Nate (A Texas Jacks Novel) (24 page)

It takes a little over an hour to arrive at our destination. I pull up to the gate of the Pleasure Cove Marina portion of the lake, and park. “I’m going to check in. I’ll be right back.” I give a gentle squeeze to Charlie’s left knee, and then hop out to check in and grab our parking pass. About ten minutes later, I’m back in the truck, and we’re all headed towards our campsite.

“Who knows how to pitch a tent, besides one of us men?” Holt has the audacity to ask.

“Are you insinuating that we women are clueless when it comes to camping?” Halley scoffs at what we know to be in true Holt fashion, when it comes to being a hotheaded male in all things outdoors-related.

“You’re reading too much into my statement. It was an innocent question.”

“This time.” Halley, it would appear, can’t resist to comment.

“So—” Naomi interjects, “what are the sleeping arrangements, anyway? I heard you guys were supplying the tents, right?”

“Don’t worry, babe. We’ve got you covered.” Tucker pipes up from the backseat. “We have all of you covered. We brought the eight-man tent. Just need some willing hands to help set it up, and then to load all of our gear inside. Once we get everything underway, we can worry about lunch. Maybe Holt wants to stick his foot into that statement?” Tucker chuckles.

“If he knows what’s good for him, he won’t tick his woman off any further, so the rest of us can have fun.” I add to the conversation. Charlie leans her body up against my side and snuggles into me as we’re just about to pull into our campsite.

“All right, everyone. Listen, up! All hands on deck, as soon as I park, for setup. No lip, either. Yeah?” I can feel Charlie shake with silent laughter next to me as the others roll their eyes and jump out of the truck once we’ve parked.

“That’s one way to clear the truck. How about you lock the doors, and we stay here for some quality time on our own?” Charlie shyly flirts with me.

“I think you’re an excellent mind reader. I love that you’re willing to sacrifice them to do all of the grunt work, just so we can steal a few moments of make-out time. My kind of woman.” I smirk as I lean in to nuzzle her cheek with my nose. Just breathing in her shampoo and lotion does all kinds of things to me.

“What have you done with my shy, innocent, little Charlie?” I whisper to her. I don’t give her time to reply as I reach out and hit the button to lock the doors. I tilt her face towards me and gaze down at her for a moment.

“What are you waiting for?” she coyly asks.

I answer her by pulling her into my lap, allowing my hands to slide into her hair, and pulling her down so our lips just barely meet. I yearn to kiss her soft and slow—at first—then build it up with that sweet burn she gives me each time we kiss. I love the feel of her lips as they caress mine, and the taste of her tongue while she supports her body against my chest. Charlie wraps her arms around my neck, holding me firmly to her, and picks up the pace of the kiss while my right hand slips down her back and up again.

That’s when we hear the
thump
against the window, breaking the nice illusion that we were all alone. Charlie buries her head into my neck, giggling, while I feel like I’m about to commit homicide of one of our close friends. I don’t even bother to acknowledge the person at the window, which I’m sure is Holt. I take a few more moments to savor the feeling of holding Charlie on my lap, without any other outside influences.

I let her climb off of me, and then we both make our grand exit from the truck to whistles, hoots, and laughter.

“Yeah, yeah. You all were wishing you had thought of it first.” I laugh, slinging my arm around Charlie’s shoulders as we head towards the pile they made of all of our belongings.

“Next time we won’t fall for it, when you try to issue orders.” Tucker grins at me, sitting next to Naomi in one of the camp chairs we brought with us.

“Let’s get camp set up so we can get lunch started,” Naomi chimes in. “We want to check out the lake today before it gets dark.”

So, that’s exactly what we do. The guys and I get the tent all laid out and start putting it together while the women do whatever it is they’re doing, away from us. I hope they’re going through the food and getting something prepared for us. I know we’re all starved.

“Don’t you think they should come over here and learn how to put a tent up?” Holt questions Tucker and I. “If we plan on having them come with us in the future, it would be good to start teaching them these types of chores so they can help.”

“I hadn’t thought about anything beyond this weekend of camping. It’s not a bad idea, though,” Tucker admits. I nod in agreement.

“But, I’m too hungry to want to deal with it now. Let them fix lunch for us first.” They look at me like I’m from outer space. “Wait. I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just hungry, and they look like they’re okay with making something for all of us. Don’t give me those crazy looks. I’m not the one with the snarky comments,” I pointedly look at Holt. He gives me his stupid trademark smirk.

“Whatever. I say we go figure out lunch, then we can come back and have them learn the ins and outs of setting up a tent.” Tucker decides for the group.

“Seriously, you all are making a big deal out of nothing. It’s just a tent. Anyone can read the instructions and figure it out.” We hear Halley say as we turn around to catch her staring at the tent, then back to us.

“Don’t worry, we fully plan on teaching you. But first, we’re starving. What did you ladies make?” Holt asks her.

“Nothing fancy, since the pit isn’t up yet—or any other cooking gear, for that matter.”

“Well?” he asks again.

“Oh, just sandwiches, fruit, chips, and potato salad. Like I said, it’s nothing fancy.” She turns and walks back to the picnic table, then starts dishing the salad portions onto each plate.

“Who cares? I’m starving. Let’s eat!” Tucker walks away, leaving Holt and I to follow in his wake.

After lunch, we teach the women how to properly clear the ground, lay the tent out, and get all of the poles, stakes and ties for the tent ready for assembly. We get it up in 20 minutes, and then add our gear to the inside of the massive space. It’s a nice warm day so we take the women down to the lake and play in the water for a bit. Tucker brought a Frisbee and a football, so we have a couple of options for activities beyond playing in the water.

It’s not until later in the evening, as we’re sitting around the campfire, wrapped in blankets, that someone suggests we roast marshmallows and share ghost stories. You know —the typical campfire cliché. It wouldn’t be a decent camping trip without creepy stories and roasted ‘mellows, I suppose.

“Isn’t this the Kodiac Killer’s old stomping grounds?” Holt, donning his best innocent face, asks the group. I know what he’s up to. He wants to scare the women with something that happened ages ago. Shaking my head and quietly laughing to myself, I play along. I can’t help it. Everyone’s heard of this guy, but still—it’s creepy to speak of it, especially at night.
Isn’t that when all of the real evil comes out to play?

“You know, now that you mention it, I think it is.” I look at Charlie, and she doesn’t look too thrilled about this new piece of information. I watch as she draws the blanket around her shoulders a little tighter before she burrows into it.

“Yep!” Tucker decides to get in on the act, too. “He came out here to kill a college-aged couple.”

“Right,” I pick up the story. “They were out here one early evening, relaxing on a blanket at the shoreline. They noticed the tall, heavy build of a man in a strange costume approaching them, holding a gun. He claimed he was an escapee from a prison, and needed money and a car so he could get to Mexico.”

“That’s right, but he didn’t take the money or keys the young man was offering him. Instead, he had planned to kill them.” Tucker states.

“He tied them up with a plastic clothesline and started stabbing them. He stabbed the young woman like ten times, and the man six times,” Holt continues on with the story. “After he attacked them, he calmly walked away. Eventually, the couple started screaming for help. A local fisherman heard them, came to see what was happening, then called the local park rangers. By this time, they had gotten themselves untied. She died, but he was only wounded.”

“Well, that was ages ago. We don’t even know that it was in this area of the lake.” Halley says, looking over at Charlie’s face and then back to us.

“Are you sure it was at Lake Berryessa?” Charlie face is a bit pale.

“That happened in the very late ‘60s, Charlie. There’s nothing to worry about,” Naomi reassures her.

“Besides, we have a big group of us, and I highly doubt we need to worry about anything crazy like that this weekend. There are a lot of people around. You’re just as safe here as you would be at home—
alone
.” Holt tells her.

“Umm—do you guys mind if we don’t talk about creepy stories?” Charlie quietly asks us, wrapping her arms around herself.

“What’s wrong, Charlie?” Tucker asks. “We’re just trying to pull your chain. That was the only incident from that crazy guy up here. It happened so long ago, no one even knows the details in our generation, anyway.”

“I just don’t like scary things. Real, fake—you name it. It just messes with me.” She looks at me for assistance. I pull her into my arms and hug her closely to me.

“All right, little one. We’ll change the topic,” I assure her. “I wouldn’t let anyone harm you, you know that, right?” I kiss the top of her head. She nods under my chin, and we move on from the scary stories.

As the night wears on, I start feeling horrible about scaring Charlie. She seems worried, and hasn’t left my side—not even for the bathroom when the other women went together. Later that night, in the tent, Charlie makes me zip the flap closed, though we usually like to sleep with it open and watch the stars as we shoot the breeze. She also places her sleeping bag between me and Holt, making Tucker sleep at the ends of our feet. I can’t help but smile to myself.
Who knew Charlie scares so easily?
That’s okay with me, as it affords me all kinds of moments to hold her, both now and later down the road.

And there’s that thought again, the one I need to shove out of my head so I can enjoy my weekend without complicating it with deep feelings or emotions. I feel a pang in my chest at that thought, but I’m not willing to explore it right now.

Waking up the next morning, feeling the sting of the chilled air as it hits my face, just pushes me to burrow further into the warmth of my sleeping bag. And that’s when it strikes me that I’m nestled between two hot guys.
Yeah—who wouldn’t wake up happy?
I stretch out a bit, but then snuggle back down to get toasty again. It might be a warm month, but it’s definitely cold in the morning up here in the mountains.

I can’t help it, and decide to sneak a peek at the others. Looking to my left, I see the back of Holt’s messy head of hair sticking up from the top of his bag. I quietly giggle, and then roll over to look to my right, to check on Nathan, only to find him lying on his side, propped up on one arm with his head cocked into his hand. I can feel the blush stain my cheeks as he caught me checking him out. I give him a little sly smile, then bury my head into my sleeping bag, trying not to laugh out loud and wake up the others.

From deep under my shield, I hear Nathan chuckle before he peels the sleeping bag down over my head to uncover my face.

“Good morning, Charlotte.” He says in a quiet, but rough, sleepy rasp. I look up to find him smiling down at me. “What do you say we share some body heat before we have to ditch this Popsicle stand?”

In the past, I would have balked at an idea such as that, but right now, I’m so cold, and it
is
Nathan, after all. I really don’t want to be shy, or feel hesitant this morning. I’m still trying to break that boring shell I live in, though I still surprise myself at times with my boldness. Today, however, I don’t have any shame. I inch my way to his side as he unzips my sleeping bag before unzipping his. He scoots closer to me, and we snuggle into each other, while he rearranges the covers and wraps his arms around me, hugging me to his chest. I let out a sigh of contentment while we enjoy the sounds of nature going on all around us outside of the tent, accompanied with a light snore coming from someone inside.