Page 33 of The Edge of Never

“Do you think there’s any chance we’ll get rescued before then?”

“Cannae be sure. Callan would alert mountain rescue if he thought we were missing, but we’re relying on him tae dae that.”

The missing part of Thane’s words was that the avalanche we witnessed may have taken up the group’s attention. That our predicament may have gone unnoticed. Neither of us wanted to voice the possibility out loud.

“Okay. I guess we’ll have to rely on ourselves to get out of this.”

“Aye.”

He didn’t sound very confident about that fact. And I wasn’t feeling very good about our chances. I had minimal survival skills, and Thane, who knew what to do, was hurt. The odds were not exactly in our favour. I wanted to curl up in despair, but I couldn’t do that.

“Right, well, we should probably eat something,” I said, giving both my thighs a slap. “Then I can go get us some water and… uh, help you if you need to go do your… business.”

My eyes searched his face. Thane’s cheeks went red as he looked anywhere but me. It reminded me of when he gave me his beanie to wear for the day. The way he flushed over that.

“If you need to go now, we can do that.”

He rubbed the back of his neck, which was going red too.

“No, after we eat is fine.”

If he thought by helping him, I meant anything other than lending him an arm to move away from camp and maybe dig a hole, then he was barking up the wrong tree. I wasn’t going to stand there and watch. That would be fucking weird.

Deciding it was better not to ask what was going through his mind, I waved at the food.

“What will it be?”

Thane pointed at the small camping stove.

“Hand me that and I’ll dae it.”

Arguing with him over it would be futile. His ankle was injured, not his hands. Besides, giving him something to do was probably a great idea. Then he couldn’t judge me for doing it the wrong way.

I got Thane the supplies he asked for and then set about organising the tent again, so we had space to move while Thane made breakfast. If the tent was a mess, it would bug the hell out of me. Disorganisation always made me a little antsy. Especially when I was stressed. Plus, I had a habit of losing things, so to combat that, I kept my space as tidy as possible.

“Are ye quite done?” Thane asked after a while.

I sat down next to him.

“Yup.”

He looked around at my handiwork before shaking his head. The corners of his mouth twitched. He was definitely trying not to smile at my manic tidy session.

“Here… we’ll have tae share.”

He waved the bag of reconstituted food at me along with a fork. I took it, not caring about the fact our mouths would be using the same utensil.

You don’t care because you’d quite like his mouth on yours, tasting you the way you’d like to taste him.

I told my brain to go fuck itself while surreptitiously watching Thane as we ate, taking turns to use the fork. The bun he’d put his hair up in yesterday was messy now, but, in a way, that made him more attractive. I liked the messiness. Made him seem less perfect. There was no doubt in my mind that Thane was as flawed as me. And maybe I would find out just how much while we were here.

Eleven

Kit

When we got done eating, I put my outdoor clothes on and eyed Thane, who looked distinctly uncomfortable. He knew what was coming.

“Okay, there’s one thing I need to know, and that’s whether I have to go dig a hole or not.”

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