
I flipped over and pulled her close to me.
“Mmm,” she said softly, burrowing against me.
“I’m sorry you’re so cold,” I told her.
“Hmm? I’m not cold.”
“You’re not? You’ve been moving all night long. I thought maybe you couldn’t keep warm.”
“Oh,” she laughed softly. “I don’t sleep very well when I camp. And I think I’ve been having weird dreams all night. Just now I was dreaming that I was in a golf tournament; Tiger Woods announced that a tie would be determined by a motocross race. I was pretty excited.”
“I’m sure you were,” I laughed.
She was quiet for a moment before saying, “I’m sorry I kept you up all night.”
“Oh no, you didn’t,” I smiled, kissing the side of her head. “I was just worried you were cold.”
“I was actually very warm against your hot body. I probably kept moving to toast the other side.”
We stayed how we were for another twenty minutes, talking quietly about the previous day. Finally she said, “I have to pee really bad but I don’t want to get up.”
“Well, I’d rather not be in the bed with you if you decide you can’t hold it any longer.”
I felt her silent laugh. When she slid away from me and stood, I felt an immediate change in temperature. “Brr, I guess I’ll go bother Cali then, so I can use the bathroom. Wanna see what she looks like without makeup on?” she asked with a big smile.
“Will I turn to stone?”
She laughed out loud. “I’m gonna tell her you said that.”
She put on a hooded sweatshirt over her long-sleeved shirt and slipped her shoes on at the tent door. When she was gone, I stretched back with my arms behind my head and thought about how lucky I was. When I had been working on the boat (when Chris was out of earshot) Matt told me how much Jayden always talked about me. He said Stacie was convinced that I was the perfect guy for her and she was happy that Jayden had finally found somebody worthy enough to be with her. It did sort of feel like an honored position.
I heard voices and commotion outside a few minutes later, so I got up and made my way into the great outdoors. Jayden was standing outside of someone’s tent with her arms folded across her chest. I couldn’t remember if it was Shawn’s tent or Chris’s tent, but Matt and Stacie approached at the same time I did.
“…I’m not kidding, Jayden,” I h
eard Shawn’s voice from inside. “Open the damn door.”
“Not until you apologize,” she said seriously.
I looked at the door to the tent and the zipper had been tied shut from the outside. I glanced at Matt and Stacie just as they noticed it too. Stacie covered her mouth to keep from laughing.
“I’ll just cut it open, then,” he replied.
“Go ahead. Ruin a brand-new tent.”
“Open the damn door.”
“Not until you apologize for calling me a lesbian.”
Matt made a sound and glanced at me with surprise. “You called her a lesbian?” he said to Shawn.
Shawn’s face appeared at a side window and he looked at all of us standing there. By then Chris and Cali had also arrived.
“Great, you’ve got a mob waiting for me?” Shawn said to Jayden.
“Just apologize and I won’t deck you myself,” she answered.
Matt shook his head. “Man, Shawn, you called her a lesbian and you don’t expect to get your ass kicked?”
“I didn’t call her a lesbian! I only said that I was glad she wasn’t a lesbian.”
Cali scoffed. “That’s just as bad. Just apologize, you jerk.”
“Fine, I’m sorry.”
“That doesn’t sound very sincere,” Jayden said, hiding a smile.
“Okay. Jayden, I’m really sorry, and I’m very relieved that you’re now sleeping with Ty and not Cali.”
There was a low murmur of responses from the group, and I could tell that they were expecting Jayden to react somehow. But Cali’s retort was very clear and I don’t think I want to repeat her choice of words.
Matt stepped up to the window and said, “You’re in a hole, man. You’d better just do what you can to fix this.”
“You guys are insane,” Shawn replied. There was a movement of sound inside and a few seconds later the blade of a knife popped through the tent fabric. Everyone was laughing when his hand appeared to cut the tie off the zipper, and then the tent door zipped opened. When he stepped out I expected him to be somewhat upset, but he smiled at everyone and said, “Sweet, now I get to make you all breakfast.”
“Awesome,” Jayden replied dryly. “And by the way, that’s my dad’s brand new tent.”
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