Page 113 of Tangled up in You

Oh…fuuuuuck.

She lay in her sleeping bag the next morning and wondered if maybe getting eaten by a bear wasn’t such a bad thing.

Everything hurt.

Eeevvverything.

And that was just day one.

She heard the men talking and decided she needed to pry her ass off the ground. At least her exhaustion last night made the tent’s tiny size completely moot.

She’d spent exactly zero seconds thinking about it once she crawled in, and wasn’t sure she might not have been asleep before she even finished zipping herself into her sleeping bag.

It wasn’t quite daylight yet, but colors crept into the eastern horizon. The men already had their tent and most of their other things packed and were sitting around the small stove with?—

“Is that coffee?” she asked.

The men looked at her, all smiles. “There she is,” Mark said. “Yes, it is. Want some?”

“Oh my god, yes please.” She practically crawled over to them while Mark poured some into a metal camp mug.

But Chris held out a water bottle and something.

“Take these,” he said. “Thank me later.”

“What are they?”

“Ibuprofen.”

“Bless you, my son.” She finally managed to sit upright, swallowed the tablets, and then wrapped her hands around the warm, steaming mug of deliciousness.

“Do you want help taking down your tent and packing?” Mark asked. “We’re not leaving until it’s safe light, so there’s plenty of time.”

She huddled over her mug. “Yes, please.” She was beyond trying to fake it. “I might move a little slower today.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Mark said, but without snark. “You did great yesterday.”

She didn’t know why that sent a thrill zipping through her. “Thanks.”

“No, really, you did. Let that coffee kick in, handle your morning stuff, stretch your legs, and we’ll take it easy for a couple of hours when we head out. Once you’re warmed up you’ll feel better, I promise. Are your feet okay?”

She looked down at them, still in her socks. “Sore,” she said.

“Blisters?”

“Oh, no.”

“That’s good. Another tip—if you think you might be getting one, say so. Let’s take care of it immediately so it doesn’t hobble you.”

Speaking of that, she looked over at the mules. The men had tacked them up but they weren’t loaded yet. “They look like they’re ready to go.”

“This is their job,” Mark said. “They enjoy it. If they didn’t, we wouldn’t be using them. Believe me, mules let you know if they don’t like something.”

“And they are great alarm systems,” Chris added.

“What do you mean?”

“They don’t like bears. When they start reacting, you know one’s close by.”

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