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  When the girls went to their car after their bags, they didn’t return right away.

  “This is bullshit,” I said to Perry in a low voice. “You could have asked me before volunteering my services.”

  Perry shrugged. “They’re hot. Especially the brunette. The blonde looks a little stuck up.”

  I shook my head. “Whatever they are, they’re just standing there while we do all the work.”

  Glancing at them, I realized Cara was a lot closer to me than I’d thought. She walked toward us and I wondered if she was going to say something about Perry’s comment that they were hot.

  “What can I do to help?”

  “Take over here,” Perry said. Cara took the cover he had been holding and Perry walked away. She looked at me with those big brown eyes and I had to focus not to forget myself.

  “I think he’s going to check on your friend,” I offered.

  “That’s just what she needs,” Cara said, and I wasn’t sure if she was being sarcastic or not.

  We worked together, and it was the first time I had spoken to Cara. Even though I’d had the chance to have a conversation with her, we had set up the tent in silence. Perry had walked to the truck and turned it, switching on the headlights so we could see what we were doing.

  Cara surprised me. She didn’t know much about setting up a tent, but used her logic, and she wasn’t scared of manual labor. She wasn’t one of those women that were worried she would break a nail. In no time, we had the tent up.

  “Well,” Cara said. “I think I would be able to do it again if I had to.”

  I chuckled. “It’s always good to have shelter when you’re out here. You’re lucky there’s no rain tonight.”

  We both looked up as if it was our cue. The sky was inky black and it was adorned with stars like scattered diamonds.

  “I think I would have been okay either way,” Cara said.

  I looked at her. Her delicate face was silhouetted by the truck headlights, and flyaway hairs that had escaped her ponytail framed her face like a halo. She was beautiful, but it wasn’t in a preppy way. She didn’t look like she spent a lot of time on her appearance. She had a raw beauty about her, the same way the landscape had.

  And I was attracted to her.

  “Thank you for helping us out,” Cara said, snapping me out of my train of thought. “I guess I’ll see you around?”

  “You’re welcome,” I said, and this time I meant it. I had been pissed off before but enjoyed watching her work. “And I don’t know if we’ll see you or not. We’re headed out on the trails at dawn. You might sleep in.” I glanced at Rachel.

  “Yeah, we’ll have to see,” Cara agreed. “I think I just heard Perry invite us to sit around your fire.”

  I groaned inwardly. Of course, he had.

  “You’re more than welcome to, of course. But I think I’m going to turn in for the night.”

  Cara nodded and bade me goodnight. I walked to the tent and zipped myself in. I could hear their conversation through the fabric walls of the tent, of course, but wasn’t in the mood for company. Cara was beautiful, intelligent and all that, but I was here to take in nature and to enjoy being one with it. I wasn’t here to pick up women. I could do that back home where I wasn’t trying to focus on the world around me.

  I climbed into my sleeping bag, really wanting a smoke right now, but that wasn’t going to happen. At least I could hide out in the tent. Perry could do whatever he wanted tonight. I wanted to be alone. I pulled a pillow over my head to try to drown out Rachel’s flirtatious laughter and let sleep drag me away from it all.

  Chapter 6

  Cara

  It was full dark now and the campground was filled with tents and parked cars. Music blared from a portable speaker somewhere and chatter filled the air. It detracted from the beauty of nature all around us a little, but when I looked up at the night sky, it was still littered with stars.

  Perry was starting to build a fire.

  “Come on, I want to spend time with him,” Rachel said.

  “So, spend time with him. You don’t need me to hold your hand, do you?”

  “Don’t be a bitch, Cara. Come sit with us. We’re doing this weekend together, aren’t we?”

  I sighed. “Yeah, okay. I’ll come for a little while, but do not call me a bitch again.”

  Rachel grinned at me. “It will be fun.”

  We walked over to Perry and he looked up at us with a smile. Or rather, he looked up at Rachel with a smile. He hardly noticed me; he was so stuck on her. And he should have been, Rachel was beautiful and funny. The type of girl most people went for because she was funny and carefree. I didn’t mind that he was attracted to her. After her breakup, Rachel deserved a little positive male attention. And Perry wasn’t my type at all, anyway.

  “What brings you girls here?” Perry asked, once the fire was going. He put a tin coffee pot filled with water on the fire. He had obviously done this before.

  “We wanted to try something new,” Rachel said. “Where did your friend go?”

  “He turned in for the night.”

  “He seems very anti-social,” Rachel said, and I was impressed that she didn’t outright call him a dick. I glanced over my shoulder. The tent was nearby and tents were anything but soundproof. He could probably hear our conversation, so I was glad Rachel was behaving herself. She could be quite outspoken.

  “Greyson likes being alone when he comes out here. It’s a personal preference. I like meeting people, he likes heading off to be alone with his thoughts. He’s a solid man, just a little introverted.”

  Perry spoke of his friend with respect and I appreciated it. It was good to know that friends had each other’s backs. I didn’t glance at the tent again, even though I wanted to. I knew I wouldn’t see anything. I could relate to what Perry was saying about Greyson. There were times when I needed to be alone, too. Rachel was the extrovert between the two of us, and I indulged her when I could, but preferred spending my time alone.

  “What do you do?” Perry asked Rachel. I glanced at her, wondering how she was going to paint it. She didn’t do anything at all if she could help it.

  “Oh, you know, this and that. Whenever I get an odd job I’ll jump in, but I’m still deciding on a career.”

  Perry frowned slightly, but he didn’t say anything. Point for him. Some people didn’t like Rachel’s carefree attitude toward life. It irritated even me, sometimes.

  “How about you?” Rachel asked.

  Perry explained how he was in the sales and marketing department of his job. He traveled a lot because of it and had contacts all over the States. We talked about our lives and our jobs, and slowly we became friends. Rachel and Perry were a lot more alike than I had thought at first, and she was smiling and laughing. After the breakup, she hadn’t done much of that and I was happy for her.

  I let them have their conversation. I was quiet, listening to what they had to say. My mind drifted to Greyson, who was either awake and listening too, or asleep and completely removed.

  Greyson was a good-looking man, I had to admit. Pitch black hair, icy blue eyes and an I-don’t-care attitude that only made him more attractive. From the moment I had first seen him I thought he was hot. But he seemed closed off, and if what Perry said was true about liking to keep to himself, he had every right to be so. I understood feeling the need to be secluded from others, to enjoy nature alone. It was so easy to get distracted by everything, by modern day life and all that drew our attention away from nature and where we really came from.

  Out here, I felt freer than I had in a while, and being in deep conversation about something stupid, or bantering back and forth, ruined what it meant to be out here.

  So, I could understand Greyson’s need to be alone. If it hadn’t been for Rachel insisting that I join her at the campfire with Perry, I would have done the same. I’d be sleeping in my tent now, too.

  It was getting late and after we had coffee together, Rachel and I fina
lly headed to our own tent. I opened my bag and found my pajamas and toiletries. Rachel and I walked together to the bathrooms and brushed our teeth. We changed into pajamas before returning to our tent, crawling in and tucking ourselves into our sleeping bags. It was cold and I shivered, burrowing deeper.

  “Don’t you think he’s great?” Rachel whispered, when we lay side by side in our sleeping bags. “He’s so hot.”

  I smiled. “He’s not exactly my type.”

  “Your type is impossible to find with your high standards,” Rachel said, dismissively. She was right, I did have high standards. But that didn’t mean that I couldn’t appreciate good looks and when it came down to basic attraction, Greyson was definitely my type.

  Rachel carried on about Perry and I indulged her, gasping in all the right places, and agreeing with her when she recalled parts of the conversation. She was in a good mood and I was happy for her.

  “You deserve to spend time with a good man,” I said. “Just don’t get into something again too quickly.”

  “I’m not planning on dating the guy, not by a long shot,” Rachel said. “I don’t think I’m ready for that yet. And I only just met him. I just want to have a good weekend.”

  I nodded. “I think it’s off to a pretty good start then.”

  “I’m going to be so stiff tomorrow after all this hiking. I don’t know if I want to go up again.”

  “You can’t ditch me now,” I protested. “You were the one that dragged me here in the first place.”

  “Yeah, but that was before I realized how horrible hiking is. It’s hard to walk that long.”

  I shook my head, smiling at my friend. “I bet you would go if Perry invited you along. It’s just because it’s plain old me, right?”

  Rachel rolled her eyes and giggled. “How am I supposed to answer that? You totally set me up.”

  We giggled in the tent together.

  “So, would you sleep with him if it came down to it?” I asked.

  Rachel shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. He’s hot.”

  “Yeah, you mentioned that,” I said.

  “I don’t want to be the only one that’s having fun, though,” Rachel said. “You should have fun, too.”

  “I am having fun,” I offered. It wasn’t about men for me. This trip was for Rachel, and because I wasn’t actively looking for a man, my to-do list didn’t include sleeping with someone. Although, if it was Greyson, I might consider having a bit of fun.

  “I hate that Paul is still on my mind sometimes,” Rachel said. “Like tonight, I was talking to Perry and having a good time and suddenly Paul popped into my head and I felt like such an idiot.”

  “It’s part of the process. Just deal with it when it happens and move on. The only thing you don’t want to do is go back to that.”

  “God, no. That’s not happening. I just get irritated because I’m supposed to be over it.”

  I shook my head. “You’re not. It will take time. But you’re doing so good. You’re not isolating yourself and all that.”

  “No, that’s your department,” Rachel teased. I laughed but she was right in a lot of ways. I did isolate myself. But I had my reasons and I was happy with my life. As happy as I could be. I didn’t have someone, and sometimes it seemed like a shame, but most of the time I was perfectly fine doing my own thing.

  Slowly, our conversation dwindled as Rachel and I became sleepy. It had been hard work hiking the trail, even though I was a lot fitter than Rachel. My muscles still ached lightly and my mind was filled with images of the river and the canyon that we had seen. It had been beautiful up there. I was glad we could have another look tomorrow.

  Maybe it was time for me to start heading out more often. There was no reason I couldn’t go camping and sightseeing on my own. I was so used to living my life indoors and moving from one goal to the next, it felt good to stop and breathe for a second.

  I didn’t have to have someone with me the way Rachel did.

  My mind jumped to Greyson again. It was clear that he and Perry both did this often. I felt like I could relate to him. He was a complete stranger and we had barely spoken two sentences to each other, but I felt like I understood what he was about.

  It was just wishful thinking. I didn’t know him at all. Maybe he was someone completely different and I was painting a picture of the man I would have liked for him to be.

  I had to stop thinking about him altogether. Greyson was good looking, but he wanted to be left alone. So, my fussing over it didn’t matter, anyway. But I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to have the attention of a man like him. I wanted to get to know him. He intrigued me and not a lot of people did that.

  But Greyson would never go for a girl like me. Nothing about me was interesting or fun. I had a boring life and a boring job, and even though I was happy pushing forward with my plans and my goals, most other people wanted to be impulsive, rather than planning everything. I didn’t like it that way. I was a planner and most men thought it made me obsessive.

  Better not to think about him so much, then. Not if nothing was going to happen.

  Chapter 7

  Greyson

  I woke up at the crack of dawn. I was a morning person as a rule, but out here, with the air so fresh and so much nature out there waiting for me to explore it, I could never sleep in. When I was home and there was nothing to see, I could do shit like that once in a while, but out here, sleep could wait.

  When I sat up, I realized someone else was in our tent with us. A flash of brunette hair tangled out from underneath Perry’s sleeping bag and I sighed. Damn, a four-sleeper might not have been such a good idea after all. Thank God they hadn’t done anything—that would have woken me up, because I knew from experience that Perry wasn’t the quiet type. And I guess cuddling was okay. He had said he wanted to meet women, after all. And he had done just that.

  I couldn’t change who Perry was.

  I quietly unzipped the tent and climbed out, zipping it back up behind me. When I turned, I spotted Cara lighting a small fire in front of their own tent. I watched as she figured it out. Soon, flames licked up around a small pot that she had filled with water.

  It was impressive to see her figure it out. What was even more impressive was that she was up this early. She had been up for a while, obviously. She was dressed in leggings and a form-fitting jacket, and her hair hung loosely around her shoulders. She looked well-kempt and in the light of day she was even more attractive than she had been last night.

  “Morning,” I said to her.

  She looked up at me and smiled.

  “Morning,” she said. “Would you like some coffee? I don’t know how good it will be, this is my first time not using a kettle on a stove.”

  I chuckled and nodded. “I’ll be your test subject.”

  I sat down on one of the camp chairs she had set up around the fire. I watched her as she bustled around, getting cups ready, taking out a tin of coffee and a packet of sugar. When her blonde hair fell into her face she hooked it behind her ear. Everything about her was natural and beautiful. She wasn’t trying to look good for me because she knew I was here. Her friend seemed to be the type that changed around men, but Cara didn’t look like she was trying at all.

  Which made her that much more beautiful.

  Last night I had seen a woman with a good body and nice eyes. This morning, I saw someone who was comfortable in her own skin, organized and structured, and downright gorgeous. And her body was a serious bonus. She wasn’t too skinny and she had curves in all the right places. But it was her eyes that got me every time she looked my way.

  Last night, I hadn’t had a lot of time to stare into them from up close, but this time when she turned around and asked me about sugar, she was right in front of me and her eyes were mesmerizing. They were hazel but there were flecks of gold in them that seemed to dance when she smiled. I couldn’t stop staring at them.

  After she had prepared everything for coffee she sa
t down as well, waiting for the water to boil.

  “I seemed to have lost Rachel,” Cara said. “She wasn’t in the tent when I woke up, and my trip to the bathrooms didn’t offer any clues, either.”

  I jutted a thumb over my shoulder to our tent. “She’s with Perry.”

  Cara laughed. “At least she’s safe. She deserves to relax a little.”

  She didn’t seem upset that her friend had ditched her to sleep in our tent. Maybe this was just something that happened when they did things together. Cara looked like the independent type. It only added to her image.

  “Why are you up so early?” I asked. “To look for Rachel?”

  “Oh, no. I don’t sleep in, generally. I’m a morning person. It’s a lonely life.”

  I realized she was joking with that last sentence, and I grinned. She was right, of course.

  “I’m a morning person, too.”

  “Sorry to hear that,” she answered, and I chuckled again. Her jokes were lighthearted and dry. I loved it. A dry sense of humor suggested intelligence. But I didn’t need to hear her sense of humor to know she was clever. I had seen her figure out the tent last night and I had watched her figure out how to build a fire this morning.

  “You did good with this fire,” I said. Something like this had to be mentioned.

  “Oh, thanks. I can’t always hope for a tent with men next door to bail me out,” she winked at me.

  “Did you know how to build a fire?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “No, but I saw Perry do it last night, and I figured if you light something up it ought to burn, right? So I put the two together, and as it turns out, the logic is pretty sound.” She chuckled, “I must say I was pretty impressed myself. If it didn’t work, I was going to drive into the city to a coffee shop.”

  “That’s cheating,” I said.

  She shrugged. “Is there a camping rule book? What I can and cannot do?”

  I laughed and shook my head. “No, there’s not.”