Page 11 of Touchdown

I know it’s a bad idea and I know I’ll regret it later, but right now the heat of the moment takes me, and I storm out.

Now, he has us on this stupid “team building” retreat that is supposedly for the whole team, but everyone knows it’s really only for Cody and me. As if putting him in a place with no access to cell phones or electricity will make him any more agreeable.

I get onto the team bus with ill grace. The rest of the team seems cheerful, not at all annoyed that what was supposed to be their few weeks off is now going to be hijacked by this nightmare.

If it wasn’t for Cody, I would be looking forward to spending some time with my team, but as things are, I was looking forward to getting away from him for a while.

We sit on opposite ends of the bus and try to ignore each other.

Once we reach the end of the road, we shoulder our backpacks and walk for an hour before reaching the campsite.

There, it becomes impossible to ignore Cody, because Brandon announces that he’s assigning tent-sharing partners, and the bastard puts Cody and me together.

The team exchanges doubtful looks before scurrying away to set up their tents as I advance on Brandon.

“No way am I staying with him.”

“It’s that or sleep outside. Your choice.”

“I’d rather freeze to death than be in a tent with him,” I snarl.

Brandon shrugs. “Your choice, Luke.”

The drive and the hike have taken most of the day. The sun is already setting and it’s getting chilly, but I’m not going to relent on this.

Everyone else sets up their tent. I leave Cody to set up the one assigned to us alone. He looks beautiful and graceful as he does so. I shake my head to free myself from my unwelcome attraction to him. I grab my sleeping bag and set it up on the other side of camp, as far away from Cody as I can get.

An hour later, I’m seriously starting to question my decision. It’sfreezingout here. I’m shivering so hard my muscles hurt with it. I suppose I should be grateful for the shivering, because it means my body is still fighting to stay warm. I’m honestly worried that I might get hypothermia staying out here, but no way am I going crawling into Cody’s tent.

A rustling has me looking up. I see Cody walking toward me. His icy hair is slicked back. His blue eyes look kinder than usual. I grimace and turn over.

“Luke, come on, man. It’s icy out here. You can’t seriously want to spend the night in hospital more than just sucking it up and sleeping in the same tent.”

“Yeah, I can.”

Cody raises an eyebrow.

“Fine,” I mutter resentfully. As appealing as the warmth of a hospital would be right now, I don’t exactly fancy the embarrassment of explaining to the doctors how I got totally avoidable hypothermia.

I get to my feet and stumble. My feet are blocks of ice and I can’t feel them. Cody reaches out to stabilize me and hisses in alarm.

“Luke, you’re freezing! Fuck, we need to get you inside right now.”

He grabs my arm and practically drags me to the tent.

It’s warmer in here than outside, but still nowhere warm enough to thaw my frozen body.

Cody seems to agree with this assessment, because he pushes me down and zips open my sleeping bag.

“What are you doing?” I yelp as cold air assaults me.

“Just shut up and let me do this, you idiot. I’m not having your death on my head.”

I watch in bemusement as Cody joins our sleeping bags into one. Then it hits me what he’s doing.

“Oh no. No way. Not a chance.”

“You’re freezing, Luke! You’re not going to warm up on your own. It’s either this, or I wake Brandon and tell him we need to call an ambulance for you.”

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