Page 53 of Wolf's Chance

“Okay. We’ll talk about boundaries later.” You had to know when to fight your battles, and right now wasn’t the time. Looking around, I didn’t recognize anywhere. “I’m a bit disoriented.”

“We’re in Colorado,” he assured me. “I took a detour.”

He didn’t expand and I waited until my patience snapped. “A detour? So we weren’t followed? Right?”

“Just…” Caleb suddenly looked weary. “Just go behind a tree, do what you need, and come back here, and I’ll sanitize your hands.” He handed me a pack of tissues.

“Um…I don’t think so.”

His eyes closed briefly. “Okay, let me make this easier for your current discomfort. It’s been a day and a half, and this isn’t the first time you’ve been awake, just the first time you’ve been extra precious about peeing in nature.”

Horror swept over me as I understood what he was saying. “Youhelpedme?”

He leveled me with a look. “I prefer the smell of pee on the outside of the truck, don’t you?” He shook the tissues slightly. “Now, we can go for round three, or you can hurry this up and go yourself?”

Snatching the tissues off him, I practically ran behind a bush. Looking down, I stared at my jeans and sneakers. He helped me. Oh my God, what did hesee? Pulling at my waistband, I saw my plain gray panties and felt a ridiculous sense of relief that they were semi-decent.

“What is wrong with you?” I scolded myself, pushing my jeans down. “He had hishandson you.”

“I didn’t.”

I screamed in fright and almost fell over due to my jeans being at my knees. “Caleb!” I heard his chuckle. “You’re an immature child!”

He was still laughing as I crouched with my ass hanging out my jeans in the woods. “I didn’t touch you, not like that,” hetold me quietly. “I helped you to where you couldgo, I opened the snap on your jeans, and you did the rest yourself.”

Swallowing back the lump in my throat, I felt my eyes fill, so desperate for him to be telling the truth. “Promise me?” It was barely a whisper, but I needed this one thing to be true, or I was sure I would break.

Caleb heard me and probably what I hadn’t said out loud, for his voice was gentle when he spoke. “On this, I promise you, I didn’t do anything to compromise you…or myself.”

Closing my eyes, I believed him. “Thank you.” My bladder let itself be known, as it had been poised for release for a while now. “Um…go away now and let me do this with some dignity at least.”

I heard his snort of laughter and then the truck door opening and closing. “You’re free to urinate,” he called, and I blushed scarlet once more.

“I swear, just once, I’d love to punch you,” I muttered bitterly, pulling one leg out of my jeans. Squatting and being one with nature is not a good look for women. Adopting a low, wide-legged squat, I held my jeans away from my leg in case of splash back, and after some coaxing, my bladder emptied.

When I was finished, and decent again, I emerged and stumbled when I saw him leaning against the truck with a bottle of hand sanitizer. He hadn’t been inside the truck?

“Hands.”

His eyes danced with laughter as he watched me bite my tongue, literally bite my tongue, to stop from demanding to know if he listened to me. Caleb dropped a generous amount of liquid on my upturned palms and then a little squeeze for himself.

“Hungry?”

Rubbing my hands together, I was about to say no when my stomach answered for me.

Caleb seemed satisfied with that as my response. “Good, me too. Let’s eat.”

FOURTEEN

Caleb

Willow sat on the tailgate,her legs dangling over the end, and I thought she was enjoying the freedom of moving her legs after being cramped in the back seat. She was still pale. The black circles under her eyes were faded but still there. I wondered if they ever truly cleared.

She ate her BLT in silence, looking around, her eyes curious as she took in the unfamiliar surroundings. I handed her an open bag of chips, and she ate them slowly along with her lunch.

“Have you always camped alone?” she asked me suddenly.

“Mostly.”

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